Improvements in Air and Gas Comminglers.
Year: 1889

page_text: Date of Application, 27th Aug., 1889
Complete Specification Left, 27th May, 1890-Accepted, 23rd Aug., 1890
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Air and Gas Comminglers.
I WILLIAM WILLOTT POPPLEWELL of 17 & 18 Southampton Buildings in the
County of Middlesex Fellow of the Institute of Patent Agents do hereby declare the
nature of this invention (communicated to me by John Murray Mitchell of 45 Wall
Street in the City County and State of New York U.S.A.) to be as follows:-
The object of this invention is to provide an improved machine for mixing com-
bustible gases, such as ordinary illuminating gas, natural gas hydro-carbon vapours &c.
with air for the purpose of forming a combustible mixture which can be used as fuel,
said machine being simple in construction effective in use and capable of adjustment
so that a mixture of any desired proportion of gas and air can be produced.
In carrying out my invention I provide two cylinders one for pumping and com-
pressing air and a smaller cylinder for pumping and compressing gas. These two
cylinders are cast integral.
The air cylinder is provided with an air inlet neck and the gas cylinder a gas inlet
neck. The air cylinder has also an air outlet neck opposite the inlet neck and with
said outlet neck a tapered outlet neck of the gas cylinder is provided said necks
forming an ejector.
The two necks forming the ejector are cast integral with the cylinders.
Suitable conducting pipes for air and gas are connected with the necks and a pipe
is also provided for conducting off the mixture of gas and air.
A shaft is journalled in each cylinder eccentrically said shafts being mounted to
turn in bearing nuts screwed into the necks of two cylindrical pistons, the ends
of which are mounted to turn in eccentric recesses in the inner surface of the
heads of the two cylinders. The cylindrical pistons are mounted concentric with
the shafts.
One neck of the cylindrical piston carries the driving belt pulley and on the opposite
neck a gear wheel is mounted which engages a like gear wheel on the corresponding
neck of the cylindrical piston. The cylindrical pistons are each provided with a
longitudinal slot in each of which two trough shaped wings are provided and mounted
to slide in the direction of the diameter of the piston and two wings are also provided
to slide in a like direction in two other wings.
Springs are provided for pressing the two sets of wings of one cylindrical piston
from each other.
The two shafts before referred to are each provided with a suitable collar in the
centre and at each side of the collar the shafts are threaded in opposite directions.
Each shaft is provided with a hand wheel at one end and adjacent to the same a
lock nut.
When the cylindrical piston has made one half revolution the first mentioned
wing is within the cylinder and the other wing without and so on alternately.
To adjust the machine the shafts are turned by means of their hand wheels so
forcing the before mentioned wings wider apart thus the machine will compress
less air or gas.
The gas is drawn into the gas cylinder compressed and ejected through the outlet
neck into the nozzle or outlet neck of the ejector, through which neck air is forced,
the gas and air having the same speed, whereby a thorough and permanent mixture of
gas and air is produced.
Dated this 20th day of August 1889
POPPLEWELL & Co.,
Agents for the Applicant.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Air and Gas Comminglers.
I WILLIAM WILLOTT POPPLEWELL of 17 and 18 Southampton Buildings in the
County of Middlesex Fellow of the Institute of Patent Agents do hereby declare
the nature of this invention (a communication to me from abroad by John Murray
Mitchell of 45 Wall Street in the City County and State of New York U.S.A.
Engineer) 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 that class of machines used for mixing combustible gases,
such as ordinary illuminating gas, natural gas, hydro-carbon vapours, etc. with air for
the purpose of forming a combustible mixture which can be used as fuel.
The object of my invention is to provide a new and improved machine of this kind
which is simple in construction effective in use and capable of adjustment so that a
mixture of any desired proportion of gas and air can be produced.
In the accompanying drawings
Fig. 1 is a vertical transverse sectional view of my improved machine for mixing
gas and air.
Fig. 2 is a vertical longitudinal sectional view of the same.
Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts.
The cylinder A for pumping and compressing air, and the smaller cylinder B for
pumping and compressing gas are cast integral. The air cylinder A has the air inlet
neck C, and the gas cylinder B the gas intet neck D.- The air eylinder A has the air
outlet neck E opposite the neck C, and with said outlet neck E the tapered outlet
neck F of the gas of the gas cylinder B is provided, said necks E and F forming an
ejector G.
The two outlet necks E and F forming the ejector are cast integral with the
cylinders. Suitable conducting pipes for air and gas are connected with the necks C
and D, and a pipe for conducting off the mixture of gas and air is to be connected
with the outlet neck E.
In the cylinders A and B the two shafts H and J are journaled eccentrically, said
shafts being mounted to turn in bearing nuts K screwed into the necks K¹ L' and M'
of the two cylindrical pistons L and M¹ the ends of which are mounted to turn in
eccentric recesses in the inner surface of the heads N and O of the two cylinders A
and B, the necks I and M' being mounted to rotate in the necks N' and O¹ respec-
tively of the cylinder heads N and O. The cylindrical pistons L and M are mounted
concentric with the shafts H and J.
One neck L' of the cylindrical piston L carries the driving belt pulley P, and on the
opposite neck L³ the gearing wheel Qis mounted which engages a like gear-wheel Q
on the corresponding neck M' of the cylindrical piston M. The cylindrical pistons L
and M are each provided with a longitudinal slot R in each of which the two trough
shaped wings S and T are provided and mounted to slide in the direction of
the diameter of the piston, and the wings T are mounted to slide in a like direction
in the wings S.
Stirrups U straddling the shafts H and J rest upon the inner edges of the
wings and between the closed ends of the wings S and said stirrup, springs V
are provided for pressing the two wings S and T of one cylindrical piston from
each other and pressing the closed ends of said wings against the inner sides of the
cylinders.
The
The closed ends of the wings S and T rest against the inner faces of the heads
of the cylinders A B and the wings S are provided with the slots W.
shafts H and J are each provided at the central longitudinal plane of each cylinder
with a collar a and at each side of the collar the shafts are threaded in opposite
direction as at a¹. A nut bis mounted on the shafts H and J at each side of

page_text: the fixed collar a, the stirrup U preventing the nuts from turning. Adjacent to
the outer side of cach nut a smooth-bore sleeve dis mounted loosely on the
threaded part a of each shaft H and J, and said sleeves are connected by two
links with the wings T by means of the pivots h said pivots h passing through
the outer ends of two links . Each shaft H and J is provided with a hand wheel m
at one end and adjacent to the same with a lock-nut n.
The method of working is as follows:
As shown in Fig. 2 the machine is adjusted for its greatest capacity, that is for
drawing in and compressing the greatest possible quantity of air and the greatest
possible quantity of gas. The cylindrical piston L rotates in the direction of the
arrow Fig. 1, and the cylindrical piston M in the direction of the arrow ².
As shown, the wing T of the cylindrical piston L projects the greatest possible
distance from said cylindrical piston and the wing S is entirely within said piston.
In passing from the neck U toward the bottom of the cylinder A, the cylindrical
piston Land its wing T have created a vacuum at the right hand side of the cylinder
and compressed the air at the left hand end toward the outlet neck E. As the cylin-
drical piston continues to revolve, the wing T is forced into the piston and into the
wing S, and as said piston T is connected with sliding sleeves d by the links g, said sleeves
are moved from each other as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 2. At the same time the
wings S are forced out of the cylindrical piston by the action of the springs V, so
that the closed end of the wing S rests against the inner surface of the cylinder.
When the cylindrical piston has made one half of a revolution from the position
shown in Fig. 1, the wing T is within the cylinder and the wing S is pressed out
of the same and so on alternately. The cylindrical piston and wings of the smaller
cylinder B operate in the same manner. The gas is drawn into the cylinder Bis
compressed and is ejected through the nozzle or outlet neck F into the nozzle or outlet
neck E of the ejector, through which neck E air is forced the gas and air having the
same speed whereby a thorough and permanent mixture of the gas and air is produced
which mixture can be used very advantageously as fuel.
According to the nature of the gas used it may be necessary to mix a greater or
less quantity of gas with the air, and for this reason it may be necessary to be
able to adjust the machine to draw in a certain quantity of gas or a certain
quantity of air for each rotation of the pistons. When for example it is desired
to draw in a smaller quantity of air the wing T of the piston L must be so adjusted
that its closed end cannot come in contact with the inner side of the cylinder, that is,
there will be a small space between the closed end of the wing and the inner surface
of the cylinder during part of the revolution and neither the suction nor compression
will be perfect.
In order to adjust the machine in this manner the shaft H is turned by means of its
hand wheel m in such a manner as to move the nuts bb from each other, for example
so that the sleeves d will be at 6' as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 2. When the nuts
are in this position they prevent the sliding sleeves d from approaching each other as
closely as they could if the nuts rested against the collar a, but when said sleeves
are prevented from approaching each other they also prevent the wing T from moving
outward sufficiently to come in contact with the inner surface of the cylinder
during part of the revolution. The further the nuts bare held from each other
the greater will be the distance between the pivot and the inner circumference
of the cylinder, and as said pivot is held in the wing T it is evident that the
closed end of the wing must be a greater or less distance from the inner surface
of the cylinder.
After the wings have been adjusted the shaft is locked in place by means of the
lock-nut n to prevent the shaft turning independently of its bearing.
In this manner the machine can be adjusted to draw in and compress any desired
quantity of air. In the same manner the piston and wings of the gas cylinder can be
adjusted, and I am thus enabled to regulate my machine to make any desired mixture
of gas and air, as circumstances may require.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is
1. The method of permanently mixing gas and air consisting in forcing a current
of gas into a current of air within an enclosure, the currents of gas and air having the
same speed substantially as herein set forth.
2. In a machine for permanently mixing air and gas the combination and
arrangement of the various parts of such machine substantially as herein described.
3. The machine for permanently mixing gas and air in any desired proportion for
the purpose of forming a combustible mixture substantially as herein described and as
illustrated by the accompanying drawings.
Dated this 27th day of May 1890.
POPPLEWELL & Co.,
17 & 18, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.