Improvements in Burners Adapted for Consuming Hydro-carbon Oils
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 27th Nov., 1896-Accepted, 24th July, 1897
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Burners Adapted for Consuming Hydro-carbon Oils
A communication from abroad by JOHANN LUX, of No. 1 Hegelgasse 13, Kolowrating 6,
Vienna, Austria, Engineer.
I, PHILIP MIDDLETON JUSTICE, of 55 and 56 Chancery Lane in the County of
Middlesex, Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Patent Agents, do hereby declare the
nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
Ever since what may be termed the incandescent mantle form of coal gas
illumination attained its present stage of development, attempts have been made to
render same applicable to the class of oils known as hydrocarbons.
The reason why these attempts have so far proved unsuccessful is accounted for by
the fact that it has not been found feasible to obtain a sufficiently hot and uniform
flame to keep the incandescent body at the maximum degree of heat.
In the incandescence burners einploying hydrocarbon oils used up to the present time
the fluid inedium to be vaporized is conducted into the vaporizing chamber, situated
either within or above the flame, through horizontal or vertical pipes or tubes which
are filled either with wicks, adapted to draw in by suction and transmit onward, the
liquid to be evaporated; or with filtering material. Or such tubes have been left
empty, where the feeding is effected by hydrostatic pressure or by compressed air.
The wicks and filtering materials served to counteract or deaden the effect
of pressure and counter pressure upon the liquid subjected to suction, which it
was desired to evaporate.
Experience has shown that where wicks are employed, the supply of the medium to
be converted into gas takes place in a very irregular and imperfect manner, so that it
is not possible either to attain the speed required in feeding and vaporizing such
medium, nor to generate the necessary heat of the flame, so as to enable the mantle
to be brought to the desired degree of incandescence.
The reason for this is that the impregnation of the wick takes place in an irregular
manner, and when it has been used for some time, the capillary action of the same is
materially impaired by the impurities collected therein.
Where material capable of serving merely for filtering purposes is employed in
filling these feeding tubes, this drawback makes itself felt still more seriously; for in
such material not only are the impurities held but the medium itself, is detained too
long so that the quantity of the same that passes through to be gasified, is
insufficient.
Where the feeding tubes contain neither wicks nor filtering material, it is
extremely difficult to determine by calculation what should be the proper sectional
area of such tubes; it being found that if the fluid be supplied with the requisite
speed, the quantity supplied, as well as the state of its division, or distribution, on its
arrival in the vaporizing chamber, is sufficient, and vice-versa.
The above mentioned horizontal or vertical arrangement of the feeding tubes is also
unsuitable, because, in the former case, the tendency of the vapour forming in the
feeding tubes, to rise up to the vaporizing chamber, is practically checked; while in
the latter case too narrow an area or contact surface is offered by the tubes to the
radiating heat.

page_text: With a view to remedying these drawbacks, and starting from the principle that
the generation of a very hot flame is dependent upon the condition that as thorough
a mixture as possible, of air and hydrocarbon vapour should be supplied to the flame
in sufficient quantities and at as high a speed as possible, and considering that for
this purpose it is necessary that the fluid to be vaporized should be conducted to the
vaporizing chamber continuously and rapidly, my correspondent has been led to
the discovery of a novel means for conducting the petroleum or the like into the
chamber consisting in introducing the fluid to be vapo rized into the chamber in a
large number of infinitely fine jets or threads, whereby not only a high degree of
speed in the feeding is attained, but the fluid is at the same time very finely divided
and therefore enabled to reach the chamber in the condition most favourable for
vapourization. By this means the vapours generated and conducted downwards from
the said chamber attain a high degree of pressure, which, however, exercises no
reaction upon the fluid, but, as it issues from the vapour discharge pipes draw in the
surrounding air with a certain amount of force, and causes such air to thoroughly mix
with the vapours, so that the current which the flame receives consists of a mixture
of air and vapour, and is calculated to impart the high degree of heat to the same.
The above mentioned pressure of the vapour not only produces no back pressure in
the liquid feeding tubes, but, on the contrary, brings about a continuous and uniform
flow of the liquid.
In carrying ont the invention just described for conducting the fluid to be
vaporized into the vaporizing chainber of a blue flame or air barner, my correspondent
has constructed one form of burner in the manner illustrated in the accompanying
drawing in which Fig. 1 is a view of the burner partly in section showing a portion of
the mantle and Fig. 2 is an enlarged view of the vaporizing chamber and connected
parts some of the latter being in a different position.
This burner is adapted for the continuous vapourization of heavy hydrocarbon in
sufficient quantities, by the sole action of the flame; and it mainly consists of a
feeding tube which, from the point P, bifurcates into two or more branch tubes a¹ a¹
which branch tubes converge towards a vapourizing chamber b and lead into the same
at a predetermined height or level.
The gases generated in the vapourizing chamber are conducted downwards by two
small tubes cc which finally unite in a nozzle or jet d; from whence they rise and
are burned below the vapourizing chamber and over a perforated metal plate or
gauze e above which there is suitably supported the incandescent mantle f.
Within the branch tubes a' a' for the admission of the fluid to be converted into
gas there are inserted, or embedded, a number of pieces of fine wire, of suitable
inaterial united in a bundle as at g; the effect of which arrangement is that the
fluid to he gasified flows to the vapourizing chamber in a large number of delicate
thread like jets resulting from the dividing action of the wires; whereby a
considerable degree of speed is imparted to the fluid thus finely divided; and the
medium to be evaporated enters the vapourizing chamber in the finest state of
division suitable for vapourization or gasification and in a continuous manner.
The smooth surface of the wires unlike the usual wicks and the like offers little or
no frictional resistance; owing to which circumstance the fluid rapidly flows into the
vapourizing chamber; the proof of which is found in the fact that as soon as the
supply of fluid is cut off the flame is almost instantaneously extinguished.
Owing to the arrangement of the wires within the branch tubes, the oblique
upwardly sloping position of which enables the medium to ascend with exceptional
facility the admission of the same is facilitated and rendered continuous and readily
controllable, while at the same time the speed of feeding, requisite for vapourization,
is maintained in a reliable manner. The fluid is sifted through the wires, as it were,
purified, partly drawn in by suction, resulting from the sectional area being narrowed
down or reduced, and partly forced onwards (the suction acting the more rapidly, the
narrower the intermediate spaces between the wires); and is then introduced into
the vapourizing chamber in a finely divided state suitable for a complete and unifortn
vapourization,

page_text: The rapid admission of the fluid in this manner with the orifice of the jet or nozzle
located at a proper depth below the vapourizing chamber, ensures a violent suction
whereby the air surrounding the burner is drawn in and caused to mix with the
vapourized oil so that above the sieve or perforated plate there is produced a flame
raised to the most intense heat, which imparts to the mantle a high incandescence
hitherto unattained.
The production of this hot flame is therefore in a relation of intimate dependence
to the arrangement of the thin wires in the feeding branch tubes, for it is only owing
to the continual and rapid feeding of the medium to be gasified that it is possible to
produce a sufficient amount of vapour (without any residue), to enable a sufficient
quantity of air to be drawn in for the production of a flame attaining the requisite
degree of heat.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what inanner the same is to be performed as communicated to
me by my foreign correspondent I declare that what I claim is:-
1. A burner provided with means for introducing the oil or fluid to be vapourized
into the vapourizing chamber in a large number of fine jets or threads and at a
considerable speed substantially as and for the purpose described.
2. A burner having a tube or the like in which is contained a number of fine wires
through which tube the oil or fluid to be vapourized passes into the vapourizing
chamber and which wires divide it up into a number of fine jets or threads and
allow it to move at a considerable speed substantially as and for the purpose
set forth.
3. A burner constructed substantially as and for the purpose described and as
illustrated in the accompanying drawing.