IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE HEATING OF EVERY INDUSTRIAL AND PRIVATE APPARATUS BY MEANS OF THE OXYGEN AND HYDROGEN GASES COMBINED AND OBTAINED FROM THE DECOMPOSITION OF WATER
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Hippolyte Benigne Girard, of No. 11, Rue du Con-
servatorie, in the City of Paris, Chemist, residing at present with
Mr. Sandrier, Banker, of Paris aforesaid, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE HEATING OF EVERY INDUSTRIAL AND PRIVATE APPARATUS BY
MEANS OF THE OXYGEN AND HYDROGEN GASES COMBINED AND OBTAINED FROM
THE DECOMPOSITION OF WATER."
Sealed the 18th November 1863, and dated the 25th May 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Hippolyte Benigne Girard
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 25th May 1863.
I, HIPPOLYTE BENIGNE GIRARD, of No. 11, Rue du Conservatoire, in the
City of Paris, Chemist, residing at present with Mr. Sandrier, Banker, of
Paris aforesaid, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN THE HEATING OF EVERY INDUSTRIAL AND PRIVATE APPARATUS BY
MEANS OF THE OXYGEN AND HYDROGEN GASES COMBINED AND OBTAINED FROM THE
DECOMPOSITION OF WATER," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in the manufacture of oxygen and hydrogen gas from
water.
I take a metal (brass or other) pot or cauldron, surmounted by a cap or
cover with still or alembic furnished with a pipe and cock, and place it upon
any description of furnace, and fill with water; a manometer, an escape pipe,
and a safety valve are also fitted. A second tube, furnished inside with a

page_text: number of wire gauze washers, is adjusted at the end of the pipe of the
cauldron, and by its other end to or into a platina pipe (chemically pure) with
cocks at both ends. The platina pipe passes through a reverberatory furnace.
Another pipe, divided interiorly by gauze wire washers, is attached to the cock
which terminates the end of the platina pipe, and finally the pipe just men-
tioned receives another made of caoutchouc or other suitable material for
conducting gas to a gasholder. The furnace is made to receive several blow
pipes for hydrogen and oxygen gas combined, (their ends being placed near the
platina pipe.) These pipes are supplied from the gasholder above mentioned
by means of a caoutchouc tube passing therefrom and adapted to another tube
(in metal) furnished with washers or divisions, as before described, and a cock
or tap. This latter pipe is screwed to a hollow box (in metal) of cylindrical
form, furnished with a glass to permit the interior to be inspected. Its upper
part is pierced with holes, to which are fitted the calumets, and these receive
caoutchouc tubes which pass to and supply the blow pipes. By boiling the
water in the cauldron is transformed to steam, which passes into the platina
pipe, and during its traverse finds itself subjected to a very high temperature,
which instantly forms it into oxygen and hydrogen gas, which passes into the
gasholder.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Hippolyte Benigne Girard in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 24th November 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HIPPOLYTE
BENIGNE GIRARD, of No. 11, Rue du Conservatoire, in the City of Paris,
Chemist, residing at present with Mr. Sandrier, Banker, of Paris aforesaid,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred. and sixty-three, in the twenty-sixth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Hyppolyte Benigne Girard, Her special licence that I, the said Hippolyte
Benigne Girard, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Hippolyte Benigne Girard, 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

page_text: of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE HEATING OF EVERY INDUSTRIAL AND
PRIVATE APPARATUS BY MEANS OF THE OXYGEN AND HYDROGEN GASES COMBINED
AND OBTAINED FROM THE DECOMPOSITION OF WATER," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Hippolyte Benigne Girard, my executors or adminis-
trators, 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 Seal Patent Office within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Hippolyte Benigne Girard, 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, reference being had to the Sheet of Drawing hereunto
annexed and forming part of this my Specification:-
The decomposition of water is not a discovery, it having been long scientifically
known, neither is the combustion of the oxygen and hydrogen gases a novelty,
but these two operations have hitherto been but experimentally carried on
and have never been practically applied. My discovery rests upon my pro-
cesses taken as a whole, combined by means of apparatuses which I have
either invented or appropriated, and with which I obtain a production
answering every industrial requirement as regards quantity, economy, and
safety. The decomposition of the water is effected under the influence of a
heat of from 1,500 to 2,000 degrees (dazzling white beat). To obtain the
two above-named gases a substance must be used upon which oxygen has no
action, and I have adopted platina, admitting nevertherless that tubes of clay
may be used. The combustion of the oxygen and hydrogen gases in the pro-
portions of one in volume of oxygen to two in volume of hydrogen gives me
the requisite heat; and as the result of my decomposition of water is combined
oxygen and hydrogen, I find myself without cost in possession of my combustible.
element.
In Figures 1, 1*, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 of the accompanying Sheet of
Drawing similar letters are placed upon and denote similar parts where such
parts appear or may be seen at each of the Figures respectively.
a, copper cauldron, in which steam is generated. It is provided with
manometer, safety valve, escape cock and screw, fastened opening for intro-
duction of water. The cauldron may be placed over any description of
furnace; b, tube leading from the cauldron to the platina tube; c, platina

page_text: tube, the inside of which is furnished with several washers of platina gauze;
d, d¹, socket cocks frictionnally set at each end of the platina tube; e, fire-clay
tube furnace of oval shape, pierced at the two ends by a circular hole to
receive the platina tube which traverses its entire length. An opening made on
the lateral sides of this furnace is intended to receive the end of the
gas blow-
pipes; f, copper tube leading from d¹ to f¹, Figure 1*; f¹, tube plunging
in the vat q, and passing through the double bottom of the said vat to conduct
the gas beneath the bell r; q, vat in which the gases are received; its double
bottom supports the bell; r, bell glass with cock on the top; g, caoutchouc
tube which conducts the gases to the receiving gasholder. The vat must
receive a greater or lesser quantity of water, and the object of the arrange-
ment, Figure 1, is to cool the gases before they enter the gasholder. h, gas-
holder with manometer and reception and issue pipes; h¹, gas cocks; h", taps
for the water and for washing the charge and discharge pipes; i, caoutchouc
tube which unites the tubej with the gasholder; j, metal tube, the interior
of which is furnished with several wire gauze washers and a tap. This tube
is screwed at k¹ to the drum k. k, one of the small drums, gas receivers, or
safety apparatuses mounted on a bronze stand. This drum has an elbow
pipe at ' to receive the tube j, a circular opening ", furnished with a glass
to light the interior, five calumets, nipples, or small tubes ¹¹, receiving
caoutchouc tubes 7, which are attached to the blow pipes; and lastly, a support
, placed on a small projection at the back, and serving to uphold the
caoutchouc tubes; l, caoutchouc tube, of which there should be as many as
there are calumets or nipples on the drum; m, one of the blow pipes for com-
bined oxygen and hydrogen gases. This blow pipe is composed of a capillary
tube preceded by a series of wire gauzes, a tap, and a calumet or nipple; n,
one of the blow pipes for the oxygen and hydrogen gases separate. This blow
pipe is composed of a double metallic tube of two taps regulating the passage,
the one of the oxygen and the other of the hydrogen gas, which rejoin at the
end of the blow pipe; o, inner tube of blow pipe n; p, one of the moveable
supports placed on each side of the tube furnace. This support is intended to
sustain the blow pipes, one extremity of which penetrates into the tube furnace
by the opening shewn to heat the platina tube. This support may be other-
wise constructed, but always so that the blow pipes may be raised or lowered
when requisite; known apparatuses will serve this purpose.
Figure 9 represents an apparatus termed safety blow pipe, which may at
need replace the gas blow pipe m and the supports p. s is a rectangular
plate of metal or wood, which may rest upon any support capable of being
heightened at pleasure; t, the body of a blow pipe, with wire gauzes and bent

page_text: tube, plunging into the receiver u; u, receiver, containing oil up to the dotted
line; v, tube starting from the top of this receiver and joining the other end of
the blow pipe x, which has also wire gauzes within it like the body of blow
pipe t. I have invented this apparatus to provide against a return of flame
should it be dreaded, and it will be understood that if from the point a', where
the combustion of the gases takes place, the flame re-entered the tube, it would
be arrested by the layer of oil in the receiver u. On the plate s are fitted as
many blow pipes, with their adjuncts, as may be required; and each is fitted at
pleasure. Should a double guarantee of safety be desired, I should arrange the
drum or gas receiver k in a manner analagous to that I have just described.
I will now proceed to describe the arrangement and working of the
apparatus:-The platina tube is placed in the tube furnace; this tube com-
municates with the cauldron by the tap d, and with the receiving gasholder by
the tap d', and the pieces attached thereto. In this state, by the opening
made in the lateral sides of the tube furnace, is introduced the end of the gas
blow pipes, which are united first to the receiving or safety drums, and thence
to the feeding gasholders. The gas from the blow pipes is lit then; when the
platina tube has attained a suitable heat, the steam from the cauldron is per-
mitted to arrive. This steam in passing through the platina tube and the platina
gauze washers with which it is interiorly furnished decomposes, and the gases
go to the corresponding gasholder. Although the Drawing shews only part of
the pieces (of each sort) which I use for my operation, it will be easily under-
stood that there should be as many gas blow pipes on one side of the tube
furnace as on the other, which necessarily presupposes two supports and
two safety apparatuses, with their accessaries. To commence the operation
four safety apparatuses are required, because the gases are separate. To
produce the first heat required for the transformation of the steam into oxygen
and hydrogen gases united and combined, I use the oxygen and hydrogen
gases separate, and for this purpose I use the double blow pipes n, but upon
the production of a sufficient quantity of the said gases combined I use these
gases with the single blow pipes m for the subsequent production. If I desire
to decrease the temperature of all or part of my platina tube, I claim to
surround it wholly or partially with a sort of carapace or shell of porcelain or
fire-clay luted at each end in platina rings fixed to the tube, in which shell I
cause to pass a current of dry hydrogen, in which the whole or part of the tube
would bathe.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and the means by
which I carry it into practical effect, I wish it to be understood that I do not
confine myself to the precise details herein given, which may be modified

page_text: without departure from my Invention, but that I claim the application of the
oxygen and hydrogen gases in combination to the heating of every description
of apparatus, the means 'above described in combination, every possible appli-
cation of my gas receiver, termed safety apparatus, which is wholly of my
Invention, and other parts of apparatus herein-before specially claimed as new,
the whole substantially as herein set forth and illustrated on the accompanying
Sheet of Drawing:
: In witness whereof, I, the said Hippolyte Benigne Girard, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twentieth day of November, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.
H. B. GIRARD.
(L.S.)
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