IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF LIGHTING AND HEATING GAS, AND IN APPARATUS AND BURNERS CONNECTED THERE WITH.
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Etienne Jules Lafond Caillot, of Barcelona
(Spain), Chemist, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF LIGHTING AND HEATING GAS, AND IN APPARATUS AND
BURNERS CONNECTED THERE WITH.'
"
Sealed the 3rd January 1873, and dated the 5th July 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Etienne Jules Lafond
Caillot at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 5th July 1872.
I, ETIENNE JULES LAFOND CAILLOT, of Barcelona, Spain, Chemist, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF LIGHTING AND HEATING GAS, AND IN APPARATUS AND
BURNERS CONNECTED THEREWITH," to be as follows:-
My Invention has for its object the manufacture of gas for lighting
and heating purposes by means of simple and easily managed apparatus,
which allows the gas to be manufactured in private dwellings without
danger from all solid or liquid combustible matters, the gas being pure,
economical, and deprived of its carbonic acid.

page_text: The same apparatus enables for the purpose of lighting and heating
he consumption of vegetable and mineral oils, petroleum, shale, and
other matters of a similar nature in a state of gas, without the reuqire-
ment of a chimney or mechanism for giving ventilation.
The combustible matters employed are peat, animal matters, black
and brown coal, ligneous and vegetable matters, small wood, sawdust,
spent tan, resins, the refuse of tallow, petroleum, and shale oil; these
matters being placed in the still with about thirty per cent. of vegetable
charcoal.
My system also includes the purification of the gas by certain mineral
and vegetable matters which separate the empyreumatical oil, sulphurets,
oxide of carbon, & ammonia, thereby preventing noxious effluvia from
escaping from the burners.
To use or consume oils and hydrocarbons of different densities and
impurities without submitting them to operations which increase the
cost, the oils and hydrocarbons are consumed in a state of gas combined
with superoxygenated air, and no chimney is required. The use of this
purified gas preserves the paintings and gildings in palaces, saloons,
theatres, coffee houses, and other places which at present are rapidly
deteriorated by the use of ordinary gas.
My system requires no ranges of pipes, thereby giving immense
advantages to all localities, factories, houses, stations, tunnels, towns,
villages, hamlets, castles, ships, and other places not supplied with
ordinary gas, although the gas works and ranges of pipes can be
employed in any system, but there is no necessity to make them in
localities where they do not exist.
The furnace consists of a cylinder formed of refractory earth or fire
clay, enclosed in a wrought or cast-iron casing, and has in its interior
helical ribs or plates carrying the vertical still or alembic made of cast
iron or ceramic matters, and in this still there is a sheet-iron vessel or
cistern for containing the combustibles required for making the gas, and
the still is provided with a cover and the necessary pipes and fittings.
The grate and its ash-pit are placed on masonry adapted for the
purpose, and the hot gases from this grate either escape through the
chimney or are used in any required manner, and from the delivery

page_text: passage of the still the gas passes through a pipe to
purifier.
ULIC
The combustible liquids used for producing the gas pass through the
syphon pipe into the still, and by this arrangement of furnace it is easy
to produce gas rapidly from solid or liquid combustible matters in a
continuous manner by properly supplying the still.
The washer, which receives the gas by pipes, consists of an external
sheet or cast-iron casing of any desired form, and having at the top a
cover sealed at the bottom by passing it into water placed in an annular
cistern. At the lower part of the washer there is a compartment
constituting the ordinary vessel, into which the gas from the still enters,
and above this compartment there is a washing compartment containing
water, in which is placed a spiral pipe which allows the gas to circulate
twice before it arrives at the purifier. After leaving the spiral pipe
the gas passes through an orifice to the beds of a first purifier, and
through them into a bell cover, and then passes downwards through
second beds, and from thence to the gasometer through a pipe, and the
water of the washer is conveyed from an upper cistern by means of pipes.
The beds of the purifiers are composed of matters corresponding with
the nature of the combustible employed for producing the gas; thus for
gas produced from combustible liquids I employ sawdust or powdered.
coke, and for the gas produced from sulphurous coal I employ subacitate
of lead, steam, carbonate of lime, pulverized fern and broom, large saw-
dust of deal, or ashes of sea weeds.
The gasometer that I employ is of the ordinary construction, it
receives the gas by means of a pipe, and delivers it to the carburetter
which I will now describe:-This carburetter is enclosed in a case of
sheet iron or other metal, the gas entering by a tap and leaving by
another tap to the pipes or passages leading to the burners used for
lighting or heating. In the interior of the carburetter there are several
compartments, containing alternately wool and the liquid hydrocarbons
used for.carburetting, the hydrocarbons being introduced through a pipe
by taps worked from the top of the apparatus, and afterwards go out
as heavy products through a tap at the bottom.
The gas is carburetted in the several compartments and passes out
through a tap after having traversed the beds of wool, which absorb the
liquid which tries to escape with the gas, and this carburetter apparatus

page_text: can serve either to enrich the gas for lighting which comes from the
gasometer, or to carburet atmospheric air to make it suitable for lighting
and heating.
I employ for burning in a state of gas all the mineral and vegetable
hydrocarbons, shale, petroleum, and others, without using a glass
chimney, a burner which consists of an external casing or cylinder of
copper or other metal, on the top of which is adjusted a cover for
regulating the air and flame.
The cylinder is connected by a tube to the reservoir which contains
the oils for feeding the burner, but this reservoir is dispensed with when
the burner is applied to a lamp. In the interior of the burner there is a
wick, guided in a wick holder provided with its lifter and depresser.
The air passes all round the wick, the air being sent to the burners by
the same passages as those for the gas, thus utilizing the parts of which
they are composed.
1
I also use a capillary burner, which may be adapted to lamps which
burn the gas from light and mineral hydrocarbons, and by this
construction it acquires the property of drawing or inspiring the air
required for combustion. The body of this burner is of copper, and
has in its interior an orifice through which the vapours of the hydro-
carbons escape, and at the top of the burner there is an orifice for the
lighted gas. A tube, which is provided with a capillary plug enters
the liquid contained in the reservoir of the lamp, or in any other
recipient whatever, it is surmounted by the connecting piece, which
serves to fix the burner to the lamp, and which is itself shaped like a
cup to receive some drops of hydrocarbon required for the ignition at
the top of the burner.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Etienne Jules Lafond Caillot in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 4th January 1873.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fifth day of July, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the thirty-
sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Etienne Jules Lafond Caillot, Her
special licence that I, the said Etienne Jules Lafond Caillot, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Etienne Jules Lafond Caillot, my executors, administrators, and 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 law-
fully 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 THE MANUFACTURE OF LIGHTING AND
HEATING GAS, AND IN APPARATUS AND BURNERS CONNECTED THEREWITH," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Etienne Jules Lafond
Caillot, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my, 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 Scal Patent Office within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Etienne Jules Lafond Caillot, do
hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement and accompanying Sheet of
Drawings (that is to say) :-
My Invention has for its object the manufacture of gas for lighting.
and heating purposes by means of simple and easily managed apparatus,
which allows the gas to be manufactured in private dwellings without
danger from all solid or liquid combustible matters, the gas being pure,
economical, and deprived of its carbonic acid.
The same apparatus enables for the purposes of lighting and heating
the consumption of vegetable and mineral oils, petroleum, shale, and
other matters of a similar nature in a state of gas without the require-.
ment of a chimney or mechanism for giving ventilation.

page_text: The combustible matters employed are peat, animal matters, black
and brown coal, ligneous and vegetable matters, small wood, sawdust,
spent tan, resins, the refuse of tallow, petroleum, and shale oil, these
matters being placed in the still with about thirty per cent. of vegetable
charcoal obtained from the distillation of the oil.
My system also includes the purification of the gas by certain mineral
and vegetable matters which separate the empyreumatical oil, sulphurets,
oxide of carbon, and ammonia, thereby preventing noxious cffluvia from
escaping from the burners.
To use or consume oils and hydrocarbons of different densities and
impurities without submitting them to operations which increase the
cost; the oils and hydrocarbons are consumed in a state of gas combined
with superoxygenated air, and no chimney is required. The use of this
purified gas preserves the paintings and gildings in palaces, saloons,
theatres, coffee houses, and other places, which at present are rapidly
deteriorated by the use of ordinary gas.
My system requires no ranges of pipes, thereby giving immense ad-
vantages to all localities, factorics, houses, stations, tunnels, towns,
villages, hamlets, castles, ships, and other places not supplied with
ordinary gas, although the gas works and ranges of pipes can be em-
ployed in my system, but there is no necessity to make them in localities
where they do not exist.
The Figures on the accompanying Sheet of Drawings in connection
with the following particular description, will enable the construction
and working of my improved apparatus for the manufacture and supply
of gas to be used for lighting and heating purposes to be readily under-
stood.
Fig. 1 is a vertical section of the apparatus complete, comprising the
gas producing furnace or still, the washer, the purifier, the gasometer,
and the carbureter.
The furnace consists of a cylinder a formed of refractory earth or fire-
clay enclosed in a wrought or cast-iron casing, and has in its interior
helical ribs or plates c, c, carrying the vertical still or alembic d, d, made
of cast iron or ceramic matter, and in this still there is a sheet-iron
vessel or cistern f for containing the combustibles required for making

page_text: the gas, and the still is provided with a cover g and the necessary pipes
and fittings.
The grate h and its ash-pit i are placed on masonry j adapted for the
purpose, and the hot gases from this grate either escape through the
chimney k or are used in any required manner, and from the delivery
passage of the still the gas passes passes through the pipe to the
washer and purificr.
The combustible liquids used for producing the gas pass through the
syphon pipe m into the still d, and by this arrangement of furnace it is
easy to produce gas rapidly from solid or liquid combustible matters in a
continuous manner by properly supplying the still d.
The washer, which receives the gas by the pipe and by the branch
pipes,, consists of an external sheet or cast-iron casing n of any
desired form, and having at the top a cover n¹ sealed at the bottom by,
passing it into water placed in the annular cistern n². At the lower
part of the washer there is a compartment o constituting the ordinary
vessel into which the gas from the still enters, and above this compart-
ment there is a washing compartment o¹ containing water, in which is
placed a spiral pipe o which allows the gas to circulate twice before it
arrives at the purifier. After leaving the pipe o² the gas passes through
the orifice q' to the beds of a first purifier o³ and through them into the
bell cover n¹, and then passes downwards through the second beds of and
from thence to the gasometer through the pipe p, and the water of the
washer is conveyed from an upper cistern g by means of pipes q' and q².
The beds of the purifiers o³ and o' are composed of matters corresponding.
with the nature of the combustible employed for producing the gas;
thus for gas produced from combustible liquids I employ sawdust or
powdered coke, and for the gas produced from sulphurous coal I employ
subacetate of lead, steam, carbonate of lime, pulverized fern and broom,
large sawdust of deal, or ashes of seaweeds.
The gasometer A that I employ is of the ordinary construction; it
receives the gas by the pipe p and delivers it to the carburretter, which I
will now describe. This carburetter is enclosed in a case of sheet iron
or other metal, the gas entering by the tap and leaving by the tap
to the pipes or passages leading to the burners used for lighting or
heating. In the interior of the carburetter there are several compart-

page_text: ments containing alternately wool and the liquid hydrocarbons used for
carburetting, the hydrocarbons being introduced through the pipe by
the taps and 15, worked from the top of the apparatus, and afterwards
go out as heavy products through the tap 6 at the bottom.
The gas is carburetted in the several compartments and passes out
through the tap 2, after having traversed the beds of wool 8, 8, which
absorb the liquid which tries to escape with the gas, and this carburretter
apparatus can serve cither to enrich the gas for lighting which comes
from the gasometer, or to carburet atmospheric air to make it suitable
for lighting and heating.
In Fig. 2 I have represented a vertical section of a burner, which I
employ for burning in a state of gas all the mineral and vegetable hydro-
carbons, shale, petroleum, and others, without using a glass chimney.
This burner consists of an external casing or cylinder B of copper or
other metal, on the top of which is adjusted a cover C' for regulating the 1
air and flame.
The cylinder is connected by a tube D to the reservoir E which
contains the oils for feeding the burner, but this reservoir is dispensed
with when the burner is applied to a lamp. In the interior of the
burner there is a wick F guided in a wick holder G provided with its 2
lifter and depresser H. The air passes all round the wick after traversing
through the tube K, the lower chamber J; and the grid I.
Fig. 3 shews the application of this burner to all arrangements of
apparatus which burn the gas from the main gas pipes now in usc, the
air being sent to the burners by the same passages as those for the gas, 2
thus utilizing the parts of which they are composed. The pipe which
conveys the liquid is marked L, and the burner itself M. The burner I
employ for the consumption of carburetted air is represented in Fig. 4;
it can be adjusted to those in use for consuming the gas from
gas pipes.
3
In Fig. 5 I have shewn a capillary burner adapted to lamps which
burn the gas from light and mineral hydrocarbons, and by this con-
struction it acquires the property of drawing or inspiring the air required
for combustion. The body of this burner N is of copper and has in its
interior an orifice O through which the vapours of the hydrocarbons 3

page_text: escape, and at the top of the burner there is an orifice for the lighted
gas. P is a tube provided with a capillary plug which enters the liquid
contained in the reservoir of the lamp or in any other recipient what-
ever; it is surmounted by the connecting piece Q which serves to
fix the burner to the lamp, and which is itself shaped like a cup to
receive some drops of hydrocarbon required for the ignition at the top of
the burner.
Having now described the nature and particulars of my said Invention,
I desire it to be understood that I do not confine myself to the precise
details or arrangements before described, as I can modify the process,
the apparatus, the burners, and the carburetters or regenerators, but
what I do claim are the following parts, as distinct characteristics of my
Invention,―
First. The process described and the apparatus producing the gas
for lighting and heating from any liquid or solid combustible what-
ever.
Secondly. The system described for purifying and carburetting the gas
and air with the same apparatus, united or separated, in order that they
may be adapted for any place whatever.
Thirdly. The application of my process to apparatus now used in the
manufacture of gas, thereby enabling gas to be obtained from any
combustible whatever.
Fourthly. The system of burner for lighting and burning adapted to
lamps and any other apparatus for lighting and heating.
Fifthly. The application of my carburetting apparatus to establishments
and habitations in general to carburet either the gas or produce car-
buretted air by changing the hydrocarbons in this apparatus.
Sixthly. The burners that I adapt to those which burn the gas from
the ordinary gas pipes for consuming carburetted air.
Seventhly. The application of the process I employ for the dis-
tribution of air to my burners for lighting and burning to the grates
of furnaces.
And, Eighthly. The application of the entire process and the parts
of the apparatus, either combined or separate, for producing carburetted

page_text: hydrogen gas or carburetted air from all liquid and solid combustibles,
a process which dispenses with gas works and the layers of gas pipes.
In witness whereof, I, the said Etienne Jules Lafond Caillot, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Second day of December,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
two
Witness,
ALBERT CAHEN,
Civil Engineer,
32, Boulevard Magenta,
at Paris.
LAFOND CAILLOT. (L.S.)