US47337A - Improved artificial fuel - Google Patents

Description

JULIUS AUGUSTUS ROTH, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA; i

IMPROVED ARTIFICIAL FUEL.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 47,337. dated April-18, 1865.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JULIUS' AUGUSTUS ROTH, of the cityof Philadelphia, and State of Pennsylvania, have inventeda new and useful chemical process to conglomerate the fine atoms of so-called wasted coal, for the production and utilization of the same as a solid fuel for all purposes wherever fuel is applied, reference being had to the samples accompanying my specification, which I call conglomerated coal.

It is a well-known fact that wherever the mineral coal is mined and; prepared for the market a large portion is rejected as not marketable on account of its being too small to be burned on the grates now in use. Thiswasted coal has been thrown aside at the mines, and has accumulated to millions of tons in the State of Pennsylvania alone, and ever since the mines have been worked no use has been made of the same. However, various attempts by different men have been made to utilize this wasted coal, and several plans have been brought forward with a view to arrive at a practical manipulation but up to this time none have succeeded for their own or the good of mankind. In most of these attempts recourse was had to resinous, calcareous, muriatic, and carbonaceous substances as the binding agents for the dust of coal, and the ideas thereby exhibited merely show a desire to accomplish the proper result, as well as a great want of the knowledge necessary for that purpose. Mineral fuel is known to require a considerable amount of shifting and transportation before arriving at the place where it is to be used, by which it is subjected to rough and hard collisions. Besides, it is exposed to all the changes in the atmosphere. It is also known that nearly in all cases where the fuel collected by the small quantity of lime in the coal mortar from the atmosphere to make PATENT ()FFICEQ the carbonate of limeis insufficient for the practical application for the purpose of form ing a permanent solidfuel, and remains, there fore, theory only. When resinous matter i the binding agent of the coal-dust, particu larly that of anthracite coal, a great difficulty exhibits itself at once when the fuel is placed into the stove or grate. The resinous sub stance is readily ignited by the fire, and burn away with dispatch, but leaving the coaldus unignited, which makes it useless. I alsofindthat the use of muriatic substances compare with that of carbonic acid in the absorption. of disuniting elements from theair and various gases to which the coal necessarily'is exposed while stored away. [have succeeded in combining firmly together these wasted atoms of coal-dust, which I conglomerate by chemical means different from any previously used for the purpose of utilizing it in a perfect solid] state, so that moisture orother'causcs have no effect upon the same, and I am now able to give a clear and practical descriptionof the means which I apply. y y 1 l X I generally use about one=eighth part of lime. in solution to seven-eighths part of the coal-. dust,which I mix thoroughly together, either 1 by machinery or otherwise,forming thereby a mortar of such temper as is required for the manipulation of the same into balls or blocks. When a sufficient quantity of these blocks are j made, I placethe same into a shed or chamber, made of brick or other material, in such apol sition that corresponding cellular-arranged, passages are formed and leftopen throughout y the whole stack of blocks. 1 now introduce by connecting-fines sulphurous-acid gas into, 3 the chamber or shed containing the cellular stack of blocks for the purpose of charging the. lime contained therein with the acid, and thereby converting it'into sulphate oflime, by which the mass is hardened and made solid.;, I obtain the gas from the coarser part of the coal-waste and the sulphate so plenty about the coal-mines, which I burn with a slowdraft ona grate, by which their gases are discharged, K and this gas so obtained I convey into the chamber containingthe blocks to be treated with the acid. After sufiicientgas has been ready for transportationto the market.

introduced, the blocksare solid and hard, and 11v Having described my chemical process for J erating the Waste coal-dust, and thereby prothe production of artificial fuel, I will now state What I claim and desire to secure by in my specification.

Letters Patent JULIUS AUGUSTUS ROTH.

The impregnation of the solution of lime Witnesses: with sulphurous acid obtained from coal or CHARLES SERGEAN'I, other sulphates for the purpose of conglom- I GEO. M. DALLAS, Jr.

ducing a solid fuel, substantially as set forth