IMPROVEMENTS IN BURNING HYDROCARBONS, AND IN APPARATUS TO BE EMPLOYED THEREFOR
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Henry Johnson, of 47, Lincoln's Inn
Fields, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN BURNING HYDROCARBONS, AND IN APPARATUS TO
BE EMPLOYED THEREFOR."-A communication from abroad by Joseph
Kay Caldwell, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of
America.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Henry Johnson
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 2nd February 1872.
I, JOHN HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County'
of Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN BURNING HYDROCARBONS, AND IN Apparatus
TO BE EMPLOYED THEREFOR," a communication from abroad by Joseph
Kay Caldwell, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America,
to be as follows:-
'
:

page_text: a combustible vapour or spray by causing a forcible jet of dry or
superheated steam to cross the exposed orifice of a tube or passage
cmmunicating with a supply of petroleum or other liquid hydrocarbon.
The two nozzles, tubes, or passages must be arranged in respect to
each other so that one shall exactly cross the other, and be in com-
munication respectively with a steam generator and with the supply
reservoir of the liquid hydrocarbon.
Any desired number of pairs of these nozzles arranged as above
described and freely exposed to the air are to be combined with the
furnace to be heated, and each tube or nozzle of the several pairs should
be made adjustable so as to admit of their being brought to the most
effective working position.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Henry Johnson in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 30th July 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of
Middlesex, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Second day of February, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the
thirty-fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said John Henry Johnson,
Her special license that I,, the said. John Henry Johnson, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
John Henry Johnson, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at
all times thereafter 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 'IMPROVEMENTS IN BURNING HYDROCARBONS,
AND IN APPARATUS TO BE EMPLOYED THEREFOR," a communication to me
from abroad by Joseph Kay Caldwell,. of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
65

page_text: generation of heat in the furnace of a boiler. Figure 3 is a sectional
plan on the line 1-2, Figure 1; and Figure 4 is a modification of the
burner.
The mode of generating combustible vapor or spray will be best
understood by referring to the full-sized sectional view Figure 1, where
A and B are two pipes or tubes arranged in the present instance at
right angles or thereabouts to each other, the pipe A communicating
with any superheating device, and the latter with the steam space
of the boiler, while the pipe B communicates with a supply of petroleum
or other equivalent hydrocarbon. Both pipes fit snugly, but so as to be
readily adjusted in a casting D to which they are confined by set screws,
and each pipe terminates in a nozzle 6; the two nozzles occupy such a
position in relation to each other that the jet of dry or superheated
steam under pressure from the pipe A will cross the orifice of the pipe B,
as shown.
This forcible jet of steam causes sufficient of a vacuum in the pipe B
to induce the petroleum or other equivalent hydrocarbon to rise in
the tube B; the moment it reaches the orifice, however, it is at once.
forced by the jet of steam into spray, which being intimately united
with the dry steam produces, when ignited, a long and widely diffused
clear flame of intense heat, the flame leaving no sooty deposition on the
objects with which it comes in contact, while the orifices are maintained
entirely free from carbonaceous or tarry deposit.
The Invention is applicable to the generation of heat in furnaces
generally, and in fact may be adopted in any of the branches of the
useful arts which demand a uniform and intense heat.
As an example of the applicability of the Invention it is illustrated
in Figures 2 and 3 as adapted to the furnace of a steam boiler. G
represents the front portion of a steam boiler, and H the front wall of
the furnace on which the end of the boiler in the present instance
bears, I and I being the side walls of the furnace. A layer of fire-brick
J is laid beneath the boiler on suitable bars; ordinary grate bars may in
fact be employed for supporting this brickwork, and in the front wall H
are two openings e, e, for receiving the burners, there being in the
present instance two burners of the character illustrated in Figure 1 in
each opening, and these burners are secured within the openings in the
position clearly illustrated in Figures 2 and 3. The tubes A. of all the

page_text: burners communicate with a pipe K; which receives its dry steam from
any suitable superheater communicating with the steam space of the
boiler. The pipe K is furnished with a suitable valve or cock to
regulate the passage of steam to the tubes A. The tubes B of all the
burners communicate with the pipe L, which is also furnished with a
suitable cock or valve, and which communicates with a supply of
petroleum or other equivalent hydrocarbon or combustible fluid.
On igniting the spray or vapor derived from the burners in the
manner described above, the whole interior of the furnace above the
layer J of bricks will be filled with a forcible flame of intense heat,
which rushes through the furnace over the bridge of the same into
whatever flues the furnace may communicate with. It may be remarked
that four burners of the size represented in Figure 1 sufficed to generate
heat enough to maintain the steam at a pressure of 80 pounds per square
inch in a boiler which furnished the steam for an engine having a
cylinder twenty inches in diameter and a stroke of sixty inches and
making sixty-eight revolutions per minute, the hydrocarbon used being
crude petroleum or heavy oil. Two burners of the size shown were
placed in each opening e, and each opening was about nine inches deep
and five inches wide. A fire-brick partition d extends from the layer of
bricks J to within a few inches from the bottom of the boiler, and
extends from the front wall H to the bridge wall; the furnace is thus
separated into two channels, each channel receiving the ignited spray
or vapor from two burners. This partition wall is not indispensable,
although it is to be preferred in a furnace of the character described.
The freedom of the burners from deposit and obstructions, and the
purity of the flame, may be attributed to the fact that the orifices are
exposed and not surrounded with any casing, which would have the
effect of restricting the free access of air to the flame, or of inducing the
accumulation of tarry deposit.
It will be evident that the Invention is applicable to the generating of
heat in boilers of any class, such for instance as marine or locomotive
boilers, modifications in the disposition of the burners being made in
accordance with the character of the furnaces; in fact the Invention
may be applied to the generation of heat in furnaces for heating or
reducing metals, and especially to such furnaces as are used in
connection with the manufacture of glass and earthenware, for the

page_text: Thirdly. The combination with a furnace substantially as described of
any desired number of burners, each consisting of two nozzles freely
exposed to the air, one for discharging a jet of dry steam, across the
orifice of the other nozzle, communicating with a supply of petroleum or
other equivalent hydrocarbon.
Fourthly. The application and use for the purpose described of the
two tubes A and B provided with nozzles and rendered adjustable in
respect to each other, substantially in the manner described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Henry Johnson, have to this
my Specification set my hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day
of July One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.