A NEW PROCESS AND IMPROVED MEANS FOR CARBURETTING AIR AND RENDERING IT EITHER EXPLOSIVE OR ILLUMINATIVE AT WILL
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Edgar Edmonds at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 9th March 1880. A communication from
abroad by "La Société des Moteurs Lambrigot," of 17, Boulevard Saint Martin,
Paris, France.
EDGAR EDMONDS, of the Firm of Robertson, Brooman, and Company, of 166, Fleet
Street, in the City of London, Patent Agents. "A NEW PROCESS AND IMPROVED
MEANS FOR CARBURETTING AIR AND RENDERING IT EITHER EXPLOSIVE OR
ILLUMINATIVE AT WILL." (A communication from abroad by "La Société des
Moteurs Lambrigot," of 17, Boulevard Saint Martin, Paris, France.)
This process for carburetting air and rendering it either explosive or illuminative
at will consists in placing a hydro-carburet in contact with a body heated to a
temperature sufficient to vaporize to hydro-carburet immediately, and in mingling
the vapours thus produced with the air which it is desired to render carburetted.
In the present Invention the heated body generally preferred for vapourising the
hydro-carburet employed is a metallic plate, and although the Invention is not
limited to a plate for this purpose, yet in the present Specification the words
"hot plate" will be used to indicate the body on which the hydro-carburet is
vapourized.
It will be easily understood that if carburetted hydrogen is caused to arrive on
to a plate heated to a temperature sufficient to immediately reduce it into vapours,
and if at the same time air is conducted on to this hot plate, which air absorbs
these vapours and intermingles itself with them, this air will then at once be found
to be carburetted.
The mixture or compound of air and hydro-carburet vapours thus obtained will
be rendered either explosive or illuminative at will, according to the greater or less
proportion of the hydro carburet vapours mixed with a given quantity of air.
It can consequently be immediately utilized providing it is conducted either to the
cylinder of the explosive engine which it is to work, or to the burners' where it is
required to illumine, through tubes or pipes in which it is kept from contact with
the exterior air, which would deteriorate it. These tubes or pipes are provided
with cheeks and wire gauze for ensuring the thorough mixture of the air and the
vapours, and to prevent all possibility of communication of flame from the mixture
to the interior of the apparatus.
For the formation of the required mixture the flow or arrival (and consequently
the vapcurization) of the hydro-carburet on the hot plate will take place during

page_text: the whole time of the arrival or flow on to the said plate of the air to be carburetted,
so that all the parts of this air successively encounter the nascent vapours which
transform them into an explosive or illuminative compound.
Pumps, pistons, bellows, or any other means are employed to conduct the hydro-
carburet by one or more tubes or other means on to the hot plate. It is conducted
'either from above to below, horizontally, obliquely, or from below to above. It
may also be conducted to the plate with greater or less pressure, and if necessary
projecting it against an obstacle to divide it, rendering it easier to vaporize.
The action of these various appliances is regulated in such a way as to conduct in
a gradual manner on to the hot plate the exact quantity of hydro carburet necessary
for these vapours to "carburet" to the desired degree all the air arriving or flowing
during the given time on to the hot plate.
This quantity of air is exactly regulated in proportion to that of the hydro
carburet by means of openings of a certain size through which it passes on to the
hot plate.
By this process not only petroleum and volatile oils, but also thick oils, which
are very economic, may be utilized by giving a higher or lower temperature to the
hot plate, according to the nature of the hydro carburet to be vapourized.
Now supposing that it is required to work a gas engine by means of the present
process, and that the cylinder of this engine sucks or draws in at each stroke of the
piston two litres (or 2000 centimetres cube) of explosive mixture or compound
composed, for example, of 97 per cent. of air (or 1940 centimetres cube) and of
3 per cent. (60 centimetres cube) of hydro-carburet vapours, it will only be
-
necessary,-
1. To conduct the exact quantity of hydro carburet necessary to produce 60
centimetres cube of vapours on to the hot plate, and
2. To regulate the flow or arrival of this fixed quantity of hydro-carburet on to
the hot plate in such manner that its vapourization is effected in a regular manner
so as to "carburet" all the parts of the 1940 centimetres cube of air which
sucked or drawn in by the piston pass on to the hot plate and mix with the
vapours which arise there.
As soon as the cylinder of the engine charged with this mixture is closed the
emission of the hydro carburet on to the hot plate and the draught of air will
cease.
They both recommence together, or nearly so, at a given time.
As before said they both recommence together, or nearly so, because as the
vapourization of the hydro carburet is not instantaneous it is better that its
emission on to the hot plate should take place a little before the flow or arrival
of the air, which latter should meet the vapours already formed, by which it is
carburetted.
All these arrangements are so easy to effect by means of the motion of the
engine that it is unnecessary to explain them more fully.
For illuminating, the air is drawn by the combustion at the burners. The
piston, pump, or bellows, may be worked by any kind of motion, or by a weight.
They may be replaced by a nieter.
The air which is to absorb the hydro carburet vapours on the hot plate may be
heated by any suitable means, and when an explosive engine is being worked the
air may be heated by means of the heat produced by the explosions, either by
causing it to circulate in tubes wound around the cylinder, or its jacket, or passed
through the water reservoir if there be one, by utilizing the residual or spent gases
from the combustion, or by combining these various means.
Also when an explosive engine is being worked, the plate on which the hydro
carburet is vapourized may be heated by means of the residual or spent gases from
the explosions, the temperature of which at their exit from the cylinder is generally
more than 300 degrees. These economical means of heating are available at the
beginning of the working of an explosive engine. It is therefore necessary to heat
the plate by a lamp or other means only during the very short time required to

page_text: bring it to the temperature necessary for the vapourization of the hydro carburet
employed.
These various means of heating the air and the plate constitute an excellent
utilization of the heat lost or wasted, and are claimed in this Specification.
As regards the hot plate the following modifications are included in this
Invention:-
:-
Making it of any shape whatever, cylindrical, spherical, or other shape, regular
or irregular, as well as that of a plate properly so called.
Making it of any metal, placing it in a horizontal, inclined, or vertical position,
making it any thickness and specially large enough to store up a certain quantity
of caloric ready to instantly replace that which is absorbed by the vapourization of
the hydro carburet; roughening or corrugating its surface by grooving, filing, or
any other means.
This rugosity, which is specially insisted upon, has the double advantage of
rendering the vapourization of the hydro-carburet more rapid by the augmentation
of the heated surfaces, and also to oppose itself to the spheroidical state. This is
also prevented either by regulating the temperature of the hot plate so as to be
under that at which it is produced in the hydro-carburet employed, or by placing
above and at a short distance (about to 2 millimetres) from the hot plate another
plate, which is intended to flatten or crush the drops of hydro-carburet which cause
the spheroidical state. This upper plate is, if required, pierced with openings or
spaces, so that the vapours which form under it may rise freely and mix with the
air they are to "carburet."
It may, if required, have a circular or other motion, and it may also be heated.
And, finally, it is well understood several hot plates, pumps, pistons, bellows,
meters, and other appliances may, if necessary, be employed.
Having now made these reservations, two apparatus for carburetting air by the
means indicated in the present Specification will now be described, but only as
examples, without limitation to these arrangements, which may be modified, and
others may be employed.
According to one method orifices are made in the apparatus for the introduction
of the air to be carburetted, which is conducted to a roughened or grooved hot
plate through channels formed by partitions.
The air in passing over the hot plate intermingles with the hydro carburet
vapours which are conducted on to the grooved hot plate through a tube, whose
interior diameter is very small.
This air and the vapours are compelled to mix intimately with each other by
means of "checks." They are at once carburetted.
For the purpose of thoroughly effecting the mingling or compound of the air and
hydro-carburet vapours before entering into an explosive engine or into an
illuminating apparatus to which the present apparatus may be applied, a tube or
cylinder is fixed on to the base. plate of the apparatus, in which tube or
cylinder are fitted two other checks pierced respectively with holes. After passing
through these checks the mixture is screened by means of wire gauzes separated
one from another by wires one and a half millimetres in thickness.
The carburetted compound then passes into the engine or the illuminating
apparatus by a distributing tube.
The upper part of the tube or cylinder fixed on the base plate is closed in by
means of a washer pierced with a small hole which allows the carburetted air and
the hydro-carburet vapours which may be formed above the distributing tube to
escape so as to avoid a counter pressure which would injure the proper working of
the apparatus.
When the apparatus is applied to an explosive engine the spent gases from the
combustion (as before described) are utilized to heat the grooved or corrugated
plate, and for this purpose openings are provided in the plate which are in direct
communication with the exhaust or escape pipe of the explosive gas, the tempera.
ture of which may be ascertained by means of a thermometer attached to the hot

page_text: plate. The under or sole plate is fixed to the upper plate by violin screws (vis a
violon), or by any other suitable means.
In an apparatus specially applicable to explosive engines or motors the air is
conducted on to the hot plate by introduction pipes or tubes arranged all round a
cylindrical trunk piece, but at different angles so that the air introduced is caused to
strike the plate at points more or less removed from the centre.
This arrangement of the introduction or inlet pipes for causing the air to strike
the plate obliquely is for the purpose of causing the air to remain a greater length
of time in contact with the hydro carburet vapours, and thoroughly mix with
them.
The hydro-carburet is conducted onto the hot plate through a tube. The
carburetted air then passes through wire gauzes, each separated by wires one and a
half millimetres in thickness, and from thence into a tube or cylinder constructed in
the same way as that described in the preceding apparatus; finally, the carburetted
air passes into the engine or motor by another tube.
When the explosion is produced the gases resulting from the explosion escape by
another tube, pass through orifices in the hot plate, thereby heating this plate, and
from there into the atmosphere by another tube.
The hot plate, which in this case is cylindrical, rests on a rectangular piece
provided with two tubes, to which pipes are fixed. This rectangular piece is
pierced with an opening in the centre, the diameter of which is sufficiently large to
leave an annular space or chamber around the hot plate.
This hot plate is provided with a tube, in which a thermometer is placed.
The introduction of air into the apparatus is regulated by means of tubes or
pipes of gradually decreasing diameters that they may fit into each other like a
telescope.
It is understood that checks and any other obstacle may be placed in the
interior of the space in which the hydrocarburets are vapourized so as to ensure the
most perfect mixture of the introduced air with the hydrocarburet.vapours.