Improvements in or connected with Apparatus for the Generation of Gaseous Fluid Pressure.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 29th July, 1897-Accepted, 27th Nov., 1897
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or connected with Apparatus for the Generation
of Gaseous Fluid Pressure.
I, GEORGES AUGUSTE MARCONNET, of 7 Boulevard Saint-Denis, Paris, in the
Republic of France, Engineer, 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:—
Although the efficiency or economic coefficient of gas or other explosion motors in
general may be much greater than that of steam motors there exists nevertheless in
these more perfected forms sources of inevitable loss of energy.
It is well known that the very high temperature produced by the explosion of a
gaseous mixture (a temperature which varies from about a thousand to seventeen
hundred degrees Centigrade) would produce in cylinder and piston motors a heating
of the walls of the cylinder and other parts which is incompatible with good working
and the duration of the working parts. Recourse is therefore had to the employment
of a circulation of cold water round the cylinder.
But the action of this current of-water causes a lowering of temperature sufficient
to considerably modify the effects of expansion and the efficiency of the motors
especially during the period between the explosions, a period which is relatively long.
Besides this the exhaust gases carry off a large quantity of unutilized heat and the
mechanical transmitting organs in any cylinder and piston motor absorb a considerable
quantity of the power exerted.
The invention which is the object of the present application for Letters Patent
relates. mainly to a gas mixture generator which permits of the heat produced being
utilized in the most perfect manner and of a transformation into work of a greater
proportion of this heat than has hitherto been effected.
This generator is intended to totally utilize so to speak the heat furnished by the
production of a gaseous mass in movement of which the power may serve to work an
air propeller, a turbine, an air compressing machine, or if need be a cylinder and
piston motor.
This generator is diagraminatically represented partly in section and partly in
elevation in Figure 1 and in plan in Figure 2.
A reservoir R containing any convenient liquid fuel, petroleum for example, is
provided at its lower part with a pipe a for the passage of this liquid. This pipe a
leads to a feed pump 6 whose delivery is variable as will be hereinafter described,
and which is put in motion by the motor. This pump, preferably constructed as will
be hereinafter described, sends the fuel under high pressure (say one hundred to
two hundred pounds per square centimetre) by a tube h into a capsule w heated by
a burner o. By feeding this burner by means of a pipe passing from pipe h the
quantity of heat which it furnishes is rendered roughly proportional to the delivery
of the pump.
The petroleum is volatilized in this capsule w and escapes in the form of
super-heated vapour by a very small jet q with a velocity which is variable and
proportional to the delivery of the pump.
In line with the jet q'is a tube u, or a series of tubes u, v, having one end slightly

page_text: flared, the extremity of the one tube u entering the flared extremity of the tube v
placed immediately following. The flared bases of the tubes are open to the
atmosphere and it follows that the petroleum vapour in passing into the successive
tubes u, v draws in atmospheric air and that it forms thus an increasing mass of
mixed combustible gases. By making these tubes movable, one with respect to the
other, and by adjusting their respective positions, the quantity of air drawn in and
consequently the proportions of the combustible mixture may be regulated. On the
other hand it is possible by increasing the action of the pump to increase the pressure
of the combustible mixture which latter may attain a pressure of eight, ten or even
twenty pounds per square centimetre.
The mass of gaseous combustible matter after having passed into an appropriate
mixing device x (constituted by a network of metallic wires or the like) for the
purpose of being completely broken up and mixed, penetrates by a constriction, which
augments its velocity, into a combustion chamber A.
This chamber, provided with very thick walls and with cooling wings or webs and
lined interiorly with a layer M of refractory matter, constitutes a true injector for the
products of combustion. This injector may take an annular form as indicated in
Figure 1 or a central jet form as indicated in Figure 3.
The gaseous mixture is ignited in the chamber A by means of an electric spark
or by any other convenient igniting device.
Around the chamber A and so as to completely surround its longitudinal surface is
a tube B of which one end is flared and open to the atmosphere. That part of this
tube B which surrounds the chamber A is of funnel shape whilst the more nearly
cylindrical part B₁ of the said tube is in its turn surrounded by the flared part of a
tube C, C¹ of greater diameter than the corresponding parts of the tube B, B¹. The
flared ends of these successive tubes are all open to the atmosphere.
I thus obtain a series of tubes in which the products of combustion from the
chamber A are expanded, drawing in air heated between the conical surfaces B and
A, and C and B. This injecting system combined for the combustion of the gaseous
mixture and the flow of air drawn.in with the products of combustion renders any
cooling jacket unnecessary. The heat radiated is utilized for the heating of the air
drawn in.
The mass of gaseous mixture thus generated and put in movement may before
being passed to an appropriate motor, (such as a fan, turbine, reciprocating motor or
the like) be received in any suitable reservoir.
It is clear that by causing the successive tubes to slide one within another, it is
possible to regulate in any convenient manner the quantity of air drawn in and thus
regulate the proportion of the gases in the mixed mass.
By means of a series of detents or baffle plates the speed of the moving gaseous
mass may be diminished and the said mass greatly augmented. I thus realise a new
method of utilizing the calorific effect of the combustible matter transforming the
calorific energy into a moving mass of burnt or burning gas, the important factor in
this quantity of moving gas being its mass.
In order to maintain constant the pressure of the gaseous mixture at its entrance
into the motor and at the same time to regulate the feed of the generator, I have
devised the feed pump diagramatically represented in Figures 1 and 2. In the body
of the pump b, furnished with the admission valves d and the exhaust valves c, moves
a piston e. On the external, extension of the piston rod is fixed a flanged pulley i
rotated by the motor. A guide or cam wheel gattached to the pulley i or fixed upon
the same axle, has a groover which serves as a guide for the pin or projection kon
the rod m. This rod m is attached to one of the faces of the piston p which moves
in the cylinder n. To the other face of the piston p is attached a spring R¹ which
tends to push the piston towards the bottom part F of the cylinder. This bottom
part communicates by means of a pipes with the tube through which escapes the
gaseous mixture. The gases penetrating into the pipe & will therefore have the a
pressure which they have at their entrance into the motor. The pulley receives
from the motor a movement of rotation, the cam wheel y rotated by this movement

page_text: will cause pin to follow the groove r, and the piston p will then have a tendency to
compress the spring R¹. But if the resistance of this spring is sufficient, the pin k
will on the contrary force the guide wheel g and the pistone attached to this guide
wheel to be displaced, the piston will compress the aspirated gases and force them
back towards the burner. This arrangement permits of the transformation of the
movement of rotation communicated to the motor by the pulley i, into a reciprocating
movement of the piston having for a result the aspiration of the combustible gas from
the reservoir R and the forcing of the same towards the capsule wor directly into the
chamber A¹ heated by the combustion chamber A when the motor is in action.
It will be readily understood that on the one hand the piston e will have a number
of movements proportional to the speed or to the number of rotations of the motor
shaft, whilst on the other hand (on account of the communication given by the pipe s)
the course of the piston p will be as much feebler as the pressure of the exit gases of
the generator is stronger.
It results from this that the duty of the feed pump will be inversely proportional
to the pressure of the gaseous nixture and directly proportional to the number of
turns of the motor. The pump will therefore tend automatically to retain constant
the pressure of the gaseous mixture at its exit from the generator.
An oscillating lever G, of which the extremity bears upon the rod m of the
piston p, permits of the pin k being displaced by hand and thus to put the pump in
motion for starting purposes. A counter spring t brings the lever g back to its
normal position after each stroke.
As has been indicated above the burner o serves simply to volatilize the petroleum
and direct its movement. As soon as the walls of the combustion chamber A have
acquired a sufficient temperature the tap y feeding the burner may be turned off and
the petroleum will be directly volatilized on the interior of the conduit made in the
wall of the combustion chamber A.
As I am able to dispose at the exit from the generator of a considerable mass of
mixed gases under pressure and in motion, my apparatus may be applied not only as a
generator for any convenient form of motor, but in allowing the gaseous mixture
passing from the injector to escape into the atmosphere and combining this feature
with the resistance opposed by the surrounding air, a reaction is created which will
have for effect the displacement of the generating apparatus in a direction opposite
to that of the escape of the air by the tubes B, C. It is conceivable then that in adapting
the apparatus in a convenient manner to a vehicle such as a carriage, boat or balloon,
a motion of the vehicle may be obtained in a direction opposite to that of the escape
of the expanded air.
My apparatus tends then to move by simple repulsion in a surrounding medium
after the manner of a rocket.
ટી
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. The combination of one or more tubes as u, v, combustion chamber A and a series
of tubes B B, C C¹, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.
2. In combination with the parts cited in Claim 1, the feed pump whose action
may be regulated, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.
Dated this 10th day of July 1907