CERTAIN IMPROVE- MENTS IN PRODUCING GAS FOR LIGHTING AND HEATING
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Etienne Charles Zacharie Bouchard, Civil Engineer,
of Paris, in the French Empire, for the Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVE-
MENTS IN PRODUCING GAS FOR LIGHTING AND HEATING."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Etienne Charles Zacharie
Bouchard at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 11th September 1855.
I, ETIENNE CHARLES ZACHARIE BOUCHARD, Civil Engineer, of Paris, in the
French Empire, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN PRODUCING GAS FOR LIGHTING AND HEATING" to be
as follows:-
My apparatus for the production of gas for lighting is characterized by the
general arrangement and combination of parts of which the same consists.
The heating is effected by air driven or forced to the periphery in the interior
of a furnace, into which the supply of fuel is fed through a side opening, as in
gas retorts. I also introduce into the furnace surcharged steam generated in a
serpentine coil, and hydrocarbons produced in a boiler, making use of the waste
gases, and I employ an apparatus for distributing the gases over the mass of

page_text: fuel. The different applications of this furnace to purposes of lighting and
heating can be effected independently.
Figure 1 of the Drawings annexed is a section, and Figure 2 a plan, of my
apparatus. The air enters from the tube 6 through the pipe a into the dome A,
and can be shut off at pleasure by a valve or cock c. From the dome A the
current of air passes through the openings d, d', into the furnace B, in which
the coal after becoming coke falls into the ash-pit C, whence it may be with-
drawn through a door kept closed during the operation. The supply of coal is
fed in through the opening e, and the smoke arising therefrom is allowed to
escape through the openings f, applying its waste heat first to heat a serpentine
coil D, in which surcharged steam is produced, and then a boiler E, which
contains liquid hydrocarbons. When I desire to produce gas, the cocks F are
closed, and the gas escapes through the openings g, g', into the chamber H,
and thence into the gasometer. In order to improve the quality and illumi-
nating properties of the gas produced by the fuel, the tube h injects steam
through one of its extremities, which terminates in a perforated mouth piece;
this steam comes from a serpentine coil, not shewn in the Drawings, and may,
if desired, be made to pass into the boiler E, in order to take up a greater or
less quantity of carburetted gases. i is another perforated mouth piece at the
end of a tube i', which conveys carburetted gases from the boiler; k, k, are
cocks on these tubes, to shut off the gases or steam, &c. when required; m is
a partition in the passage, which conveys the smoke into the chimney; it
is intended to prevent the mixing of the smoke from the furnace B, and that
from another and similarly constructed furnace.
The working of the apparatus is as follows:-The furnace is prepared and
the fire lighted, the coke is then fed in as in foundry furnaces; the tubes f
being opened, the atmospheric air enters through the tube a into the dome A,
which conveys it to the outer surface of the fuel through openings d, d'; the
smoke which escapes through the tube f passes into the top of and circulates
through the serpentine coil, fills it, and passes out through the opening z, which
may be closed at pleasure by the slides. The water contained in the coil is
heated by the waste steam of the other furnace. While the gases from the
coal and the steam are liberated in one of the furnaces, the process of combus-
tion goes on in the other, and vice versa. If it be desired to distil with rapidity,
the fire is increased by admitting a jet of steam from the boiler into the
chimney, until the whole mass of coke is raised to any desired heat. The jet
of steam is then shut off, and the tube closed to prevent the air entering.
Suppose that 6,000 lbs. of coke had been thus heated to a white heat, and then

page_text: 2,000 lbs. of coal were added through the side aperture e, the cover being
instantaneously put on again, the tubes f closed by means of their valves F, the
coal confined in the furnace is heated from bottom to top, and in a short time
distillation begins. At first the vapors from the water, oil, pitch, &c. descend
together through a layer of coke heated to a white heat, which deprives the
vapors of the oxygen they contain; the pure bydrogen arising from the decom-
position of the water, and the percarburetted hydrogen of which the pitch is
composed, becoming mixed, combine and form carburetted hydrogen. This
gas, the carbonic acid, and others which are produced until the distillation
censes, flow away through the fuel into the tubes 9, g², which surround the
furnace a short distance below the surface of the heated coke, whence they
pass into the chamber H, and thence through the ordinary purifying apparatus
into the gasometer.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Etienne Charles Zacharie Bouchard in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 10th March 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ETIENNE
CHARLES ZACHABIB BOUCHARD, Civil Engineer, of Paris, in the French
Empire, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of September, 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 Etienne Charles Zacharie Bouchard, Her special licence that I, the said
Etienne Charles Zacharie Bouchard, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Etienne Charles Zacharie Bouchard, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
time to time and at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man,
an Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN PRODUCING GAS FOR LIGHTING AND
HEATING," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Etienne
Charles Zacharie Bouchard, my executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should parti-
cularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what

page_text: 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 Etienne Charles Zacharie Bouchard, do
hereby declare my nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto
annexed, that is to say :-
My Invention consists in certain arrangements of apparatus for generating
gas from coal, and for employing the waste heat from the fuel used in the
distillation thereof to gencrate steam and hydrocarburetted gases, and in
the mixing of one or both of these agents with coal gas at the time of its
production.
In the annexed Drawings I have only shewn one retort or furnace and one
steam generator, but I intend to have a similar retort and steam generator on
the other side of the hydrocarburet vessel, hereafter described.
Figure 1 of the Drawings annexed is a sectional view, and Figure 2 a plan,
of my apparatus. B is the retort or furnace; a, pipe for admitting air; e,
mouth for feeding in the fuel. The air enters from the tube 6 through the
pipe a into the dome A, and may be shut off at pleasure by the valve or cock c.
The air passes through the openings d, d', into the retort B, the coal in which,
after giving out all its gas, falls into the ash-pit C, whence it may be withdrawn
through a door at bottom, which is kept tightly closed by screws while the
process of distillation is going on. f are openings through which the smoke
escapes for the purpose of applying its waste heat; first to heat the coil D, in
which steam is produced, and then the boiler E, which contains liquid hydro-
carburets. To produce gas, I close the cocks 1', and the gases escape through
the orifices g, g', and passages W, W', into the cylindrical receiver H, and
thence into the gasometer. In order to improve the quality and illuminating
properties of the gas produced from coal, steam is introduced into the retort
from a pipe h through a perforated rose or spreader h'. The steam in this
pipo comes from a coil, not shewn in the Drawings, and may, if desired, be
made to pass through the boiler E, in order to take up a greater or less quan-
tity of carburetted gases. i is a tube, terminating in a perforated rose ", which
conveys carburetted gases from the boiler E; k, k', are cocks in these tubes, to
shut off the carburetted gases or steam when required; u is a partition in the
flue, which conveys the smoke into the chimney; it is intended to divide the
smoke, and prevent that from one furnace driving back that from another and

page_text: similarly constructed retort and apparatus, not::shewn in the Drawings, which
is placed at the other end, or to the right of the apparatus shewn, in order to
keep up a continuous action, that is to say, while one retort is being supplied
with fuel the other may be generating gases, and vice versa.
.
The apparatus works as follows:-The furnace is charged with coke and the
fire lighted, and more coke.gradually added until the desired temperature has
been attained, when I close the mouth and open the passages f; atmospheric
air is then admitted through the tube a into the dome A, in which it expands
and passes through the openings d, d', into the mass of burning coke; the air
acts from the centre to the periphery, so as to circulate and become diffuser
through the whole mass of fuel. The smoke produced escapes through the
passages f, which convey it into the chamber r containing the coil D, whereby
the heating of the coil-is-effected. The water, which is admitted into the coil
at bottom through a pipe p communicating with a feed pump or other source,
rises gradually as it becomes heated, until it escapes through the tube g, which
supplics steam to that furnace (not shewn in the Drawings) at the opposite
end or side of the apparatus, in the same manner that another and similar coil
supplies steam to the furnace B through a similar tube. r is a chamber in
which the coil D is placed. The smoke issues from the opening & and passes
under the boiler E, escapes through the fluo into a chimney L. 26 is B
partition for separating the smoke coming from the two furnaces, and directs
the smoke from both into the chimney; o is a register for closing the opening,
when desired. When the mass of coke has reached the desired temperature,
the current of air from the tube a is shut off, and a quantity of fuel is fed in
through the mouth e, which is then tightly closed, and the valves F, F, brought
down to shut off communication with the chimney. The gases which aro
formed by the distillation of the coal, the steam, and the carburetted gases
(the two latter being admitted, as previously stated, through the perforated
spreaders), escape through tubes W, W', into the cylindrical receiver H, and
thence to the gasometer, undergoing in their course the necessary operations
of purification, &. By this process the combined action of steam and gas is
exerted on the coal gas while being generated, which is an important advan-
tage. The qualities and nature of the gases may be varied by shutting off
communication between the steam pipe and vessel containing the hydro-
carburets.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim, as constituting my
said Invention, the construction and arrangement of retorts or furnaces and
•

page_text: apparatus for generating gas from coal, herein-before described; the employ-
ment of the waste heat given off from the fuel used in the distillation thereof
to generate steam and hydrocarburetted gases; and the mixing of one or both
of these agents with the coal gas at the time of its production.
In witness whereof, I, the said Etienne Charles Zacharie Bouchard, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twentieth day of February, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
E. C. Z. BOUCHARD. (L.S.)
Witness,
CH. ARMENGAUD, Ing" Civil,
6, Rue Filles du Calvaire, à Paris.