IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE AND STORING OF ILLUMINATING GAS, AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN
Year: 1867

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Olney at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 24th October
1867.
I, GEORGE OLNEY, of the City of Brooklyn, State of New York, in the
United States of America, Gas Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE AND STORING OF
ILLUMINATING GAS, AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN," to be as follows:-
The main features of this Invention are,―
1st. The arrangement in connection with retorts, a cooler, and a gasometer
of carburators provided with tanks, filters, liquor chambers, connecting pipes,
an air pump, and its connections, an independent air pipe, a liquor pump with
pipe, a gas pipe, a steam pipe, a liquor guage and syphon gauges, as hereafter
explained for the purpose of converting carbonihydrous and naphthene vapors
with atmospheric air into illuminating gas, or for making or producing a fixed
or illuminating gas from carburated air.
2ndly. The injecting of petroleum or its products into heated retorts direct
by means of a pipe and there combining it with atmospheric air, carburated
or not, and thus chemically producing illuminating gas by passing carburated
air through heated retorts.
3rdly. The producing of illuminating gas by combining the carburated air
after having passed through the heated retorts (or within the same) with
ordinary coal or oil gas.

page_text: 4thly. The employment of an oil or equivalent seal, as and for the purpose
hereafter explained.
The Invention will be fully understood by the following description of
apparatus arranged for carrying it into effect:-There are two cylindrical
carburators which may be varied in form to suit the time and place; a
gas pipe conveys the gas from carburating chamber No. 1 to three retorts;
an air pump connected to carburator No. 2 is employed for pumping
atmospheric air; an independent air pipe conveys the air from the air
pump into the gas pipe. This air pipe is provided with a cock to regulate
the flow of air admitted into the gas pipe to commingle with and reduce the
gas when it is too rich for consumptoin. A glass gauge indicates the height of
material in the carburators. A connecting pipe allows the gas to flow from
one carburator to the other, and there is another connecting pipe near the
bottom of the carburators, through which the liquid material flows back and
forth to find its level in chambers at the bottom of the carburators. A pump
carries the liquid from the bottom chamber of the carburators to a perforated
tank at the top thereof, hence by this regurgitating process I keep up a con-
tinuous circulation in the carburators by means of a pipe connected with the
pump. A small steam pipe conveys steam from a generator to a coiled section
of steam pipe placed at the bottom of the liquor chamber in carburator No. 2
for heating purposes. The carburators are provided with syphön pressure
gauges. Filters are placed in the carburators upon pérforated 'metallic discs,
through which the liquor is filtered as it falls from the perforated tank into the
liquor chambers at the bottom of the carburators. The bench of 'thrée retorts
before mentioned has outlets into the hydraulic main. A pipe conveys the gas
from the hydraulic main to a refrigerating worm gas pipe in a cold water
cistern or tank, from which it passes to the gasometer. Inlet pipes connect
the carbonizing cylinders or carburators with the retorts; these retorts are
heated to a red heat for the purpose of effectually carbonizing and 'permanently
commingling the gases, by which means a more 'perfect chemical combination
or union is produced, and the product 'thereof is not liable to condensation
'sufficient to injure the gas for commercial purposes. The 'retorts are partly
filled with coke, broken bricks, or other porous substance, so that a greater
heating surface for the gas to pass over or through is obtained. The gas or
gases pass from the retort through vertical outlets at the front end thereof
into the hydraulic main which contains a water seal through which the gas
passes in a similar manner to ordinary carburated hydrogen gas.
The gas
passes through the pipe before mentioned from the hydraulic main to the
cooler as above stated. This cooler or refrigerating chamber or cold water

page_text: tank employed to reduce the temperature of the gas prior to its passing into
the gas chamber of the gasometer through the inlet pipes is located between
the bench of retorts and the gasometer, which is constructed like ordinary
gasometers. In addition to the water seal I interpose a stratum of oil (or an
equivalent thereof), which I term a seal, between the upper surface of the
water seal and the gas chamber of the gasometer for the purpose of preventing
the condensation of the gas while in the gasometer, also for the purpose of
holding the gas and its volatile products ready for use, whereas if these
volatile or heavier portions of the gas were allowed to come in contact with
the water seal they would be at once precipitated to the bottom of the
gasometer and lost; but by the use of an unctuous or oily stratum or seal all
the carbonihydrous and naphthene particles are taken up and converted into
a rich illuminating gas with less labor, time and expense than by any other
known process. I also pass the carburated air, if preferred, through the
retorts in combination with the ordinary coal or bituminous gas.
I do not confine myself to any specific shape of the carburators, or any
other parts of the above described apparatus, as I prefer to use those forms
which I may be the most convenient for my improvements in making gas, so that
they may be suitably adapted for the exigencies of the time and location of the
works.