IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR GENERATING CARBORETTED HYDROGEN CAO
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Frank William Clark, of Amhurst Road,
Hackney, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer, for the Invention
of "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR GENERATING CARBORETTED HYDROGEN CAO ”
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said, Frank William
Clark at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 22nd July 1874.
I, FRANK WILLIAM CLARK, of Amhurst Road, Hackney, in the
County of Middlesex, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR GENERATING CARBURETTED
-HYDROGEN GAS," to be as follows:-
My Invention relates to that class of apparatus in which carburetted
hydrogen gas is generated from a liquid bydrocarbon with the admixture
of certain proportions of atmospheric air.

page_text: gravity will flow into the apparatus. This vessel is divided by a vertical
partition into two compartments, in one of which is placed the new
hydrocarbon liquid, while into the other is pumped up the heavy or
refuse liquid which remains at the bottom of the gas generating
apparatus when some of the lighter parts have been removed by the
distilling or gas generating process. Supposing that the apparatus has
been already at work and that some of the refuse oil has been pumped
up into its compartments in the reservoir above, a regulated quantity of
this refuse oil is allowed to run from the reservoir into a retort or heating
vessel in which is enclosed a double coil of pipe heated by a burner
placed there for the purpose, and into one of these coils the oil or the
gas already generated therefrom by the heat of the apparatus enters,
and after being highly heated passes off at top through a pipe which
conducts it in the form of a jet to a small spherical or pear-shaped
chamber to which heated air is admitted. The exit aperture or nozzle
of the gas pipe is capable of adjustment so that the gas may be made to
suck or draw in with it a regulated quantity of air. The compound or
mixed gases in a heated state are driven forward in a pipe surrounded
by another pipe of larger dimensions so as to leave an air space around.
the hot gas pipe. By this means the ascending air is heated by
abstracting the caloric from and thereby cooling the descending gas.
The air thus heated is used for mixing with the hot gas in the manner
already explained, and the mixed gases are conducted to a chamber at tho
bottom of the generating apparatus, which as well as the chambers
immediately above it is divided into two compartments by a vertical
partition. From this chamber the gas passes through a horizontal
metal screen and through another chamber or chambers filled with wood,
cork, tow, cotton waste, or other material which will arrest any solid
matters or undecomposed liquid which will be allowed to drain off and
run into the lowest compartment of the apparatus, from which it is
pumped up again into the reservoir above. When the gas has passed
through the screens and the mass of wool it ascends through vertical
tubes into an inverted bell or vessel resembling a gas holder. The
varying pressure of the gas in this vessel will serve to raise and lower it,
and through the medium of suitable arms open or close cocks on the
tubes for supplying the liquid hydrocarbon from the vessel above. By
this means the quantity of the liquid supplied will be regulated by the
consumption of the gas. The mixed gas in the inverted bell will
descend therefrom down a second series of vertical tubes and will pass a

page_text: ond time through the perforated screens and the mass of wool con-
tained in the chambers, but on the opposite side of the vertical partition
which divides the chambers into two parts. On the opposite side of the
apparatus is a precisely similar arrangement of pipes, tubes, and valves,
and the fresh hydrocarbon liquid from the reservoir above is conducted
to the second coil of tubes in the retort or generator where it is vaporized
and conducted by pipes to a second spherical or pear-shaped vessel,
wliere it will be mixed with the poor gas that has been made from the
refuse oil. This poor gas will thereby become supercarburetted, and the
mixed gas will therefore possess a high power of illumination. They
may then be conducted to a gas holder.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Frank William Clark in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 22nd January 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FRANK
WILLIAM CLARK, of Amhurst Road, Hackney, in the County of
Middlesex, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent bearing date the Twenty-second day of July, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the
thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Frank William Clark, Her
special licence that I, the said Frank William Clark, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Frank
William. Clark, 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 Ircland, the Channel Islands, and. Isle of Man,-an-
Invention for "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR GENERATING CARBURETTED HYDROGEN
GAS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Frank
William Clark, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and scals, should par-
ticularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to

page_text: Fig. 5, Sheet II., is a vertical section, drawn on an enlarged scale, of
the air and gas passages and their accessories, shewing tho modes of
supplying the air, heating the same, and causing it to mix with the
vapors of the hydrocarbons.
The liquid hydrocarbons are supplied from the cisterns above to the
apparatus through the pipes a, a* ; the first pipe a conducts the liquid
to the retort b, while the other pipe a* conducts another supply of
hydrocarbon from another tank placed above to the retort *. Each of
these retorts is provided with a Bunsen burner c, c*, by which it is
heated, and which burners are supplied with gas in the manner here-
after explained. The heat from the burner c will vaporize the liquid in
the first retort b and drive the gas off through the pipe b'into the small
chamber d where it is superheated, from thence it passes by the pipe e
to the jet f of the mixing apparatus shewn in section and on an enlarged
scale at Fig. 5, Sheet II. In order to prevent any solid matters from
passing by the pipe e to the jet fa small vertical screen e' is interposed.
The jet projects into a pear-shaped chamber g, and is screwed on its
outside for the purpose of being adjusted higher or lower therein. The
upper and outer end of the jet is provided with a tap through which a
small wire may be introduced from time to time should the jet become
stopped by any solid matters.
The air to mix with the vapor enters the apparatus from below and
passes up an annular space formed, as shewn in Fig. 5, by the pipe
which surround the gas pipo i, the air passes up this annular space, as
indicated by the arrows in Fig. 5, and enters a valve chamber ', from
whence it passes into the pear-shaped chamber g. The rush of hydro-
carbon vapor down the jet will draw in a regulated quantity of air
and carry it forward down the jet pipe g' which is a prolongation of the
pear-shaped chamber g. The mixed gases in a heated state and forming
a poor gas are carried forward into the gas pipe i, along which they
pass in the direction of the arrows to a similar jet arrangement on the
other side of the apparatus.
I would here remark that the heated gases passing down the pipe i
will part with a large portion of their caloric to the ascending current
of cold air which is passing up the annular space between the pipes /
and i. Another quantity of hydrocarbon oil is supplied by the pipe a*,
Figures 1 and 2, to the other retort 6º, where it is vaporized by the second

page_text: Bunsen burner c*, and the vapor thus generated is conducted by the
pipe e* (after having been superheated as in the former instance in the
small chamber d*) to the other jet f* of the second mixing apparatus
(see Fig. 5). In the meantime the mixed gases which pass down the gas
pipe i of the first mixing apparatus are conveyed along a cross pipe into
the annular space between the two pipes * and *, up which space the
mixed gases rise until they emerge into another pear-shaped chamber g*.
While passing up the annular space as indicated by the arrows the cool
gas will abstract heat from the descending current of hot gas in the
pipe and will therefore be supplied in a heated state to the pear-
shaped chamber g*, where it will become mixed with the rich vapor
issuing from the jet f*. The mixed gases in their passage down the pipo ¿*
will be reduced in temperature by the ascending current of gases in the
annular space, and will be ultimately delivered along the pipe & into the
scrubber 7, seo Fig. 2, which is formed in the bottom part of the apparatus.
This scrubber is divided into compartments by horizontal perforated
partitions m, Fig. 2, and the spaces left between them are filled with
wool, horsehair, tow, or other analogous material. Above this scrubber
is arranged a condenser formed of a chambor nearly filled with water,
and provided with a number of vertical pipes n for the passage of the
gas from the scrubber below. The tops of the vertical pipes n rise
above the level of the water in the condenser, the top of which is closed
by the bell-shaped dome or gas holder o. The scrubber is divided into
two compartments by a vertical partition which is filled with water
from the condensing chamber above. The gas from the pipe k passes as
before-mentioned up through the scrubber and through the vertical
pipes n of the condenser into the gas holder. The cold water which
surrounds the vertical pipes n of the condenser will convert any con-
densable vapours of the gas into liquid which will pass down through
the scrubber into the lower part of the apparatus and will run off through
the pipe q into the lower tank, from whence it will be pumped, as
before mentioned, into the tanks above. The mixed gases in the dome
or gas holder will then pass down through the tubes * of the other side
of the condenser into the uppermost compartment of the scrubber * at
the other side of the vertical partition p and thence into the bottom of
the apparatus, from whence it passes off through the gas service pipe r.
Any condensable vapours which may still remain in the mixed gases
will be condensed and will descend to the bottom of the apparatus, from
whence they will pass off through the pipe q into the lower tank.

page_text: It now only remains to explain the regulation of the various valves in
the apparatus by which the apparatus is rendered automatic. To the
top of the dome or gas holder is attached a vertical rod 8, Fig. 2, which
passes upwards between guide rollers & fixed to the top framing of the
apparatus. This rod & carries at its upper part two rollers 1, 1, Figures
1 and 4, which actuate a pair of levers v, v, connected to taps or cocks
on the supply pipes a and a*, so that as the dome and vertical rod a
rises and falls these levers will open or cut off the hydrocarbon liquid
from the retorts as may be required. The vertical rod also carries two
other rollers *, *, one of which by operating on the central valve in
the valve chamber h' of the air tube h regulates the supply of air to the
pear-shaped chamber g, while the other roller regulates the supply of gas
from the service piper through the pipe wo to the Bunsen burners c, c*.
When the dome is at or near its lowest point and the apparatus has been
3 out of use for a short time there will still be sufficient gas left in the
apparatus to supply the Bunsen burners which heat the retorts b, b*,
and thereby cause sufficient gas to be generated to carry on the
operation. In order to avoid any inconvenience in restarting the
apparatus a short branch pipe to provided with a stop-cock opens a
communication between the service pipe and the gas supply pipe w of
the Bunsen burners.
If found more convenient the scrubber and condenser may be used
apart from the gas holder and regulators.
Having now described my Invention of "Improved Apparatus for
Generating Carburetted Hydrogen Gas," and having explained the
manner of carrying the same into effect, I claim as the Invention
secured to me by the above in part recited Letters Patent,-
First. The mode of heating the atmospheric air by passing it up the
annular space between the pipes h and i, as herein set forth.
Second. The mode of regulating the space between the jet and the
pipe ', so that the gases mixed in the apparatus may be made of
different qualities and densities, as and for the purposes herein set
forth.
Third. The use of two jets and pear-shaped spaces so that two vapours

page_text: Fourth. The construction and arrangement of apparatus for mixing
the air and poor gas with the hydrocarbon vapours, as herein set
forth.
Fifth. The construction and arrangement of the parts constituting the
scrubbing boxes and condenser, as and for the purposes herein set
forth.
Sixth. The general construction and arrangement of parts, as herein
set forth, whereby the whole or nearly the whole of the liquid hydro-
carbon may be converted into a combustible and illuminating gas.
In witness whereof, I, the said Frank William Clark, have here- :
unto set my hand and seal, the Twenty-second day of January,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
five.