Specification of Sir Francis Charles Knowles : manufacture of charcoal.

  • Knowles, Francis C. (Francis Charles), Sir.
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Specification of Sir Francis Charles Knowles : manufacture of charcoal. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Jefferson. furnace, the lower valve must be closed and luted, and the upper damper must be closed entirely, and fresh bark added. When it is necessary to collect the gaseous or other volatile products, the damper on the top must be closed to such a degree as to permit air to enter, but nothing to escape outwards, and the fan or pistons must be worked constantly and with its greatest speed; by 5 this means the whole of the gas, volatile vapours, &c. are drawn downwards through the ignited mass of charcoal, and then into the well of the fan or pumps, after which it may undergo the ordinary purification common to gas, &c., and thence pass into a fixed or portable gasometer for consumption and use. 10 Another part of my Invention consists of compressing spent tanners’ bark in moulds, and then saturating the same with tar in a boiling or highly heated state, by immersing the blocks so moulded or compressed in the heated tar till they are saturated. The blocks are then allowed to drain, and charcoal is made therefrom by the means above described, or by placing the blocks in 15 ordinary retorts heated externally. I claim, first, the means herein described of providing charcoal from light porous vegetable substances, such as spent tanners’ bark, compressed or air- dried bog peat, or other ligneous substance of small specific gravity. Second, the means and power of collecting the gaseous and volatile products 20 that are formed during the dry distillation or decomposition of the raw material without employing external fireing or heating. In witness whereof, I, the said Sir Francis Charles Knowles, have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Eighth day of May, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-one. 25 FRANCIS C. (l.s.) KNOWLES. AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Eighth day of May, in the year of our Lord 1851, the aforesaid Sir Francis Charles Knowles came before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above 30 / written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose. Enrolled the Ninth day of May, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-one. LONDON: Printed by George Edward Eyre and William Spottiswoode, Printers to the Queen’s most Excellent Majesty. 1857.