Improved Means for Purifying and Disinfecting Air, and for Consuming Deleterious Gases and Vapours.
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application, 3rd July, 1894-Accepted, 4th Aug., 1894
Improved Means for Purifying and Disinfecting Air, and for
Consuming Deleterious Gases and Vapours.
I, COUNT HEINRICH VON PUCKLER, of Oberweistritz, Silesia, in the Empire
of Germany, 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 means for disinfecting and purifying air, and for
consuming deleterious gases and vapours.
For this purpose I employ platinum wires kept red hot or incandescent by an
electric current.
Experiments have shown that platinum wires kept red hot or incandescent by
an electric current improve and purify to a high degree the air surrounding them,
and free it from bacteria, inasmuch as they produce a great amount of ozone
and altogether effect such changes in the air that the propagators of contagious
diseases, such as cholera, typhoid, yellow fever, consumption, influenza, diphtheria
and others, will no longer prosper in the same but will die. Gases and vapours
such as for instance smoke are in a short time consumed by the wires kept
incandescent by electricity, and it appears that the particles of smoke join
together and are deposited upon solid articles. When such platinum wires are
arranged in the chimney of a manufactory so as to traverse the same, and are
heated to and kept at red heat by the electric current these wires effect the
complete deposition of the smoke rising in the chimney so that smoke will no
longer leave the chimney and render the air in the neighbourhood impure.
These effects must however not be attributed to the incandescence of the wires
but solely to the fact that the incandescence is produced by the electric current.
For instance a platinum wire kept incandescent by a spirit flame does not produce
the before-mentioned effect upon air and smoke.
In order to facilitate the use of such platinum wires, kept incandescent by
electricity, for instance in sick rooms or in dwelling or other rooms generally it is
expedient to stretch a thin platinum wire in a frame so as to pass up and down
round insulating supports, and to lead the ends of the wire to contact screws by
means of which the wire is included in an electric circuit.
In the accompanying drawing such an apparatus is represented. A frame a
provided with feet possesses several transverse bars 6 on which buttons c of
insulating material are arranged. Round the buttons c is stretched a fine platinum
wire the ends of which lead to terminals d. If now the apparatus is included by
menus of the terminals d in an electric circuit the platinum wire will become red
hot or incandescent and produce upon the surrounding air the before-mentioned
effects.
Of course the apparatus may be made of any desired form, providing that the
platinum wire is stretched and the air is permitted to circulate therethrough.
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 :-
The employment of platinum wires kept red hot or incandescent by an electric

page_text: current for purifying and disinfecting air, and for consuming gases, vapours and
the like.
Dated this 3rd day of July 1894.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.