Improvements in Apparatus for Obtaining Acetylene Gas:
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 27th Dec., 1898-Accepted, 4th Feb., 1899
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for Obtaining Acetylene Gas:
We, ERNST FRIEDEL, Mechanician, and ROBERT NÄKE, Mechanician, both of
Lockwitz, near Dresden, Germany, do hereby declare the nature of this inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement:
. Our invention has reference to improvements in apparatus for obtaining
acetylene gas by the action of water upon calcium carbide and relates more
especially to that class of apparatus, in which the falling of the bell automati-
cally starts the water feed.
The apparatus consists of a bell rising and falling within a water supply recep-
tacle, the lower end of which is connected through a feed pipe to the carbide
container. The upper end of the feed pipe is ordinarily closed by means of a cone
shaped valve body, which latter is arranged upon the underside of a lever,
pivotted to the bottom of the water receptacle. A rock-lever, the curved up end
of which is acted upon by the lower edge of the bell, is journalled upon the bottom
of the water receptacle. The other end of this said rock-lever extends underneath
the front part of the lever to which the valve body is attached. If now the bell
falls, or if, in case the bell is in its lowest position, a rod extending down to the
curved-up end of the rock-lever is depressed by hand, the rock lever will rock.
around its pivot and the front end of the valve lever will be lifted, allowing water
to escape through the feed pipe into the carbide container.
In order to always be able to see how much gas has been produced and how
much of the carbide has not yet been acted upon by the water, we provide a meter
being composed of a number of intermeshing toothed wheels, the first one of which
is acted upon by a toothed rod. The lower end of this latter is secured to a plate
or disc, being provided with a plurality of perforations and resting upon the car-
bido within the container. In filling the carbide container, care has to be taken
to not fill it more than half, as the carbide under the action of the water will swell
to twice its original volume. This phenomenon is made use of to lift the per-
forated plate. The toothed rod will accordingly be raised and thereby actuate
the first counting wheel of the meter.
In order to make our invention more readily understood we have illustrated it
on the accompanying sheet of drawing, which shows a partial sectional elevation
of the apparatus. a is the water receptacle, within which rises and falls the bell b.
cis the carbide container, connected with the water receptacle through the pipe q.
d is the cone shaped valve, fiuding its seat in the upper part of pipe g and being
attached to the underside of the lever g. This latter is weighted down by the
weight and is pivotted at f. The rock lever & is journalled at . The rod m runs
between the water receptacle and the bell and is acted upon by the spring 7.
It will be seen, that by depressing the rod m by hand or if the bell descends,
the curved-up end of the rock lever will be depressed and the other end will
accordingly rise and thereby lift the lever g and the valve d. If the bell rises

page_text: by gas being conducted into it through pipe n, or if the hand is removed from
the rod m, the weight hand. the pressure of the water will cause the levers g
and to fall back, the valve d occluding the pipe g.
p designates the perforated plate, resting upon the carbide within the con-
tainer c. o is the rod, attached to the said plate pand being provided with teeth
at the upper end, these teeth to engage the first toothed wheel of a meter, not
shown in the drawing.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what
we claim is:-
1. In acetylene-gas apparatus the combination of the lever g, carrying the
weight and the valve body d, the pipe q, connecting the water receptacle a with
the carbide containere and the rock-lever k, the curved up end of which extends
into path of the falling bell b, as and for the purpose specified.
2. In acetylene gas apparatus the combination of the lever g, carrying the
weight h and the valve body d, the pipe q connecting the water receptacle a with
the carbide container c, the rock lever k and the rod m, the upper end of which
rests upon the spring 1, and the lower end of which rests upon the curved-up. end
of the said rock lever, substantially as set forth.
3. In acetylene gas apparatus the combination of a perforated plate p, resting
upon the carbide within the container c and carrying the toothed' rod o, the upper
'end of which engages the first counting wheel of a meter, as set forth.
Dated this 20th day of December 1898.