IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CARBURETING AIR FOR ILLUMINATING OR HEATING PURPOSES
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Hugh Lewis McAvoy, of Baltimore, Maryland, ·
United States of America, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
Sealed the 11th November 1873, and dated the 19th June 1873.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Hugh Lewis McAvoy
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 19th June 1873.
I, HUGH LEWIS McAvoy, of Baltimore, Maryland, United States of
America, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CARBURETING AIR FOR ILLUMINATING OR
HEATING PURPOSES," to be as follows:-
The Invention relates to a machine in which atmospheric air is caused
to pass through a body of light hydrocarbon, preferably gasoline, and to
become thereby impregnated or mixed with the gas or vapour arising
from the gasoline for the purpose of obtaining from the union of the
two aerform bodies an illuminating gaseous body capable of producing
a flame of great brilliancy and intense heat at a moderate expence.

page_text: The apparatus is composed of a casing or tank, by preference
cylindrical in form and closed at its ends, the whole being of such
character as to be free from leakage. The tank is supported at its ends
by frames, and is divided by a partition into two chambers, in the first
of which an air forcing wheel is caused to revolve. The partition is
perforated near its top and a commuuication thus established between
the two chambers, the air forcing wheel is of the kind usually denomi-
nated a meter wheel, that is to say, a cylindrical box divided by partitions
into compartments, each having an induction opening at one end of the
said cylindrical box and an eduction port at the other. The openings at
one end of the wheel communicate directly with the interior of the
chamber in which the wheel is contained, while those at the opposite
end connect only with a supplemental compartment at the opposite end
of the wheel. At this end of the wheel, and on the opposite side of the
partition of the tank, is a.feeding wheel concentric with the axis of the
air forcing wheel, and geared with it by a short supplemental shaft,
which passes through the partition above the level of liquid in the air
forcing chamber, the feeding wheel being thus caused to revolve
continuously raises liquid from the chamber in which it is situated, and
delivers it into a trough, from which it flows into the air forcing chamber,
and from this chamber it again flows back by an overflow, so that a
uniform level of liquid is maintained in the air forcing chamber. As
the air forcing wheel revolves the air is drawn from the interior of the
chamber into the supplemental chamber of the wheel and passes. by a
pipe into the interior of a gasometer in the second chamber.
The gasometer is contained within an air chamber which passes
through the upper side of the tank and extends to a suitable distance
within the same. The lower part of the air chamber is kept filled with
liquid to the same level as the liquid in the chamber containing the air
forcing wheel by means of a pipe connecting the two together; upon the
top of the air chamber is an opening closed by a cap, which has a pipe
extending therefrom covered by a hood. The hood receives the air from
below and admits it into the air chamber through perforated plates or
sheets of wire gauze to prevent accident by the ignition of gas from the
careless bringing of a flame into contact with the machine. The
gasoline or other hydrocarbon used is poured into the air forcing chamber
through a funnel, and rises in the said chamber until it reaches overflow
orifices in the partition, and flows therefrom into the shoot or trough

page_text: carburetted air into the gasometer is around this pipe and serves to
'convey the
gas from the gasometer to the main gas pipe situated at the
upper portion of the tank.
こ
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Hugh Lewis McAvoy in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 18th December 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HUGH
LEWIS MCAVOY, of Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent bearing date the Nineteenth day of June, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the thirty-
sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Hugh Lewis McAvoy, Her special license
that I, the said Hugh Lewis McAvoy, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Hugh Lewis McAvoy, 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 Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN APPARATUS FOR CARBURETING AIR FOR ILLUMINATING OR HEATING PURPOSES,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Hugh Lewis
McAvoy, my executors or administrators, 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 Hugh Lewis McAvoy, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
The Invention relates to a machine in which atmospheric air is caused

page_text: to pass through a body of light hydrocarbon, preferably gasoline, and to
become thereby impregnated or mixed with the gas or vapour arising
from the gasoline, for the purpose of obtaining from the union of the
two acriform bodies an illuminating gaseous body capable of producing
a flame of great brilliancy and intense heat at a moderate expense.
The apparatus consists in part of a tank divided by a partition into a
first and second chamber, the first of which is occupied by an air
forcing wheel, preferably of the meter kind, driven by suitable motive
mechanism, which wheel forces the atmospheric air occupying the upper
portions of both chambers through the gasoline located in the lower
part of the second chamber, a pipe leading into a compartment par-
taking of the nature of an ordinary gasometer or reservoir, and thence
to the main gas pipe to be distributed by branch pipes throughout the
building or compartment for the purposes before named.
The apparatus further consists in features herein-after fully described
tending to keep up or maintain the depth of the fluid in the air forcing
chamber in a certain arrangement of the shafts upon which the air
forcing wheel and feeding wheel, herein-after described, are placed
together; in a method by which the outer bearing of the primary shaft,
which by its gears imparts motion to the shaft of the air forcing wheel,
is protected by a packing box and raised above the line of the fluid,
thereby preventing leakage of the same.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION AND OPERATION.
A. is the casing or covering of the tank which, as shewn in the Drawing,
is cylindrical in form having heads a, the whole being of such character
as to be free from leakage. The tank is supported at its ends by frames
a¹ resting upon stands a". The two frames are connected by bolts
which serve to stiffen the casing as well as to confine the frames in their

page_text: respective positions. The tank as formed by the casing A and heads a
is divided by the partition 6 into the aforesaid first and second chambers,
the first, represented by B, being that in which the air forcing whcol
revolves; the second chamber, shewn by C, is occupied by a feeding
wheel, an air chamber with its enclosed mechanism, and a system of
pipes, the construction and use of which will herein-after be fully
described. The partition 6 is perforated near its upper periphery by
apertures c, and a communication thus established between tho
chambers B and C ; D is the air forcing wheel of the kind usually
denominated a meter wheel, that is to say, a cylindrical box divided by
the partitions e, e, into four compartments, each having an induction
opening at one end of the said cylindrical box and an eduction port f¹
at the other. These openings or ports are formed by the plates which
constitute the heads of the compartments overlapping each other, and
their arrangement with respect to the partitions e, e. The openings f, f¹,
situated at the respective ends of the wheel are placed reversedly with
reference to each other, the opening at either end being circumferentially
in advance of the opening at the other end. It will be seen that the
openings thus lead to and from the compartments at their respective
ends of the wheel in an opposite manner. This is a description of
an ordinary meter wheel, but any other suitable air forcing wheel may
be used.
The openings f communicate directly with the interior of the
chamber B, while those f¹ connect only with a supplemental compart-
ment at the wheel itself. E is the feeding wheel secured to the
shaft provided with the tubular elevators i and discharging nozzles .
The elevators are open at the ends, where they join to the inner cir-
cumference of the feeding wheel, and closed at the other, the means of
exit from the elevators being the nozzles & aforesaid. F is the air
chamber which passes through the upper side of the tank and extends
to a suitable distance within the same. Upon the top of the air
chamber is an opening closed by a cap G which has a pipe k extending
therefrom covered by the hood 1. The hood receives the air from below
and admits it into the air chamber through perforated plates or sheets of
wire gauze which will prevent accident by the ignition of gas from the
careless bringing of a flame into contact with the machine.
In describing the operation of the apparatus for carburetting air, and
the direction taken by the atmospheric air from its entrance into the air

page_text: chamber in its natural condition, its passage through the different parts
of the machine, during which course it is charged or impregnated with
the vapour from the gasoline, due explanation will be given of the con-
struction and use of the different parts of the machine yet remaining to
be described. The course of the air is clearly shewn in the Drawing by
the arrows, they being dotted when representing the air before being
charged with the gasoline vapour, but when representing the air combined
with the vapour the arrows are drawn in full line. The gasoline being
poured into the air forcing chambers B through one of the funnel-shaped
pipes m rises in the said chamber until it reaches the orifices n in the
partition b, and flows therefrom into the trough o fastened to tho
said partition, and continuing to rise within the trough at last flows over
the edge thereof into the feeding chamber C. The gasoline also flows
from the chamber B through the small pipe p into the space around the
gasometer H in the air chamber F. It will be observed that the edge
of the trough is the maximum height to which the fluid can rise until
an equilibrium is effected within the first and second chambers. When
such is effected the apparatus is said to be charged.
The height of the fluid in the feeding chamber can at any time bo
ascertained by the use of the float I situated within the perforated
pipe I, which when not in use is held down by the screw cap.G.
The machine is now prepared to be put in motion. The barrel is first
wound up by means of a crank and cord, or wire rope (not shown in the
Drawing), the cord passing over suitable pulleys and sustaining a
weight. A retrograde movement of the barrel operated by the weight
and cord independently of the shaft K is prevented by the pawl t pivoted
to the barrel, the pawl engaging the teeth of a ratchet wheels keyed
upon the shaft K. The motion of the barrel J and shaft K is communi-
cated by gear wheels L to the shaft K', upon which the air forcing
wheel is fixed. The packing box through which the shaft K.
passes is
elevated above the line of the fluid so that no leakage of the liquid can
occur. A similar arrangement of gearing connects the shaft K¹ with the
countershaft at the point where the motion of the shaft K' is transmitted
through the partition 6, but no packing box is necessary here as neither
end of the countershaft u is exposed to the outer air. The air to be
carburetted enters the air chamber F through the perforated plates in
the hood, and passing through the apertures permeates the entire
space above the liquid and enters the air forcing wheel through the

page_text: induction opening f. The upper line of the liquid when the machine is
first charged is shown by the dotted line drawn longitudinally of tho
apparatus.
During the revolutions of the air forcing wheel the opening fis closed.
by the liquid which takes the place of the air contained in the wheel,
forcing it through the eduction opening f¹ into the supplemental
compartment g, carburetted and in a condition to be used for the
purposes herein-before mentioned. To extend the surface of the gasoline
to be exposed to and acted upon by the air forcing wheel, certain
sprinklers O are used, they being so constructed and arranged within the
compartments of the air forcing wheel as to be alternately filled and
discharged during the revolutions of the wheel. The discharge of the
sprinklers is in small streams passed through the perforations O¹; S is a
pipe extending from within the supplemental compartment 9 to a
pipe S¹ within the gasometer H, for the purpose of conducting the gas
to the interior of the gasometer. The flow of the gas is governed and
an excess of pressure prevented by the valve w which closes as the upper
part of the gasometer covering rises, thereby decreasing the flow and by
reason of the increased pressure below the valve retarding the motion of
the air forcing wheel, and the carburetting process depending thereupon.
Thus the production of the gas is regulated by its consumption and to
such an extent that when the consumption is entirely stopped, the air
forcing wheel ceases to revolve and the air to pass into the chamber F;
T is a pipe larger in diameter than the pipe St around which it is secured,
connecting by the pipe T¹ the gasometer with the main gas pipe U
situated at the upper portion of the tank; N and N2 are small pipes for
the purpose of conducting any moisture caused by condensation of vapour
from the pipes to which they are connected, and are opened and closed
by means of the cocks P and P¹. The screw plugs R are placed at
the lower part of the tank to be used in case the gasoline is to be
drawn off.
It will be observed that the evaporation of the fluid during the
carburetting process takes place exclusively in the air forcing chamber B,
and to compensate for this loss the feeding wheel herein-before described
is used. The feeding wheel revolving conjointly and concentrically
with the air forcing. wheel D conducts the fluid into the feeding
chamber, and by reason of the peculiar construction of the tubular
elevators i and nozzles ¹ discharge it into the trough o, and thence into

page_text: the chamber B. Any excess in the quantity fed by the wheel E over
and above that evaporated merely flows back into the chamber. By
this means the required level of the fluid is maintained until nearly the
entire quantity of the fluid in the chamber C has been fed in the
trough o.

page_text: 11. The combination of the equalising pipe p, chamber B, and air
chamber F, as set forth.
12. The float I, pipe I, and cap r in combination with the chamber C
of the tank, as herein set forth.
In witness whercof, I, the said Hugh Lewis M'Avoy, have here- 5
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of November,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
seventy-three.