IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF GAS
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Robert Lake at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 6th September 1880. A communication
from abroad by Emmanuel Genty, of Rouen, France.
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co., Patent
Agents, Southampton Buildings, London. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR
THE MANUFACTURE OF GAS." [A communication from abroad by Emmanuel Gonty,
of Rouen, France.]
This Invention has for its object the construction of an apparatus designed to
produce gas of a higher illuminating power than ordinary gas, and at a much
smaller cost, by passing air through a mass of mineral oil, such as petroleum, or
other carburetted liquid.
In carrying the said Invention into practice, I provide a receptacle or chamber,
which by means of two partitions is divided into three compartments. Into the
upper compartment is introduced through a suitable opening the mineral oil, by
which the air is to be saturated with an inflaminable substance; this compartment
communicates with the second one immediately underneath by means of an
appropriate orifice or opening, which opening is fitted with a valve. It is necessary
always to have some of the new produce in the second compartment of the said
apparatus. The opening connecting the two compartments as above described must
be capable of being hermetically closed.
The second compartment is the one in which the air is saturated with essence.
The air is introduced through a tube rising vertically from the base of the
apparatus; the air then passes down a second tube, and leaves the latter at the
bottom of the said second compartment through openings provided for the purpose.
The air then enters the lower part of a small box or chamber placed into the said second
compartment, passes through small holes on the outside of the latter, penetrates
under or into another box or chamber, which it leaves through holes or openings in
the same manner as in the box, and thus passes through several other boxes or
chambers and impinges upon one or several sheets of wire-gauze arranged above
the said series of boxes or chambers, then escaping by a tube to suitably arranged.
burners. Above the said boxes and surrounding the wire gauze aforesaid I provide
a circular chamber closed at all parts, and serving as a float, said chamber carries at
its central part a valve, which opens or shuts the orifice of the upper compartment,
and allows the liquid to pass into the lower compartment as its level decreases.
Before arriving in the circular chamber the air is heated in passing through the
lowest or third compartment at the base of the apparatus. This third compartment
may be heated either by a burner consuming some of the gas produced by this

page_text: apparatus, or by a small quantity of steam, or by warm water placed in a vessel
underneath the apparatus, so as to obviate the cooling which results from evapora-
tion. To facilitate the heating of the air in the lowest compartment, the latter is
divided into circular chambers, which the air has to traverse before arriving in the
upright tube through which it enters the upper chambers. The liquid may be
permitted to penetrate into this chamber.
The compressed air coming from a sufficiently charged receiver enters the
apparatus through a tube leading into the lowest or third compartment, it then
passes into the other parts of the apparatus to make the circuit bereinbefore
alluded to.
.
The valve herein before described as connecting the first and second compartments
may be constructed in various ways, one form of construction, which I describe by
way of example, being as follows, that is to say:-The float on the top of the series
of boxes or chambers herein before mentioned carries an oscillating lever; said lever
bears at the end opposite to the float against a cone shaped valve, and this lever
compels the valve to open, when the float falls, and consequently to admit a fresh
quantity of liquid into the second apparatus.
The series of boxes or chambers in which the air circulates in the second or
_middle compartment I construct of discs pierced near their centre by one or several
rows of small holes, and in the centre these-discs are provided with an opening.
which allows them to slide upon the air-introducing tube. A flange surrounds the
entire-lower-part-of-each-of-these discs_so_as to prevent the escape of air.
Under these last described discs which form the upper part-of-the-boxes-or-
chambers aforesaid are placed discs, which on-their-outer-rim-are-pierced_by_small
holes, and these discs form the lower part of the said boxes or chambers.
These various discs are made slightly conical, so as to facilitate the rising of the
air bubbles upon their surfaces.
It may be desirable to produce heat regularly under the carburetting apparatus
herein described, so as to obviate the cooling caused by evaporation. To this end
I provide the following additional apparatus, that is to say-
I construct a vessel surrounding the lower part of the carburetter aforesaid, and
this vessel is closed on all sides. Into this vessel is introduced a small quantity of
water, or some other liquid that will easily evaporate. I also provide a bellows
connected with the interior of the said vessel, or I may provide a suitable piston
pump instead of the bellows aforesaid.
A stem is fixed to the aforesaid bellows, and is attached to a connecting-bar,
which acts as a lever to open a cock; a gas burner is placed underneath the vessel.
When the said cock is open the heat is intense, and the steam generated thereby
acts upon the bellows or piston, as the case may be, and thereby partially closes the
gas-cock. The flame of the burner is thus diminished, the evaporation in the
carburetter causes the vapours or steam in the vessel to cool, the blower collapses,
and the gas flaine becomes active again, and again evaporates the liquid.
1 provide a sheet metal casing to maintain the heat. It is open at its upper part
and allows the air to circulate.
Instead of a single burner I may employ means for giving more heat if the
apparatus is designed to supply a large number of burners.
The main advantages offered by this aero mineral gas in comparison with
ordinary gas are as follows, that is to say -The fittings therefor are very inexpensive ;
it gives a more brilliant and luminous light than ordinary gas; its cost is con-
siderably less, and its caloric effect is much greater, thus rendering it more
advantageous for heating purposes and for gas-motors.