A MODE OR MEANS OF PRODUCING GAS TO BE USED FOR THE PURPOSE OF AFFORDING LIGHT
Year: 1815

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
TAYLOR, of Stratford, in the County of Essex, Manufacturing Chemist," send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Thirteenth day of June,
in the fifty-fifth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said John
Taylor, my exors, admors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole
privilege and authority, that I, the said John Taylor, my exors, admors, and
assigns, should and lawfully might, during the term of years therein men-
tioned, make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A MODE OR MEANS OF PRODUCING
GAS TO BE USED FOR THE PURPOSE OF AFFORDING LIGHT;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso that if I, the said John Taylor, shall not
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under
my hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within two calendar months next and immediately after
the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all
liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly cease, deter-
imine, and become void, as in and by the same (relation being thereunto had)
may more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Taylor, do hereby declare that my said Invention is as follows (that is
to say):-
--
That I have discovered the means of producing gas, and rendering it pure
for the purpose of affording light, so that it may be obtained by the distilla-
tion of bones and other animal matter at the same time that the usual pro-
ducts, namely, the bone spirit, spirit of hartshorn, or solution of subcarbonat
of ammonia, and also the animal oil, shall be properly condensed and preserved,
and the bones converted either into ivory or bone black, animal charcoal, or
into white bone ash, as may suit the views of the operator. And as the distil-
lation of bones and other animal matter has heretofore been commonly carried
on for the mere purpose of producing the said substances, namely, the
ammonia, hartshorn, or bone spirit, and animal oil, and the ivory or bone
black, animal charcoal, or white bone ash, I do not lay claim to an exclu-
sive right to any mode of distilling bones or other matter for the procuring
these usual and well-known products; nor do I deem it necessary to specify
and describe the mode in which such processes of distillation are to be con-
ducted, they being sufficiently known and understood by all practical men,
and are moreover described in many books that treat on chemical subjects.
But I declare, that as the separation, purification, and application of a peculiar
gas to the purposes of giving light, and which may be produced at the same
time that: bones and other animal matter is distilled for the sake of the usual
products, is a new discovery of my own, and is likely to produce gaslights at
a much cheaper rate than any other in use, and at the same time to render
the distillation of bones and animal matter for all purposes less offensive, by
advantageously employing the vapour or gas which is commonly dissipated in
an unpurified state, and without being burnt, and contaminates the surround-
ing air to a great extent. I do therefore claim hereby the exclusive right of
using in any way all processes of distilling bones or other animal matter by
which an inflammable air or olefiant gas, applicable to the purposes of giving
light, shall be retained and employed, as it is, by my Invention of rendering it
applicable to this purpose, to be deemed a new product of such distillations.
The said inflamable air or olefiant gas is to be procured, separated, and
purified fit for the purposes of burning for light, in the following manner :-
The bones or other animal matter are to be inclosed in iron cylinders or
retorts of the usual or any other forms, which are to be furnished with con-
densing vessels for receiving the bone spirit and animal oil; and these, as well
as the retorts, may be of any size, shape, or construction that the operator
may choose, all which are well known to practical men, and need not be

page_text: described, only that I declare that it is necessary for my purpose that all
the vessels and the joints by which the vessels are connected with each other
by tubes or otherwise should be made air-tight and capable of resisting some
considerable degree of pressure from within. Instead of suffering any uncon-
densed vapour to escape from the last vessel where more than one is employed
for the purpose of condensation, or from any vessel so used, I convey the
vapour by proper tubes into a purifying vessel in which the vapour or gass
is made to pass through a mixture of quicklime and water to deprive
it of carbonic acid and of the foeter of the animal' oil; or I employ in the
said purifying vessel, instead of quicklime and water, a proper quantity of
dilute sulphuric acid or dilute muriatic acid; or I employ a series of such
purifying vessels, making the gass pass from one to the other, the first con-
taining lime and water, the following ones containing dilute acid, using either'
one or the other as I find most expedient by observing the nature of the
light produced by the gas when inflamed: all which will be easily ascertained
and put in practice by persons conversant with the management of gaslights
which have hitherto been made by gass distilled from coal. And I further
declare, in order to render my said Invention completely intelligible, that it is
necessary to seperate the gasses or vapours that are given out in the distil-
lation of bones and animal matter, as what comes over in one part of the
process is fit for the purpose of burning for light, while another part is not so ;
and that in order to do this I have two tubes of pipes leading from the purify-
ing vessel, or from the last where more than one are employed, one of which
pipes, furnished with a proper stopcock or valve, is to conduct the gass into a
gazometer or vessel proper for containing and giving out the gass to the
burners in the usual manner; and the other pipe, likewise furnished with a
stopcock or valve opening into the air so as to permit, if required, all the
gass to escape from the purifying vessel, in order to judge when. the gas as it
comes over, after it has passed the purifying vessel or vessels, is fit for giving
light. I likewise adapt, to the same vessel that has the last-mentioned
conducting pipes, a burning tube with a very small orifice, through which I
suffer a portion of gas to escape during the whole operation, and by inflaming
this at different times I judge whether to turn it into the gazometer or to let it
escape into the air. And I further declare, that it appears to me to be neces-
sary, in order to insure the proper produce of gas fit for the purpose of giving
a good and brilliant light from the distillation of bones or other animal
matter, that such distillation should be carried on by a considerable degree of
heat; such; for instance, as may be sufficient to keep the retorts of a moderate
red heat, but that the heat need not be so great as is required for producing

page_text: gas from coal; and, further, that the vapour or gas which comes over in the
first part of every process of distilling bones or other animal substances is
unfit to give a good and brilliant gaslight, and should therefore be rejected
in the mode I have before described. And I further declare, that the gas is
to be conducted from the purifying vessels above described, in the usual and
well-known modes, into gasometers or other vessels of the common or any
other construction, and is to be employed in all other respects as gas for lights
is managed and employed.
'
.
. I do hereby further declare, that I have invented an aparatus for the
purpose of producing an inflamable air or olefiant gas, fit for yielding light of
great brilliancy and free from any disagreeable smell from any kind of
animal, vegetable, or mineral oil, fat, bitumen, or resin, which is or can be
rendered fluid by heat or otherwise; and the novelty and advantages of this
Invention are, that a gaslight apparatus on my plan is less costly, more com-
pact, and more certainly and easily managed than those heretofore constructed
for the purpose of obtaining gass from coal.
The following Drawings, with the annexed explanation, fully describe the
principle of my apparatus, with the mode of using it:-A and B, Figures 1, 2, 3,
are pipes or tubes of iron or any other substance capable of bearing a red heat,
one end of each of which is screwed or fastened to the small vessel C, which is
furnished with an air-tight cover for the opening at E. At the opposite
extremity of the pipe or tube A is screwed or fastened a smaller tube of iron,
copper, or any other proper substance, on the upper end of which tube is
screwed the vessel F, which is provided with a valve or stopcock D. To the
oposite extremity of the pipe or tube B is screwed or fastened the tube G,
which may be like those usually employed for the conveyance of coal gas, and
it must be sufficiently long that the inflamable air or olefiant gas pro-
duced when the apparatus is put to work may pass thro' it into a vessel for
its purification, and from thence into a gazometer or air holder. These may
be made on any of those plans at present in use for the coal gas, only that for
my method they may be smaller and less costly.
.
The mode of producing gas with my apparatus, from the above-mentioned
substances, is as follows:-The pipes or tubes A and B are to be so fixed in
any common fire or furnace, constructed for the purpose, that the middle
portions of them can be kept at a uniform red heat. The vessel C is to be
placed outside the fire, and if the pipes or tubes A and B are arranged
as in Fig. 1 it must be below the furnace bars; but if the pipes A, B, are
ranged as in Fig. 2 and 3, then the vessel C must be placed outside the fire, in
any convenient place or manner; and as the number, form, and position of

page_text: these pipes may be altered so as to suit different purposes or substances, the
position of the vessel C must be adapted to such change. When the pipes or
tubes A, B, are red-hot, the vessel F may be filled with one of the substances
above enumerated. If the substance used requires heat to render it fluid, then
the vessel F must be so placed as to receive sufficient heat from the fire. On
opening the cock or valve D a small quantity of the fluid in F runs down into
the hot pipe or tube A; here it is partially converted into the proper gas, which
passes with the vapour through B, which being likewise red-hot the whole is
converted into gas, which passes through the tube G into the gazometer or air
holder, from whence it may be distributed by the usual method to the different
burners. The gas will be produced rapidly or slowly in proportion to the
supply of fluid from the vessel F, and this may be exactly regulated by the
cock or valve D. The carbonaceous matter or ashes which collect on the inside
of the pipes A, B, may be easily removed from the opening E, in the vessel C;
and if more fluid is suffered to pass thro' the valve or cock D than is converted
into gas, it will be collected in the vessel C.
As the apparatus may be made of any size, and as the different parts of it
may be varied for different situations or circumstances, no scale is necessary
for the Drawings; but the principle of it is clearly and fully explained by
them.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Taylor, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the First day of August, in the year of our Lord