Improvements in Means for Illuminating Railway, Omnibus, and other Vehicles, and for other analogous purposes.
Year: 1890

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Means for Illuminating Railway, Omnibus, and
other Vehicles, and for other analogous purposes.
I. GEORGE WEBB, of 15, Park Place, Carlisle Lane, Lambeth, London, Engineer,
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:-
My invention relates to improvements for illuminating railway omnibus and other
vehicles and consists of a new and improved process and apparatus for supplying gas
in a portable form thereto and for other analogous purposes and obtaining from it an
efficient illumination by carburetting it as hereinafter more fully described. My
invention which is also applicable to other analogous purposes consists in compressing
hydrogen, water gas, gaseous hydro-carbons, or preferably ordinary lighting gas at a
pressure of about 150 atmospheres into a cylinder or bottle made of cold drawn steel
capable of withstanding a pressure of about 200 (two hundred) atmospheres or even
more and is connected with a carburetter preferably of the form bereafter described.
The connection is by a pipe leading first to a reducing valve and then to the carburetter
and such pipe should be furnished with a pressure guage.
The vessel holding the highly compressed gas is furnished with a feed or supply
valve and the carburetter may be fixed near to it or at a greater distance from it
according to the position of the burners and the arrangement of the apparatus on
the car.
When the gas is compressed to this high pressure it becomes useless for illuminating
purposes.
The flame burns with a peculiar feathery appearance, is nearly opaque near the
burner and has scarcely any lighting power. Therefore in order to utilize such
gas for illuminating purposes it must be subjected to a carburetting process which
shall impart the necessary character thereto for the production of a brilliant light or
high illuminating power.
By the process of compressing the gas to such exceedingly high pressures far
beyond anything that has hitherto been tried for practical purposes and subsequently
effectively carburetting the gas so stored I am able to obtain an excellent light for a
long period from apparatus so portable and occupying so little space that it can he
used with all kinds of cars and without any expensive adaptations being necessary.
By reason of the portability thus obtained the supply can readily be renewed by
removing the storage vessel that is exhausted and replacing it by one that is full.
The carburetta which as above stated I preferably use for the above purpose operates
without the aid of heat and consists of a cast iron box preferably of rectangular shape
which is divided by one or two solid partitions into two or three compartments com-
municating together by pipes of reduced diameter. These compartments contain
spongeous porous or other absorbent material impregnated with gazoline or similar
liquid hydro-carbon.
In the accompanying drawings 1, 2 and 3 are general views illustrating different
arrangements of the constitutive parts of my apparatus as applied for supplying a
bracket, (Fig. 1) or a lamp (Fig. 3) with lighting gas, the carburetter being either
connected directly to the reducing valve or regulator V (Fig. 3) or at a distance by a
pipe (Figs. 1 and 2).
Fig. 4 is an enlarged view shewing a section of Beards reducing valve which 1
prefer to apply to my apparatus although any other form of effective reducing valve
inay likewise answer the purpose.
Fig. 5 is an enlarged sectional view of the feed valve B showing its connection
with the bottle.

page_text: Like letters of reference indicate corresponding parts throughout the figures.
A is the bottle or cylinder of cold drawn steel capable of withstanding a pressure
of about 200 atmospheres: it is connected by its mouth a to a feed valve B, which is
screwed therein. This feed valve consists of a case or chest B provided with three
screw threaded openings at a¹, 9, and, the first leading to the bottle A as already
stated, the second to the union u (Fig. 1 etc.) or pipe w (Figs. 2 and 3) and the third
to a cup of peculiar construction which encloses a spindle having a square end d
turned by a suitable key when it is required to open and close the said valve.
The chest B is furnished with one vertical and two inclined longitudinal
passages i, 12. In the normal or closed position of the valve the passages i,
communicate together but not with the passage as shewn being only brought into
communication with the latter when the spindle & discloses the vertical passage i as
it is screwed out by turning the square end d with a key.
To prevent the pressure of the gas in the bottle loosening the spindle through
undue wear or pressure on the threads, the screw threaded part o thereof has a larger
diameter so that its lower part would in such contingency abut against the central
projecting part of the cup e and hence could not pass therethrough.
Referring to Fig. 1 the feed valve B is connected by a union u to a pipe we con-
municating through an elbow piece with the reducing valve V, hereinafter more
fully referred to. This valve communicates by means of a pipe p with the carburetter C
from which an outlet or supply pipe p' leads to the gas jet as shown. The end of
the pipe e is connected to a pressure guage P.
In Fig. 2 this pressure gauge is dispensed with, the pipe w being directly connected
to the reducing valve V from which a bent pipe leads to the carburetter C furnished
with a supply pipe pl.
Fig. 3 illustrates a similar arrangement to that of Fig. 2 with this difference
however that the carburetter C in the first case is directly connected by a pipe Z to
the reducing valve V.
The outlet pipe p' of the carburetter leads to a gas lamp Las shewn.
I may moreover if necessary provide a second reducing valve operating in con-
junction with the valve B and intercalated in any suitable point between the valve B
and the carburetter C. From the foregoing arrangements of my apparatus as illustrated
in Figs. 1, 2 and 3 it will appear obvious that my carburetter may be placed in any
desired position either in close proximity to or at a distance from the gas bottle A and
the gas lamp or jet, in fact at any suitable point hetween the said bottle A and the
lamp or jet so that in the case of an omnibus for instance the jet may be arranged in a
glass globe suspended through an opening formed in the roof of the vehicle, the-gas
bottle being placed either under the drivers seat or under the vehicle in a position
from which it could be easily removed by merely unscrewing the union to be
replaced by a fresh bottle while the carburetter could be placed in any convenient part
between the said gas bottle and the gas lamp, and if desired remain a fixture as well as
the latter. As soon as the fresh bottle is connected to the pipe w by the said union u
the valve B is open and the flow of gas is established.
The reducing valve which I use is shewn in Fig. 4 and forms no separate part of my
invention, I will however for the intelligibility of the description of my improved gas
supplying apparatus succintly describe the same with reference to Fig. 4. k is a casing
screwed at upon the box y which is furnished with an inlet S and an outlet leading
respectively to the elbow piece (Fig. 1.) and to the supply pipe p. leading to the
carburetter C. is a conical plug fitting more or less closely into and hence admitting
more or less gas from the conical opening into the valve V. The plug q is formed
integrally with a plate 72 upon which are fixed the two ends of the lazy tongs a pivoted
at o' to the bracket & fixed to the inside of the box y and at n' to the block a' con-
nected by a bar o to the diaphragm e of metal or other suitable material--the latter is
inserted within bellows m. Owing to the action of the bellows m the diaphragm e and
the lazy tongs n the pressure of the compressed gas admitted at S is reduced and
regulated before the same enters through the outlet into the supply pipe p aforesaid.

page_text: Referring to Sheet 2 of the drawings,
Figure 6 is a sectional view of the improved carburetter hereinbefore referred to,
divided into three compartments, Figure 7 being a cross section on line xx of the
former figure.
Figure 8 is a sectional view illustrating a carburetter provided with two compart-
ments.
Like letters indicate corresponding parts in the figures.
P
The carburetter shown in Figure 6 consists of a rectangular cast iron box B divided
by the solid partitions into three compartments C, CC provided at the top with
screw threaded inlets closed by the screw caps e c¹². This box which is open
at the top is closed by a lid or cover L fixed thereto by the screws s s one at each
corner; a sheet of leather, india rubber, or the like flexible material being interposed
between the lid L and the top of the box B to form a tight joint. a is the inlet pipe
which is conical as shown, its orifice a¹ being of reduced diameter equal to that of the
orifice o of the outlet pipe o.
"'
These two pipes a and o extend nearly to the end of their respective compartments C
and C. The compartments C, C and CC³ communicate respectively by means of the
pipes the diameter of which is half that of the pipes a and o at their inner
ends a¹, o¹.
S represents the spongy porous or absorbent material which may be in the form of
a large sponge thoroughly impregnated with any suitable liquid hydro-carbon such as
gazoline, benzol, benzine, naphthol, naphthaline, or any other liquid hydro-carbon, so
that a thin layer n, n of this hydro-carbon may be formed at the bottom of the
carburetter as clearly shown in Figures 6, 7 and 8. The pipes are secured respec-
tively in the partitions p p being cast therewith or otherwise fixed thereto, they
extend as shown nearly to the ends of the respective chambers, and are arranged one
at the top and the other at the bottom of the carburetter. while in the arrangement
illustrated in Figure S the pipe is centrally secured in the partition and the inlet
and outlet pipes a and o are arranged as in Figure 6 at the top and at the bottom
of the external compartments and (Figure 8) and C and 02 (Figure 6)
respectively.
P
T'he gas enters at a and follows the way indicated by the arrows in order to issue
finally at o on its way to the gas jet, lamp or bracket.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is
1. The improved portable apparatus herein described for illuminating railway,
omnibus, and other vehicles and for other analogous purposes.
2. The use in combination with carburetting apparatus of storage vessels containing
illuminating gas at an exceedingly high pressure as herein described for the purpose
of illuminating railway, omnibus and other vehicles and for analogous purposes.
3. The use in combination with storage vessels containing illuminating gas at an
exceedingly high pressure as herein-described, of the carburetter described herein and
illustrated in the accompanying drawings for the purpose of illuminating railway,
omnibus and other vehicles and for other analogous purposes.
Dated this 4th day of November 1890.
RAYNER & CASSELL,
37, Chancery Lane, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.