IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS
Year: 1882

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Alfred Stephan at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 30th September 1882.
JOHN ALFRED STEPHAN of the City of Worcester
AND APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER "
"
IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS
To obtain motive power I place within a close vessel which I call a generator an
acid say hydrochloric acid and a metal capable of being acted upon by such acid
say tin
The gas and vapour generated in the generator is led off by a pipe and is
conducted into a second vessel which I call the condenser. The condenser is
partially filled with the same acid solution as that which is placed in the
generator-the end of the pipe which conveys the gas and vapour into the
generator is made to dip somewhat into the liquid. The hydrogen gas collecting
in the upper part of the condenser is led off from it by a pipe and a portion of the
gas so led off is burnt and utilized for heating the generator.
not
The chemical action going on in the generator is thereby greatly accelerated.
The acid vapours which are liquified and collected in the condenser are conducted
back into the generator either by a simple overflow pipe if the generator
being worked under high pressure or if being worked under pressure it is returned
to it by a pump or injector-in this way the level of liquid in the generator and
condenser is always maintained uniform. At one side of the condenser is a cistern
or trough open at the top-the condenser communicates with this cistern through
openings in the side of the condenser near the bottom. The cistern is thus always
filled with liquid from the condenser. As by the condensation of vapour from the
generator the liquid in the condenser gets more and more charged with tin-the
tin can from time to time or continuously be extracted therefrom by immersing
plates of zinc in the cistern or trough above mentioned-the tin is then deposited
in a metallic state upon the zinc whilst the acid is liberated and goes back to the
generator-the metallic tin collected upon the plates of zinc can in like manner be
from time to time collected from them and returned to the generator to be again
used for generating gas therein.
Various ways may be adopted for obtaining power by the generation of gas in
the manner above described. One way is to employ so much of the hydrogen gas

page_text: as is not burnt and utilized for heating the generator as a combustible gas for
obtaining power in an explosive gas engine.
Or the generator might be worked under pressure and the gases and vapour
proceeding therefrom be utilized for working an ordinary motive power engine
before the gases are passed into the condenser.
Preferably I cause the hydrogen after it has passed from the condenser to be
exploded together with atmospheric air in a chamber the lower end of which is open
to a passage or chamber filled with water-this same passage or chamber has also
communicating with it the lower end of a cylinder-in this cylinder is a piston
which rests upon the surface of the water. When gas is exploded in the first
mentioned chamber water is forced, from the water passage up into the cylinder
and raises the piston therein. From the piston rod of the piston motion. is
communicated by a connecting rod and crank to a shaft and so gives to this shaft
a revolving motion.
By a similar arrangement of apparatus motive power can be obtained from the
gases and vapours issuing from the generator and before they are passed into the
condenser the gases and vapours. being in this case alternately introduced into an
expansible vessel immersed in the water passage (or a chamber in connection with
it) and allowed to escape therefrom to the condenser. The same arrangements of
apparatus are also applicable for obtaining motive power from any gas or vapour
under pressure or from the explosion of gases or vapours.