Improvements relating to the Preservation of Carbides during Transport.
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application in the United Kingdom, 4th Apr., 1898
Complete Specification Left, 4th Apr., 1898-Accepted, 19th Nov., 1898
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements relating to the Preservation of Carbides during
Transport.
I, ISAIAH LEWIS ROBERTS, of No. 520, Manhattan Avenue, in the City, County,
and State of New York, United States of America, Chemist, 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 a process of preserving carbides in vessels during
shipment.
At present, carbides, as carbide of calcium, are shipped in vessels or iron cylinders
in lumps or masses, the interstices between the irregularly shaped pieces being filled
with air. This air contains more or less moisture and generates acetylene gas from the
carbide and produces an explosive mixture, more or less explosive as the air contains
more or less moisture. In the handling of the vessels containing the carbides, this
explosive mixture of gases becomes a source of danger, by reason of the fact that
a concussion of the pieces of carbide, caused by the vessel falling, or by rough
handling, will generate a spark, or heat of friction, sufficient to ignite the mixture,
and cause an explosion.
I have discovered that if the air be expelled from the vessel containing the
carbides, this danger is obviated; and if the further precaution be taken, which
constitutes a part of this invention, of substituting some matter to take up the
space occupied by the air, the danger of explosion is placed beyond possibility.
Therefore, I propose to expel the air from a vessel containing carbides and have the
spaces between and round about the pieces of carbide filled with some light packing
or cushioning material, such as wheat chaff or bran. Additionally to this, I may
charge the vessel containing the carbides and packing material with a gas-such as
acetylene at non-explosive pressures, such as atmospheric pressure, hydrogen,
nitrogen, carbonic oxide, or mixtures of these gases. Wheat chaff, or wheat brau,
is especially desirable for use as a packing material, as it is light and cheap, and of
considerable bulk, sixty pounds of wheat chaff being sufficient to pack one thousand
pounds of carbide. Besides this, it has an additional advantage of acting somewhat
similarly to the gauze of the safety lamp, by providing passages of connection
between different parts of the vessel, two small for the passage of flame. Again,
it does not contain and does not readily absorb moisture.

page_text: out
In the drawings, I have shown in sectional elevation an apparatus for carrying
my invention.
Referring to these drawings in detail, A, represents a vessel containing carbide
in broken masses, B, the spaces not occupied by the carbide, being filled in with
wheat chaff a. After filling the vessel with carbide and wheat chaff, the head B¹
is sealed on, and acetylene or other gas is passed in from a holder C, or by other
means, through an orifice a¹ at the top end or side of the vessel containing the
carbide, which has at the bottom end or side an opening a². The gas, acetylene in
the present instance, being lighter than the air, expels the air at the bottom, and
thus fills the vessel, when both orifices are sealed tightly.
I do not in this application claim the preservation broadly of bodies by
surrounding them with a gas which does not combine with these bodies; nor do I
claim broadly the prevention of the movement of bodies in transport by surround-
ing them with soft packing. My invention is based upon the discovery of the fact
that calcium carbide in process of handling in shipment will generate a spark
between lumps of such carbide, which is a physical fact not to have been
anticipated; and, secondly, in a means of avoiding the explosion which would be
caused by such spark, due to the impact of the pieces of calcium carbide; and it
further consists in the simultaneous operation of preventing the initial spark by
packing the carbide in such material as chaff, and of preventing a subsequent
explosion, even if a spark should be generated, by two means of prevention, the
first due to the fact that an explosion will not be carried through a mass of wheat
chaff, even if explosive gas be mixed with it, the principle being in some respects
analogous to that of Davy's safety lamp; but claim to have been the first to
discover that such explosion would not pass through a compact body of wheat
chaff, and, secondly, as an additional safeguard, I fill the interstices between the
particles of wheat chaff with a non-explosive gas. I thus simultaneously in this
last method afford three safeguards against explosion: The first, by preventing the
initial spark; secondly preventing the spread of explosion due to such spark, if one
should occur; and, thirdly, preventing any explosion by removing the explosive
mixture.
When in this specification, I refer to wheat chaff, I refer, also, and consider as
equivalents therefor, such bodies as wheat bran and other dry and finely divided
vegetable bodies, not containing free water to any material extent. If these bodies
are not dehydrated they should be dried, before use as a dividing or packing agent.
It is obvious, of course, that such dividing or packing agent can be used without
the addition of the explosion-preventing gas.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is :-
1. The process of preventing explosions in vessels containing materials capable
of generating gas, explosive when mingled with air, and of generating a spark
for firing such gas by friction among themselves, which consists in filling the
interspaces between the fragments of such material with a dehydrated dividing
agent, which performs the double function of preventing the formation of the gas
and of holding the fragments firmly so as to prevent the formation of an exploding
spark, substantially as described.
2. The process of preventing explosions in vessels containing carbides in
shipment, which consists in filling the interstices between the fragments of carbide
with a dehydrated dividing agent, and in charging the vessel with a gas which,
when combined with the acetylene generated from the carbide by. any moisture in
the vessel, forms a non explosive mixture, substantially as described.
3. The process of preventing explosions in vessels containing materials capable
of generating gas, explosive when mingled with air, and of generating a spark for
firing such gas by friction among themselves, which consists in filling the
interspace between the fragments of such material with dehydrated wheat chaff,

page_text: serving as a dividing agent, which performs the double function of preventing the
formation of the gas and of holding the fragments firmly so as to prevent the
formation of an exploding spark, substantially as described.
4. The process of preventing explosions in vessels containing materials capable
of generating gas, explosive when mingled with air, and of generating a spark for
firing such gas by friction among themselves, which consists in filling the interspace
between the fragments of such material with dehydrated wheat chaff serving as
a dividing agent, which performs the double function of preventing the formation
of the gas and of holding the fragments firmly so as to prevent the formation
of an exploding spark, and then hermetically sealing the vessel, substantially as
described!
5. The process of preventing explosions in vessels containing carbides in
shipment, which consists in surrounding the carbide in the vessel with dehydrated
wheat chaff which serves as a dividing agent and prevents the spread of an
explosion through the vessel, in then filling the interstices of the wheat chaff with
a gas which does not form an explosive mixture when mingled with the acetylene
in the vessel, and in finally hermetically sealing the vessel, substantially as
described.