IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED TO PRODUCE INFLAMMABLE GAS FROM MINERAL OR OTHER OILS, MODIFICATIONS OF WHICH APPARATUS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO BE EMPLOYED IN THE HEATING OF WATER OR THE GENERATION OF STEAM
Year: 1870

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Clayton and John Taylor
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition,
on the 28th February 1870.
We, THOMAS CLAYTON, Mechanic, and JOHN TAYLOR, Merchant, both
of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED TO PRODUCE
INFLAMMABLE GAS FROM MINERAL OR OTHER OILS, MODIFICATIONS OF WHICH
APPARATUS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO BE EMPLOYED IN THE HEATING OF WATER OR
THE GENERATION OF STEAM," to be as follows:-
Our Invention relates more particularly to the manufacture or pro-
duction from rock oil, mineral oil, creosote, or other similar or suitable
descriptions of oil of an inflammable gas suitable to be employed in lieu
of the ordinary coal gas. In certain forms of apparatus which have been
heretofore employed the oil has been permitted to flow into a retort,
which retort has been heated by the same or similar means as are
employed in the manufacture of coal gas, and it has been found that a
portion of the oil has not been sufficiently decomposed, and such portion
of the oil has condensed in the conducting pipes and passages. Now
our Invention has for its object to enable the gas generator to be heated

page_text: by means of the gas generated, and thereby to obtain a more portable
apparatus and to lessen the amount of attention required, and also to
obtain a more perfect decomposition of the oil than in the case of the
apparatus herein-before mentioned. In order to obtain the requisite
amount of heat we cause the gas which is to be used to heat the gas
generator to mix with a current or blast of air so that the mixture of gas
and air may issue from the pipe or burner under pressure, and may be
directed in a burning state against the surface to be heated. The said
surface is by preference formed as a hollow truncated cone projecting
into the interior of the gas generator, and the said surface is surrounded
with a conical envelope so that an annular space is left between the cone
and the said envelope. The flame is directed into the interior of the said
cone, which thereby becomes highly heated, and the oil is permitted to
flow through a supplying tube into the gas generator and on to the
crown of the heated cone, and is converted into gas, and in order to
prevent the oil from flowing down the surface of the cone too quickly
we prefer to cause the said oil to flow in a spiral direction down the said
cone. As the said gas is compelled to traverse the space between the
aforesaid envelope and the highly heated cone before escaping into the body
of the generator the decomposition of the oil is rendered more certain.
The gas is allowed to flow into a gasholder either with or without
having flowed through a scrubber or other purifier, and in the case of
small apparatus the flow of oil into the generator is regulated by the
rising and falling of the said gasholder. The aforesaid blast of air may
be supplied by a blowing apparatus actuated by means of a spring or
weight requiring to be wound up at intervals or by other suitable
means according to the size of the apparatus. In large sizes of
apparatus more than one jet of mixed air and gas may be employed to
heat the gas generator, and more than one cone may be fitted to each
generator. When employing a modification of the said apparatus in the
heating of water or the generation of steam we form the heating surface
of the water heater or steam generator or a portion thereof of one or
more of the aforesaid cones, and we apply heat to the interior surfaces of
the said cones in the same or in a similar manner as in the case of the
gas generator herein-before described.