A NEW OR IMPROVED COMPOUND REGULATING GOVERNOR GAS GENERATOR."
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Clayden, of Faringdon, in the County
of Berks, for the Invention of "A NEW OR IMPROVED COMPOUND
REGULATING GOVERNOR GAS GENERATOR."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Olayden at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
4th August 1874.
I, SAMUEL CLAYDEN, of Faringdon, in the County of Berks, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "A NEW OR IMPROVED
COMPOUND REGULATING GOVERNOR GAS GENERATOR," to be as follows:—
The object of this Invention is the manufacture of an illuminating or
heating gas from any light hydrocarbon oils, and to make and use at
one and the same time, if required, from the same generator a gas suitable
only for heating, and a gas of a low or high illuminating power as

page_text: required. For this purpose I take two or more vessels similarly con-
structed, arranged with narrow divisions open to each other only at one
end, so that air entering at the inlet shall have to pass a great distance
before it can reach the exit. These passages or tubes are filled to a
certain height with the oils over the whole of which the air has to pass,
and the passages are also fitted with a band of cotton wick; the width
of the said passages and the band of cotton is fixed at certain distances
alternately to top and bottom of the passages so that it is hanging in
festoons from the top or cover of generator and dipping into the oil at
bottom of same. Two or more of theso generators are then placed one
above the other, or on a plane with each other, and they are so connected
with taps and pipes that air being forced in at inlet can be made to pass
either through part of or whole of generators, so that a gas of any required
degree of richness may be obtained, or gas of different qualitics obtained
at same time.
The air is forced through the generators either by an ordinary
airometer or by a bellows arrangement driven by a spring, or by a rope,
pullies, and weight. On top of generators driven by a spring or weight
I fix a governor of an ordinary construction, but so arranged that it
works a valve regulating the ingress of air to generators. Reservoirs of
oil of different degrees of gravity are also fixed to generators so that it
can be supplied to them as required.
SPECIFICATION filed in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters
Patent, and of an Order of the Lord Chancellor, by the said Samuel
Clayden in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 17th February 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
CLAYDEN, of Faringdon, in the County of Berks, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of August, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in tho thirty-
eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Samuel Clayden, Her special licence
that I, the said Samuel Clayden, my executors, administrators, and

page_text: assigns, or such others as I, the said Samuel Clayden, 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 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 "A NEW OR IN-
PROVED COMPOUND Regulating GovernOR GAS GENERATOR," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Samuel Olayden, my executors or ad-
ministrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of
their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the
naturo of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be
performed, and cause the samo to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office
on or before the Eighteenth day of February, Ono thousand eight
hundred and seventy-five.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, tho said Samuel Clayden, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement :—
This Invention has for its object the manufacture of a gas suitable for
heating, cooking, and illuminating purposes, from light hydrocarbon oils,
and its special object is from one machine to make and use at one and
the same time, as may be desired, gas of different degrees of illuminating
power.
To construct the machine I take two tin or iron vessels, if for
a 10 light burner, of the following proportions (or if for a larger or
smaller number a proportionately smaller or larger size), forty-two
inches long by twenty-four inches wide and two inches deep. These
vessels are fitted with eighteen longitudinal divisions and only open
to each other at opposite ends, so that when air is forced in at one
end of the said vessel it shall have to travel the whole length of the
passages cre it can reach the outlet. This, in the vessel the size specified,
would be about sixty feet. This vessel is fitted about one half inch
deep from the bottom with the hydrocarbon oils over the whole length
of the passages through which the air has to pass from its entrance to
its exit. These said air passages are fitted and partially filled with an
absorbant material, as hair, cocoa fibre, or a band of cotton as wide as
each air passage which is fixed throughout the whole length of said
passages to the top or cover of generator at distances of about six inches

page_text: .
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apart, and are allowed to hang in loose festoons to the bottom of gene-
rator and dip into the oils contained therein. Two at least, or more if
desired, of these vessels, fitted as above stated, are fitted to each machine,
and are connected together with a pipe and cock from the outlet of onc
_to the inlet of the other, so that air forced into the inlet of first vessel-
can be made to pass through the whole of the passages in both vessels.
ere it can bo'discharged. On top of generator I fix a small gasholder:
and tank, which acts as a' governor. The outlet pipe of the second
vessel or generator is carried into this gasholder, and an outlet pipe from
this with a regulating valve connects this holder with the mains or
service pipes leading to gas burners. At the outlet of tho first vessel or-
generator. I also fix a pipe and tap also connecting with gas holder, so
that by a simple arrangement of the taps connected to each generator I.
can pass gas into the gas holder that has passed only through one or
both generators, and thus obtain different.qualities of gas. Also from
the outlet of first generator I fix a pipe and tap directly leading to any
cooking or licating apparatus, so that gas can be burned therefrom that.
has only passed through one generator, while at the same time gas may.
be burned from the gas holder that has passed through both generators,
and has consequently acquired a high illuminating power.
6
In use I fill the first generator with a spirit of about the same gravity.
as the ordinary petroleum spirit of commerce. In the top or second.
generator I put a much lighter and more volatile spirit obtained by.
distillation from the ordinary crude spirit of petroleum.
.
!
The air I prefer to be forced from an acrometer, or it can be forced
by a bellows arrangement or by a fan driven by wheels and pullics, and-
a weight. On the top of gas holder I fix an arm working a valve, that
as the gas holder rises to its extreme point gradually shuts off the air ·
from entering the generator, and as the same falls it opens the valve and
admits air as required.
Also on the top of generator I fix two reservoirs, one containing a
supply of spirit suitable for supplying the lower generator, and the other
a spirit suitable for the second generator, and cither by a tap or a fount
arrangement connecting these reservoirs with their respective generators
I supply them with spirit as required.
Having thus stated the nature of said Invention, and also the manner
in which it is. carried out, I would have it understood, I do not: confine.
3

page_text: myself to precise details as herein-before described, but that which I
claim and desire to have secured to me by the herein-before in part
recited Letters Patent is, a machine for the manufacture of gas from.
hydrocarbon oils of-such a nature as before described, so that from the
same machine at one and the same time may be produced and consumed
a cheap gas of great heating power, and also a gas of a highly illu-
minating power.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Clayden, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Tenth day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-fivc.