IMPROVED MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR CARBURETTING GAS OR AIR, AND PURI- FYING THE CARBURETTED FLUID FOR PURPOSES OF ILLUMINATION
Year: 1879

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Imray at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 14th January 1879. A communication
from abroad by Henry Wass Merritt, of Somerville, and William Hornby
Ireland, of Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
JOHN IMRAY, of No. 20, Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex.
"IMPROVED MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR CARBURETTING GAS OR AIR, AND PURI-
FYING THE CARBURETTED FLUID FOR PURPOSES OF ILLUMINATION." [A commu-
nication from abroad by Henry Wass Merritt, of Somerville, and William Hornby
Ireland, of Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.]
When illuminating gas is carburetted for the purpose of enriching it, or when air
is carburetted, that is to say, charged with hydrocarbon vapour, for the purpose of
producing a combustible illuminating mixture, it has been usual to pass the carbu-
retted fluid over oyster shells, pebbles, and the like, or through water, in order to
purify it and regulate its flow, but these materials shortly becoming covered with
fiquid hydrocarbon deposited thereon, aro rendered ineffective. Also, in the appa-
ratus employed for carburetting the gas or air, failure often occurs owing to
considerable changes of temperature, cold rendering the hydrocarbon viscid and
preventing its evaporation, and heat causing it to evaporate two rapidly. Moreover
in such apparatus it is essential to provide a properly regulated supply of the hydro-
carbon liquid to the carburetting vessel, and to diffuse it over an extended ovapo-
rating surface, while the said vessel is situated below the level of the reservoir of
hydrocarbon, so as to be supplied therefrom. This Invention relates to means of
overcoming the difficulties and providing for the conditions above stated by the use
of special apparatus for carburetting and purifying, and of a special compound for
removing the acetyline, which constitutes the most objectionable impurity of the
carburetted fluid. The carburetting apparatus is contained within a water tank,
and consists of a compartment forming the reservoir of liquid hydrocarbon, and
below it another compartment, which contains the evaporating surface, and which
may be termed the carburetter. This compartment is surrounded by a casing
containing glycerine, which by its non-conducting property prevents the action of
the carburetter from being interfered with by changes of external temperature.
The interior of the carburetter is divided by a number of perforated partitions, so
as to form labyrinthine passages, through which the gas or air has to pass on its
way from an inlet to an outlet pipe, these passages having in them fibrous material
soaked with the hydrocarbon liquid. Over these passages there are inclined corru-

page_text: gated diaphragms, one of them perforated and covered with the fibrous material,
which is also soaked with the hydrocarbon. Tho hydrocarbon is supplied from tho
reservoir above by a float valve arrangement, which preferably consists of a bent
pipe, fitted at its mouth with a valve worked by a lever and float resting on the
liquid in the carburetter. When the float descends it causes the valve to rise, and
n fresh supply of liquid issues by lateral holes, so as to be diffused in numerous
streams or spray over the fibrous material on the diaphragm in the carburetter. A
pipe extends from the carburetter up to the top of the supply reservoir, so as to
permit air or gns to flow into the latter to supply the place of the liquid delivered
from it. This air pipe terminates in a cap having an underside of conical form
perforated, and under it an annular float valve, which closes the perforations when
the level of the liquid in the reservoir exceeds a certain height. The carburetted
gas or air may be passed in the usual way through a vessel containing shells,
pebbles, or the like, but according to this Invention it is also passed through a
solution of nitrate of mercury, which has the effect of removing the acetyline. It
may be made to bubble up through the solution by immersing therein the mouth of
the pipe leading to the purifying vessel containing the solution, or the end of the
pipe leading from the vessel, that end being made with numerous lateral
perforations.