IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF AND IN APPARATUS FOR CARBURETTING PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION AIR OR GAS FOR ILLUMINATING OR HEATING PURPOSES
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Edwin Cooper, of Number 281, Bethnal
Green Road, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF AND IN APPARATUS FOR CARBURETTING
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Edwin Cooper
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 8th July 1874.
I, HENRY EDWIN COOPER, of Number 281, Bethnal Green Road, in
the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF AND IN APPARATUS FOR
CARBURETTING AIR OR GAS FOR ILLUMINATING OR HEATING PURPOSES," to be as
follows:-
The object of the Invention is to effect the carburetion of the air or
gas in a more perfect manner and with greater facility than has been

page_text: practised heretofore; also to regulate and control the flow of carburetted
air or gas from the carburetter to the burners so as to maintain a steady
pressure, and thus prevent flickering of the flame.
The first part of the Invention consists in passing the air or gas to be
carburetted through a lengthened or circuitous passage, in which are
suspended a number of fibrous wicks (preferably of loosely spun cotton)
which are kept impregnated with the hydrocarbon liquid by their lower
ends dipping into it. The carburetting instrument may be composed of
a series of shallow trays containing the hydrocarbon liquid one above
the other, preserving a suitable distance between them, the wicks
hanging from the under side of the tray above or from other suitable
supports into the liquid contained in the tray beneath, or instead of a
series of trays a single tray of sufficient length may be employed.
The
air or gas being caused to travel successively over each tray and amongst
the wicks takes up the vapour given off from them and becomes
thoroughly carburetted. The level of the liquid in the trays is main-
tained constant, or nearly so, by causing a continuous stream of liquid
to flow through the carburetter, the surplus being removed by means of
suitable overflow pipes communicating with a cistern, whence it may be
removed from time to time to be again passed through the carburetter.
For the purpose of forcing the air or gas through the carburetter
ordinary bellows or other suitable forcing instrument may be employed,
but I prefer to employ a bellows, the top and bottom or outer boards of
which are fixed, and having a middle board to which an up-and down
or to-and-fro motion is imparted; a double-action bellows is thus produced
in a very simple manner.
The second part of the Invention consists in the use of an elastic bag
or reservoir in any convenient position in connection with the passage
between the bellows and the carburetter, or between the latter and the
burners, which serves as a regulator or controller to neutralize or absorb
more or less the pulsations in the flow of the air or gas due to the
intermittent action of the forcing apparatus, by which means a more
steady flame at the burner is obtained.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Henry Edwin Cooper in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 8th January 1875.
.
.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
EDWIN COOPER, of Number 281, Bethnal Green Road, in the County of
Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of July, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the
thirty-seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Henry Edwin Cooper,
Her special licence that I, the said Henry Edwin Cooper, my
exccutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Henry Edwin Cooper, 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 THE MEANS OF AND IN APPARATUS
FOR CARBURETTING AIR OR GAS FOR ILLUMINATING OR HEATING PURPOSES," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Henry Edwin Cooper,
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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Henry Edwin Cooper, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement, reference being had to the accom-
panying Sheet of Drawings and to the letters and figures marked thercon,
that is to say :-
The object of the Invention is to effect the carburetion of the air or
gas in a more perfect manner and with greater facility than has been

page_text: practised heretofore; also to regulate and control the flow of carburetted
air or gas from the carburetter to the burners so as to maintain a steady
pressure, and thus prevent flickering of the flame.
The first part of the Invention consists in passing the air or gas to be
carburetted through a lengthened or circuitous passage, in which are
suspended a number of fibrous wicks (preferably of loosely spun cotton)
which are kept impregnated with the hydrocarbon liquid by their lower
'ends dipping into it. The carburetting instrument may be composed of
a series of shallow trays containing the hydrocarbon liquid arranged one
above the other, preserving a suitable distance between them, the wicks
hanging from the under side of the tray above or from other suitable
supports into the liquid contained in the tray beneath, or instead of a
series of trays a single tray of sufficient length may be employed. The
air or gas being caused to travel successively over cach tray and amongst
the wicks takes up the vapour given off from them and becomes
thoroughly carburetted. The level of the liquid in the trays may be
maintained constant, or nearly so, by causing a continuous stream of
liquid to flow through the carburetter, the surplus being removed if
'desired by means of suitable overflow pipes communicating with a
'cistern, whence it may be removed from time to time to be again passed
through the carburetter. For the purpose of forcing the air or gas
through the carburetter ordinary bellows or other suitable forcing instru-
ment may be employed, but I prefer to employ a bellows, the top and
'bottom or outer boards of which are fixed, and having a middle board
to which an up-and-down or to-and-fro motion is imparted; a double-
action bellows is thus produced in a very simple manner.
The second part of the Invention consists in the use of an elastic bag
or reservoir in any convenient position in connection with the passage
. between the bellows and the carburetter, or between the latter and the
burners, which serves as a regulator or controller to neutralize or absorb
.more or less the pulsations in the flow of the air or gas due to the
intermittent action of the forcing apparatus, by which means a more
steady flame at the burner is obtained.
In the Drawing, Fig. 1 represents partly an elevation and partly a
longitudinal vertical section through an apparatus constructed in, accord-

page_text: ance with my Invention; Fig. 2 a plan, and Fig. 3 a horizontal section
of same at the line a, b, of Fig. 1.
A represents the casing of the apparatus, which may be constructed
of sheet metal and of any suitable shape; B, B, B, are a series of hori-
zontal trays or partitions disposed one above another in the casing A,'
into which they are soldered or otherwise secured so as to form a series
of carburetters, through which the air or gas is forced to travel, passing
from one chamber to the next by the aperture C, C, C. The ends of the
trays B, B, B, next the apertures C, C, C, are turned up, as shown, so as
to enable the said trays to contain liquid as may be desired. D is a
cistern or reservoir to contain the supply of hydrocarbon liquid, and E
is a valve in the bottom of such cistern, which can be opened and closed
at pleasure by the handle F, exterior to the casing A; G, G, G, are the
cotton wicks suspended in the chambers by preference from wire gratings
or pieces of wire network H, H, H, and having their lower ends dipping
into the hydrocarbon liquid on each tray; I represents a double-action
bellows of the description I prefer to employ, but bellows of any other
suitable description, or in fact any other suitable kind of air or gas-
forcing apparatus may be employed. In the example shown J and K
are respectively the top and bottom fixed boards of the bellows, and L is
a middle moveable board; M is a clockwork arrangement driven by a
weight or spring, and adapted to move the middle board L up and down
by means of a connecting rod N or otherwise. The delivery valves of
the bellows open into a chamber O, from whence a pipe P leads to the
lowermost chamber. Q is a flexible bag contained by preference in a
chamber provided for it in the casing A, or it may be placed in any
other suitable and convenient position. It is connected to either the
inlet pipe P or to the outlet pipe R. It acts, as before stated, as a reser-
voir to neutralize the effect of the intermittent action of the bellows and
to prevent the flickering of the lights at the burners, which generally
results from the use of reciprocating air-forcing instruments. This
flexible bag is also applicable to the prevention of the flickering of the
gas flames in any other description of carburetting apparatus.
The action of the apparatus is as follows:-Hydrocarbon liquid is
allowed to flow from the cistern D through the valve E into the upper-
most tray. As soon as that is filled the- surplus flows over the edge of

page_text: the tray through the aperture C into the tray next below, and so on
until all the trays are sufficiently full, which may be ascertained by
opening the test cock S in connection with the lower tray. The bellows
then being set in motion by the clockwork, air or gas, as the case may
be, is forced through the inlet pipe P into the lowermost chamber,
through which it passes amongst the cotton wicks suspended therein to
the other end, taking up the hydrocarbon spirit evaporating from the
wicks, and escaping by the aperture C into the next chamber above,
which it traverses in a similar manner, taking up a further proportion
of hydrocarbon vapour, escaping then into the next chamber above, and
so on to the end of the series, finally escaping by the outlet pipe R in
the shape of carburetted air or gas to the burners.
Instead of a series of trays placed one above the other, as shown, a
long continuous tray enclosed in a corresponding chamber may be
employed if preferred.
When the temperature of the air drawn in by the bellows is so low
that it will not take up sufficient hydrocarbon vapour to give a good
illuminating power, I wårm the air before passing it into the carburetter
by means of a gas burner T of any convenient form, supplied by
preference with gas from the apparatus itself by the pipe V. This gas
flame heats the pipe P, and consequently the air which passes through
it. The test cocks V, V, V, serve to withdraw from the chambers any
residue of hydrocarbon liquid remaining after the air or gas has taken
therefrom all the volatile portions of which it is capable.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention and the
manner in which the same is to or may be performed, I would have it
understood that what I claim as the Invention secured to me by the
herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,-
1st. The carburetting apparatus, consisting of a series of trays or of
one continuous tray containing the hydrocarbon liquid, into which
porous wicks are suspended, the whole constructed, arranged, and
adapted, substantially as herein-before described and illustrated.
2nd. The employment of a series of porous wicks having their lower
ends suspended in the hydrocarbon liquid, substantially as herein-before
described and illustrated and for the purpose set forth.

page_text: 3rd. The employment of a flexible bag in connection with the inlet
or outlet of a carburetting instrument for the purpose of neutralizing
the pulsatory effect upon the burners arising from the intermittent
action of the air or gas-forcing apparatus, substantially as herein-before
described and illustrated.
•
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Edwin Cooper, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Seventh day of January, One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-five..
HENRY EDWIN COOPER. (L.S.)
Patentec.