claim that improvement which relates to applying the colour to the blocks, in any and every combination to which it may be applied.-[Inrolled in the Inrolment Office, May, 1837.]

Specification drawn by the Patentee.

To HENRY HUNTLEY MOHUN, of Walworth, in the county of Surrey, doctor in medicine, for his invention of improvements in the manufacture of fuel.-[Sealed 4th October, 1836.]

THIS invention consists in combining certain materials whereby the Patentee is enabled to produce a cheap and highly useful fuel. The materials employed are-first, peat-earth, peat-moss, peat-turf, slimy or other mud or marl, or any other earth which is composed largely of vegetable matter; secondly, nitre; thirdly, alum; fourthly, linseed or other seeds, or shelled fruit; fifthly, rosin; sixthly, coke; seventhly, any green vegetable matter; and, eighthly, animal excrement or other animal matter.

The following is the process of combining and pressing the materials into lumps, for fuel :-Take one ton of peat in its raw or charred state, thirty pounds of nitre (the crude nitre does best), fourteen pounds of alum, which has the effect, when properly dissolved and thoroughly amalgamated with the rest, to prevent smoke; fourteen pounds of linseed, fourteen pounds of rosin, or asphaltum, or naptha; one hundred and fifty pounds of coke; one hundred and sixty-eight pounds of green vegetable matter; one hundred and fifty-six pounds of animal excrements or other animal matter. The quantity of the

various materials will depend on the quality of the peatearth, peat-turf, peat-moss, slimy or other mud, marl, or any other earth which is composed largely of vegetable matter, the above quantities being given for peat of the best quality; and in order to determine the relative qualities for any particular earth, it will be necessary to weigh out varying quantities, and having mixed, pressed, and dried them, to burn the same, in order to ascertain which mixture produces the description of fire desired.

The process of mixing may be thus proceeded with for large quantities:-The peat is first to be passed through the mixing mill in a dry state; and the mill employed is an ordinary pug mill, such as is used in brickmaking. About one-third or half of the linseed is to be boiled in water, in order to produce a liquid about the consistency of thin glue; in this the alum is to be dissolved the remainder of the linseed, with the rosin and nitre, are to be crushed very fine by edge stones or other means; and the green vegetable matter is also to be ground or crushed in like manner, and thus produce a pulp, taking care to keep the vegetable juices from running away.

The whole of the materials are then to be mixed with spades, or otherwise, and well ground in the pug mill; the object being to obtain an intimate blending of the various materials in order to the same burning equally.

The combined mass so produced is then to be pressed into moulds by a strong screw or other press, the shape and dimensions of the lumps not being material; but it is desirable the materials should be well pressed in order to prevent the lumps readily coming to pieces; if not pressed, the fuel will be apt to crumble and burn too fast if exposed to a strong draft.

The Patentee says, "I claim the combination whether the same be submitted to pressure or not, the advantage of pressing being to increase the time it takes consuming."

The lumps thus produced are to be piled one on the other, leaving spaces between for the circulation of the atmosphere; and it will facilitate the preparation to have such piles in a closed shed or room, the atmosphere of which can be heated; though in summer time, and warm dry weather, this will not be necessary, unless great expedition is required. Care must be taken not to expose it to a great artificial heat when just formed or pressed. It must be dried by the atmosphere only, for the first two or three days.

The peat, it should be observed, may be first used for the purposes of distilling gas therefrom, as has been before practised, and the charred peat in the retorts subsequently used for the making of the fuel, in place of the raw peat, as above described.

In order to make the new fuel for the purpose of obtaining gas therefrom for illuminating purposes, take in the proportions of ten pounds of nitre, forty pounds of rosin, twenty-four pounds of linseed, one hundred weight of green vegetable matter, and one ton of peat, which being combined and treated according to the directions above given, and the lumps put into ordinary gas retorts and distilled similarly to ordinary coal.

Having thus described the nature of the invention, and the manner of combining the same, the Patentee says, "I would remark, that I do not confine myself to the precise three processes here described, for it will be evident that the object to be obtained is a careful combining or mixing of the materials herein mentioned, and the subsequent pressing the same into hard lumps

of convenient size; and, whether such processes are conducted as above described, or by any other convenient means, it does not alter the nature of the invention; and, I would remark, that I do not claim the application of each of the eight parts or materials separately as a fuel, whether pressed or unpressed, some of them, such as the peat-earths or peat-turf, peat-moss and coke, and some others, having been used for fuel before. The green vegetable matter is most useful as soon as possible after cutting, and when the vegetable juices are not dried up. And, lastly, I do not confine myself to the using the whole, or even the larger number of the eight matters above-mentioned into one fuel, though I believe the same to be the best compound. But what I claim, is the combining and pressing such materials into fuel, as above described."—[Inrolled in the Inrolment Office, April, 1837.]

To GEORGE CRANE, of Yniscedwyn Iron Works, near Swansea, iron-master, for his invention of an improvement in the manufacture of iron.-[Sealed 28th September, 1836.]

ACCORDING to the ordinary practice of obtaining iron from iron-stone mine, or ore, in this country, the iron-stone mine, or ore, either calcined, or in the raw state, according to its respective qualities, is put into suitable furnaces, with coke produced from bituminous coal, formerly called pit-coal, in contradistinction to charcoal produced from wood, which was the fuel employed in this country previously to the introduction of pit-coal, in the smelting and manufacture of iron. Now,

as there are districts in which are to be found large quantities of iron-stone mine, or ore, in the immediate neighbourhood of what is known as stone coal, or anthracite coal, it has been long considered as a desirable object to employ such coal for the smelting and manufacture of iron; and although attempts have been made to apply such description of coal in the smelting and manufacture of iron, those attempts have failed, and have, consequently, been abandoned.

In addition to the advantages to be obtained from using anthracite or stone-coal in the districts where such coal is found, together with iron-stone mine, or ore, the practice of the Patentee has induced him to believe that such coal, from its properties, will be found to produce a quality of iron nearly resembling iron obtained by the aid of vegetable charcoal.

Now, the object of this invention, is the application of such anthracite or stone-coal, combined with a hotair blast, in the smelting or manufacture of iron from iron-stone mine or ore. And, in order to give the best information in his power for enabling a workman to carry out such invention into effect, he describes the process or means pursued in the following way:—

"I will suppose the furnace of an ordinary construc tion to be in blast, and that the machinery and apparatus are adapted for the application of a hot-air blast, as is well understood, and extensively applied in many places where the ordinary fuel (coke or bituminous coal, or the coal in a raw state) is employed in the manufacture of iron from-iron stone mine or ore; and I have found that a furnace, having suitable apparatus for heating the blast to about six hundred degrees of Fahrenheit, a good arrangement for carrying out my invention;

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