On this day in 1903 Bernhard Zwillinger was granted the patent for CARBONIZING APPARATUS. U.S. Patent No. 744,666.
This invention relates to apparatus for carbonizing material, such as wood, in a comparatively short time and for saving the valuable gases which are drawn off during the carbonization process, and has for a further object to very quickly cool the carbonized material, whereby the capacity of the plant is materially increased, since it may be recharged with a much smaller delay than hitherto. I hereinafter set forth this invention as carried out in carbonizing the material and carrying away the by-products through the agency of a highly-heated gas, simple or compound, which at least during a part of the operation must be a gas not readily supporting combustion. Air deprived of much of its oxygen and loaded with aqueous vapor is such a gas, as is also ordinary air mingled with a proper proportion of such fixed gases as are set free during and as a result of the carbonizing operation.
