IMPROVEMENTS IN GAS LIGHTING BY MEANS OF DIRECT CAR- BURATORS
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Leon Farrenc, Gentleman, and Bernard Subra,
Professor of Mathematics, both of Paris, France, for the Invention of
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Leon Farrenc and Bernard
Subra at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition,
on the 27th May 1859.
We, LEON FARRENC, Gentleman, and BERNARD SUBRA, Professor of Mathe-
matics, both of Paris, France, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN GAS LIGHTING BY MEANS OF DIRECT CAR-
BURATORS," to be as follows:-
These improvements consist in the direct application to each gas burner, or
to a combination of several, for instance, on a gas chandelier, or to several
burners established in a closed space in which condensation will not take
place, of a carburator, in which the gas strikes against the surface of the
carburating liquid by means of a moveable regulator, by which the gas is
projected on the said liquid, evaporation of the carburating liquid being
prevented by having a stop-cock interposed between the burner and the
carburating vessel. We sometimes apply a general reservoir for the car-
burating liquid, this latter being conducted by a special pipe to the carburator
of each burner, and in closed spaces, in which several burners are situated, the
general reservoir forms itself a carburator, and forms part of the gas meter,
the revolving motion of which latter is transmitted thereto for keeping up a
constant level of the carburating liquid.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Léon Farrenc and Bernard Subra in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 26th November 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, LÉON
FARRENG, Gentleman, and BERNARD SUBRA, Professor of Mathematics, both
of Paris, France, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-second year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said Léon Farrenc and Bernard Subra, Her special licence that we,
the said Léon Farrenc and Bernard Subra, our executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as we, the said Léon Farrenc and Bernard
Subra, our 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 GAS
LIGHTING BY MEANS OF DIRECT CARBURATORS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that we, the said Léon Farrenc and Bernard Subra, our executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under our 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 immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Léon Farrenc and Bernard Subra,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement:-
These improvements in gas lighting consist in certain improved apparatus
for causing the gas to come in contact with any suitable carburating liquid,
such as naphtha, or others, and thereby increasing its lighting power.
Hitherto these carburators or apparatus for bringing the gas in contact with
any suitable carburating liquid, were situated in such manner that the gas for
several burners at considerable distances from each other was obliged to pass
through the same carburator, and afterwards had to travel through a great
length of tubing before arriving at the burners, the effect of which was, that

page_text: often a condensation of the carburating liquid took place in the pipes, and
more or less choked them up. Our Invention consists in providing each
burner with its own carburator situated close to it, or at such a small distance
from it as to make the pipes no more liable to become choked up by the con-
densation; or several burners fitted on the same gas chandelier may be
provided with one carburator common to all of them, and situated at the top
of the chandelier, immediately below the burners, or at any other part of the
height of the chandelier, or concealed in the ground just underneath it.
In the annexed Drawings the Figs. 1 & 3 show vertical sectional views,
and Fig. 2 an elevation view of the upper parts of a straight gas chandelier,
and of an elbow one or bracket, and of a burner for an office, kitchen, or other
similar places. In these Figures corresponding parts are represented by the
same letters of reference.
A is a vessel for holding the naphtha or other carburating liquid; in Fig. 2
this vessel is laid in a horizontal position along the projecting arm or elbow of
the chandelier; the size of the vessel A will depend on the quantity of car-
burating liquid the same has to bold, and if required, several of these vessels
may communicate with one store vessel, and then a constant supply of the
carburating liquid kept up in the vessel A. The vessel A must be situated as
close as possible underneath the burner, or when the burners are not situated
at a considerable distance apart, and not exposed to a very low temperature,
the carburating of the gas may take place in a special apparatus, serving in
that case as gas carburator and gas meter. The vessel A may be fitted by a
screw B to the lower part of the arm A, or of the burner C, D representing
the support for the lantern. E is the tube by which the gas is conducted to
the apparatus; and F, a stop-cock for allowing the gas and vapor from the
carburating liquid to rise to the burner, this supply may be properly regulated
or even altogether arrested by means of the said cock. His a moveable
regulator for carrying the gas down, and thus cause the same to escape by a
sort of rose G, or perforated ring, provided with numerous small apertures,
through which the gas is caused to strike against or impinge on the surface of
the carburating liquid in the vessel A; this part is arranged in such manner
that in the same measure the level of the carburating liquid in the vessel A 'is
decreasing, the rose or ring G is lowered, so as constantly to keep about the
same distance between it and the level of the carburating liquid, which is
done by means of a pinion K, to be turned from the outside of the apparatus
by a knob N, which pinion takes in a rack J fixed to the regulator H, which
latter may consequently be lifted up more or less at pleasure by turning the
knob N. I is a central tube, over which fits and glides the regulator H. In

page_text: the arrangement shown in Fig. 8 a leather ring serves for causing the upper
end of the regulator to fit exactly on the tube I; O is the hole for introducing
the carburating liquid in the vessel A, the same is closed with a screw plug.
In Fig. 1 the arrows show the manner in which the gas arrives by the gas
tube E, passes through the perforations of the rose G, and after being
projected on the surface of the carburating liquid, passes through the opening
F of the stop-cock to the burner C. In Fig. 1, P is the foot or pedestal of
the chandelier; whereas, in Fig. 2, Q shows the bracket of the elbow E on
which the vessel A is laid in a horizontal direction, the greater part of the
vessel having in that case the form of a tube or cylinder with only a small
vertical branch.
These apparatusses with direct carburation are applicable for the lighting of
outdoors as well as indoor places, nevertheless in the interior of houses in
which the burners are not situated at a too great distance apart, or exposed to
freezing, it would be desirable the carburation of all the burners should take
place in one apparatus, serving at the same time as a gas meter. In the
arrangement of such apparatus we also apply our system of making the gas
descend vertically, and cause the same to impinge in numerous small streams
on the surface of the naphtha or other carburating liquid, which we do by
means of a perforated rose or other apparatus dividing the gas jet, and in one
single carburating chamber, in which the supply of the carburating liquid is
kept up, by means of a bucket wheel receiving motion from the drum of the
annexed meter. As an addition to this apparatus, we will describe here an
arrangement in which for carburating the gas, the same is caused to travel
through a series of carburating chambers.
Fig. 4 & 5 represents two vertical sectional views of the apparatus which I
will call henceforth the carburo-meter; Fig. 4 shows the side, and Fig. 5 the
front of the same; whereas, Fig. 6 is a plan view of the bell. The meter
compartments are the cylinder A, its overflow and feed vessels B and D; the
carburator compartments are the evaporation chamber E, and the overflow
and feed vessels X and F; the meter and carburator are separated by a
partition G, which, in Fig. 5, is removed. The apparatus having been filled
with water, the screw plugs g and z are removed, and water is put into the
cup h, which water, by the tube m, flows into the overflow vessel B and the
cylinder A, and by the overflow hole S falls in the feed vessel D in which the
water rises, while the air contained therein leaves by the tubes t and w; but
when the water closes the orifice of the tube t, the interior air throws the same
back in this tube and in the tube m up to the cup h, thus showing the filling
is to be stopped; the screw plugs and 9 are replaced, those i and jare

page_text: removed, and the naphtha or other carburating liquid is introduced in the
cup q, which liquid descends by the tube n in the vessel X, rises in the
evaporating chambers E to the mouth of the tubes h, by which the same
descends from one chamber into the other, and falls into the feed vessel F,
in which the liquid rises while the air escapes by the tubes vand ; but
when the liquid begins to fill the orifice of the tube v, the inner air carries
it back in this tube and in the tube n till it reaches the cup q, thereby showing
the filling to be complete, when the screw plugs i and j are replaced. The
air tubes u and a are situated at a higher level than the cups h and g, in
order to prevent any spilling of the water or of the carburating liquid by those
tubes. The gas is conducted by the tube M in the cylinder N where the
float O opens or sbuts the valve f as soon as the water arrives at its normal
height in the cylinder A. The gas enters in the drum C by the bent or dip
pipe e, causes this drum to turn, and leaves the same duly measured. The
moving wheel I, the axis J of which passes through the hydraulic tube K,
gives motion to the set of wheels for the hands of the dial plate. The axis of
the moving wheels is further provided with a pignon P commanding the
pully Q, the axis R of which passes through the overflow hole S and the
communication hole T formed in the partition G above the feed vessel; on
this axis R are situated two bucket wheels U and V, the first one for rising
the water from the feed vessel D into the overflow vessel B, and thus keeping
up the constant level in the cylinder A, the overflow water of which falls by
the hole S in the vessel D. The second bucket wheel V rises the carburating
liquid from the feed vessel F into the overflow vessel X, and keeps up the
constant levels in the evaporing chambers E, the overflow of which suc-
cessively falls from one into the other along the sides of the pipes h, and returns
into the reservoir F. The gas passes from the meter into the carburator by
the hole T, and enters at the lower part of the evaporating chambers opposite
the carburating liquid, and by the centre of the above-mentioned overflow
pipes h; after having followed all the crooked canals of the bells Y, the gas
will be sufficiently charged with vapor of the carburating liquid, and the same
leaves the apparatus by the tube d, and flows towards the burners. The
moveable bells Y are fitted on the same set screw a, moving by means of the
outer nut, by which the bottom of the bell may be brought nearer to or farther
distant from the level of the carburating liquid.
Having thus described and particularly ascertained the nature of our
Invention, and the mode in which the same is or may be carried into effect,
we would observe in conclusion that we do not confine or restrict ourselves to
the precise details of the arrangements described, as many variations may be

page_text: made therefrom without deviating from the main features of the said Inven-
tion; but what we consider to be novel and original, and therefore claim as
the Invention secured to us by the berein-before in part recited Letters
Patent, is,―
1ly, providing each burner, or a set of burners fixed on the same
chandelier or gas apparatus, with a naphthalising or carburating apparatus.
2ly, causing the gas to impinge on or strike against the surface of the
carburating liquid, it being preferable to have the gas divided into several jets
by a rose or other suitable means.
3ly, having a regulator or arrangement for regulating the distance between
the rose from which the gas issues, and the surface of the carburating liquid
on which the same has to impinge.
4ly, having a stop-cock interposed between the burner or burners and the
carburating apparatus, for regulating the exit of the gas and the vapor of the
carburating liquid.
5ly, annexing a carburating apparatus to a gas meter, and making the
motion of the drum of the latter subservient for driving the moving parts of
the carburating apparatus.
6ly, the pecular arrangement and construction of parts of the above
described apparatuses.
In witness whereof, we, the said Léon Farrenc and Bernard Subra,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twenty-third day of
November, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
Witness,
J. SOUTH.
LEON FARKENC.
B. SUBRA.
(L.S.)
(L.S.)