IMPROVEMENTS IN THE APPLICATION AND USE OF CHEMICALS FOR PURIFYING VITIATED AIR AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR.”
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Richard Neale at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 3rd August 1880.
RICHARD NEALE, of South Hampstead, in the County of Middlesex, Doctor of
Medicine. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE APPLICATION AND USE OF CHEMICALS FOR
PURIFYING VITIATED AIR AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR.”
My Invention relates to further improvements on my application for Letters
Patent, bearing date the 15th day of July 1880, No. 2914, the essential feature of
which is to cause a very large proportion of any existing volume of vitiated air to
pass over or through, or be saturated with, the chemical agent employed, thereby,
more or less, destroying or removing the impurities with which the air is loaded.
My improvements consist,-
Firstly. For railway tunnels or other places where a draught of air is set up
from
any cause, in an arrangement of circular discs of canvas or other porous substance
combined with other material, and fixed centrally at any suitable distance apart on
an axle mounted transversely or otherwise in bearings. These discs, which would
be carried in the case of railway tunnels on a carriage or chamber truck or framing
on wheels, and in other cases on any suitable foundation or framing, are connected
with each other radially by any desirable number of distance pieces of canvas or
other suitable framing, and are formed on their peripheries with grooved or
channelled rims or hoops of cane, wood, metal, or other material, the lower parts of
which are immersed in the chemical solution employed contained in a lower tank
or trough. As the apparatus passes through a tunnel or is exposed to the draught
of vitiated air, wherever and however set up, the current of vitiated air impinges
against the upper distance pieces between the discs (the lower distance pieces being
protected from the draught by suitable screens), and so causes the latter to revolve,
their grooved or channelled rims or hoops being thereby kept constantly wet, and
carrying round with them the chemical solution, which trickles down, and
permeating the entire surfaces of the porous discs maintains the latter in a
saturated state, and the vitiated air coming in contact therewith is deprived of its
impurities, and passes out of or away from the apparatus in a comparatively pure
state. Or in lieu of arranging the circular discs as described one or more series of
fans or blades covered with canvas or other porous material may be employed,
similar to those of a windmill or ventilating cowl, and fixed radially at suitable
distances apart on a shaft mounted in bearings in a cylindrical tube, carriage, or

page_text: chamber, truck, or framing on wheels, or on a suitable foundation or framing, as the
circumstances of the place where the air is to be purified may require.
Each series of fans or blades is surrounded by specially shaped rims dipping at
its lower part into the chemical solution contained in a tank or trough below.
The vitiated air impinging against the faces (more or less inclined) of these fans or
blades, causes them to revolve and act on the air in like manner to the preceding
arrangement. Or either of the foregoing arrangements may be driven by a strap
from the running axle of the train when so applied, or in other cases by steam,
hydraulic, or any other motive power, the object being to bring a wet chemical
surface constantly into contact with the air.
Secondly. In a method of purifying vitiated air found in railway tunnels, mines,
churches, theatres, hospitals, breweries, factories, or other buildings, ships, caissons,
diving bells, or any other place by means of a centrifugal fan, force pump, or
blowing engine of any description, which will suck or draw the vitiated air from
any place where it exists, and force it into and through or over the chemical
solution or substance contained in a tank or vessel of any kind, which is provided
with an outlet pipe, through which the more or less purified air will be passed and
again circulate through the space whence it was previously sucked or drawn in a
vitiated state. The relative sizes, positions, arrangement, and compositions of the
suction pipe, fan, tank, or vessel and outlet pipe will be determined by the nature
and extent of the place or building where the Invention may be applied. In the
case of railway or other steam locomotives the centrifugal fan or pump could be
arranged on the engine or otherwise, so as to draw the vitiating gases direct from
the smoke box or chimney, and pass them through the tank or vessel before they
could escape into the tunnel or atmosphere.
Thirdly. For abstracting from the sinoke chambers of locomotives, or any other
description of furnace, the carbonic oxyde formed which cannot be effected by
chemicals, it will be necessary to convert it into carbonic acid, for which purpose
after the contents of the smoke chambers have passed through the tank or vessel
last described, the residue containing carbonic oxyde may be passed over heated
surfaces, such as through the firebox of a locomotive or other furnace, or
over a gas flame, or the orifice of the chimney rendered incandescent by a circle or
other arrangement of protected gas jets or spongy platinum, or carbon points
rendered incandescent by electricity, or by any other analogous mode, care being
taken to supply a sufficient quantity of oxygen if required.
The chemical substance employed in carrying out my Invention may be either a
caustic alkali, such as lime, potash, or soda chlorides, such as those of calcium, soda,
potash, lead, or other metals and metalloids, chlorine, acetates of potash, soda, or
lime, acetic acid, iodine, permanganates, and oxygen gas, or any other chemical
agent that has the property of correcting or removing poisonous or injurious agents
from vitiated atmospheres.