IMPROVE- MENTS IN GAS PRODUCING FURNACES, AND IN THE METHODS OF UTILIZING THE GASES GENERATED THEREFROM
Year: 1876

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joshua Kidd, of No. 12, Dartmouth Street, Westminster,
in the County of Middlesex, Gas Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN GAS PRODUCING FURNACES, AND IN THE METHODS OF UTILIZING THE
GASES GENERATED THEREFROM."
Sealed the 1st September 1876, and dated the 10th March 1876.
(Void by reason of the Patentee having neglected to file a Specification in pur-
suance of the conditions of the Letters Patent.)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joshua Kidd at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 10th March 1876.
JOSHUA KIDD, of No. 12, Dartmouth Street, Westminster, in the County of
Middlesex, Gas Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN GAS PRODUCING FURNACES, AND IN
THE METHODS OF UTILIZING THE GASES GENERATED THEREFROM."
My present Invention is an improvement on two former Inventions for which I
have obtained Letters Patent, the first No. 520, and the second No. 531, of the year
1873. The first part of my improvements relate to the furnace described at page
10, Fig. 4, in Specification No. 520, and consists in placing the steam jet and funnel
or outlet M shewn in the centre of the fire at the top of the furnace. Between the
fire and the steam jet I place layers of iron or fire-clay moulded into suitable forms
for absorbing and retaining heat. This furnace must have an ash-pit fitted with an
air-tight door. The steam may be generated in a separate boiler, or in a coil placed
inside the furnace, as shewn in the Specification No. 531. This gas producer works
intermittently. The escaping force of the steam from the jet creates a powerful
draft, and soon raises the fuel to a white state of incandescence. The gas given off*
from the fuel may be burned by allowing a small quantity of air to be drawn into
the furnace above the fuel, and the heat thus generated is retained by the moulded
layers of iron or fire-clay placed between the fire and the steam jet. When the
required heat has been attained, the outlet M and also the door of the ash-pit is
closed. The steam is thus driven back through the layers of heat retaining
material and through the fuel, and it escapes by means of a pipe placed in the ash-
pit into a gas holder. When the furnace has been partially cooled by the decompo-
sition of the steam, the outlet M and the ash-pit door must both be opened and the
fuel again raised to a state of incandescence by the exhausting force of the
steam jet.
The second part of my improvements relates to methods of utilizing the gases
generated in the two furnaces described in the aforesaid Specifications.
Price 2d71

page_text: The first of these methods consists in obtaining motive power by exploding the
gases mixed with air under a piston working in a cylinder and arranging the
chamber where the explosion takes place with a water jacket so that all the heat
given out by the explosion will be absorbed for the generation of steam, which steam
may be used for operating a second piston, by this means both the explosive power
and the heating power of the fuel may be made available.
My second method consists in utilizing the gases generated in the producer, shewn
in the Drawing accompanying Specification No. 531, in the form of a blast or
blowpipe flame for puddling or reheating iron or steel or other heating purposes,
this is accomplished as follows:-I contract the gas outlet from the furnace and
thus cause the gas to be generated under pressure so that its own pressure will force
it through gas pipes, and cause the gas to escape from a jet or jets into and through
a suitable pipe with sufficient force to induce or carry with it an adjustable supply
of air for its combustion so as to make the flame either an oxidizing or reducing
agent. I also utilize the heat contained in the gases and also the heat lost in a
gas producer by the generation of carbonic oxide and hydrogen for generating or
superheating steam.
My third method consists in making a portable gas apparatus, suitable for lighting
purposes, by combining a gas carburettor with the gas producer described in my
Specification No. 531, and also in using a separate boiler heated by gas or oil for
generating the steam required for the jet. The hot gas either separately or mixed
with air after it leaves the producer must pass up an ascending and down a de-
scending pipe, the gas being cooler in the descending pipe acts as a syphon and
increases the pressure. Hot air or the products from a gas or oil flame may be
carburetted in this way and forced through the pipes without any blowing machine.