Improved Device applicable to Lighting and Heating Apparatus for Generating Gas from Gasoline and other Inflammable Liquids.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 5th Dec., 1899-Accepted, 27th Jan,, 1900
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improved Device applicable to Lighting and Heating Apparatus for
Generating Gas from Gasoline and other Inflammable Liquids.
I, MARTIN POSxo, of 44, Rue de la Tour d'Auvergne, Paris, France, Manu-
facturer, 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:-
-
The present invention consists in an improved device applicable to all kinds
of lighting, heating and other like apparatus for generating gas from gasoline
and other inflammable liquids.
In order that my invention and the mode of carrying the same into operation
may be clearly understood, I will proceed to describe the same with reference
to the accompanying, drawing showing, by way of an example, my improved
device applied to an incandescing lamp using gasoline; the said lamp producing
its own gas for feeding a Bunsen burner and keeping a Welsbach mantle
incandescent. But it will be readily understood that I do not limit myself to
this special use and that with some alterations of form and detail in no way
modifying the fundamental feature of my device, the latter may be applied to
all kinds of heating apparatus, power-generating apparatus, etc., as well as to
lamps of the kind shown in the accompanying drawing.
Fig. 1 is a sectional elevation of a lamp of the kind described, provided with
my improved gas-generating device, the lower portion of the lamp being broken
away.
Fig. 2 is a like elevation of a modification.
Figs. 3 and 4 are, respectively, an elevation and a section at right-angles,
showing a further modification.
The device comprises essentially a tube to which the inflammable liquid is fed,
by capillary action or otherwise, to a chamber or retort at the top of the tube,
suitably heated by a small auxiliary wick-burner, the flame of which can be con-
trolled and is fed with inflammable liquid from the main supply of the lamp.
(Fig. 1) is the lamp-body containing the inflammable liquid, preferably
gasoline. is the Welsbach or other like mantle kept incandescent by the
Bunsen burner e to which the inflammable gas is supplied from my improved
device. is the glass chimney and the chimney holder. All the parts may
obviously be of any usual or suitable kind.
In the neck of the lamp body is screwed a plate g, a packing f being inter-
posed from the plate grises a vertical tube h containing a wick dipping
into the inflammable liquid contained in a. At the top, the tube is formed
into a chamber which, as shown, is preferably at right-angles to the tube,
from which it therefore projects sidewise, such chamber acting as a retort proper.
The chamber 2 terminates, at the top, in a nipple 3 having a vertical hole
opening into the chamber ²; a burner tip having a hole for supplying
the generated gas to the burner e is screwed onto the said nipple .
The chamber 2 is heated by a small auxiliary burner i fitted upon the plate g
or connected thereto in any suitable manner; its wick dipping into the liquid
contained in a is capable of being raised or lowered, for the purpose of regulating

page_text: the flame, by a toothed wheel & to which rotary motion may be imparted one
way or the other by a rod and a knob 3, as will be readily understood."
The operation is a very simple one. The inflammable liquid being supplied
by capillary action to the wick. ¹ in the tube - is converted into gas in the
chamber 3, whence it is led to the Bunsen burner e, wherein it mixes, as usual,
with air entering, the apertures c¹.
It will be readily understood that by suitably regulating the flame, the
intensity of the heat generated, in the chamber 2 can be controlled and conse-
quently the generation of gas regulated at will in order to cause the lamp to
vield the desired amount of light.
In the modification shown in Fig. 2, the arrangement differs in that, instead
of heating the chamber directly, the auxiliary burner i is arranged obliquely,
so as to cause the flame to impinge against the wall of the tube The wick
passes through a screw-plug 7, which, as will be readily understood, may be
screwed more or less so as to increase or decrease the protruding length of wick
and thus regulate the heating flame at will.
In the modification shown in Fig. 3 and 4, instead of a single tube h rising
from the plate, as contemplated in Figs. 1 and 2, I preferably employ two
such tubes, designated by and 7 surmounted by a common generating
chamber of much larger capacity than the corresponding chamber of the last
named arrangement. The tubes open into the said chamber and the fuel
is fed to the latter by capillary action, through wicks and h¹ dipping into
the lamp body, not shown.
From the generating chamber 2, the gas produced is led to the Bunsen
burner e, as in the former case.
By thus increasing the capacity of the chamber ², I avoid any excess of
pressure due to a momentary over-production of gas, which, with a very small
generating chamber, may give rise to fluctuations in the light and does not
permit of the light being always regulated to a nicety.
¡ is the auxiliary burner for heating the generating chamber 2; it is mounted
upon, or connected to, the plate and its wick į dips into the liquid contained in
the lamp body.
g
In the arrangement shown in Fig. 1, it may happen that, by reason of the parts
becoming unduly heated after a certain length of usage, the volatilisation or
partial gas-generation of the combustible liquid within the body of the lamp itself
may become active enough to cause the quantity of gas so produced, added to that
produced in the gas-generating chamber proper 2, to exceed the amount consumed:
the excess of gas contained in the lamp body above the liquid would then ascend
through the pipe along the wick and be consumed at the end of the said tube,
so that the regulation of the wick would have no further action upon the size of the
flame and it would become impossible to usefully adjust the burner i and control
the generation of gas in the chamber 2.
In order to overcome this inconvenience and insure perfect operation of the lamp,
I have resorted, in the arrangement shown in Figs. 3 and 4, to applying alongside
the tube a small air tube m the upper end of which terminates in the tube i
slightly above the top of the latter, and which opens at the bottom into the said
tube, as shown at m¹. Another tube » starting downwards from the plate g
surrounds the lower end of the tube i and wick j, and dips into the combustible
liquid. In order to prevent any siphonic action from taking place, and also in
order to establish so to speak an internal current of air, the tube i is made to com-
municate with the tube m, at a point between the toothed wheel and the lower
aperture m of the tube m, by a hole m². The toothed wheel is carried by an
axis operated by a knob 12.
It will be readily understood that I do not limit myself to the shapes, sizes
and arrangements herein described and shown as examples and that I reserve to
myself the faculty of applying my improved device to any other gas-generating
appliance than the one shown, considering that it might be equally adopted for

page_text: ng appliances intended for all lighting and heating apparatus
generally and for power-generators.
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:-
1. A device of the kind described comprising a lamp body a, a main-supply
wick, a gas-generating chamber and an obliquely arranged auxiliary
burner i, substantially as described and shown, and for the purpose set forth.
2. In a device of the kind described, the application, to the auxiliary burner i,
of an air tube m opening at its ends into the tube i and of a second tube n
surrounding the lower end of the tube i and wick, and dipping into the liquid,
the said tube m also communicating, between its ends, with the tube i by a
hole m², substantially as described and shown and for the purpose set forth.
3. In a device of the kind described, the arrangement of two or more tubes h h
heated by one burner i common to both or all, and opening into a gas-generating
chamber to both or all, substantially as herein described and shown, and for
the purpose set forth.
4. The herein described and illustrated device, in its general construction and
rrangement of parts, for the purpose set forth.
Dated this 5th day of December 1899.