Improvements in the Manufacture of Oxygen.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 28th Apr.,
1899
Complete Specification Left, 29th Jan., 1900-Accepted, 28th July, 1930
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Manufacture of Oxygen.
We, JOHN BILBIE, of SO, Queen Victoria Street, in the City of London,
Mechanical Engineer, and JAMES ALFRED WANKLYN, of "The Laboratory," New
Malden, in the County of Surrey, Professor of Chemistry, do hereby declare the
nature of this invention to be as follows:-
-
Our invention relates to the manufacture of oxygen from the atmosphere,
by utilizing a suitable liquid solvent wherewith the air is intimately mixed in
order to effect a separation between the constituents thereof, i.e., between the
oxygen and the nitrogen.
In carrying our invention into practice, we use a vessel capable of withstanding
a pressure of from one to ten atmospheres or more; this vessel may be made of
iron, copper, lead, or other suitable metal or material, and is provided with
inlet and outlet pipes furnished with suitable valves. This vessel is designed for
the reception of the liquid solvent which must not completely fill such vessel.
The liquid solvent we prefer to use is common alcohol although methylic or
amylic alcohol, acetone, ether, petroleum and other liquids dissolving oxygen
more readily than nitrogen and having little or no chemical action upon oxygen
may likewise answer the purpose. Air is now forced into the liquid solvent by
means of a suitable pump until the required pressure is attained, the said
solvent being thus charged with a gaseous mixture consisting of oxygen and
nitrogen, the latter being in a lesser proportion than in the atmospheric air,
while the nitrogen accumulates in the air space above the solvent. This nitrogen
is allowed to escape by opening a suitable valve, the oxygenous mixture dissolved
in the liquid being subsequently withdrawn by means of a suitable pump and
stored in any suitable holder. This process is repeated, a sufficient number of
times with the oxygenous mixture last stored until the said mixture has reached
the desired percentage of oxygen.
The loss of alcohol is avoided by washing the escaping nitrogen and the
exhausted oxygen with water, from which it may be subsequently recovered.
Dated this 97th day of April 1899.
DE KATOW & Co.,
Agents for the Applicants.
Improvements in the Manufacture of Oxygén.
JOHN BILBIE, of 80, Queen Victoria Street, in the City and County of London,
Engineer, and JAMES ALFRED WANKLYN, of "The Laboratory," New Malden, in
the County of Surrey, England, Professor of Chemistry, do hereby declare the
527

page_text: false bottoms or plates l' under which debouch the horizontal branches of the
said rectangular pipes all but the last of the said chamber containing a solvent
such as alcohol and being connected by an exhaust pipe to an exhaust pump,
while the last chamber C3 contains a certain quantity of water and the first
chamber C is connected by the pipe and the cock or valve e to a force pump,
all substantially as herein described and shown.
2-In apparatus for extracting oxygen from atmospheric air, the combination
with a vessel V, of the exhaust pipe y connected to an exhaust pump and to the
chambers CCC2 by the stopcocks a a a², of the pipes oo 2 connecting together
the chambers C C C and C³, of the pipe o connecting the chamber C to a force
pump and of the water inlet tap b, the air and nitrogen outlet tap and the
water discharge tap d fitted to the chamber C3 substantially as herein described
and shown.
3. The process whereby alcohol is used as a solvent to absorb oxygen and to a
much lesser degree nitrogen from the atmospheric air or from already enriched
air, the unabsorbed nitrogen being allowed to escape while the oxygenated air
thus dissolved is extracted from the alcohol and stored in a tank, substantially
as herein described and shown.
Dated this 29th day of January 1900.
DE KATOW & Co.,
Agents for the Applicants.