IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS OF AND APPARATUS FOR PRO- DUCING COMBUSTIBLE AND ILLUMINATING GAS
Year: 1868

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Léon Stanislas Thomassin at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
15th June 1868.
I, LÉON STANISLAS THOMASSIN, Chemist, of No. 31, Rue d'Enghien,
Paris, in the Empire of France, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS OF AND APPARATUS FOR PRO-
DUCING COMBUSTIBLE AND ILLUMINATING GAS," to be as follows:-
The subject of the present Invention is a combustible and lighting gas
or carbureted hydrate of oxyd of sypil, the chemical formula of which is
C, H, O, H, O, that is to say, it contains six equivalents of sypil, eight
equivalents of hydrogen, six equivalents of oxygen, and one equivalent of
water. It is produced by simultaneously casting on incalescent coke
contained in a retort heated to a red heat, first, a mixture of water and
glycerin; and secondly, a jet of olein oil or carbureted hydrogen, the
proportions of which would vary according to the degree of richness or
of lighting power desired. In a kiln are placed a number of retorts,
3, 5, or 7, according as required; they are of cast iron, and are filled with

page_text: pieces of coke broken up and mixed together with fragments of iron.
The foremost end of each retort is provided with a knee pipe forming
a plug or stopper, which is attached by means of bolts; these plugs are
traversed by two iron tubes which enter a short distance into the interior
of the retorts; the exterior parts of these tubes are furnished with taps
and are bent in the shape of a U, and terminate with funnels which are
arranged-under the taps of two reservoirs. The first of these reservoirs
is filled with a mixture of water and glycerin in the proportions of 100
parts of water to 3 parts of glycerin; the second reservoir is placed
above the retort, so that it is kept constantly heated, and is filled with
olein. The retorts being heated to a red heat and kept so by an oil or coke
fire placed in a grate below them, the taps are opened and the liquid
+contained in the reservoirs are introduced in the retorts by the tubes,
the flow of these liquids.being so arranged that they pour in constantly
in the proportions of 100 parts of water, 3 parts of glycerin, and 1 of
olein. In coming in contact with the heated coke and iron the following
reaction takes place :-The water saturated with glycerin resolves into
hydrogen gas, bicarburet of hydrogen, magnetic iron, and a little carbonic
acid; the fatty matter furnishing the bicarburet of hydrogen also
decomposes. The gas formed escapes at the back or hind end of the
retorts by means of tubes which connect them with a collecting pipe
which conducts them to a bath or cistern. The decomposed water and
fatty matter is collected in a reservoir provided with a waste pipe, the
gas reaching the bath or cistern of water made in sheet iron of any
desired form hermetically closed, and is filled up to a certain height, and
in which the end of the collecting pipe plunges; the carbureted gas cools
and then passes through an elbow pipe to a serpentine pipe arranged in
the interior of the washing cistern, where it gets rid of the condensed
water and fatty matter in suspension, which passes with the gas into
the serpentine pipe and accumulates in a recipient at the bottom of the
pipe, from whence they are discharged into a reservoir by means of a
pipe; the gas then ascends by another pipe into an iron cylindrical
.refiner filled with pieces of coke, sawdust, wood, and an alkali of some
sort. This refiner is divided by a partition, which makes or forces the gas
to pass twice through the height of the material it contains before it
escapes by a pipe at the top, from whence it passes to another and final
refiner of the same form and material as the last named, the interior of
wwhich is furnished with floors or stages pierced with holes, and between

page_text: which floors moss, cotton, or any other light or spongy substance slightly
steeped in benzoin, petroleum, or schist; from thence the gas passes
through a pipe into a gasometer of any description or dimensions to
be finally distributed therefrom.