IMPROVE- MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING AIR BLAST
Year: 1880

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Denton Abel, of No. 28, Southampton Buildings,
Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, for an Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING AIR BLAST." A communication from
abroad by Georg Wellner, of Brünn, in the Austrian Empire.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Denton Abal at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 28th January 1880.
CHARLES DENTON ABEL, of No. 28, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in
the County of Middlesex. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING AIR
BLAST." [A communication from abroad by Georg Wellner, of Brünn, in the
Austrian Empire.]
According to the present Invention air blast suitable for furnaces and other
purposes is produced by causing a series of open receptacles, buckets, or cells, filled
with air to be first immersed with their open ends downwards to a certain depth
below water or other liquid, thereby causing the air confined in them to be com-
pressed to a degree corresponding to the pressure of the column of liquid, and then
to be turned over so as to allow the compressed air to escape into an open receiver
situated at a corresponding depth below the liquid. For this purpose a wheel or
drum having a number of buckets, cells, or receptacles fixed on its periphery is
partially immersed below the level of water or other liquid contained in a tank,
the said wheel or drum having rotary motion imparted to it on its horizontal axis,
and being by preference constructed with a central air chamber or otherwise made
so that it is buoyant in the water. The buckets or receptacles are so arranged
that at the descending side of the wheel their open ends are presented in a down-
ward direction, so that as they descend and become immersed in the liquid the air
confined therein becomes more and more compressed, until by the rotation of the
wheel they are gradually brought into a position in which their open ends are
directed more or less upwards, whereupon the imprisoned compressed air will
escape into a submerged receiver from which it passes through a pipe to wherever
required. The buckets being now filled with liquid pass upwards on the ascending
side of the wheel, and on emerging with this from the liquid pass over to the
descending side again, during which time they assume such positions that the
liquid flows out of them into the tank, and they become again charged with air
which is compressed and discharged as above described.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Charles Denton Abel in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 20th July
1880.
CHARLES DENTON ABEL, of No. 28, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in
the County of Middlesex. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING AIR
BLAST." A communication from abroad by Georg Wellner, of Brünn, in the
Austrian Empire.
According to the present Invention air blast suitable for furnaces and other
purposes, is produced by causing a series of open receptacles, buckets, or cells filled
with air, to be first immersed with their open ends downwards to a certain depth
below water or other liquid, thereby causing the air confined in them to be compressed
to a degree corresponding to the pressure of the column of liquid, and then to be
turned over so as to allow the compressed air to escape into an open receiver
situated at a corresponding depth below the liquid. For this purpose a wheel or
drum having a number of buckets, cells, or receptacles fixed on its periphery is
partially immersed below the level of water or other liquid contained in a tank,
the said wheel or drum having rotary motion imparted to it on its horizontal axis,
and being by preference constructed with a central air chamber or otherwise made
so that it is buoyant in the water. The buckets or receptacles are so arranged that
at the descending side of the wheel their open ends are presented in a downward
direction, so that as they descend and become immersed in the liquid, the air
confined therein becomes more and more compressed until by the rotation of the
wheel they are gradually brought into a position in which their open ends are
directed more or less upwards, whereupon the imprisoned compressed air will
escape into a submerged receiver, from which it passes through a pipe to wherever
required. The buckets being now filled with liquid pass upwards on the ascending
side of the wheel, and on emerging with this from the liquid pass over to the
descending side again, during which time they assume such positions that the
liquid flows out of them into the tank, and they become again charged with air,
which is compressed and discharged as above described

page_text: to which it is subjected, until they assume such an inclined position again that the
compressed air can escape from their orifices. At this point is provided a receiver
For open submerged vessel or trough, into which the escaping air passes, and from
which it rises through a pipe G into a conduit H, in which it is conducted to
wherever required. As the air passes out of the buckets they become filled with
liquid again, and this is again emptied out of them as they issue from the liquid at
top. In the arrangement shewn on the Drawing the apparatus is provided with
two sets of buckets E and two receivers F, one on each side of the wheel. Fig. 3
shews a vertical section of a modified arrangement in which the wheel B is con-
structed with a number of cells E in place of the buckets of the previous arrange-
ment. It will be evident that when, in order to obtain considerable pressure of
blast by a great depth of immersion of the buckets, it would be necessary to make
the wheel of an inconveniently large diameter; this may be avoided by constructing
the apparatus as an endless travelling chain of buckets, passing at the lower end
round a wheel or drum immersed to the required depth in the liquid, and at the
upper end round a wheel or drum raised a sufficient height above the level of the
liquid to allow the buckets in passing round it to be emptied of their liquid contents
and become filled with air.
It will be seen that the work performed by the apparatus consists in overcoming
the upward pressure resulting from the buoyancy of the buckets or cells filled with
air, as these are forced downwards by its rotation, as also in raising a certain
quantity of the liquid in the buckets above the liquid level in the tank. The
pressure of the blast obtained will correspond to that due to the total height of the
column of liquid between the upper level thereof and its level within the receiver.
Having thus described the nature of this Invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed, as communicated to me by my foreign correspondent, I
claim,―
First. The use of apparatus for producing air blast wherein a number of cells or
buckets are caused to descend with their open ends downwards into a liquid so as
to carry the air confined in them a certain depth below the level of such liquid,
and then to discharge such air into a submerged receiver, substantially as herein
described.
Second. The use of apparatus for producing air blast wherein a wheel or drum
partly immersed in liquid, and having cells or buckets at its periphery, is caused
by its rotation to carry the cells or buckets charged with air to a certain depth
below the level of the liquid, at which depth the air is caused to escape from
the buckets into a submerged receiver, substantially as herein described.
Third. The use of apparatus for producing air blast wherein a number of cells
or buckets arranged in oblique positions round a wheel or drum are caused by the
rotation of the latter within a vessel filled with liquid to be first carried up out of
the liquid so as to discharge the liquid contained in them, and then to be immersed
with their open ends downwards into the liquid, so as to carry the air while
subjected to the pressure of the column of liquid down to a certain depth in
the latter, where the compressed air is discharged into a submerged receiver,
substantially as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Denton Abel, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twentieth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and eighty.
CHAS. D. ABEL. (L.S.)