Process for Impregnating the Packing Material employed for the Stopping of Joints in Pipe Conduits, Gas Reservoirs, and the like.
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 22nd July, 1898-Accepted, 15th Oct., 1898
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Process for Impregnating the Packing Material employed for the
Stopping of Joints in Pipe Conduits, Gas Reservoirs, and the
like.
We, KURT ERDMANN ROSENTHAL, Engineer, of 31, Dorotheenstrasse, Berlin, and
Dr. JOHANN BILLWILLER, Chemist, of 44, Kanonierstrasse, Berlin, in the Empire
of Germany, 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 :-
The object of this invention is a process for impregnating the material employed
for stopping joints etc. in pipe conduits, gas reservoirs and the like, for the purpose
of limiting as much as possible, the loss of gas hitherto occurring owing to the
permeableness of the packing.
The process is as follows:-
The packing material is impregnated with substances of such a kind as enter
into combination with any gas or liquid, so as to reduce the degree of permeable-
ness by an increase in the volume. In this connection, those substances are of the
greatest importance which are capable of entering into combination with bodies
already present in gas, or with gases or liquids introduced for this purpose
before the pipes are set in operation, such combination being suitable for prevent-
ing any escape of gas in the case of any faultiness in the packing. For this
purpose, the metallic salts soluble in alcohol are admirably suited, for instance,
chloride of iron, which, for the sake of the most uniform distribution, is
employed, in those cases in which packing material impregnated with tar is
made use of.
The alcohol evaporates, leaving the salts in a finely divided state. Then, by
means of the component parts, as ammonia and sulphide of hydrogen, contained
in all kinds of illuminating gas, either oxyhydrates or sulphides are formed, the
volume of which is considerably greater than that of the metallic salts already
employed. Assuming a sufficient quantity of ammonia contained, the process runs
according to the following equation.
the resulting end-product being suipnuret or iron (surprice of mon; and ammonium
chloride.
Chloride of iron, moreover, has the advantage, that, in consequence of its great
solubleness in water, its re-action is constant, in view of the quantity of water
always present in the illuminating gas. The sulphide of iron will, thus, remain
as a body insoluble in water, for it is not to be assumed that the sulphide is oxidised
to sulphate in view of the reducing action of the gases. The process is just as
suitable for such gases, as contain the substances forming a combination with the
impregnating bodies, as for such gases as involve the necessity of a previous
charging, for the purpose of introducing the reaction, by means of suitable gases

page_text: or liquids. The first process is considered as important in relation to all illuminating
gases, most especially acetylene, because, more particularly, acetylene possesses the
property of drying up substances ordinarily used for packing, as tarred ropes,
mastic of drying oils with salts of lead, etc. and thus making ithem permeable. In
practice, the operation is so carried out with socket pipe packings, for instance,
the ordinary tarred ropes are impregnated with an alcoholic solution of Fe,Cl, and
the alcohol allowed to evaporate. For joints or couplings solid iron-salt is mixed
with the mastic.
In order that the effect of the tightening may be rapid, it is recommended that
the freshly packed pipe conduits be first placed for some days under pressure with
a mixture of ammonium sulphide, when the tightening occurs by chemical
action.
Any slight permeableness will be always balanced by the uniform or constant
quantity of the above-mentioned bodies contained in the illuminating gases.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is :-
A process for impregnating the packing materials used for joints etc. in pipe
conduits, gas-reservoirs and the like, the distinguishing feature of which is that the
packing materials are impregnated with bodies of the kind which enter into
combination with the component parts contained in the gases or other specially
introduced gases or substances, so that by chemical re-action an increase
in volume occurs and thereby a gas-tight closing is produced at any permeable
spot.
Duted thin 01nd down of T... 1000