MANUFACTURING AND PURIFYING INFLAMMABLE GASES BY THE ADMISSION AND ADMIXTURE OF ATMOSPHERIC AIR
Year: 1824

page_text: DRO
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SIMEON
BROADMEADOW, of the Town of Abergavenny, in the County of Monmouth,
Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent, under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the nineteenth day of January in the fourth year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Simeon Broadmeadow, His especial licence, that I, the said Simeon
Broadmeadow, my cñors, adñññors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Simeon Broadmeadow, my exors, adñiors, or assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term of
years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my
Invention of "MANUFACTURING AND PURIFYING INFLAMMABLE GASES BY THE
ADMISSION AND ADMIXTURE OF ATMOSPHERIC AIR;" in which said Letters Patent
there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said Simeon Broadmeadow, by
an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and
ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High
Court of Chancery, within four calendar months next and immediately after

page_text: the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same,
reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Simeon Broadmeadow, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
as regards the manufacturing of inflaminable gases, doth consist in exhausting
or drawing the gas either directly or indirectly from the retort, oven, or other
apparatus where the gas is generated by means of an air-exhausting appa-
ratus, (the exhauster of which may either be in the form that is usually called
a pair of bellows, or in the form of what is usually called an air pump, or
any other convenient form of air exhauster, placed between the retort, oven,
or other gas generator and the gasometer, and the effect of which is to draw
the gas from the retort, oven, or other gas generator, without the waste usually
incurred by the escape of gas, when the mouthpiece or lid of the retorts now
in use is pulled off. And I do hereby further declare, that the nature of my
said Invention, as regards the purifying of inflammable gasos, doth consist in
the introduction of a certain portion of atmospheric air into the gasometer by
means of the said exhausting apparatus, when the gasometer shall have been
partly filled with gas. And in further compliance with the said proviso, I, the
.said Simeon Broadmeadow, do hereby describe the manner in which my said
Invention may be performed by the following description thereof, reference
being had to the Drawing annexed, and the letters marked thereon (that is
to say):-
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
A, A, represent two brick ovens, each oven being seven feet by five feet in the
clear; B, B, are the 2 fire doors for the ovens; C, C, are two small cisterns or
receiving chambers about ten inches square to supersede the necessity of an
hydraulic main; D, D, are two pipes sloping downwards from the cisterns C, C,
. in order that the tar which may be condensed in the passage of the gas from the
oven to the cisterns may run down again into the oven to be consumed; E, E,
are the gas pipes, leading from the top of the oven; G, G, G, G, are a series of
4-inch pipes, leading from the cisterns C, C, to the condenser; H is the con-
denser J is a pipe, leading from the top of the condenser to the exhauster of
the exhausting apparatus, which exhauster in this drawing is a simple pair of
bellows, the pipe J being attached to them at the part usually called the valve
or air hole; X, which I call the exhauster, is a pair of bellows on the ordinary
principle, and, according to the proportions above described, should be, in in
order to correspond, about 2 feet long and 16 inches wide at the widest part;
proceeding from the snout S, is a pipe P, which leads to the purifier and thence to

page_text: the gasometer or gasholder; N, N, are two plugs, fitted into plug holes made
in the doors of the ovens, for the purpose of regulating the exhaustion, as
herein-after described.
Having now described the various parts of my apparatus, I will proceed to
describe the manner of applying the same to the purposes of my said Inven-
tion (that is to say):-The fires being lighted and the ovens charged, gas will of
course be generated, and the plugs N, N, must be removed from the plug
holes as soon as sufficient gas is generated to cause an escape of it at the plug
holes; the bellows, which in this case I call the exhauster, must be set to
work either by hand or otherwise, and the effect will be that the gas gene-
rated will be subtracted so fast from the oven that it will prevent its escape at
the plug-hole, and force it into the condenser much more readily than its own
expansive powers would propel it there. When eight parts of gas have by
means of the exhauster been drawn from the ovens and forced into the
gosometer, the fires should be extinguished, the doors of the oven should be
thrown open, and the exhauster continued to be worked, when it stands to
reason that atmospheric air only will be drawn into the exhauster and forced
into the gasometer. This latter operation should be continued till one part of
atmospheric air be forced into the gasometer to mix with the eight parts of,
previously forced into it; and this admission or admixture of atmospheric air
with the gas in the gasometer I have found greatly to purify the said gas and
render it more serviceable for purposes of illumination. Now, whereas the
mode herein-before described of exhausting the gas generator, whether such
be an oven or retort or other apparatus, enables those adopting the same to
make use of the ovens herein-before described, or of retorts of a strength much
inferior to those now used, and in fact of a greater variety of gas generators
than has hitherto been adapted to this purpose, since the exhaustion which is
effected precludes the necessity of making the retorts air-tight or hermetically
sealing them as heretofore.
gas
Nevertheless I do not claim exclusive right to the said ovens, even as
adapted to the herein-before described purpose, but only to the said Invention
of exhausting the gas generators, which enables such ovens and others to be
used, and an air-exhausting apparatus, as aforesaid, situated as aforesaid, for
drawing gas either directly or indirectly from the retort, oven, or other gene-
rator, and forcing it according to its situation either into the purifier or
gasometer, and also for admixing air with the gas in the gasometer as aforo-
said, being to the best of my knowledge and belief entirely new and never
before used in these Kingdoms, 1 do hereby declare this to be my Speci-
fication of the same, and that I do verily believe that this my said Specification

page_text: doth in all respects fully and without reserve or disguise comply with the
proviso in my said in part recited Letters Patent contained; wherefore I do
hereby claim to maintain exclusive right and privilege to the same.
In witness whereof, I, the said Simeon Broadmeadow, have hereunto set
hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and twenty-four.
my
ILARVEY.
SIMEON (L.s.) BROADMEADOW.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Eighteenth day of May, in the
year of our Lord 1824, the aforesaid Simeon Broadmeadow came before our
said Lord the King in his Chancery and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained and specified in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Eighteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and twenty-four.