Improvements in Apparatus for the Abstraction of Impurities from Coal and other Gases.
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 5th Mar., 1898
Complete Specification Left, 22nd Dec., 1898-Accepted, 21st Jan., 1899
Improvements in Apparatus for the Abstraction of Impurities from
Coal and other Gases.
HARRY KIRKHAM, Bontddu, Near Dolgelly, North Wales, Engineer, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
My invention is an improved device applied to scrubber washers used in the
abstraction of impurities from gases by means of which both gas and water are
split up into more minute particles than by the surfaces now in use and thus
enabling the water to absorb the impurities more readily from the gas.
It consists of rolls of thin metal so curled that spaces are left for the passage
of the gas, a number of these rolls are combined together to form clusters and
are placed in my patent cage or basket "Patent dated 19th May 1896" No. 10,822.
A number of these cages or baskets containing the rolls are arranged in the drums
or wheels of the scrubber washer forming suitable washing surfaces.
Dated this 5th day of March 1898.
HARRY KIRKHAM.
Improvements in Apparatus for the Abstraction of Impurities from
Coal and other Gases.
I, HARRY KIRKHAM, formerly of Bontddu, Near Dolgelly, North Wales, but
now of 11, Queen Victoria Street, in the City of London, Engineer, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
This invention relates to an improved device to be applied to scrubber-washers
used in the abstraction of impurities from gases by means of which the water
will be split up into films of greater total area and brought more thoroughly into
contact with the gas than by the surfaces now in use, thus enabling the water to
absorb the impurities more readily from the gas.
According thereto a number of rolls of thin metal so curled that spaces are left
for the passage of the gas are placed in, so as to fill, suitable cages or baskets
such as described in the Specification of a Patent previously granted to me, dated
19th May 1896, and numbered 10,822, and a number of these cages or baskets
containing the rolls are arranged in the drums or wheels of the scrubber-washer,
forming suitable washing surfaces.
A roll suitable for employment as described is shown in plan in Fig. 1 of the

page_text: accompanying illustrative drawings. It consists of a thin strip of metal such as
iron or steel curled so as to leave a space or slit 2 between adjacent convolutions,
and provided with a head 3, for the purpose of stiffening the curl, formed by
simply winding the strip spirally (i.e., upon itself) for slightly more than one
complete turn.
Fig. 2 is a vertical section, drawn to a smaller scale than Fig. 1, of part of a
scrubber-washer comprising a drum or wheel constructed according to the speci-
fication of my aforesaid patent and having washing surfaces formed by a device
according to this invention. The rolls, whose length is almost as great as the
internal width of the cages of baskets 4, are arranged in the latter parallel to the
shaft 5 of the drum or wheel and are placed so that, as far as practicable, the heads
of adjacent rolls point in opposite directions, in order that the cages may be well
filled with the rolls. The cross bars 6 forming the sides, and also those forming
the bodies of the lids of the baskets, must, of course, be so near together as to
prevent the rolls from passing between them; or in lieu of forming such sides
and bodies entirely of cross bars, they may in each case be formed by two or
three bars perpendicular to those shown and attached to cross bars near their ends.
It will be seen that the gas, in passing radially outwards in the baskets, as
indicated by arrows in the upper part of Fig. 2, besides striking the external
wetted surfaces of the rolls and consequently passing therealong, will pass
through the spaces or slits 2 of the rolls and will strike against the opposite
internal surfaces thereof as indicated by arrows in Fig. 1, and that the result of
this will be to cause the gas to pass along within the rolls in contact with their
internal wetted surfaces. The rolls may, of course, be made of various diameters.
but a diameter of 3 inch has been formed suitable.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what
I claim is: :--
1. In a scrubber-washer, the formation of washing surfaces by rolls of thin
metal so curled that spaces are left therein for the passage of the gas, substantially
as set forth.
2. A scrubber-washer basket or cage such as described in the Specification of
Patent No. 10,822 of 1896 charged with rolls of thin metal, substantially as
herein before described with reference to and shown in the accompanying
drawings.
Dated this 22nd day of Decembar 1808