APPARATUS FOR GENERATING CARBONIC ACID GAS FOR APPLICATION TO THE EXTINCTION AND PREVENTION OF FIRE."
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Paton, of Paisley, in the County of
Renfrew, Doctor of Medicine, Peter Harris, of Glasgow, in the
County of Lanark, Engineer, and Robert Harris, of Glasgow, in
the County of Lanark, Plumber, for the Invention of "APPARATUS
FOR GENERATING CARBONIC ACID GAS FOR APPLICATION TO THE EXTINCTION
AND PREVENTION OF FIRE."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Paton, Peter
Harris, and Robert Harris at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 22nd January 1870.
We, JAMES PATON, of Paisley, in the County of Renfrew, Doctor of
Medicine, PETER HARRIS, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark,
Engineer, and ROBERT HARRIS, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark,
Plumber, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"APPARATUS FOR GENERATING CARBONIC ACID, GAS FOR APPLICATION TO THE
EXTINCTION AND PREVENTION, OF FIRE," to be as follows:
▸
".
14.7
The gas is generated from a mixture of suitable materials, such as
carbonate of soda and muriatic acid. We place each of the materials in

page_text: a separate vessel, and by means of pumps, one for each material, working
as nearly as may be at the same time, we introduce the materials into
'a receiver or mixing chamber in the proper proportions for generating
the gas and at a rate suitable for generating the required quantity of gas
in a given time. The gas is thus produced in the mixing chamber at
the times and in the quantities which may be needed. It is conducted
from the mixing chamber by a pipe, hose, or other suitable channel to
the place where fire is to be extinguished or prevented, such as a room,
a warehouse, or the hold of a ship. Various materials well known as
suitable for the purpose may be used for generating the gas, but we
prefer strong liquid muriatic acid, otherwise called hydrochloric acid, for
one material, and carbonate of soda dissolved or diffused or partly
dissolved and partly diffused in water for the other, because they are
cheap and abundant, and because the residuum of the process being a
solution of common salt is harmless. Instead of employing separate
pump cylinders one pump cylinder may be used, and the work of separate
pumps done in its separate compartments.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Paton, Peter Harris, and Robert Harris in
the Great Seal Patent Office on the 22nd July 1870. ',
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JAMES
PATON, of Paisley, in the County of Renfrew, Doctor of Medicine, PETER
HARRIS, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, Engineer, and ROBERT
HARRIS, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, Plumber, send greeting.
}
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of January, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-
third year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto us, the said James Paton, Peter Harris, and Robert
Harris, Her special licence that we, the said James Paton, Peter Harris,
and Robert Harris, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as we, the said James Paton, Peter Harris, and Robert Harris,
our executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter

page_text: during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
* APPARATUS FOR GENERATING CARBONIC ACID GAS FOR APPLICATION TO THE
EXTINCTION AND PREVENTION OF FIRE," upon the condition (amongst others)
that we, the said James Paton, Peter Harris, and Robert Harris, our
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our, or
their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and
ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
was, to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal
Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said James Paton, Peter Harris, and
Robert Harris, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement:—
It is well known that carbonic acid gas prevents and extinguishes
combustion, and various modes of producing and applying the gas to
that purpose have been suggested, but the costliness or difficulty of the
production, the limited quantity in which the gas can be produced by
the apparatus at the time when it is required, the gas being mixed with
water, which injures or destroys the property intended to be preserved,
and other circumstances have prevented such application of the gas
coming into general use..
Our Invention consists in apparatus for generating carbonic acid gas
for application to the extinction and prevention of fire in the manner
herein-after. specified, whereby the gas is produced economically and
continuously (until the required quantity, whatever that may be, is
supplied) practically free from water or any other liquid which would
destroy or injure the property with which it is brought into contact in
its application for the prevention or extinction of combustion.
We shall now proceed to describe the manner in which our Invention
is to be performed, and for the purpose of doing so with greater clearness:
we shall refer to the explanatory Drawings hereunto appended as shewing.
the manner in which we prefer the apparatus for the generation of the
gas for application to the extinction and prevention of fire to be con-
structed..

page_text: The main features of our apparatus are,—
1. The use of pumps of proportionate dimensions so adjusted as to
deliver the chemical materials used in the production of the gas into a
mixing chamber or generator in their respective quantities of combination,
so that the quantity of carbonic acid gas required may be produced with
as small an expenditure of liquid and solid materials as possible.
2. Arrangements in the mixing chamber by which the chemical
materials are brought into contact in such manner as to secure speedy
production' of gas and to prevent regurgitation or return of gas or liquid
to the pump chambers; also arrangements for permitting practically
dry carbonic acid gas only to flow from the said mixing chamber.
•
3. Arrangements for cleansing the mixing chamber and discharging
the rèsiduum or brine, and for preventing too great a charge of liquid
and solid material in the mixing chamber.
Figure 1 of the appended Drawings represents a sectional elevation of
one form of our improved apparatus, and Figure 2 represents a sectional
elevation of part of another form of the same apparatus; Figure 3 is the
plan to the elevation represented by Figure 1, and Figure 4 is the plan
to the elevation represented by Figure 2, and also to the elevation and
section represented by Figure 6; Figure 5 represents an end elevation
of the apparatus shown in Figure 1; Figure 6 an end elevation of the
apparatus shewn in Fugure 2, also of a certain vessel called a separator,
herein-after described.
:
In Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, A is the sole of the apparatus. In
Figures 1, 3, and 5, B is the chamber of the pump for forcing the acid
material used into the mixing chamber C, and D is the chamber of the
pump for forcing the alkaline material into the said mixing chamber.
E is the suction pipe for supplying the pump B with acid material, and
F'is the suction pipe for supplying the pump D with the alkaline
material. c is the passage from the suction nozzle a to the pump B, and
d is the passage from the suction nozzle 6 to the pump D; 9 is the
bucket to the pump B, and h is the bucket to the pump D; I, I, are the
respective connecting rods from the pump buckets to the working lever J,
which may be worked by manual power by means of the handle K or by
other motive power; i is the delivery valve from the
pump B, and j
the delivery valve from the pump D.; k is an internal pipe in the mixing
is

page_text: chamber placed immediately over the delivery valve i, and 1 is an internal
pipe in the same chamber placed immediately over the delivery valve j;
for convenience and strength these two pipes we prefer to make in onc
casting. At the upper end of each of these pipes is a check valve
marked respectively m and n. L is the pipe for delivering the gas from
the mixing chamber. It may either be carried up through the chamber,
as shown in the Figure, or it may be introduced into the upper part of
the chamber from the outside. M is the coupling or delivery nozzle,
which may be connected with the pipe or hose N for conducting the gas
to the point of discharge, which is here represented as a pipe leading to
the hold of a ship.
We prefer to make the suction pipes E and F of flexible material, and
when the apparatus is in use those pipes are screwed on to the suction
nozzles marked respectively a and b. The other or free end of the
suction pipe E is introduced into the vessel G containing the acid material,
and the free end of the suction pipe F is introduced into the vessel H
containing the alkaline material.
When the pumps are put into action the acid material is drawn from
the vessel G through the suction pipe E and the passage c, then through
the valve e into the pump chamber B, whence it is discharged through
the delivery valve i and check valve m into the mixing chamber. In
a similar manner the alkaline material is drawn from the vessel H,
through the suction pipe F and the passage d, then through the valvé f
into the pump chamber D, whence it is discharged through the delivery
valve j and check valve n into the mixing chamber. We find the
operation of the delivery valves and check valves to be effectual in
preventing regurgitation. The upper part of the mixing chamber is
always to be kept practically free from liquid, so that gas in a practically
dry state only may be delivered through the delivery pipe L, and for
securing this there is fixed on to the mixing chamber a test cock o and
a waste or cleansing nozzle p. In order that the proper proportions
of the acid and alkaline materials may be introduced into the mixing
chamber the suction pipes E and F,. the passages c and d, the pump
chambers B and D, and the internal pipes k and 1, with their respec-
tive suction, delivery, and check valves are to be constructed of such
respective sizes as will be properly proportioned to the quantities of the
chemical materials required to be mixed. The construction of theso

page_text: pieces of mechanism in proper proportion is well understood by all
mechanical engineers.
We prefer for the purpose of producing the gas to use muriatic acid
on the one hand, and on the other bicarbonate of soda, which latter
material we mix with a quantity of fresh or of sea water sufficient to
make it pass easily through the pumps. The quantities may be some-
what varied, but we find that the following proportions by weight may
be advantageously employed, namely, nine parts of muriatic acid of the
usual commercial strength to sixteen parts of a mixture consisting of
nine parts by weight of dry bicarbonate of soda and seven parts of
water. When the acid and the alkaline mixture are discharged through
the check valves into the mixing chamber the carbonic acid gas is rapidly
evolved from their combination and fills the upper part of the chamber.
By its expansive power the gas flows through the delivery pipes to the.
point where it is intended to be employed for the extinction or preven-
tion of fire, while the liquid residue falls to the bottom of the chamber
and collects there until it is removed by opening the cleansing nozzle p.
With the materials we have mentioned this liquid residue consists of
a strong solution of common salt. The test cock o is to be constructed
of small dimensions, and we find that a convenient size for the orifice
is about one-eighth of an inch in diameter. This cock is to be opened
or partially opened from time to time when the apparatus is in use, so
as to indicate when the liquid rises to the level thereof. Upon the
liquid reaching that level the pumping is to be stopped, and shortly
thereafter the cleansing nozzle is to be opened and the liquid allowed
wholly or partially to escape, the object of so doing being to prevent.
the admission of liquid into the delivery pipe L. After this operation
the cleansing nozzle is shut and the pumping renewed. The cleansing
nozzle should be of sufficient dimensions to allow of the liquid being
discharged rapidly. We find that a nozzle of the diameter of two and a
half inches is suitable for the purpose.
In Figure 2 the letters which are identical with any letters shewn in
Figure 1 represent the same parts.
: The modification of the apparatus shown in Figures 2, 4, and 6
consists in the addition of a chamber for the better separation of the
gas from the liquid. In this modification the delivery pipe L and the

page_text: test cock and cleansing nozzle p shewn in Figure 1 do not exist, but
a pipe Q is taken from the lower part of the mixing chamber into the
separate vessel or chamber O, which is constructed so that the upper
portion thereof shall be higher than the top of the mixing vessel. P
is the delivery pipe, which is introduced into the separate chamber O
in the same manner as the delivery pipe L is described as introduced
into the mixing chamber in Figure 1; o is a test cock; is a cleansing
nozzle to be fitted and used with respect to the separate chamber O in
the same manner as the test cock o, and cleanzing nozzle p are herein-
before directed to be fitted and used in respect of the mixing chamber
in Figure 1. For the suction pipe for the acid we prefer to use an
india-rubber or vulcanite pipe with a spiral wire embedded therein.
For the alkaline mixture it is not so necessary that the wire should be
embedded. The acid is to be filled into the acid vessel G, and the
alkaline mixture (in the proper proportions of alkaline salt and water)
is to be filled into the alkaline vessel H as required.
The size of the pumps and the speed at which they are worked
regulates the quantity of gas generated in a given time; for example,
with an acid pump of three inches diameter and six inches stroke, and
an alkaline pump of four inches diameter and six inches stroke, with the
pipes, passages, and valves in proportion, at the rate of thirty strokes per
minute, the apparatus would gencrate two hundred. cubic feet per
minute or thereabouts of carbonic acid gas at the ordinary temperature
of the air, or fifty-two degrees Fahrenheit.
t
Having now particularly described the nature of our Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, we have to state that
we do not restrict ourselves to the precise details herein-before described
or delineated, that we do not claim as our Invention. the employment
of carbonic acid gas for the extinction or prevention of fire, nor
apparatus for the generation of carbonic acid gas in combination or
mixture with water for extinguishing or preventing fire, but what we
do claim as our Invention is, apparatus substantially of the description
herein-before specified, which by means of the regulating action of the
pumps and by the other mechanical appliances herein-before described
and delineated in the Drawings appended hereto, or by means of appa-
ratus mechanically equivalent to the apparatus herein described and
delineated, produces for the extinction and prevention of fire carbonic

page_text: acid gas in a dry or almost dry condition practically free from
admixture with water or other liquid.
In witness whereof, we, the said James Paton, Peter Harris, and
Robert Harris, have hereunto, set our hands and seals, this
Nineteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and seventy.".