Improvements in Vapor Condensers or Devaporators.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 7th Sept., 1893
Complete Specification Left, 7th June, 1894-Accepted, 1st Sept. 1894
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Vapor Condensers or Devaporators.
I, JOHN GAMGEE of 6 Lingfield Road, Wimbledon in the County of Surrey
Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
This invention relates to a method and apparatus whereby liquefiable gases or
vapors admitted or forced into reservoirs of liquid, contract in volume and are
condensed by the simple act of solution, so that what enters the apparatus as gas
or vapor leaves it as liquid at the boiling point, due to whatever pressure the
condenser is maintained at during work. There is, in short, spontaneous absorption
of the vapor by its own liquid.
The apparatus required for this purpose consists in a series of tubular vessels
similar to those known in chemical industries as wash-bottles. These tubes or
wash-bottles overflow from one into the other in series so that the vapor, only
partially dissolved in transit through the first, progressively diminishes in volume
under the acceleration of gravity of the falling liquid, and finally an inverted
wash-bottle is used as the final reservoir in which the liquefaction is completed and
nothing but liquid can be withdrawn.
Such apparatus is applicable in the industrial arts for all purposes in which
liquefaction of vapors is desired. I have, however, specially pursued this subject
for the automatic condensation of low temperature motor fluids used in motive
power engines and refrigerating machinery. I have likewise used such means in
the manufacture of distilled water and the distillation of alcohols, ethers, essential
oils &c.
There are two types of apparatus which are applicable to all practical purposes.
The first is for condensation of vapors formed above atmospheric temperatures,
such as water steam, and the second for the automatic liquefaction of gases produced
at low temperatures, such as anhydrous ammonia.
In both forms the vapor more or less saturated enters through a tube guarded by
a check valve, and the tube descends to near the bottom of a vertical cylinder.
Such tube is plugged below but perforated around its lower portion so as to split
up the vapor and make it travel upwards in detached globules and thus ensure the
greatest possible contact with the liquid through which it rises. From near the
upper extremity of this vertical cylinder a tube emerges and descends to the bottom
of a secoud cylinder or wash-bottle, as in the first case, and such wash-bottle may
be made of say the shape and average size of the high pressure cylinders now
used for the carriage and storage of oxygen and other gases.
The number and sizes of the wash-bottles depend on the volume of gas to be
liquefied and the nature of the fluid in circulation.
The terminal reservoir for the liquid is provided with gauge cocks and glass
tube so as to determine the liquid level below which the liquefied vapor is with-
drawn to be fed into the boiler or evaporator.
A pipe guarded by a check valve and stop cock connects the terminal reservoir
with the top of the first wash-bottle.
The whole of the condensing cylinders are enclosed in a vessel in which a
vacuum may be maintained or a stagnant quantity of water which being under
atmospheric pressure only cannot be raised above 212° and ensures a steady and
uniform temperature of the devaporator. Such cylinder containing water may by
the use of a vacuum pump be maintained at or below 180° Fahrenheit so as to
favour a vacuum in the case of the condenser of a compound engine.

page_text: The main difference in the construction of an apparatus in which the motor fluid
boils below average external temperature is to use an uncongealable liquid in the
vessel containing the wash bottles and to cool this by evaporation in a suitable
spiral coil. The devaporator when in this form must be well protected by non-
conducting covering from the influence of surrounding objects.
Dated this 7th day of September 1893.
J. C. MEWBURN,
55 and 56, Chancery Lane, London, Chartered Patent Agent.
CUMI DVIE
Improvements in Vapor Condensers or Devaporators.
I, JOHN GAMGEE of 6 Lingfield Road, Wimbledon in the County of Surrey
Gentleman, 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 :-
This invention relates to a method and apparatus whereby liquefiable gases or
vapors admitted or forced into reservoirs of liquid, contract in volume and are
condensed by the simple act of solution, so that what enters the apparatus as gas
or vapor leaves it as liquid at the boiling point, due to whatever pressure the
condenser is maintained at during work. There is, in short, spontaneous absorption
of the vapor by its own liquid.
The apparatus required for this purpose consists of a series of tubular vessels
similar to those known in chemical industries as wash-bottles. These tubes or
wash-bottles overflow from one into the other in series so that the vapor, only
partially dissolved in transit through the first, progressively diminishes in volume
under the acceleration of gravity of the falling liquid, and finally an inverted
wash-bottle is used as the final reservoir in which the liquefaction is completed and
nothing but liquid can be withdrawn.
Such apparatus is applicable in the industrial arts for all purposes in which
liquefaction of vapors is desired. I have, however, specially pursued this subject
for the automatic condensation of low-temperature motor fluids used in motive
power engines and refrigerating machinery. I have likewise used such means in
the manufacture of distilled water and the distillation of alcohols, ethers, essential
oils &c.
There are two types of apparatus which are applicable to all practical
purposes.
The first is for condensation of vapors formed above atmospheric temperatures,
such as water steam, and the second for the automatic liquefaction of gases produced
at low temperatures, such as anhydrous ammonia.
The accompanying drawings will serve to illustrate both.
Figure 1 is an elevation partly sectional and Figure 2 a plan.
In both forms, the vapor, more or less saturated, enters through a tube a¹ guarded
by a swing check valve b, and the tube descends to near the bottom of a vertical
cylinder c. Such tube is plugged below but perforated around its lower portion as
seen at d so as to split up the vapor and make it travel upwards in detached
globules and thus ensure the greatest possible contact with the liquid through which
it rises. From near the upper extremity of this vertical cylinder a tube a emerges
and descends to near the bottom of a second cylinder or wash-bottle e as in the
first case, and such wash-bottle may be made of say the shape and average size of
the high pressure cylinders now used for the carriage and storage of oxygen and
other gases.
From the cylinder or wash-bottle c, a tube a³ emerges and descends
to near the bottom of a third cylinder and so on for any required number of
cylinders; the last cylinder c is however like an inverted wash-bottle the pipe a

page_text: entering it at the bottom and extending up to nearly the top and the outlet from
the cylinder being near the bottom.
The number and sizes of the wash-bottles depend on the volume of gas to be
liquefied and the nature of the fluid in circulation. The apparatus shown in the
figures has 9 cylinders including the inverted wash-bottle which constitutes the
final or terminal reservoir for the condensed liquid.
This terminal reservoir for the liquid is provided with a pressure gauge at g and
glass gauge so as to determine the liquid level below which the liquefied vapor
is withdrawn to be fed into the boiler or evaporator; e indicates the outlet for
return to the boiler.
A pipe guarded by a check valve i and stop cock connects the terminal
reservoir with the top of the first wash-bottle c¹. The bottle c¹ is also provided
with a pressure gauge at l.
The whole of the condensing cylinders c¹ to care enclosed in a vessel m in which
a vacuum may be maintained or which may contain a stagnant quantity of water
which being under atmospheric pressure only cannot be raised above 212° and
ensures a steady and uniform temperature of the devaporator. Or such cylinder
containing water nay by the use of a vacuum pump be maintained at or below
180° Fahrenheit so as to favor a vacuum in the case of the condenser of a compound
engine.
When the liquid condensed is one that boils below average external temperature
an uncongealable liquid should be used in the vessel m containing the wash-bottles
and this liquid should be cooled by evaporation in a suitable spiral coil. The
devaporator when in this form must be well protected by non-conducting covering
from the influence of surrounding objects.
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. In a vapor condenser or devaporator, a series of tubular vessels or wash-
bottles into the first of which the vapor to be condensed or devaporated is conducted
and which overflow from one into another throughout the series so that the vapor
in passing from vessel to vessel and rising through the liquid therein becomes
absorbed by the liquid until its liquefaction is completed, substantially as herein-
before described.
2. A vapor condenser or devaporator constructed substantially as hereinbefore
described and represented in the accompanying drawings.
Dated this 7th day of June 1894.
J. C. MEWBURN & ELLIS,
55 and 56, Chancery Lane, London, Patent Agents.