IMPROVEMENTS IN AND RELATING TO APPARATUS FOR THE COMBUSTION OF LIQUID FUEL FOR DOMESTIC AND OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1879

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Robert Lake at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 18th September 1879. A communi-
cation from abroad by Charles Bombonnel and Henry Emonin, both of Paris,
France.
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co., Patent
Agents, Southampton Buildings, London. "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND RELATING TO
APPARATUS FOR THE COMBUSTION OF LIQUID FUEL FOR DOMESTIC AND OTHER
PURPOSES." [A communication from abroad by Charles Bombonnel and Henry
Emonin, both of Paris, France.]
This Invention relates to improvements in and connected with apparatus for the
combustion of liquid fuel for domestic and other purposes.
In carrying the said Invention into practice, I provide a porous brick or block
which is placed in an ordinary fire place, stove, or other heating apparatus, and the
said brick or block is fed by means of a pipe with any cumbustible liquid from a
reservoir situated in proximity to the fire place. The combustible liquid penetrates
into the brick or block by the action of its own weight, assisted by the capillary
attraction of the brick, and is lighted and burnt at the surface of this brick. The
flow of the liquid is regulated and interrupted as desired by a cock suitably placed
on a supply pipe.
it
may
The said Invention is suitable for every kind of heating, that is to say,
be
used for private apartments, offices, workshops, and the like, and also for all
domestic or industrial uses, in which the instantaneous production of heat which is
easy to be regulated and suppressed, and which does not cause any waste or residue
is required; for example, it is useful for the kitchen, for laundresses' stoves, for
distillers' stoves, small steam engines, and the like.
As combustible mineral oil and essences have a tendency to become very cheap,
particularly in certain localities, this process of heating is susceptible of great
extension, for the reason that these oils for equal weight, contain much more caloric
than the ordinary combustibles, wood charcoal, coal peat, and the like; moreover,
the said oils may be used without any waste or residue either in lighting or
extinguishing the same, or during combustion.
The said apparatus is not attended by risk of explosion or of being accidentally
set on fire for the reason that the reservoir of the combustible liquid is separated
from the part where the combustion takes place by a small pipe, which is in

page_text: practice always at least a metre in length, and by the thickness of the brick itself
which is a bad conductor of heat, and the pores of which, being only capillary, do
not allow the formation of any detonating mixture. The reservoir of combustible
liquid may moreover be situated as far as desired from this brick or block, and the
regulating cock permits all communication to be instantaneously intercepted.
The said apparatus may be used for the same purposes as, and may replace gas
stoves, and will be found specially valuable in the localities or habitations not
provided with illuminating gas.
The said apparatus possesses the following advantages in comparison with gas
stoves, namely, it does not necessitate so to speak any expense of fixing (such
as branches, meter, service pipes, and the like) and its use dispenses with the
necessity of having to deal with a company invested with a monopoly, which has
often serious inconveniences.
The fixing of the said apparatus may be effected in various manners. I will
proceed to describe the application of the said Invention to the heating of a room
or chamber.
In the accompanying Drawing,-
Figure 1 shews a transverse section, and Figure 2 a front view of the said
apparatus applied to the fireplace of a room.
A is the fireplace which may be of any-ordinary construction, and may be of
masonary or of cast or sheet iron, and with or without provision for the circulation of
hot air; B is an exit conduit for the products of combustion; C are fire dogs
supporting the brick or block B; D is the brick or block of porous fire clay, upon
the surface of which the combustion is effected. This block will be varnished upon
all the surfaces upon which no combustion is to be produced, as in the interior for
example, in order to avoid all useless evaporation of the liquid. It may have a
form more or less ornamented and decorative, and may be enclosed in a box of
metal with a lid, this lid being raised for lighting and whilst combustion is taking
place, and closed when the fire is no longer required.
The said brick or block may also be pierced with perpendicular openings at its
heating surface in order that the air necessary for complete combustion may
penetrate abundantly into the interior of the flame itself.
e-is a small tube through which the combustible liquid reaches the brick or block;
f is a supply pipe for the said liquid; G is a reservoir for the same, and the
form of this reservoir may vary. A single reservoir may feed several fires. By
reason of its distance from the fire or fires, and its being surrounded by insulating
substances, it will be in no danger of such an elevation in its temperature as might
cause the pressure in its interior to be increased.
h is a regulating cock which can be actuated from the exterior of the fire place.
I is the combustible liquid of any kind, which will generally be petroleum oil or its
derivatives, on account of their low price,