IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF ASCERTAINING APPROXIMATELY THE QUANTITY OF AIR OR OTHER GASEOUS MATTERS IN CERTAIN GASEOUS MIXTURES BELIEVED OR SUSPECTED TO CONTAIN AN UNDUE AMOUNT OF FREE OXYGEN OR OF GASEOUS COMBUSTIBLE MATTER, AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR."
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by. William Phillips Thompson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 15th March 1880. A com-
munication from abroad by Monsieur Victor Julien Laurent, of Paris, in the
Republic of France
WILLIAM PHILLIPS THOMPSON, of the Firm of W. P. Thompson and Co., Patent
Agents, of 6, Lord Street, Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, and 323, High
Holborn, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MODE OF ASCERTAINING APPROXIMATELY THE QUANTITY OF AIR OR OTHER
GASEOUS MATTERS IN CERTAIN GASEOUS MIXTURES BELIEVED OR SUSPECTED TO
CONTAIN AN UNDUE AMOUNT OF FREE OXYGEN OR OF GASEOUS COMBUSTIBLE
MATTER, AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR." A communication from abroad by
Monsieur Victor Julien Laurent, of Paris, in the Republic of France.
The following is the description of the Invention as forwarded to me :-
To draw from a combustible the maximum useful effect it is necessary to furnish
to the fire a certain quantity of air, which is by no means arbitrary. If this quantity
is insufficient the smoke carries to the chimney combustible volatile or gaseous
products (carbonic oxide, hydrocarbons, et cetera), the calorific power of which is
totally lost. On the contrary, if this quantity of air is excessive, as the smoke
always arrives at the chimney with a notable elevation of temperature, all the air
supplied in excess gets heated in pure waste, and the heat that it encloses in a
sensible form disperses into the atmosphere with the smoke. There are, it is true,
apparatus, such as the "Orsat" apparatus, which enables one to determine rapidly
the composition of the smoke, but their use necessitates certain manipulations
and-the-employment of special reagent; also they are convenient only for chemists
and engineers.
The apparatus which forms the subject of the present application has another
destination. Not demanding any other reagent than a little oil, working in a
continuous manner, capable of being put in operation by a raw hand, its role is to
constantly inform the firemen of the condition of their fire, and to indicate to them
by easily recognized signs that they ought to moderate or intensify their draught,
augment or diminish the charge of combustible upon the grate.
It is composed essentially of a lamp, of which the wick is enveloped by three
different gaseous currents. The first tier is plunged into a current of pure air. It
burns constantly, and its office is to give a light.

page_text: The second tier of wick is plunged in a current composed of a mixture of air and
of smoke coming from the fire, whose condition is regulated by the lamp. The air
and the smoke (products of combustion) are mixed in such proportion that this
second tier burns when the smoke has the composition which corresponds with a
good condition of fire.
The current which envelopes the remaining tier of the wick contains a proportion
of smoke a little stronger than the last, in such sort that this last portion of the
wick cannot burn save when the smoke contains a proportion of air in excess above
that which is requisite for good combustion.
Thus the working of this apparatus is founded upon this well known fact that a
flame ceases to burn when it is plunged into an atmosphere containing a certain
proportion of carbonic acid, or not having a sufficient proportion of free oxygen.
In the normal condition of furnace the two first tiers of the wick alone ought to
burn. If the flame occupies all the extent of the wicks it is an indication that the
draught is too excessive. If the first tier only burns it is that the draught is
insufficient. Further, the existence in the flame of a notable proportion of com-
bustible products is signalized by the formation at the upper portion of the flame
of a characteristic aureole.
It is then the combustion of a lamp which serves to control the combustion of a
furnace.
In order the better to explain the Invention I have illustrated in the subjoined
Drawing, in the way of a specimen only, different views of a lamp realizing my
Invention.
Fig. 1 shows an elevation of a lamp.
Fig. 2 shows a section of same following 1-2, Figure 1.
"
A is a steam blower, which constantly blows the gas contained in the box B,
where burns the lamp C. It is shown in section in Figure 1. The steam taken
from a generator is carried by the pipe a. In b it is despoiled of its water of conden-
sation, which is extracted by the steam trap c, and it escapes vertically by the little
orifice of a base d. The gases of the box B arrive at the blower by the orifice e,
encountering the jet of steam, which draws them into the " cannon or tubular
chamber f, the object of which is to isolate the escaping fluid vein till the moment
when the quantity of gas carried along is sufficient to maintain the different fluid-
threads in contact with each other during a sufficient time for them to take very
nearly the same speed; then the fluid vein strikes against an orifice with narrow
sides G, and from thence escapes into the atmosphere.
This orifice is distant from the extremity of the tubular chamber f some
millimetres, in order that if the degree of exhaustion obtained necessitates a speed
of the vein involving a delivery superior to the quantity of gas to be evacuated, the
surplus after dashing against the orifice can flow back all round the "cannon," and
return to the base by the space comprized between the cannon and the box B
without hindering the column and the movement which it follows. The lamp C is
composed of a reservoir h, h, which one fills with oil by an orifice exterior to the
box B, and closed by a stopper screw i and of a burner j, at the end of which
issues the end of the wick. The lamp penetrates into the box B by a circular hole,
round which is soldered a ring, against which fits a similar ring made in one piece
with the lamp. A caoutchouc band k riding upon the two rings serves to keep the
joint tight. The flame is seen through a circular opening made in the box B and
closed by a glass.
The burner of the lamp is enveloped by a box D of horseshoe, form, which is
divided into three compartments by two interior diaphragms m and n.
Each of
the compartments l, o, p, is in communication with one of the vertical tubes q, r,
and 8, the extremities of which are soldered to the said box. These tubes traverse
the bottom of the box B, to which they are soldered, and this bottom is equally
bound to the box B in an impervious manner by an india-rubber packing.
To this system of pipes a piece of cast iron E is solidly bound by means of
wrought iron counter plates t and u, and by screw stays v, v¹, x, x¹. This piece is

page_text: in contact with each tube by two surfaces in form of a gutter, which embrace them
perfectly. Otherwise a thin piece of india-rubber in the joint renders it perfectly
tight. To the piece A are fixed two systems of ajutages or capsules pierced with
holes of different sizes. The upper system comprises the ajutages a¹, a³, a³, of
which each gives a determinate quantity of air to the vertical pipe with which it
corresponds by a hole pierced through the part E and this tube.
•
The lower system consists of only two ajutages 62, 63, which are in communi-
cation with the tubes 7 and 8, and which are enclosed in a boxlike cavity, of which
the cover F is represented open in the Drawing. In action this "couvercle" is
strongly applied against the box by means of screws screwed down upon the stays
or crosspieces x, x'. The edge of the box is hollowed, with a groove in which is
inserted an india-rubber strip. Upon the top of the cover is adapted a little
mercurial manometer, serving to control the tightness of all the joints. By the
tube c¹ this box receives smoke proceeding from the furnace, whose combustion is
controlled by the lamp. A syphon d serves to extract the moisture which condenses
in the tube c¹. The lower extremity of each of the vertical tubes is closed by a
stopper.
The piece E and the box B are bound together by a common cast-iron plate H
secured to the wall.
It will be seen that the first compartment of the box D receives only air and
smoke, the proportion of these two matters depending solely upon the size of
orifices a² and 62 and a³, b³. These compartments have their upper extremities
open, and throw upon the portion of the wick which they embrace an atmosphere
of which the composition is in constant ratio with the quantity of smoke. This
Invention is applicable to other applications besides furnaces by a little modification
of detail; for example, it can easily be employed for showing the amount of fire-
damp in any given atmosphere. It is sufficient to bring into the box of the piece E
not smoke but illuminating gas, and to suppress the two last portions of the wick
(one would only have to guard the one which serves to light up, or one could
replace it by a little gas jet). The two last compartments would thus have mixtures
of which the strength of the gas would depend not alone on the relative size of the
orifices in the two ajutages which feed them, but besides in the proportion of fire damp
contained in the atmosphere, and according as these mixtures burnt or did not burn
one would have an indication of the amount of firedamp contained in the atmosphere
furnished by the upper ajutages. Here is well manifested the principle of this
Invention, the adding to a mixture where one supposes the existence of a certain
substance in variable proportion the same or a similar substance until the mixture
is rich enough to exhibit certain characteristic phenomena. When it is wished to
control a fire add to the sinoke supposed to contain air in excess variable quantities
of air. In the case of fire damp it is, on the contrary, a combustible gas that must
be added.