Du Buisson's Patent, 1845

type: Beyond Scotland - Dorset

Unique Code:
A01005
Source date:
01/01/1845 (approximate)

Du Buisson's Patent

Download full document 215336, page 327

EXCERPTS from SPECIFICATION (1845, No. 10,726) of Michel Antoine Bertin Burin Du Buisson, for Furnace Apparatus, and Processes of the Distillation of Bituminous Substances, and Treating the Products thereof.

To ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, Michel Antoine Bertin Burin Du Buisson, of Lambs Conduit Street, in the County of Middlesex, Chemist, send greetings &c., &c.

My Invention of NEW AND IMPROVED METHODS FOR THE DISTILLATION OF BITUMINOUS SCHISTUS AND OTHER BITUMINOUS 'SUBSTANCES, AS WELL AS FOR THE PURIFICATION, RECTIFICATION, AND PREPARATION NECESSARY FOR THE EMPLOYMENT OF 'THE PRODUCTIONS OBTAINED BY SUCH DISTILLATION FOR VARIOUS USEFUL PURPOSES.

Bituminous schistus and other bituminous substances, such as clay slate (which latter is, however, more scarce), are to be met with, like coal, in large quantities in veins and masses in various parts of Europe; France and England contain very large quantities. Many attempts have been made to render bituminous schistus useful, and various means have been proposed to effect this object; in England they have all failed; while in France, on the contrary, in the extensive works at Autun, Department of the Saone and Loire, (which are partly my property, and of which I have the management as chemist), the most important results have been obtained, which place the distillation and treatment of schistus amongst the most useful and productive of chemical manufactures.

Note.-The time necessary for distilling seven cubic yards of schistus, as above, is about ten consecutive hours, including the time necessary for charging the apparatus; it will, however, be understood that the process might be carried on without introducing steam at a high temperature into the retort, but in that case the schistus, which is a bad conductor of heat, would only receive heat from outside the conical retort; it would therefore be necessary to continue the operation for a much longer time, in order to distil the mass perfectly, that is to say, it would last sixteen hours instead of ten.

RAW OIL OF SCHISTUS, AND OF OTHER BITUMINOUS ROCKS, PETROLEUM, &c.

The raw oils of schistus and of other mineral bituminous substances, by being treated as hereafter described, and by fresh distillation and rectification, also hereafter described, form the following products, viz:-

First, a volatile oil, perfectly colourless and transparent, chemically pure, having a very slight and by no means disagreeable smell. This oil may be extracted either from raw oil of schistus or other bituminous rock, from petroleum, or from any other bituminous mineral substance. This oil may be employed in various ways as a solvent, and may be used for all the purposes for which the most highly rectified sprint of turpentine is employed. That which is obtained from schistus is of a .density of from 0·80 to .0.81, water being 100.

I have given .It the name of mineral spirit but this oil, by suitable distillation, may be divided into three oils two of which are of a density below. 0·80, and the third is of a density of from 0·82 to 0·83. The mineral spirit or oil of schistus No. 1, dissolves in alcohol in the proportion of from twenty-eight to forty per cent.; thus It is used In France for spirit lamps. It may also be used in lamps, where it is vaporized before burning, by constructing apparatus for burning the vapor, so that the burner may be heated to three hundred and two degrees of Fahrenheit · the density of these oils being from 0·80 to 0·81, their evaporating point is consequently below three hundred and two degrees Fahrenheit; but the use to which the mineral spirit or oil of schistus No. 1 can be put with the greatest advantage is its employment in lamps with a reservoir below, and with a double current of air, in which the oil rises a distance of about five inches by the capillary attraction of the wick. In this way it gives a light superior to that of gas, without any unpleasant smell or smoke; the said lamps have a glass or chimney with a diaphragm of the same diameter as the wick, and placed a little above the top of the burner (for instance, the camphine lamp, which is constructed on this principle, burns the mineral spirit very well). Moreover, the mineral spirit, on account of its purity, has this advantage over gas, that it will not tarnish the polish of metals nor spoil the color of fabrics, disadvantages which the purest gas always possesses, as it always contains some portion of sulphureous compound: Fourth, paraffine. This substance is obtained by crystallization from fat and thick oils; It is thus obtained very pure, and requires but little treatment to make excellent candles. The presence of this substance is scarcely perceptible in raw oil of petroleum, bituminous shale, asphalte, or other bituminous mineral substances · It is in schistus that It Is contained in the largest proportion. I always leave the paraffine in the fat oil No. 3, in order to render It of better quality.

A PURIFICATION, RECTIFICATION, AND DISINFECTION OF OIL No. 1.

This product- being intended more especially for lighting the interior of dwellings, it is indispensable on the one hand that it should be deprived of its bad smell, which would render its employment disagreeable, and, in fact, impossible .... Having now described my Invention, and the manner of carrying the same into effect, I would observe, that I claim as the Invention secured to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent,-

  • First, the peculiar arrangement and construction of furnace or apparatus for the distillation of schistus and other bituminous rocks, represented in Figs. 1, 2, and 3, Sheet 1, and which consists principally of inverted cones placed one inside the other, whereby I am enabled to obtain a very extensive heating surface and a thin layer of schistus, which is thereby more effectually operated upon.
  • Secondly, the application to the said furnace or retort of jets of steam, highly charged with caloric, by introducing which inside the said retort, so as to act upon the schistus, the distillation of the schistus, which is a bad conductor of heat, is materially assisted, so that the time required for distillation is much shortened and a great economy therein produced. I also claim the application of the same principle of introducing steam inside the retorts for the distillation of bituminous schistus, to the apparatus for which a Patent was obtained in England by Mr Mollerat, of Dijon, sealed Second May, One thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven, and which apparatus, with the steam pipes adapted thereto, is shown in Figs. 5, 6, and 7, of Sheet I, (the steam pipes being drawn in red).
  • Thirdly, the process, above set forth and described, for the purification, disinfection, and rectification of the bituminous oils Nos. l, 2, 3, which process is composed of the various means and apparatus herein-before explained.