Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers Volume 66 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1881 Excerpt: ...some degree a continuous retort, but to a greater degree belonged to the class of intermittent ones. Henderson cleverly modified this, dispensing with the delicate arrangement of the air lute, and substituting a neat simple door on the bottom, by which he dropped the hot shale into a fire below, and converted it into a purely intermittent retort. Unquestionably Henderson's was the best intermittent retort in uso at present. Many other plans had been tried, such as causing the simplo combustion of the shale to distil itself, to distil by hot gas alone, Mr. Kirk. by hot steam alone, and revolving retorts, which he had seen at work in North Wales, but none of these had been established in settled practice. Now, to come to the Author's comparison of Henderson's retort with a vertical retort, or what he termed the " old retort"; here unfortunately there were many and serious misstatements of facts. Mr. Henderson's retorts were not " originally adopted by the Broxburn Oil Company." They were originally adopted by the Oakburn Oil Company, and it was while in their employment, after they had worked both of Mr. W. Young's retorts, as described above, under Mr. Henderson's more immediate superintendence, that they, when Mr. Henderson proposed his improvements, adopted them so far as their extensions required. That was in 1874-5, and for the two following years Mr. Henderson remained in their employment, working his retorts along with Young's and the old retort. When after that he went to the service of the Broxburn Company, he naturally was able to introduce further improvements, the result of experience. The Author's comparison of the products from the rectification of 100 gallons of crude oil, as made by Henderson's and by the old retort, was en...