An Improved Method of and Means for the Application of Carbonic Anhydride CO, Alone or in Combination with other Gas: or Vapour as a. Motive Fluid or Condensing Agent for Engines or other Power Motors.
Year: 1890

page_text: Date of Application, 30th July, 1890
Complete Specification Left, 1st June, 1891-Accepted, 11th July, 1891*
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
An Improved Method of and Means for the Application of Carbonic
Anhydride CO, Alone or in Combination with other Gas: or
Vapour as a. Motive Fluid or Condensing Agent for Engines or
other Power Motors.
We, MARMADUKE FRANCIS PURCELL, B.L. F.C.S. Assoc. Inst. C.E.I., of
71 Harcourt Street, Dublin, and GEORGE PRESCOTT, of 9 Merrion Row, Dublin,
do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
Our invention relates to the method of and means for the application of carbonic.
anhydride as a motive fluid for the operation of engines or other power motors.
and consists in the treatment of the said gas and means employed therefor as
hereinafter inore fully described to utilise the best effects of such a motive fluid-
for the operation of a reciprocating or rotary engine or power motor of any.
suitable description.
There is at present a distinct and increasing demand for power motors of small
size and simple construction which may be operated by a source of power which
shall be safe even without the special attention of a person in charge, and for
which the operative medium may be readily obtained and stored at a cheap rate
and without risk of fire or other danger to the premises and hands employed.
To supply this demand we employ carbonic anhydride compressed to a very
high degree in metallic or other suitable bottles, such as are now being charged"
with CO, at a very cheap rate or in other suitable form in which tlie com-
pressed CO, may hereafter be produced and stored for trade purposes.
This will form our reservoir of motive power which can be conveniently replaced
by fresh charged bottles as and when required.
In connection with this reservoir we employ a reducing valve or adjustable.
escape valve by which the highly compressed store of CO, may be admitted at
any reduced pressure to the reciprocating or rotary power motor.
We may provide an intermediate expansion chamber or coil where the gas may
be heated in its passage to the motor whereby its elastic pressure may be much
increased, or equivalently it may be heated in the motor itself.
We may use an expanding spray from the store of cold liquefied CO₂ whereby
a refrigerating temperature is set up to produce condensation. This part of our
invention is of special application where water vapour or steam is being used as-
the motive fluid.
We may mix the CO2 with another gas or gases to enable us to store it at a
much higher pressure than can be done with CO2 alone.
We may also mix water by ejection or otherwise with the said CO₂ so as to
utilise the evaporation of this moisture by the application of the aforesaid heat and
its subsequent condensation by the refrigerating blast before-mentioned.
We may use each of these methods and means individually, or in conjunction
with each other, as we may find most. desirable for the maximum efficiency- of
the work to be done by the gas.
Dated this 30th do of July 1890-

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
An Improved Method of and Means for the Application of Carbonic
Anhydride CO, Alone or in Combination with other Gas or
Vapour as a Motive Fluid or Condensing Agent for Engines or
other Power Motors.
We, MARMADUKE FRANCIS PURCELL, B.L., F.C.S., Assoc. Inst. C.E.I., of
71 Harcourt Street, Dublin, and GEORGE PRESCOTT, of 9 Merrion Row, Dublin,
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
following statement
:-
Our invention relates to the method of and means for the application of carbonic
anhydride as a motive fluid for the operation of engines or other power motors,
and consists in the treatment of the said gas and in the means employed therefor,
as hereinafter more fully described, to utilize the best effects of such a motive finid
for the operation of a reciprocating or rotary engine or power motor of any suitable
description.
"In consequence of the new trade development for the economical collection
of CO, it is to be expected that CO2, highly compressed into a liquid condition in
steel bottle reservoirs, will be supplied for such a purpose as this at a very
moderate price. These bottles will form our reservoirs for the compressed gas,
which are thus without danger or risk of fire to the premises and hands employed,
and may be conveniently replaced from time to time by fresh charged bottles as
and when required.
Where it is desired to employ the clastic pressure of the stored liquid CO2, we
may employ a reducing or controlling valve in connection with the store flasks by
which the highly compressed CO, may be admitted at a reduced pressure to the
reciprocating or rotary power motor.
$
When CO, thus compressed is allowed to expand from the liquid to the gaseous
state, the amount of heat absorbed by such conversion, and the consequent cold
produced, is so great, that such an escaping and expanding jet may be arranged to
produce powerful condensing effects in a very confined space, and with a minimum
of waste material, conferring advantages which are greater than those attaching
to the ordinary method of producing condensation of a liquid vapour by cold
water in which the weight of the condensing water would average about 20 to 25
times that of the steam condensed.
We have therefore found the adaptation of an expanding spray of CO, to the
condensation of water vapour or steam, as used in engines and motors, to be the
more effective form of the adaptation of CO, to motive purposes.
We may therefore mix water with a jet of CO, and by the application of heat
first utilize the evaporation of this mixture, or mix steam, and effect its subsequent
condensation by the refrigerating effect of the CO2 when fully expanded as before
mentioned, or we may use steam or other vapour alone, on one side of a recipro-
cating or a rotary piston of a power motor, and utilize the cooling effect of the CO,
for exceptional economical condensation of the said vapour to produce a vacuum on
the opposite side of the piston.
This method of condensation by expanding CO, is thus applicable to any present
steam engines or motors in substitution of the present uneconomical method of
condensation by injection or circulation of cold water. This present method of
condensation involves serious absorption of work for the circulation of the said
large volume of cold water and the accumulation of air in the vacuum removed by
the hot water pump..
In order that our invention may be the better understood we now proceed. to
describe a small combined steam motor and condenser, the latter having its cooling
medium for the production of a high vacuum, in the form of an expanding
refrigerating sunnly of CO

page_text: It will be understood that though the apparatus herewith illustrated is an
example in which the method may be carried out, any form of a known steam
motor and condenser may be combined for the carrying out of this method without
departing from the essence of our invention.
A represents a motor cylinder which for convenience is shown single acting,
B being the piston, C the connecting rod and D the crank. The valve for the
admission of steam or other vapour or gas, at or above atmospheric pressure, is
worked in the usual way by an excentric, and the exhaust from this motor is lead
by the pipe F to a surface condenser, the condensable vapour or steam being
admitted into the chamber G surrounding the tubes H which may be either
straight, spiral, corrugated or convoluted, so as to offer a greater surface of contact
between the cooling current or gaseous CO, and the condensable vapour or steam.
It may be noticed that as the cooling medium is a gas and not a liquid, its travel
through tubes of a convoluted form, is free from any objectionable friction that
might be of some serious consequence where the cooling medium is a fluid as in the
present condensers. The condensable vapour may be collected in a vessel K from
which it may be withdrawn by suitable taps or returned by a suitable feed pump
to the boiler or reservoir from which it has been obtained.
:
The cooling medium also, viz. the CO,, after having done its duty as a con-
densing agent is still available for further use and may be recondensed by a suitable
pump operated from the engine, or by a donkey engine, and used over and over
again. The advantage claimed in the application of such a system is the thermal
economy that is effected where there is no warm condensing water to run to waste,
as in the ordinary water condenser, and no admission of air, as is the case in the
condensing spray jet, and the consequent economy in relation to the employment of
an air pump.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is :-
1. A method for the application of CO, to engines or other power motors as a
cooling or refrigerating medium in an expanded condition from a reservoir of
compressed CO₂ to effect the condensation of a condensable vapour or steam for
the development of motive power, substantially as described.
2. A combination of apparatus or equivalents as means for carrying out the said
method of forming a power motor operated in part or in whole by CO₂, substantially
as herein above described.
Dated 14
ST1001
FELL & WILDING,
1, Queen Victoria Street, London, E.C., Agents for the Applicants.