Improvements relating to Igniting Media or Pills for Automatic Gas Lighters.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 3rd Nov., 1899-Accepted, 30th Dec., 1899
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements relating to Igniting Media or Pills for Automatic Gas
Lighters.
I, DR. CARL KILLING, Chemist, of 6, Ehrenstrasse, Dusseldorf, Germany, do
hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to
be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the follow-
ing statement.-
-
Dobei einer produced igniting pills by mixing porous earthenware or clay and
spongy platinum with water, so as to form a paste, which was then moulded
into balls of the size of peas, subsequently died and calcined
J. F. Duke impregnated ready-make meerschaum-pills with a solution of a
platinum salt, which was then died and reduced by means of suitable gases.
J Peil discovered, that the igniting pills produced in this manner soon lost
their capacity of igniting gases To avoid this defect, he treats the pills (after
impregnating with platinum chloride, drying and reducing), with dilute
hydrochloric acid and finally with boiling water.
My experiments have shown, that these automatic igniting pills work very
well, if they are used in the first instance-always with the aid of one or more
wines for igniting a small auxiliary flame, which in its turn ignites the main
gas current and is subsequently extinguished, so that the igniting pill is no
fonger touched by the flame They are useful, also, in case the igniting pill
directly lights the main gas current, and immediately afterwards 18 switched out
of the reach of the flame by means of a thermostatic spring. Such pills will
not stand prolonged exposure to the flame.
In order to produce fireproof igniting pills I proceed as follows:-
Pills made from meerschaum or other porous mineral matter are first impreg-
nated with a solution of a salt of a rare earth preferably a thorium salt sub-
sequently dried and calcined, so that the pills will be coated in their pores, as
well as outside, with a thin layer of a refiactory are earth, in the shape of an
oxide remaining behind after calcination The pills prepared as described are
then impregnated with platinum chloride, dried and reduced. Instead of apply-
ing the two solutions consecutively, a soluble salt of a rare earth may be added
to the platinum solution, and the pills impregnated with this double solution,
subsequently died and reduced
It should be observed, that the use of thoria as a supporting base for platinum
black is known, but hitherto the application of thoria in the manufacture of
meerschaum igniting pills has not been known
In the case of combustible woven fabrics saturated with a solution of thorium
and platinum salts, it is frequently observed, that after prolonged use the igniting
mass gives off particles of dust, probably in consequence of its frothy condition,
and that this loss increases with the time, apparently owing to the vibrations
caused by each ignition. This fine dust of platinum black, when it settles on
the incandescence mantle, reduces its luminosity to such an extent, that the

page_text: light, which at the beginning 18 equal to 70 Hefner candles, may in some cases
drop to 25 or 30 candles.
Such a dispersion of the platinum black in the shape of dust will not take
place in the case of meerschaum pills, consequently the use of pills which have
been manufactured by the process described above constitutes an important
industrial progress in comparison with the use of woven igniting fabiles
In using these igniting pills for ordinary gas lamps and for incandescense
gas burners, the pills are connected with platinum wires in the known manner,
and it may be advantageous, to coat the said wires with rare earths.
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 18:―
1 The improvement in the manufacture of igniting pills by the impregnation
of a porous mineral with a platinum salt solution, which consists in incorporating
with the said mineral either before or simultaneously with the application of
the platinum salt, a salt of a rare earth adapted to coat the pills inside and
outside with a layer of oxide, in which the platinum black is embedded, sub-
stantially as described
2 Fireproof igniting pills made of porous mineral mattor having a 1a1e
earth, such as thonia, and platinum black deposited in its pores, substantially
as described
3 The combination of igniting pills produced by the process described above,
with platinum wues which may be coated with a rare earth, for the purpose of
igniting ordinary or incandescent gas lamps, substantially as described.
Dated this 3rd day of November 1899.
FAIRFAX & WETTER,
Agents,
37 and 39, Essex Street, Strand, London.