IMPROVEMENTS IN PRODUCING LIGHT FROM HEAVY HYDROCARBONS AND IN APPARATUS FOR THAT PURPOSE
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Henry Johnson, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields,
in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN PRODUCING LIGHT FROM HEAVY HYDROCARBONS AND IN
APPARATUS FOR THAT PURPOSE."-A communication from abroad by
Rufus Spaulding Merrill, of Hyde Park, County of Norfolk, State
of Massachusetts United States of America
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said John Henry Johnson at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and
Declaration, on the 8th June 1870, pursuant to the 9th Section of
the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of
Middlesex, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
PRODUCING LIGHT FROM HEAVY HYDROCARBONS, AND IN APPARATUS FOR THAT
PURPOSE," and have petitioned Her Majesty to grant unto me, my

page_text: executors, administrators, and assigns, Her Royal Letters Patent for
the same, and have made solemn Declaration that the said Invention is
communicated to me from abroad by Rufus Spaulding Merrill, of Hyde
Park, County of Norfolk, State of Massachusetts, United States of
America.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Henry Johnson, do hereby
declare that the following Complete Specification under my hand and
seal, fully describes and ascertains the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings, and to
the letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say :-
-
It is well known to those skilled in the art of distilling petroleum
and oil produced from coal, shale, and schist, that when either of these
substances is subjected to distillation a great difference exists in their
respective boiling points and in the production of the various oils and
spirits that come over during the process of distillation. There is
always, in the first place, a considerable per-centage of naphtha or volatile
spirit, varying in gravity and boiling point, some of it being so volatile
that it is difficult to condense it by ordinary means. These spirits are
termed naphthas or benzoles, and usually embrace the portion coming
over between 85° and 60° Baumé's scale. They are too light, volatile,
and dangerous to be generally used for burning in lamps, and are
principally used for paint, varnish making, and for carburetting
atmospheric air for automatic gas apparatus, the article so used being
known as gasoline. After the naphthas have been distilled off, down, say,
to 60° Baumé, there begins to come over an oil more fixed in character
and of higher boiling point, which is used as an illuminating oil and is
burned in lamps provided with flat or round wick kerosene burners, and
when distilled from petroleum, such as is ordinarily obtained from the
wells in Pennsylvania, constitutes from fifty to seventy per centum of
the products of distillation. In other words, when the distillation is
continued from 60° Baumé to about 40° Baumé, the light thin oil that
comes over between these degrees of Baumé is about sixty per cent. of
the petroleum from which the naphtha has been removed. These oils
have been universally used for burning in lamps for illuminating
purposes, and are so well known under the name of refined petroleum or
kerosene oil that they need no description. After the oil running from
the condenser has reached about sixty per cent. of the oil put into the

page_text: still the oil begins to come over thicker in body, and it contains large
quantities of paraffine, and if the distillation be continued rapidly this
oil comes over so heavy in gravity and thick in body that it is
unsuitable for mixing with the thin oils before named for burning
purposes. This is known to the trade as heavy oil, and is used
universally as lubricating oil for machinery. After this oil is chilled
and strained or pressed in suitable bags for the removal of the solid
paraffine, it has in some instances been mixed with naphthas and again
distilled in order to make a cheap burning oil, but such mixtures are
poor in quality and much more dangerous to burn in ordinary kerosene
lamps, the naphtha portions with which the heavy oil is distilled being
so volatile that when the lamps become heated they are set free and arc
very liable to ignite, thus causing serious accidents to life and property.
Oils made from petroleum and coal shale and schist have been burned
in argand and similar lamps when such oils have been so distilled as to
simply remove those portions that are readily removed by steam or by
boiling water put in the still with the petroleum or coal oil. The
quantity removed usually varies from ten to fifteen per centum in coal
and shale oil, and from fifteen to twenty-five per centum in petroleum oil.
When heated by steam, that is by simply steaming the oil, the amount
of light products that can be removed is, with coal and shale from ten
to fifteen per cent., and with petroleum from fifteen to twenty-five per
cent. The whole of the remaining portion of the oil will burn poorly
in argand or button lamps. I am not aware that any attempt has ever
been made to burn in lamps and for illuminating purposes, the heavy
oils, that is, oils which represent only the last 25 to 40 per cent. of the
distillates of coal shale and petroleum oils. The heavy oil is rich in
carbon but will not burn in the ordinary lamps, such as are used for
burning kerosene oil; it crusts the wick at once and smokes so badly as
to be entirely impracticable as an illuminating material.
I have discovered that when that portion of the distillates of coal
shale and petroleum oil weighing heavier than 38° Baumé is collected
in suitable tanks and is chilled and the solid paraffine removed from it
by well-known processes (the oil after chilling and pressing usually
weighs about from 28° to 36° Baumé at 60° Fahrenheit, and is heavy
and oily in body, having also a very high distilling point, nearly 600°
Fahrenheit), the oil so obtained can be burned continuously in a lamp

page_text: and with a wick, and produces a brunant white and beautifu
under the following combined conditions, that is to say :—
Mame
First. The wick should be cylindrical or so shaped as to produce a
circular or otherwise equivalent flame, whether continuous or not.
Second. There must be an artificial draught so as to supply atmospheric
air to the flame both internally and externally.
Among other advantages attending the use of this oil as a burning
fluid is that it is so fixed, having an igniting point about 300
Fahrenheit, that it is perfectly safe and free from all danger of explosion
or such accidents as daily occur in the use of the light products known]
as kerosene. It is also very economical as it burns much longer than
the same quantity of ordinary kerosene oil. Experiments have been
made in the construction and arrangement of apparatus or lamps, with
a view to burning this oil, with the best results.
'
In the accompanying Drawing I have shown several apparatus which
I shall now proceed to describe.
Figure 1 is a sectional elevation of an argand burner embodying one
of these improvements; Figure 2 is a perspective view of the chimney
holding springs and perforated base detached from the wick tube; and
Figure 3 is a plan view of the removable portion of the burner.
The burner is attached to a friction sleeve c, which fits the wick tube
and is composed of a perforated base b, preferably' made in one picce
with the chimney holding springs a, and of a chimney seat ring & held in
its proper relation to the base and springs by means of a turned down
flange. In order to allow air to pass to the flame from under the
chimney the ring is also provided with ridges or projections e. The
object of this arrangement is to supply the burner with air in regulated
quantity and in a diffused state.
Another improvement is shewn in Figures 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11.
In accordance with this improvement the argand burner is provided
with a cap or flange 6 arranged at or near the top of the wick tube so
as to deflect and change the direction of the current of air passing
upward around the wick tube and cause it to impinge at an angle upon
the flame. This cap may be perforated as in Figures 4, 5, 7, and 8, so
as to divide a portion of the air, or it may be indented, scalloped, or
star-shaped, as in Figures 9, 10, and 11, to cause the air to pass up

page_text: around it in a continuous sheet at varying distances from the wick tube.
To properly support the cap an offset c is made on the sleeve (see
Figures 4 and 5).
In
Other improvements are shown in Figures 12, 13, and 14.
accordance with these the oil vessel A has secured to it a tube a
encircling that portion of the wick tube, which projects above the
reservoir, and it is this tube which receives and supports the removable
burner. The tube is inserted in to the top of the reservoir in which is
formed a concentric recess or depression c, whereby the base of the
burner is capable of being set on the wick tube closer down to the
reservoir without cutting off the supply of air to the burner through its
perforated base. In Figures 13 and 14 an air cone B provided with
perforations i, and flaring trumpet-shaped at the top at f, is shown
combined with the removable burner. The function of this cone is to
divide the current of air and to properly diffuse it below the flame.
These improvements are adapted to lamps which have the burner
placed centrally above the fountain, as well as to lamps, the burner of
which projects laterally from the fountain, and which are known as
student lamps. The latter are made in preference of the general form
shown in Figure 15. The oil vessel B is provided with a thimble a
(see sectional elevation on an enlarged scale Figure 16) which when the*
lamp is being filled with oil will prevent overflow as by it the level of
the oil is more easily observed. In the top of the vessel there is
secured by a transverse plate c and solder a tubular socket b, which
serves both to receive the stem of the shade rest i (Figure 15) and to
ventilate the lamp and allow the oil to pass readily from the fountain
to the burner. For the purpose of attaching the burner supply pipe to
the fountain a cast metal socket d is employed, and it is held to the
under side of the fountain by means of solder and a nut h screwed on
the screw-threaded shank c. The connecting or supply pipe k is
preferably made of cast metal and screwed into the sockets d and I,
the latter being also made of cast metal and holding the wick tube,
burner, and drip cup m.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of the
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used
or carried into effect, I would observe in conclusion that what I consider
to be novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured
to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,-

page_text: First. The system or mode of burning for illuminating purposes the
latter or heavy products of distillation of coal shale and petroleum,
having a density of not more than 38° Baumé, by drawing the said oil
up around the hollow or equivalently formed wick and subjecting it at
the burning point to an artificial draught of atmospheric air both within
and without the wick, substantially as herein-before described.
Second. The peculiar construction and arrangement of apparatus
specially adopted for burning heavy oils for the purpose of illumination
as herein-before described and illustrated by the Drawings hereunto
annexed.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Henry Johnson, have to this
my Specification set my hand and seal, this Eighth day of June,
One thousand eight hundred and seventy.
J. HENRY JOHNSON. (L.S.)