AN IMPROVED METHOD OF PURIFYING CARBURETTED HYDROGEN GAS FOR THE PURPOSES OF ILLUMINATION
Year: 1827

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
PINKUS, of the City of Philadelphia, State of Pensylvania, in the United
States of America, Gentleman; send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Seventeenth day of November, One thousand eight hundred and
twenty-seven, in the eighth year of His reign, did, for Himself, His heirs
and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Henry Pinkus, His especial
licence that, I, the said Henry Pinkus, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Henry Pinkus, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term of
years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and
also within all His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of
"AN IMPROVED METHOD OF PURIFYING CARBURETTED HYDROGEN GAS FOR THE
PURPOSES OF ILLUMINATION;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained
a proviso obliging me, the said Henry Pinkus, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of
my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and
to cause the same to be enrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within six months next and immediately after the date of the said recited
Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will
more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Henry Pinkus, do hereby déclare that the nature of my Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, is described and ascertained by
the Drawings hereunto annexed, and the words following, that is to say:-
My Invention consists in the use of the chlorurets of oxide of sodium and
the chlorurets of lime, which compounds are well known as the disinfectants of
Monsieur Laburragne, of the City of Paris, the latter of which is well known
in England by the names of the chloride of lime, or bleaching power, or oxy-
muriate of lime, combined with an apparatus for applying the same to practice
in private houses and other places for giving a more perfect purification to
gas, and destroying the bad smell of gas supplied from the public mains. My
method is as follows, reference being had to the Drawings accompanying this
Specification:
After refrigeration and after condensation has taken place in the gas, I
cause it to pass through a solution of the chloruret of oxide of sodium or
of lime, or chloride of lime, which solution may be contained in one or
more vessels having shelves in the usual way, or as shewn in section in
Figure 1, through which the gas may be made to pass, acting under a
pressure equal to a column of water of from ten to twenty inches, when the gas
will be purified, and its obnoxious odour or bad smell will be removed.
When gas is to be purified in the large way, as at the large gasworks, it
may be judiciously effected by first passing the gas through a solution of com-
mon lime and water, as is now usually practised, or it may be first partly
purified by any of the other well known methods, after which a more perfect
purification may be given, and its obnoxious odour removed by passing it
through a solution of the chloride of lime, as before described. And further,
I pour into the feeder A, Figure 2, the before-mentioned solution, whence it is
made to flow into the tar vessel b, b, b, through the bent tube C; in this vessel,
which communicates with a retort by the pipe a, the solution will mix with the
condensed matter that falls into it through the branch pipes e, e, e, e, e, con
necting the refrigerator f, f, f, f. f, which is immersed in a vessel of water g, g,
with the tar vessel. The compound thus formed and kept agitated by the
gas issuing from the dip pipe h, h, is made to flow in a small stream through
the pipe d into the retort while in action, where coming in contact with the
ignited material within the retort, other vapours or gases will be generated,
which, combining or mixing with the carburetted hydrogen gas, a chymical
action will take place, whereby the gas, while in the retort and during its
passage through the refrigerator, will become partly purified, or will be so ren-
dered as to be more casily acted upon in its passage through the solution of

page_text: the chloride of lime, where its purification will be finished; or the aforesaid
compound from the tar vessel may be made to flow in a small stream into a
separate retort while in action, and the vapours made to mix with the car-
buretted hydrogen gas in its passage through the refrigerator. The solution
of the cloride of lime to be poured into the feeder A may be taken from the
purifying vessel (Figure 1) after the gas has passed through, and at has
become saturated with the ammoniacal liquor. The chloride of lime may bo
applied in a dry or semifluid state in the manner in which common lime has
been used in a dry or semifluid state. In preparing the solution there should
be one part of the chlorurets or chloride to about thirty-five parts of water.
When the chloruret or chloride is prepared in its most concentrated state, a
diluted acid may be added to the solution to assist the liberation of the chlorine
gas from the lime, and the quantity of water may then be increased to from
forty to fifty parts, with one part of the chloride of lime.
Figure 3 represents a section of the other form of a purifying apparatus,
designed for private houses, to render a more perfect purification to the gas
supplied from the public mains, and to destroy its obnoxious odour before it is
admitted to the burners. i is a recipient intended to contain and supply the
purifying liquid. This vessel is connected with another vessel k, by a syphon
or by a bent tube 7, inserted through the centre and top of the lower vessel k,
and having a stopcock m. The lower vessel k is made gas-tight, and formed
of tin, copper, or sheet iron, and is a receptacle for gas, which flows through
it, and for the purifying liquid that falls from the upper vessel i. n is a
common spunge placed on a shelf of coarse wire gauze o. p is a hand hole
made in the side of the vessel k, sufficiently large to admit the hand and spunge.
Qis a pipe leading the gas from the main, and r is another pipe to supply the
gas in a purified state to the burners. sis.a waste pipe to let off the liquid
when it has become too much impregnated with the impurities of the gas; and
t is a washing pipe leading from a cistern. u, v, are stopcocks for admitting
and drawing off the liquid. The operation of this apparatus, Figure 3, is as
follows: Into the recipient i pour a mixture of one measure of the concen-
trated liquor of the chloride of lime diluted with twenty-five or thirty measures
of water, or pour in the clear liquor from the solution of the chloride of lime;
when gas is required to supply the burners, .turn on at the same time the stop-
cocks m in the bent tube b, and the leading pipe Q, the purifying liquor will
then flow through the bent tube 7, on to the spunge n, which will absorb a
portion sufficient to keep it always wet, and will permit the liquid to filter
through and fall to the bottom of the vessel k, at the same time the gas will
continue rising through the moistened spunge n, where it will be acted upon

page_text: by the purifying liquid, and its obnoxious odour will be removed before it
arrives at the burners through the supply pipe r. The object I have in view
in causing the gas to rise through a spunge or other porous substance is in.
order to supply the gas to the burners without too much agitation; this being
indispensible in order to afford steady lights and prevent their dancing or
moving up and down, a circumstance consequent on passing the gas through.
a body of a solution which would agitate the gas so much as cither wholly to
extinguish the lights, or render them too unsteady for use. The tube should.
be bent as shewn so as always to contain a column of liquid-sufficient to pre-
vent the gas from rising into the recipient i. When the purifying liquor has
filtered through the spunge it may be drawn off from the vessel k, and poured
into the recipient i, to be used over again until it becomes too much impreg-
nated with the impurities of the gas, when the liquor should be allowed to run
off at the waste pipe s, and fresh liquor substituted. The proper size of the
purifying apparatus for a private house will necessarily depend upon the number
of lights used. For eight or ten burners the capacity of the recipient i should.
be about three gallons; the lower vessel k about three feet in length and
six inches in diameter. The size of the bent tube l; or its lower aperture,
should be so regulated as to cause the necessary supply of the liquid to filter.
through the spunge during the whole time the lights are burning, and should
be shut off when the lights are extinguished.
I claim to be the original Inventor of the combination above described for
purifying carburetted hydrogen gas for illumination, with and in conjunction
with the chlorurets of the oxide of sodium and of lime, or chloride of lime, by
means whereof the gas becomes purified in a greater degree than heretofore, is
cleared of obnoxious vapours, and is fitter for the purposes of illumination.
And I claim to be the Inventor of the apparatus shewn and described in
Figure 3.
:
But I disclaim being the Inventor of operating on gas by the ammoniacal
liquor, except when in combination with the solution of the chloride of lime,
and the manner of using it when so combined.
And I further disclaim being the Inventor of any of the things which it has
been necessary for me to mention and describe which are not included in the
above claim made by me.
:
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Pinkus, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight.
HENRY (L.S.) PINKUS.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Seventeenth day of May, in
the ninth year of the reign of His Majesty King George the Fourth, the said
Henry Pinkus came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and
acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein con-
tained and specified, in form above written. And also the Instrument
aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the
fifty-fifth year of the reign of His late Majesty King George the Third.
Inrolled the Seventeenth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight.