APPARATUS FOR ASCERTAINING THE EXISTENCE OF ESCAPES IN PIPES AND VESSELS FOR CONVEYING (AND HOLDING) LIGHTING AND HEATING GASES, WHICH ANDARAMING THE DEMANARAMDO CARD INDIAMOD
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to François Jean Cantagrel, Civil Engineer, of No. 7,
Rue Buffault, Paris, in the Empire of France, for the Invention of
"APPARATUS FOR ASCERTAINING THE EXISTENCE OF ESCAPES IN PIPES AND
VESSELS FOR CONVEYING (AND HOLDING) LIGHTING AND HEATING GASES, WHICH
ANDARAMING THE DEMANARAMDO CARD INDIAMOD"
Sealed the 5th March 1861, and dated the 10th September 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said François Jean Cantagrel
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
10th September 1860.
I, FRANÇOIS JEAN CANTAGREL, Civil Engineer, of No. 7, Rue Buffault,
Paris, in the Empire of France, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "APPARATUS FOR ASCERTAINING THE EXISTENCE OF ESCAPES IN PIPES
AND VESSELS FOR CONVEYING (AND HOLDING) LIGHTING, AND HEATING GASES, WHICH
APPARATUS I DENOMINATE ESCAPE INDICATOR,' " to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a novel and useful apparatus for detecting whether
or not there is an escape of gas in pipes, apparatus, or vessels holding or con-
veying gas used for lighting.
Said apparatus consists of an elastic bag or bladder mounted on a pipe
which is connected with the pipes, apparatus, or vessels holding or conveying
gas.
Between this said bag or bladder, there is a similar but smaller bag or

page_text: bladder, which likewise is in connection with the connecting pipe. When it
is desired to ascertain the existence or non-existence of escapes, nothing more
is wanted but to compress the large bag or bladder aforesaid, by which the
small bag will become inflated, if no escape exists, or on the other hand will
remain in its collapsed state, when there is an escape in the holding or con-
veying vessels so tried. When large spaces are to be tested, such as in gas-
works, &c., I use a kind of bellows having no opening outwards, and these
bellows may be put in motion either by hand or by any other motive power.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said François Jean Cantagrel in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 9th March 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FRANÇOIS
JEAN CANTAGREL, Civil Engineer, of No. 7, Rue Buffault, Paris, in the Empire
of France, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-fourth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said François Jean Cantagrel, Her special licence that I, the said
François Jean Cantagrel, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said François Jean Cantagrel, 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 In-
vention for "APPARATUS FOR ASCERTAINING THE EXISTENCE OF ESCAPES IN PIPES
AND VESSELS FOR CONVEYING (AND HOLDING) LIGHTING AND HEATING GASES, WHICH
APPARATUS HE DENOMINATES ESCAPE INDICATOR,'" upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said François Jean Cantagrel, my executors or adminis-
trators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands
and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said
Invention, and in what 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 François Jean Cantagrel, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same

page_text: is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed
(that is to say)-
My Invention consists in an apparatus for ascertaining the existence of
escapes or leakage in pipes and vessels for conveying lighting and heating gases,
which apparatus or escape indicator is an organ of security for gas consumers,
as it continually indicates, when consulted, whether the gas apparatus are
air-tight or not. The use of gas in the interior of houses is dangerous
only in case of escapes, which alone may cause explosions and asphyxia. It is
therefore highly useful to have continually at one's disposal a permanent and
sendentary apparatus apt to be consulted every moment, and which is able to
indicate immediately the real state of the gas apparatus, and thus if the use of
this apparatus is dangerous or not. The state of gas apparatus is indicated
by an internal and pneumatic compression. As soon as this compression is
acting, every internal point of an apparatus containing air or gas is submitted
to this pressure, if there be an escape at a single point, the temporary pressure
is very soon annihilated, because the excess of the aeriform fluid violently
introduced escapes more or less rapidly, proving the existence of any hole what-
ever which is the cause of the escape. This is the most important point to
be known by the gas consumer; he must indeed be advised in time about the
loss he is exposed to make, and the danger of asphyxia or explosion by which he
is threatened. As soon as an escape is pointed out by the escape indicator,
this escape must be detected to be repaired. In case of a cock being imper-
fectly closed or almost open, the repair is easily made, but in case of a less
obvious escape the escape indicator then becomes an escape finder. By the
effect of several successive pneumatic compressions rapidly effected with the
escape indicator, and whose results are accumulated, the internal pressure
increases so much that the escape first blows up and then whistles so as to
indicate the spot where it exists. If there is any lighting gas ready at hand,
one is enabled by means of a proper compression of the escape indicator to
increase the internal pressure, and thus to compel the gas to pass out even
through such holes it had not been able to escape under ordinary pressure,
and thus also one is guided in the investigation and detection of the escape by
the peculiar smell of the lighting gas. The gas apparatus being generally tried
with the mouth, which is a dangerous & unwholesome operation, the escape
indicator is intended to replace this operation, and render it easy for every one,
this instrument being a true automaton, imitated from the human organism.
of the
gas fitter; it is useful not only at the gas fitter's shop, but must be per-
manent by remaining over every installation of gas apparatus, in order to be.

page_text: consulted every day, at every moment, if necessary. The escape indicator
consists of, 1rst, a spheroidal or pear-shaped vessel A, made of caoutchouc, hard,
however, but compressible and extensible, acting like the human lungs; 2dly,
a soft manometer B, also made of caoutchouc, obeying like a natural
cheek to the excess or defect of internal pneumatic pressure. These two
things are screwed upon a cock C. This cock provided with a tube D, and
a little appendage E, pierced with holes and breathing like a nose, is arranged
in such a manner that the pear and manometer are at will in direct commu-
nication either with the surrounding air, by means of the small nasal appendage,
or with the tube, and therefore with the gas apparatus, through the medium
of a little branch connecting the mouth F of the tube with any point of the
apparatus to be inspected.
When at rest, the escape indicator is communicating with the surrounding
air, which preserves the caoutchouc organs from the continual contact with
lighting gas and its deleterious action. When in this state one presses upon
the spheroidal pear, the air it contains gets out, and then in again as soon as
the pressure ceases. If you want to interrogate gas apparatus, and know
their state, a little moving of the cock at the same time shuts the nasal hole,
communicating with the ambient air, and opens the guttural trachea, which
terminates at the mouth of the tube. In this new state, if the hand presses
upon the spheroidal pear, the air it contains is forced into the gas apparatus
where it exerts a pressure which is indicated by the manometer, which swells
and remains swollen if the pressure is not annihilated by means of a flowing
of air or gas from any hole. By the action of the cock which opens the
nasal hole and admits the ambient air in the compressor lungs, the operation
is repeated several times according to the to internal capaciousness of the gas
apparatus & according to the necessity of finding the position of a hole.
In order to facilitate the investigations that are to be made, the long pipes
are divided into sections, each of which is furnished with an escape indicator,
though each of the instruments is able to act upon the whole system, but
more or less energetically according to the extent and capaciousness. The
escape indicator is completed by obturators, which cover the burners in order
to leave nothing neglected in the investigations. It is also completed by means
of mouth-pieces, which establish a communication between the escape indicator
& the apparatus in state of fabrication, or fitted in shops or habitations, the
obturators and mouth-pieces being arranged generally and manufactured with
caoutchouc. In short the escape indicator is an automaton imitated from the
natural organs and functions of the gas fitter workman, it is a cheap sentinel
always ready to answer when interrogated. It is a pneumatic probe, which.

page_text: by the mere pressure of the hand acts up to the farthest points of the pipes and
tubes, which constitute a gas apparatus, and indicates immediately if it is air-
tight or not. This is the chief function of the escape indicator, namely, the pneu-
matic general & instantaneous probing. In case of an accidental escape the
probe escape indicator converts itself into a force pump, able to give a pressure
more than sufficient to make all kinds of escapes speak and denounce them-
selves, and from a force pump it is always transformed without any constitutive
modification (which is a chief quality of the instrument) into a suction pump,
in order to seek when wanted for the escapes in an inverse manner.
Having now described the nature of my Invention and the manner in which
the same is to be carried into effect, I wish it to be understood that what I
claim as being of my Invention is,―
First, an instrument consisting of an active flexible organ which I term
"compressor."
Secondly, a passive flexible organ, a manometer, or probe expanding or
contracting under the action of the former.
Thirdly, a cock so disposed as to set these two organs in connextion between
them and also with the conduits or with the external air, said instrument being
made to rest stationary upon gas apparatus of which it forms an integral part,.
and also to exert in the inside of said apparatus, 1rst, a pressure or depression
ascertained by the probe or manometer, the quicker or slower persistance or
disappearance of which points out, at any given time, the absence or existence
of any escape or leakage; 2dly, detecting the spot where such leakage,
however unimportant, takes place, by forcing through the action of the com-
pressor and the obturating action of the cock, either the external air through
the escape hole, or forcing the air or gas contained in the pipes to ascertain
in any way its presence.
In witness whereof, I, the said François Jean Cantagrel, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Fourth day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
F. J. CANTAGKEL. (L.S.)