and other Fluids, and to Apparatus therefor.
Year: 1886

page_text: and other Fluids, and to Apparatus therefor.
I, FRIEDRICH LUX, of Ludwigshafen-on-the-Rhine, in the Kingdom of Bavaria
Empire of Germany, 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:―
This invention relates to an improved method of separating liquid and solid
bodies from gases and other fluids, and to improved apparatus for carrying the said
method into effect.
The methods heretofore adopted for mechanically separating from gases liquid
bodies (such as tar and liquid ammonia from illuminating gas) or solid bodies
(such as the non gaseous parts or smoke from blast furnace-gases) were based
either, and generally upon the principle of uniformly reducing the velocity of the
gaseous currents which, for the purpose, were passed through suitable apparatus of
large sectional area so as to allow the said bodies to follow the laws of gravity and
thus to precipitate, or as lately employed upon the principle of concussion of the
gases that is to say of causing the gaseous current to move forward with uniform
velocity, and in its passage to impinge against fixed obstructions.
The improved method as compared with the methods heretofore employed is
based upon the principle of continuously or repeatedly strangling or throttling
and expanding or widening the gaseous current forced forward with a positive
movement, and consists in dividing the said current into several distinct streams
which are passed through a system of chambers preferably arranged adjacent to
each other and enclosed by continuous walls, the shape of which is such as to
continually change the sectional area in the direction of the current so that thereby
the velocity of the said current is alternately increased and reduced.
The gas moving through the wider part of the chambers increases its velocity
considerably as it is approaching the point of the narrowest sectional area, in con-
sequence whereof, and of the gaseous current being throttled at this narrowest
point, the liquid or solid bodies suspended in said current will be exposed to, and
undergo, violent shocks or concussions, partly by being driven against each other,
and partly by impinging against the continuous walls of the said chambers limiting
laterally the expansion of the gaseous current.

page_text: The agglomerations thus formed, will have sufficient time in the wider parts
following directly upon the said narrowest sectional areas of the chamber, to
precipitate and thus to part from the gas as it is moving on with reduced velocity.
The same mode of operation will take place in every chamber of the system of
chambers opened for the passage of the gas. The number of repetitions of the said
operations in each chamber, that is the length of each chamber, will depend on the
facility with which the respective bodies will separate from the gas and the latter
thus be purified.
In some cases, in order to still more increase the said concussive action, a plate
(preferably flat) may be arranged within the said wider divisions of each chamber
between each two of the narrowest-or the inlet and outlet points of each wider
division, and in a normal direction to the gaseous current, so that the latter after
being throttled and expanded again, will strike against and then pass around said
plate, sufficient intermediate space being left open for the latter purpose between
the edges of the plate and the inner surfaces of the chamber.
An apparatus particularly well adapted for practically carrying into effect the
afore-described method especially in purifying illuminating gas, is shown in the
accompanying drawings in which.
Figure 1 is a horizontal sectional view of the apparatus, and,
Figure 2 a vertical section of the front or inlet part of the same.
A designates a closed box within which the plates a of corrugated sheet metal
are arranged vertically, so that the gas entering the said box from one end, is
compelled to take its way through the several distinct chambers formed by the
said corrugated plates. The gas, from the feed-conduit x, enters the space of the
box A before the slides d, which allow of being moved by means of their fixed
threaded nuts m, the threaded rods n and the bevel-gear o rotated by hand-wheel p,
and which, in the position shown in the drawings, are adjusted so that only three
of the said chambers are opened to the entrance and passage of the gas.
bb designate the narrowest points through which the gaseous current in each
chamber passes with increased velocity, and between each two of which there is
always a wider division within which the velocity of the expanding current is
reduced again. In the drawings, said widened division is provided with the vertical
flat plate c against which the gaseous current will strike and which thus will assist
in parting the said liquid bodies from the fluid current. In the instance shown, the
gas will leave the box A at y while the liquid bodies separated therefrom and
precipitated, will after reaching a certain height at the bottom of the said box, run
over the over-flow plate A¹ and pass out at 2.
Larger quantities of gas being produced and entering through the feed pipe x,
the slide-plates d are moved farther apart, so that more chambers are opened to the
gas. The front and rear plates to which the ends of the corrugated sheets a are
attached, are cut away sufficiently to allow the gaseous current to enter each of the
opened chambers in front and leave it at the opposite end.
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
First. The method of purifying gases by separating therefrom the liquid or solid
bodies or both which they contain, the said method consisting in alternately
strangling or throttling and expanding the gas as it flows between continuous
rigid walls alternately approaching and receding from each other, so that by means
of the continued or repeated throttling and expanding actions the velocity of the
positively moving gaseous current is alternately increased and reduced, which will
cause the bodies suspended in the gas to undergo concussions, against each other as
well as against the said rigid walls, and thereby to agglomerate, and then, after
thus being agglomerated, to follow the laws of gravity and part from the gas by
precipitation, substantially as, and for the purposes, set forth.

page_text: Second. Apparatus for carrying into practice the method claimed in the first
claiming clause the said apparatus consisting of a closed box (A) within which
corrugated plates (a) are arranged vertically, so that every two adjacent plates
will form a chamber consisting of a multiple number of widened divisions, the
latter being provided or not between each two adjacent points of the narrowest
sectional area (b), with surfaces (c) not in contact with the inner surfaces of the
said plates, substantially as, and for the purpose, specified.
Dated this neth L... Ր .
11000
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C.,
Agents for the Applicant.