Improved Method and Means for Igniting Combustible or Inflammable Gases and Vapors.
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 20th July, 1898-Accepted, 12th Nov., 1898
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION (AMENDED).
Improved Method and Means for Igniting Combustible or
Inflammable Gases and Vapors.
A communication by DR. ANGELO SIMONINI, a subject of the Emperor of Austria-
Hungary, at present residing at 184, Pulaski Street, Brooklyn, in the State of
New York, United States of America, Chemist.
I, WILLIAM PHILLIPS THOMPSON, F.C.S., M.I.M.E., of the Agency for Foreign
Patent Solicitors, 6, Lord Street, Liverpool, and 6, Bank Street, Manchester, both in
the County of Lancaster, 118, New Street, Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
and 322, High Holborn, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, 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 pertains to that class of apparatus which are designed to effect the
ignition of combustible or inflammable gases and vapors, spontaneously upon the
turning on of the gas or vapor, or upon bringing it into contact with the lighting
apparatus.
It has been known since the discovery made by Döbreiner in 1825, that platinum,
either in the spongy form, or in the highly divided state in which it is known as
platinum black, possesses the remarkable power of condensing and absorbing gases,
being capable, for instance, of absorbing over one hundred times its own volume of
oxygen. This peculiar property gives it the great oxidizing capacity which long
since suggested the employment of platinum in one or the other of the forms
mentioned, as a means of igniting gases, Döbreiner having himself produced the well
known hydrogen lamp, and many others having later applied the principle to
ordinary gas burners.
Still more recently, numerous attempts have been made so to utilize such oxidizing
or oxygen-transinitting properties of platinum as to hasten the lighting action and
obviate the serious practical difficulties encountered in the attempted general use of
such lighters for ordinary illuminating gas. Prominent among these difficulties may
be noted the relatively slow action of such a lighter, and the consequent escape of
comparatively large and often dangerous quantities of gas before lighting could be
effected. Another serious obstacle to the general use of lighters of this class has been
the uncertainty of action, particularly in damp weather or in places where the
atmosphere contains considerable moisture. Prolonged use also shows material
deterioration in the properties mentioned of the platinum or platinum preparations
heretofore used, particularly when retained in the flame of the gas or vapor.
It has been ascertained by careful and prolonged experiment that certain
compositions of matter employing platinum as an element will, at normal or
comparatively low temperature, take up sufficient oxygen to be rendered moderately
incandescent, or glowing, and under favourable circumstances sufficiently so to ignite
gases and vapors; while other compositions, though incapable of absorbing oxygen at

page_text: like temperatures, take. it up with greater avidity when heated than do those
compositions which are affected at normal or relatively low temperatures. By
combining in a lighter two of such compositions as are hereinafter described, one can
be utilised to heat the other and thus the latter prepared for acquiring such a degree
of incandescence as shall ensure the lighting of gases or vapors under all conditions of
actual use, and despite the deterioration which inevitably occurs in the first
preparation when subjected for prolonged periods to the action of the flame.
Forms of lighters both for incandescent gas mantles and for ordinary burners are
illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which—
Figure 1 is a perspective view of an incandescent mantle provided with a lighter;
Figure 2 a view illustrating the formation of said lighter;
Figure 3 an enlarged view of the webbing of one member of the lighter;
Figure 4 a view of a lighter in one form applied to a common gas burner;
Figure a view showing another form of the lighter applied to a common burner;
Figures 6 and 7 detail views of the lighter shown in Figure 5.
In preparing the improved lighters it has been found most convenient and
satisfactory in practice, to apply solutions of the active elements or agents to suitable
webbing, drying the same and afterwards ashing or burning out the webbing,
similarly to the plan usually pursued in preparing incandescence mantles. In some
cases it is convenient to introduce into or from the webbing of a thread having
incorporated into or spun with it a fine wire of platinum, or platinum alloy to give
strength and support to the webbing after ashing the same.
In thus preparing an improved lighter, two pieces of webbing, preferably of cotton,
are taken hereinafter named Nos. 1 and 2 one of which, the lower one advisedly, may
have the wire in its thread if desired.
The mode of making the lighter using wire in one of the webbings will first be
described.
Assuming that wire is used in one of the webbings, said webbing No. 1 will be
placed beneath the webbing No. 2 and made to act as a support for the latter, the
webbing No. 1 in such case being treated to produce the before mentioned initial
heating effect, and the webbing No. 2 being relied upon to ignite the gas.
The webbing No. 1, containing the wire, is first impregnated with an aqueous
solution of platinum and thorium, or of platinum and cerium, in the proportions of
from 60 to 40 per cent. of platinum and 40 to 60 per cent. of thorium; or of
60 to 40 per cent. of platinum and 40 to 60 per cent. of cerium; is then dried, and is
afterwards impregnated with a second solution which will contain thorium or cerium
according as one or the other is employed in the first solution; in other words, if the
first solution contains thorium,. then the second solution will likewise contain
thorium; and if the first solution contains cerium, then the second solution will also
contain cerium. The first solution will, in case wire-strengthened webbing be used,
consist of approximately one litre of water with from 500 to 750 grammes of the
platinum-thorium or platinum-cerium mixture before mentioned. If the platinum-
thorium solution is employed for the first impregnation, then a solution, made from
1 litre of water with 500 to 750 grammes of one of the salt mixtures or compounds
Nos. 1 to 9 hereinafter set forth will be used; but if the platinum-cerium solution be
used for the first impregnation, then a similar solution made from one of the salt
mixtures or compounds Nos. 10 to 14, hereinafter set forth, will be used for the second
impregnation, such solution being of the strength above indicated, or thereabout.
The following are the salt mixtures or compounds to be used in second solution for
webbing first impregnated with platinum-thorium solution :-
1. Thorium nitrate 30%-70% ; platinum chloride 70%-30%;
chloride 0.2% -2%; or
iridium
2. Thorium nitrate 30%-70%; platinum chloride 70%-30%; osmium chloride
02% 2% (osmiun in this combination is not volatile); or
3. Thorium nitrate 30%-70% %; platinum chloride 70%-30%; rhodium
chloride 0.2% −2% or

page_text: 4. Thorium nitrate 30%--70%; platinum chloride 70%-30% ; ruthenium
chloride 0.2% -2%; or
5. Thorium nitrate 30%-70%; platinum chloride 70%-30% ; palladium
chloride 0.2% -2%; or
6. Thorium nitrate 30%-70%; platinum chloride 70%-30%; neodymium nitrate
or chloride 0.2%-2%; or
7. Thorium nitrate 30%-70%; platinum chloride 70%-30%; praseodymium
nitrate or chloride 0·2%-2%; or
8. Thorium nitrate 30%-70%; platinum chloride 70%-30%; didymium nitrate
0.2%-2%; or
9. Thorium nitrate 30%-70%; platinum chloride 70%-30% ; cerium nitrate
0.2%-2%.
The following are the salt mixtures or compounds to be used in second solution for
webbing previously impregnated with piatinuin-cerium solution :-
10. Cerium nitrate 25%-75%; platinum chloride 75%-25% ; iridium chloride
0.2% 2% or
11. Cerium nitrate 25%-75%; platinum chloride 75%-25%; osmium chloride
0.2%-2%; or
12. Cerium nitrate 25%-75% ; platinum chloride 75%-25% %; ruthenium
chloride 0.2% 2%; or
13. Cerium nitrate 25%-75%; platinum chloride 75%-25%; rhodium chloride
0.2%-2%; or
14. Cerium nitrate 25%-75% %; platinum chloride 75%-25% ; palladium
chloride 0.2% -2%.
It will of course be understood that the above mixtures are to be made from salts
in which the platinum and cerium or platinum and thorium salts will jointly equal
100% and that such a proportion of these mixed salts are used in the final salt
mixtures or compounds as will with the percentage represented by the iridium
Osmium, rhodium salts or the like make up 100%.
It is immaterial whether neodymium, praseodymium cerium, or thorium are used
in the form of chloride or nitrate as chlorine and nitric acid will burn out.
The metals of the platinum group are always used as chlorides because it would be
very inconvenient to manufacture nitrates of these metals.
Rare earths like thorium oxide, neodymium oxide, praseodymium oxide,
eerium oxide are always used as nitrates because they are easier and cheaper to
obtain. Chlorides or nitrates of any of the elements already mentioned would
answer the purpose.
The foregoing solutions 1 to 14 are to be understood as the equivalents of one
another, subject to the condition noted, viz., that if the first impregnation be made
with a thorium solution the last must also be with a solution containing thorium; and
that if the first impregnation be with a cerium solution the last must likewise be with
a solution containing cerium.
A lighter made from any of the preparations above set forth is but slightly affected
by dampness when iridium, rhodium, or cerium is present in substantially the propor-
tion stated, the moisture being driven off in the form of a white vapor or mist, and
the webbing impregnated with the preparation beginning to glow promptly upon
the turning on of the gas, or immediately thereafter.
The addition of iridium, rhodium, ruthenium, neodymium or of any other
of the substances noted in the foregoing list, in the proportion of from 0.2% to 2%
materially increases the efficiency of the platinum.
Platinum is usually alloyed with about 5% of iridium to facilitate the drawing of
the metal into wire. The chemicals used in the first solution have a powerful action
upon the metal, roughening its surface, and attacking the iridium to such an extent as
to leave upon the surface of the wire a small percentage of iridium. For this reason the
first solution is devoid of iridium; otherwise the percentage of iridium in the final
deposit would be unduly great. The action and result are in some degree analogous
o that of a mordant and a dye in dyeing fabrics, the first impregnation preparing the

page_text: wire to better receive the deposit from the second solution, beside producing a more
extended surface for such deposit.
This my correspondent believes to be the correct explanation of the action, but
whatever may be the true theory, the result is improved by the second impregnation
when wire is used.
If webbing No. 1 be not provided with the wire, but be merely of cotton or other
vegetable fibre, then the first impregnation above described is omitted, and it is
dipped in, saturated or coated with a solution containing one of the compounds
numbered 1 to 14 in the foregoing list, without any previous or subsequent
treatment.
The preparation above set forth, whether involving one or two solutions or com-
pounds, becomes blackened when subjected to the heat necessary to ash the lighter
and the mantle. In itself, the webbing so ashed possesses little or no strength or
power of cohesion, but is very liable to fall to pieces under slight jar or vibration,
and the importance of providing some other support or strengthening device for it is
therefore evident.
While the wire serves this purpose measurably well there are other considerations
which render its use undesirable with this particular form of lighter, and these in some
cases outweigh the advantages incident to its use. It is found, for instance, that
where the mantle with which it is used makes contact with the wired webbing, the
inantle is very liable to be worn or broken through by such contact, and, as is well
known, such injury to the mantle generally results in the fracture of the enclosing
chimney within a short time.
While therefore the wire may be used, as above set forth, my correspondent does
not mean at all to restrict himself to its use, nor does he contemplate its
employment ordinarily, having found that the webbing No. 2, if placed beneath
the webbing No. 1, will afford an adequate support therefor under all ordinary
conditions.
When the unwired webbing is employed, the solution should be somewhat stronger
than in the case of the wired webbing, since but one impregnation will ordinarily
be made with the wireless webbing. A suitable strength will be one kilogramme of
the salt compound to one litre of water.
The webbing No. 2 is prepared by impregnating it with a solution of nitrate of
cerium, or nitrate of didymium, or nitrate of praseodymium, or nitrate of neodymium,
or with a mixture of thorium nitrate with one or more of the other nitrates named :-
cerium, didymium, praseodymium, or neodymium, with or without a very small
percentage of ruthenium and then ashing or burning it as before mentioned. A very
effective impregnating preparation consists of 92 per cent. of thorium nitrate,
per cent. of neodymium, and 4 per cent. of cerium nitrate, in a suitable quantity of
water, say 1 litre of water to 1 kilogramme of the salt compound. Ruthenium if
used should not exceed 0.2 of one per cent., and it is preferred that it be as low
as 01 of one per cent., and it is found, when used in this small quantity, to hasten
the lighting action.
4
The solution with which webbing No. is treated leaves a yellowish precipitate,
which under the heat employed in ashing the lighter, takes a brownish hue.
webbing so treated is materially stronger than the ashed webbing No. 1.
The
The webbings treated with the above-named solutions are additional to and may be
sewn or otherwise secured in the top of the mantle 3, or are made into a hood or
rosette if to be used with an ordinary burner, and are then ashed by the heat of a
Bunsen burner or other sufficient flame. The nitrates are thus converted into
oxides which fill the interstices and fibres of the webbing and present a very extended
surface for the absorption and condensation of oxygen. The lighter thus prepared
consisting of the two webbings, will be found highly efficient when placed in the path
or flow of hydrogen gas, carburetted hydrogen, hydrogen vapors and the like, mingled
with air, as in the case of the Bunsen burner used with the well known forms of
incandescent gas burners, or with the common gas burner, the flow of gas from which
mingles with the surrounding air, and carries the latter along with it.
The

page_text: webbing No. 1 speedily begins to glow, by reason of the absorption and condensation
of oxygen, while the webbing No. 2 is but little affected thereby, if at all, until the
heat of webbing No. 1 raises the temperature of the webbing No. 2, and renders it
capable of absorbing oxygen with far greater avidity, resulting in a brilliant incan-
descence of such webbing, and ensuring the speedy ignition of the gas.
The high efficiency of the second webbing my correspondent has found to be
attributable to the great capacity of neodymium, cerium, praseodymium, and
didymium oxide of absorbing oxygen from the atmosphere, condensing the same, and
transmitting it to other bodies.
The office and advantages of webbing No. 2 may be enumerated as follows: It
ensures the ignition of the gas or vapor and the production of a flame, even after
considerable deterioration of webbing No. 1; it ignites the gas in an incandescing
mantle without explosion, such as frequently or commonly occurs with some forms of
self-lighters heretofore used; it prevents the flashing back of the flame if the webbing
be of proper length, and avoids the rupture of the mantle which is very liable to
occur if a line of the self-lighting preparation be carried lengthwise down the mantle,
as has been done with some lighters heretofore used; the mantle retains its proper
form, which is apt to be lost in case the line of lighting material be extended down
its side, owing to the relatively different expansion and contraction of the portion
containing said line and the other portion of the mantle; and the lighter inade from
the two webbings as herein before described adds to the strength of the mantle.
The drawing shows the mantle 3 provided with a suspending loop or bail 4, such as
is commonly employed.
While webbing is deemed the most advantageous vehicle or support for the lighting
preparations, it is obvious that any other suitable holder or support may be used, and
that the preparations may be mixed in the form of pastes or moulded in blocks,
pellets, or the like so long as there be combined in such lighter separate from the
mantle to which it is applied two preparations as herein before mentioned and described
one having at the normal temperature an avidity for occluding gases and thereby
capable of becoming heated and the other possessing similar properties when its
temperature has been raised above the normal.
Instead of platinum chloride being employed in the solution for impregnating the
webbing No. 1, a solution may be employed containing palladium chloride, palladium
being a metal of the platinum group; and it is possible that other metals of the same
group may be thus employed to advantage, though platinum itself is deemed
preferable. The proportions in the case of palladium compounds may be, cerium
nitrate 25 to 75 per cent., and palladium chloride 75 to 25 per cent., with water in
the proportion of one litre to one kilogramine of the salt compound.
It has been above stated that wired webbing is found to cause a breaking or
wearing through of the mantle. This is apparently due to the fact that the
thorium of the mantle shrinks under prolonged heating, while the wired webbing
does not, and the mantle is thus caused to press with some force against the wired
webbing, even if there be no independent movement of the mantle and the lighter,
such as frequently occurs in fact.
By reason of the arched form given to the webbings, the supporting effect of the
webbing No. 2 is utilised to the greatest practicable degree. Either webbing or
both of them inay be doubled if desired, though this is not deemed necessary under
ordinary circumstances.
It is important that the percentage of iridium, rhodium, palladium, ruthenium or
the like, be not in excess of 2%, and it may be as low as 0.2% in the solution for
treating the webbing No. 1, for if used in a proportion greater or less than that
indicated, the effect becomes inappreciable.
It has been above intimated that the webbing No. 1 might in some cases serve
to ignite the gas, but experience shows that in all cases, the preparation used for
such webbing loses its heating capacity to such an extent, when subjected for about
forty hours to the heat of the burner, that it cannot be relied upon to ignite the

page_text: gas. This is perhaps due to the fact that the thorium shrinks and the particles join
or unite so that it no longer remains in the finely divided and separated state in
which it first exists; hence it does not present so large an oxygen-absorbing and
condensing surface. Whatever the reason may be, the deterioration takes place
nevertheless in spite of such a deterioration my correspondent finds that it still
retains the power of heating webbing No. 2 to the extent that such last mentioned
webbing ignites the gas or vapour in the manner hereinbefore described.
Rhodium or osmium may be used in lieu of ruthenium in connection with the
second impregnation of webbing No. 1, though ruthenium is preferred.
In Figures 5, 6 and 7, another form of lighter is illustrated for use in connection
with ordinary burners, or even with incandescing mantles.
In this form, the preliminary heater consists preferably of a piece 5 of woven or
knitted fabric, say an inch to an inch and a half in length and from one half to three
quarters of an inch in width, more or less, which fabric is immersed in one or another
of the solutions made from the salt mixtures or compounds 1 to 14, above given and
subsequently ashed. It is next rolled into a compact body, in the form of a
cylinder 6, as shown in Figure 7, and is then placed within a cage or holder 7,
which may be woven or otherwise formed of fine wire, platinumn, iridium, or an alloy
of the two, or some other metal of the platinum group. Platinum wire containing
about per cent. iridium is found best suited to the purpose.
As represented in Figure 5 this cage or holder is carried in a yoke 8, at the
upper end of a coiled strip 9 formed of two metals having different coefficients of
expansion and contraction under variations of temperature, said coil being made fast
to the burner or fixture in such position as to bring the lighter near the tip and
in the path of gas escaping from the burner. This arrangement is desirable for the
reason that the heat of the flame when the gas is lighted, causes the lighter
to be swung aside out of the flame, but it is not separately claimed by my
correspondent.
The lighting preparation within the cage absorbs hydrogen from the gas and
oxygen from the air, condenses the gases, and speedily becomes heated so as to glow
more or less intensely. The heat thus generated is transmitted by contact or by
radiation or both, to the wire cage or holder 7, which, being thereby heated in turn
absorbs oxygen from the atmosphere with avidity, becomes brilliantly incandescent,
and speedily ignites the gas flowing from the burner. If the cage or holder 7 be of
fine mesh, it will in great measure if not wholly preclude escape or loss of the active or
exciting agents deposited by the solution in the webbing of fabric 6, and it will in
any event maintain in position the fabric or the cylinder formed therefrom, and pro-
tect it against being jarred or shaken to any considerable extent in use, though moved
to and from the burner tip.
**
As above suggested the preliminary heater may be of any suitable form, and my
correspondent does not restrict himself in this respect, though one or another of solu-
tions made from the salt mixtures or compounds 1 to 14 as hereinbefore set forth will
be used and the use of a fabric saturated with such solution rolled into compact
form and subsequently ashed gives a desirable form of heater.
If desired, the fabric 5 may be formed in whole or in part of threads having
a filament of wire spun with the vegetable filaments. When such fabric is
used it will be found expedient to first impregnate the same with an aqueous
solution of platinum and thorium or platinum and cerium in the propor
tions of from 60 to 40 per cent. of platinum and 40 to 60 per cent. of
thorium or of cerium, and after drying the fabric thus impregnated, to immerse it in
a second solution of salt mixtures or compounds of the character set forth in the fore-
going list numbered 1 to 14. Care should be taken, however, to use for the second
impregnation solutions of one of the salt mixtures or compounds numbered 1 to 9
inclusive, if a platinum-thorium solution be employed for the first impregnation, or of
those numbered 10 to 14 for such second impregnation, if the first impregnation be
with a platinum-cerium solution.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven.
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me
by my foreign correspondent, I desire to have it understood that I am aware that
broadly it is not new to combine in a lighter for effecting the ignition of combustible
or inflammable gases two separate preparations, one capable of occluding gases at the
ordinary or normal moderate temperature and thereby becoming heated, the other
capable of occluding gases at a temperature above the ordinary or normal moderate
temperature and so becoming more highly heated, the heat produced by the first
preparation being utilized to heat up the second preparation to the point at which it
is enabled to become operative; furthermore that broadly it is not new either to use
a preparation of rare earths mixed with platinum or other metal of the platinum
group as the operative material whether by chemical reduction within the pores or
otherwise; or to employ two webbings to respectively serve as the vehicles for the
first and second preparations; or to employ platinum or an alloy of platinum and
iridium in the form of wire, either woven or not, to serve as or take the place of the
second preparation; and I hereby declare that to these several features respectively I
lay no separate claim but, I declare that what I claim is :-
1. The herein described method of igniting gas or vapor, which consists in placing
in the path or flow of such gas or vapor two of the preparations herein before specified
and described namely, one prepared from one of the salt mixtures or compounds
herein before respectively described under the numbers 1 to 14 having at normal
temperature an avidity for gases and capable of becoming heated by absorption
thereof, and the other namely prepared from nitrate of cerium or nitrate of didymium
or nitrate of praseodymium or a mixture of thorium nitrate with one or more of the
other nitrates named viz. :-cerium, didymium, praseodymium or neodymium with or
without a very small percentage of ruthenium, possessing an avidity for gases when
heated; causing gas or air to flow in contact with the first preparation and to heat the
same; transmitting the heat from the first to the second preparation, and thus
causing the compound to take up gas and become highly incandescent, thereby
igniting the gas or vapor.
2. The lighter for gases or other vapors, herein before described and as illustrated
by Figs. 1 to 3 inclusive consisting of webbings or other vehicles or supports, one
provided with a preparation such as before specified in Claim No. 1 herein capable of
absorbing and condensing gases at normal or moderate temperature and being thereby
rendered more or less incandescent; the other provided with a preparation such as
before specified in Claim No. 1 herein which is capable when heated, of absorbing
and condensing large volumes of gases and being thereby rendered highly
incandescent, and consequently able to ignite gases and vapors, as set forth.
3. A lighter for gases and vapors, comprising firstly a webbing or fibrous body
having its pores and interstices first charged with a preparation of platinum and
thorium, or plati um and cerium, and afterwards with a solution containing a nitrate
of thorium or cerium according to whichever of such bodies has been used in the
first preparation, together with platinum chloride, with iridium, or osmium, ruthenium,
rhodium, palladium, neodymium, or praseodymium nitrate or chloride in substantially
the proportions stated; and secondly a webbing or fibrous body impregnated with a
solution of nitrate of cerium, didymium, praseodymium or neodymium, with or
without thorium nitrate.
4. The improved lighter for gases and vapors hereinbefore described and as
illustrated by Fig. 4 and comprising a hood or support having one portion charged
with a preparation such as before specified in Claim 1 herein capable at normal
temperature of absorbing and condensing gases, and another portion charged with a
preparation such as before specified in Claim 1 herein capable when heated of absorb-
ing and condensing gases, the first serving to prepare the second for action, as
described.
5. The herein described lighter illustrated by Figs. 5 to 7 inclusive and comprising
a fabric impregnated with a platinum-thorium or platinum-cerium solution made

page_text: from one or other of the salt mixtures or compounds hereinbefore set forth num-
bered 1 to 14 and rolled into compact form, and a cage or holder 7 enveloping the
fabric and formed of wire of the platinum group.
1000