IMPROVE- MENTS IN MANUFACTURING LIGHTING AND HEATING GASES
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS, PATENT, to Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford, of 32, Essex
Street, Strand, London, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN MANUFACTURING LIGHTING AND HEATING GASES."-A communi-
cation.
Sealed the 18th December 1855, and dated the 28th June 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Auguste Edouard Loradoux
'Bellford at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 28th June 1855.
I, AUGUSTE EDOUARD LORADOUX BELLFORD, of 32, Essex, Strand, London,
Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN MANUFACTURING LIGHTING AND HEATING GASES," a communica-
tion, to be as follows, viz.:
This Invention relates to the manufacture of heating and lighting gases,
which are now usually generated either by distilling in a closed vessel fuel or
combustible matters which burn with a flame, or by causing steam or vapours
from a hydrocarburetted substance to pass through incandescent carbonaceous
matter, or, through a bath of certain melted metals. This improved system,
which is intended to effect a considerable saving in the working stock, manual
labour, and fuel required for manufacturing gases in the usual way, consists in
raising a mass of coke to an incandescent temperature, by effecting its com-
bustion in a cupola that is hermetically closed after the coal to be distilled has
been introduced, or before sending through the white hot coke the steam
---Price-8d:1-

page_text: which it is to decompose. The apparatus used for that purpose is represented
in sectional elevation and plan at Figures 1 and 2, and consists of a pair of
cupolas X, Y, which stand on each side of a smoke box C, with a chimney Z
at the top, which is for both cupolas. The cupolas, which are built upon a
proper foundation, are made of fire brick, and sheathed or cased with sheet
iron. The upper end is covered with a cast-iron cap, having a central orifice,
round which there is a groove filled with some fusible alloy. This orifice or
furnace mouth may be shut when required by means of a lid D, whose rim
dips into the said fusible alloy. Above this hydraulic lid there is a chamber,
which is closed at the top by a boiler K, containing any suitable hydrocarbinet,
and has two lateral apertures that are right opposite each other. One of these
apertures has a door P, which is opened for throwing the fuel into the cupola
through the furnace mouth; the other is the entrance to a flue H, which
leads the smoke into the smoke box of the chimney, which is common to both
eupolas.
.
The residue of combustion is removed from the cupola through the door It,
round which there is a projecting frame or square, which may be pressed by
screws upon a packing of amianth laid in a groove that runs along the joints
of the door. When it is desired to work this furnace the fire is laid and
lighted, and then coke is laid on progressively, the same as in iron foundries.
The furnace mouth being open, the atmospheric air enters through the twyer L
into an annular channel T, which leads it to the circumference of the fuel
through openings F, that are placed at equal distances. The twyer can be
opened and shut by means of a valve V. The smoke which issues through
the furnace mouth passes from the chamber through the door H to the upper
part of the smoke box C, which it fills by descending to the point S at the
lower end of the chimney Z, by which it escapes. The smoke chamber is
surrounded with a vertical boiler A, B, in which the water is heated by the
waste heat of the cupolas. Whilst steam and coal gases are evolved in one of
the cupolas, combustion is carried on in the other, and vice versa. If it is
desired to distil rapidly, the intensity of the fire is increased by letting a jet.
of steam escape from the boiler into the chimney. When the entire mass of
coke has thus been brought to a suitable temperature the steamjet is stopped,
and the twyer or blast pipe closed, so as to prevent the entrance of air. When
the coke has attained a white heat as may be ascertained by openings in the
furnace side, a quantity of coal equal to about one third part of the weight of
coke is thrown into the cupola through the furnace mouth. The hydraulic
lid above described being then suddenly put on, the coal in the furnace is
heated from below upwards, and in a few minutes begins to distil. At first

page_text: gas,
the vapours of water, oil, and tar evolved from the coal descend simultaneously
through a suitable layer of coke at a white ignition, which absorbs their
oxygen. The pure hydrogen which results from the decomposition of water
and the percarburetted hydrogen that coal tar consists of, are thus fixed in the
status nascens, and combine and form carburetted hydrogen. This,
the
carbonic acid, and the other gases that are produced to the end of the d'stilla-
tion, pass out per descensum through burning coke in the four pipes M, the
orifices of which are placed round the furnace at a suitable distance below
the surface of the incandescent coke, from thence they pass into the drum N,.
and through the usual purifying apparatus into the gas meters. In order to
continue the manufacture of gas, the surplus coke resulting from the distillation
of the coal has to be taken out to make room for another charge, the coke
thus obtained being closer grained and less sulphuretted than that usually
employed on locomotives.
After having taken out the coke accruing from the distillation of coal so as
to reduce the charge of coke to the same volume it had before the distillation,
the coke thus left is raised from a temperature of 1,700 degrees Fahrenheit
to about 2,200 degrees by opening the cupola and producing draught by a jet
of steam. When the cupola has attained the white heat again, the operation
above described is repeated by throwing coal to be distilled upon the in-
caudescent coke, and so on indefinitely after each distillation, by which the
temperature is lowered to 1,700 degrees Fah' about.
Instead of directly using the coke thus obtained by the manufacture of coal
gas, it may be more advantageously.employed.for.producing before it is cooled
hydrogen for heating, or oil gas (percarburetted hydrogen, for lighting).
For this purpose, the. temperature of the coke, which after the distillation
has sunk to 1,700 degrees, is raised to 2,200 degrees about by letting it burn
in the cupola; the furnace mouth and the twyer are then closed, and either a
current of steam from pure water, or a current of vapour from carburetted
water or from tar, is sent through the ignited mass. Thus, for producing
hydrogen gas for heating, the steam valve of the boiler A, B, which generates
low-pressure steam, is opened, and the steam is made to enter the cupola
through the pipe D, G, above the ignited coke; it then descends, passing
through the pores and interstices of the coke, the oxigen of the steam uniting
with the carbon, and its hydrogen being set free. Whilst coal gas is manufac-
tured in one of the cupolas, bicarburetted or precarburetted hydrogen may be
made in the other. For this purpose, the chamber at the top of the furnace
is closed by a vertical boiler or cauldron K, containing tar or any other
cheap hydrocarburet. After distilling 1,000 lbs. of coal,-say, by contact with

page_text: 3,000 lbs. of coke at a heat of about 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit, there will be
left in the cupola on an average 3,676 lbs. of coke, having a temperature of
1,700 degrees about; combustion is theu effected in order to reheat the fur-
nace, the twyer and mouth of which is closed after having stored up in it the
quantity of caloric corresponding with a white heat. The cocks D, V, are
then opened so as to let the steam pass through the bath contained in the boiler
K, from whence it enters the furnace through the pipe b, c. As it descends
through the incandescent mass, the steam saturated with tar is decomposed
into pure hydrogen and percarburetted hydrogen, which combine with each
other. The result of this combination is oil gas, besides an excess of gaseous
carbon, that becomes oil gas if it is combined with hydrogen obtained from a
suitable quantity of steam.
As to gas obtained by decomposing steam in a bath of melted metal, a
current of steam of pure or carburetted water is made to pass through the
pipe D, m, n, into a bath of cast iron which has been melted by the combus-
tion of the coke, and collected at the bottom of the cupola; the pure or
carburetted hydrogen gases resulting from the decomposition of these vapours
are made to pass into the gas meters, whilst their oxygen progressively burns
the carbon and other substances, which cause pig iron to be porous and
brittle. The latter is thus converted & refined into cast iron of superior
quality, steel, or a fusible mixture of various oxyds of iron.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 26th December 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, AUGUSTE
EDOUARD LORADOUX BELLFORD, of 32, Essex Street, Strand, London, Patent
Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters:
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford, Her special licence that I, the
said Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no

page_text: others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, excercise, and vend, within
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and
Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MANUFACTURING LIGHTING
AND HEATING GASES," (a communication,) upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford, by an instrument in
writing under my hard and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be
performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW. YE; that I, the said Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford,
ilo hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement :-
This Invention relates to the manufacture of heating and lighting gases,
which are now usually obtained either by distilling in a closed vessel fuel or
combustible matters which burn with a flame, or by causing steam or vapours
from a hydrocarburetted substance to pass through incandescent carbonaceous
matters, or through a bath of certain melted metals. This improved system,
which is intended to effect a considerable saving in the working stock, manual
labour, and fuel required for manufacturing gases in the usual way, consists in
raising a mass of coke to an incandescent temperature by effecting its combus-
tion in a cupola that is hermetically closed after the coal to be distilled has
been introduced, or before sending through the white hot coke the steam
which it is to decompose. The apparatus used for that purpose is represented
at Figs. 1 & 2, and consists of two cupolas X, Y, which stand on each side
of a smoke chamber C, with a chimney Z, A, B, at the top, which is for both
cupolas. The cupolas, which are built upon a proper foundation, are made of
fire brick and cased with sheet iron; the upper end is covered with a cast-iron
cap, having a. ceutral orifice, round which there is a groove filled with some
fusible alloy. This orifice or furnace mouth may be shut when required by
means of a lid D, the rim of which dips into the said fusible alloy. Round.
this hydraulic lid there is a chamber, closed at the top, which has two lateral
apertures which are right opposite to each other. One of these apertures, in
which some coal is coutained, has its inclined floor provided with a door P,
which is opened for the fuel being thrown into the cupola through the furnace
mouth; the other aperture is the entrance to a flue H, which leads the smoke
into the sheath of the common boiler. The residue of combustion is removed

page_text: from the cupola through the door R, which is hermetically closed. The fur-
nace is prepared, lighted, and progressively fed with coke, in the same manner
as in iron foundries. The furnace mouth being open,the atmospheric air enters
through the tuyer L an annular channel T,which leads it to the circumference
of the fuel through openings F, that are placed at equal distances; the tuyer
can be opened and shut by means of a valve V. The smoke which issues
through the furnace mouth passes from the chamber through the door H to
the upper part of the chamber C, which it fills, and escapes through the pipes
S, Z, of a vertical boiler A, B, heated by the waste heat of the two cupolas.
Whilst steam and coal gases are evolved in one of the cupolas, combustion is
carried on in the other, and vice versa. If it is desired to distil rapidly, the
intensity of the fire is increased by letting a jet of steam escape from the boiler
into the chimney. When the entire mass of coke has been brought to a suit-
able temperature, the steam jet is stopped and the tuyer or blast pipe closed,so
as to prevent the entrance of air. When the coke has attained a white heat,
as may be ascertained by openings in the furnace side, a quantity of coal equal
to about one-third of the weight of the coke is thrown into the cupola through
the furnace mouth; the hydraulic lid,above described, being then suddenly put
on, the coal in the furnace is heated from below upwards, and in a few minutes
begins to distil. At first the vapours of water, oil, aud tar evolved from the
coal simultaneously descend through a suitable layer of coke at the white
ignition, which absorbs their oxygen.
The pure hydrogen which results from the decomposition of water and the
percarburetted hydrogen that coal tar consists of, are thus mixed in the status
nascens, combine, and form carburetted hydrogen. This gas,. the carbonic acid,
and the other gases that are produced to the end of the distillation, pass off out
per descensum through burning coke into the pipes M, the orifices of which are
placed round the furnace at a suitable distance beneath the surface of the in-
candescent coke, from thence they pass into the drum N, and through the
usual purifying apparatus into the gas meter. In order to proceed with the
manufacture of gas, the surplus coke resulting from the distillation of the coal
has to be taken out to make room for another charge; the coke thus obtained
is closer grained and less sulphuretted than that usuallyemployed on locomo-
tives. After having taken out the coke accruing from the distillation of coal
so as to reduce the charge of coke to the same volume it had before the distil-
lation, the coke thus left is raised from a temperature of 1,700) degrees F. to
about 2,200 degrees by opening the cupola and producing draught by a jet of
steam. When the cupola has attained the white heat again, the operation
above described is repeated, by throwing coal to be distilled upon the incan-

page_text: .
descent coke, and soon indefinitely. Instead of directly giving up to trade the
coke thus obtained, it may be more advantageous to consume it in the furnace,
and get from it at will pure hydrogen or carbonated hydrogen. Thus, whilst
coal gas is manufactured in one of the cupolas Y, for instance, gas is generated
in the other X by steam; for that the temperature of burning coke in the
furnace must be raised to 2,200 degrees Farenheit, then the furnace mouth
and the tuyer are closed, in order to cause a jet of steam or of hydrocarburetted
vapour to pass through the incandescentcoke. Purehydrogen gas is obtained
in the following manner :-On opening the cock b of the tube U1, U¹, the
steam escapes from the boiler through b, 61, above the coke, through which it
passes from upwards to below. The over-heated steam thus being brought
into immediate contact with coal raised to a temperature of 2,200 degrees,
yields its oxygen, and the correspondent hydrogen evolving flies into the gas
meter. Bicarburetted hydrogen gas is obtained in the following manner :-At
e upper part of the boiler there is a chamber which contains tar or any other
cheap hydrocarburet; the cock adapted on the tube U', U', is opened in order
to let out steam, which passes through the tar, and being saturated, flies out
through the tube U and the cock A into the upper part of the cupola X. On
going down through the incandescent mass of coal to which they yield their
oxigen, the particles of water and tar will generate pure and percarburetted
hydrogen, which, being combined, produce bicarburetted hydrogen.
the
Lastly, I have contrived a means of letting a jet of pure or carburetted
steam through the tube U, T, F, into a bath of cast iron, smelted by the com-
bustion of coke, through which the metal passes on its way to the bottom of
the cupola; pure or carburetted hydrogen produced by the vapours, being
decomposed by the smelted metal, escape into the gas meter, whilst their
oxygen will progressively burn the carbon and particles of other substances,
which render cast iron of first fusion brittle and porous. The latter is thus
converted into cast iron of superior quality, into steel, or iron. Practice will
soon demonstrate how long may the flowing of steam last before obtaining a
metal, the superior value of which will afford a fair benefit, even though the
gases generated for heating or lighting purposes should be lost.
In order to appropriate my apparatus to private houses, the gas meter must
be suppressed, and gas generated in proportion as it is consumed. For this
purpose, instead of filling at once the furnace with a large quantity of coal, this
is to be reduced into a pulverulent state, and a jet of this powder is made con-
tinually to drop through a suitable aperture on the incandescent coke. In this
case the cupola is to be like a kind of bot-air stove, the flue of which may be
closed at will for the purpose of stopping.combustion. Above the said cupola

page_text: or hot-air stove is secured a piece of tube, provided with a cock and a chamber
for the powdered coal, which chamber is something like the upper chamber of
a sand clepsydra. Beneath the cock there is a valve, which leaves a more or
less large issue, as the powder is to drop down in a more or less large quantity
for generating gas, in proportion as it is consumed. The valve is suitably
operated by the fireman's hand, or even by the elastic power of gas, which
increasesprogressivelyaslong as generation exceeds consumption. Carburetted
hydrogen, and other gases generated by the decomposition of coal or resin,
escape through a refrigerating apparatus into a purifier, which keeps the acids
back, whilst the hydrogen escapes into a small cylinder, where it is self-com-
pressed. This cylinder, which is a substitute for the gas meter, is provided with
a common regulator, that allows an equal quantity of gas to fly up to the
lighters or into the heating apparatus, whatever may be the pressure in the
reservoir.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner in which
it is or may be carried into effect, I wish it to be distinctly understood that
what I claim as novel, and being secured to me by the herein-before in parts
recited Letters Patent, is, generating carburetted hydrogen,―
First, by throwing at once a large quantity of coal into a well-closed furnace
which contains incandescent coke.
Second, by continually dropping into the furnace and through a suitable
aperture a jet of coal powder from a chamber, which is supplied with the
same by means of a funnel and a cock adapted to it for this purpose.
Third, by letting a jet of steam saturated with tar or any other hydro-
carburet down through a layer of incandescent coke.
Fourth, manufacturing hydrogen gas, by letting pure or hydrocarburetted
steam through the smelted iron, which is thus transformed into iron of superior
quality, or into steel.
In witness whereof, I, the said Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford,
have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of
December, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
fifty-five.
A. E. LORADOUX BELLFORD. (L.S.)
A. E. LORADOUX BELLFORD. (L.S.)