An Improved Appliance for Intimately Mixing and Spraying Water and Kerosene or similar Liquid Hydrocarbons.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 7th Oct., 1896-Accepted, 7th Nov., 1896
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
An Improved Appliance for Intimately Mixing and Spraying Water
and Kerosene or similar Liquid Hydrocarbons.
I, WILLIAM SIDNEY WILLIAMS of Leeds Street, Doncaster, in the Colony of
Victoria, Fruit Grower, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement :-
The object of my invention is to provide an improved apparatus for spraying fruit
bearing trees, vegetables or other vegetation with water and kerosene or similar
oleaginous liquids. Though kerosene or other liquid hydrocarbons have long been
recognised as the most effective agents for the destruction of the disease germs which
infest such vegetation yet hitherto no economical and successful apparatus as herein
described has been devised for uniting this liquid with water and of discharging the
mixture upon the leaves, stems, and bark that require such treatment. A variety of
methods, principally chemical have been adopted. One of the most popular of these
was the preparation of an emulsion composed of various ingredients which demanded
not only time and care in their preparation but also when prepared a means of
agitating them prior to discharge. But with my invention the work in connection.
with boiling the water and of measuring and adding the other ingredients thereto is
entirely dispensed with and by mechanical means I produce a spraying mixture
which is composed only of water and a liquid hydrocarbon and which therefore
entails neither expense nor labour in its preparation. In addition to the foregoing
advantages my mixture may without discontinuing the operation be varied in its
strength.
My invention consists of an apparatus for intimately mixing water and kerosene
or other hydrocarbons by mechanically subjecting them to pressure and this is best
done by a force pump. This force pump instead of having one suction pipe is
provided with two. One of these suction pipes drawing water and the other kerosene
or other similar liquids. On both of these pipes is a non return valve and on the
oil suction pipe is also a regulating valve. By operating the pump and adjusting
this regulating valve I have discovered that a liquid is liberated from the discharge
pipe of the sprayer which consists of both water and kerosene intimately mixed.
My experiments which have extended over several months assure me that a perfect
amalgamation of the water and the kerosene must take place in the pump cylinder
when these liquids are drawn in and subjected to pressure. Though the oil
(by reason of its lighter specific gravity) may reassert its buoyancy on liberation
from the nozzle of the sprayer, yet I find that every leaf upon which the spray falls
is evenly covered over the whole of its face with the kerosone or other oil even
though I may reduce the proportion of the oil drawn into the pump cylinder down
to the lowest amount which will prove effective. Though the water may gather
in globules and fall off the leaf yet the oil remains as before said as a film over the
whole of the leaf's surface. Though I use water under pressure as a vehicle by
which the atomised kerosene is conveyed to the germ laden leaves yet my invention
may be better understood on reference to the accompanying drawing which represents
the pump with which my discovery was made.
This pump is a two cylinder force pump with ram plungers an air vessel common
to both and a spraying discharge pipe from each side of the same. Though in the
design illustrated the kerosene is conducted into one cylinder only of the pump yet
it may if deemed advisable be communicated with equal advantage to both of them.

page_text: The pump is attached to the top of a barrel in which the water is stored and to the
side of the barrel is secured the reservoir in which the oil is contained. The barrel
may either be conveyed in a cart or carried on wheels. On further reference to the
drawing it will be seen that the barrel A containing the water is surmounted by a
double cylindered pump B having a common air vessel K. In the water suction
pipe C is the non return valve I which prevents the back flow of the water into the
water barrel. To the side or any other portion of this barrel is fixed the oil reservoir D
into which the oil is entered through the charging hole J. From this reservoir
is led the oil suction pipe E. As shewn in the drawing there is only one kerosene
suction pipe for the two pump cylinders. But though I find by my experiments
and actual use that such an arrangement answers admirably yet the same effect will
be produced by attaching one or more oil suction pipes to each pump cylinder. On
the oil suction pipe or pipes is the non return valve F and regulating valve G. By
this valve G the supply of kerosene is regulated so that the spray discharged through
the discharge pipo L and the nozzle H may contain one tenth to one fortieth (more
or less) of kerosene for the whole of the liquid discharged.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is.-
An improved apparatus for intimately mixing and spraying water and kerosene
or similar liquid hydro-carbons, consisting of water and oil chambers and a two
cylinder force pump provided with a common air vessel and with water suction
pipes having a non return valve thereon and an oil suction pipe or pipes having
non return and regulating valves as herein before described and as illustrated in the
drawing.
Dated this 14th day of August 1896.
J. SIDNEY CRITCHLEY,
Agent.