IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR GENERATING HYDROGEN OR CARBURETTED HYDROGEN GAS, AND IN THE MEANS FOR EVAPORATING THE DILUTE ACID EMPLOYED IN GENERATING THE GAS,
Year: 1873

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Henry Johnson at the
. Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
28th August 1873.-A communication from abroad by Henry
Harrison Wainwright, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Moses Nelson
Wisewell, of Brooklyn, King's County, State of New York, and
Horace Augustus Hurlbut, of Chicago, Cook County, Illinois,
United States of America.
I, JOHN HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County
of Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR GENERATING HYDROGEN OR
CARBURETTED HYDROGEN GAS, AND IN THE MEANS FOR EVAPORATING THE DILUTE
ACID EMPLOYED IN GENERATING THE GAS," a communication to me from
abroad by Henry Harrison Wainwright, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
Moses Nelson Wisewell, of Brooklyn, King's County, State of New
York, and Horace Augustus Hurlbut, of Chicago, Cook County, Illinois,
United States of America, to be as follows:-
-

page_text: commensurate with the demands, and in which the spent dilute acid
used in generating the gas can be evaporated for the purpose of
crystallizing and recovering the sulphate of iron held in solution.
The apparatus consists of two reservoirs contained within a casing
covered by loosely fitting lids, each reservoir communicating at the 5
bottom through an opening which.can be closed or exposed at pleasure
with a chamber beneath a grating on which rests a mass of scrap metal.
The action of the acid in one or both chambers on the scrap metal
generates hydrogen gas which passes from the chamber through a pipe
and through a branch of the said pipe into an upper chamber containing 10
liquid hydrocarbon, in passing through which the gas becomes car-
buretted and passes off in the condition of illuminating gas through a
supply pipe.
The spent dilute acid which is contained in the reservoirs and which
holds sulphate of iron in solution may be drawn off from time to time 18
into pans and there evaporated by steam coils or otherwise in order to
recover the sulphate by crystalization.
Valves are employed for closing or exposing the communications
between the reservoirs and the chamber containing the scrap, but I
prefer to employ bent tubes communicating with the said reservoirs and 20
chamber, and being furnished with cocks by which the communication
may be opened or closed at pleasure.
The apparatus having been charged the communication is opened
between one of the reservoirs and the chamber, at the same time the
cock of an air pipe is opened so as to permit the air to escape from the 2
said chamber and the acid water to rise through the grate and permeate
the scrap metal. The cock is now closed and the hydrogen gas
generated in the chamber will pass through pipes into the chamber
above. The gas does not pass in a single volume into the said chamber,
but is introduced through radial arms into a tubular perforated ring, 3
whence the gas escapes in jets into and is diffused through the liquid
hydrocarbon in the said chamber in which it is thoroughly carburetted
and from which the carburetted gas passes through a pipe to the
burners. After the cock in the said pipe has been closed or the lights
of the burners turned off gas will continue to be generated in the scrap 3
chamber and will gradually force the dilute acid downward to a point
below the grate and back into the reservoir, when the generation of the

page_text: are again opened.
When the dilute acid in the reservoir becomes weakened it should be
cut off from the scrap chamber and a communication opened between
the second reservoir containing the fresh and strong acid and the said
scrap chamber. The spent acid can then be drawn from the reservoir
into the evaporating pan, in order to recover the sulphate of iron by
evaporation, as before mentioned, the emptied reservoirs being replenished
with fresh dilute acid to be introduced into the scrap chamber as soon as
the acid in the reservoir becomes weakened. It will be seen by the
foregoing description that the operation of generating the gas is
uninterrupted.
The carburetter consisting of the chamber containing liquid hydro-
carbon with its pipes can be used for carburetting air or coal gas, and
may be arranged either within the apparatus as described, or at a
distance therefrom, suitable connection being made by pipes in the
latter case.
If slide valves be used they may be arranged to move either vertically
or horizontally, and may be operated by means of rods extending to the
outside of the apparatus, but as before remarked it is preferred to use
bent pipes and their cocks for opening and closing the communication
between the reservoirs and scrap chamber.
A check valve opening inwards towards the carburetting chamber is
used by which valve communication is automatically closed between the
carburetting chamber and other parts of the apparatus during the
process of recharging.