IMPROVEMENTS ON CERTAIN PART OR PARTS OF GAS APPARATUS
Year: 1817

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
STRATTON, of Gutter Lane, Cheapside, in the City of London, Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Fifth day of December, in the fifty-eighth year of His reign, did
give and grant unto me, the said William Stratton, my exors, adññors, and
assigns; His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I,
the said William Stratton, my exors, admors, and assigns, during the term of
years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS ON CERTAIN PART OR PARTS OF GAS APPARATUS;"
in which Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said
William Stratton, under my hand and seal, to cause a particular description
of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six'
calendar months next after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in
and by the same (relation being thereunto had) may more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Stratton, do hereby declare that my Invention of Improvements in
certain Part or Parts of Gas Apparatus consists in the construction, form, and
arrangement of that part of the apparatus called the gasometer or gasholder
or receiver, and which I effect and practise as herein-after is particularly set

page_text: forth and described by the following description and Drawing hereunto
annexed, that is to say:-
My improvement consists of certain air-tight receivers or vessels, with open
bottoms, which are immersed in a cistern or reservoir of water or other liquid,
in the same way as gasometers are usually constructed; but as the object of
my Invention is to save the depth of reservoir, which usually is necessary, and
the construction of which is frequently attended with great difficulty, and also
to save the trouble and expence of compensation weights and adjusting wheels,
as well as the foundation necessary for the usual gasometers, and expensive
framing in the roof to support them and the air vessel of the gasometer, I use
a different arrangement. In the first place, my water reservoir only requires
to be of half the usual depth, but may be constructed in the usual way as a
compleat tank of water, but in this case an air and water-tight pipe, of several
inches diameter, must pass from the external air or outside of the tank walls
under the bottom of the tank, and then rise upwards so as to be above the
surface of the water; or, what will answer the same purpose, I prefer making
the cistern or tank of two consentric rings of timber, cast iron, or other mate-
rial, from 8 to 12 inches asunder, and connected by a water-tight bottom, so
as to form a ring of water or other fluid for the vessels to dip into instead of a
solid body of water. This vessel may be supported upon timber sleepers, or
upon brick or stone piers, or otherwise, so as to be steady, and at the same
time to permit a free communication of air to all the external parts, to admit
persons to go into the inside of it for painting it or inspecting defects. The
gasometer or airholder which is to fit and work into this reservoir I make in
two separate vessels instead of one, as usually practised, and these are formed
of plate iron, tin, copper, or any other suitable material, and may be round,
oval, square, or of any other required form, and are similar in principle to
those commonly used, except that I place one within the other, in consequence
of which the inner vessel will require to be so much less than the outer one,
as to permit both of them to float easily up and down in the water cistern. The
outer vessel must, of course, be less in diameter than the inside of the tank or
cistern, and its height double that of the tank or cistern, so that when it is
quite down there may be as much of it above the water as there is below it.
The inner vessel must be only half the height of the outer one, so that when
raised up to its greatest height above the water its top may come in contact,
or nearly so, with the inside of the top of the outer vessel while that is as low
as it can descend in the water, and in this state the vessels will be empty
because the gas is to be contained in the space between the two vessels; but
if the outer vessel is conceived to be raised half its height in the water, or as

page_text: high as it can go, while the inner one is depressed as low as it can go, then a
very large gas space will be produced, at least one equivalent to the total
contents of the external vessel, although the cistern is but half its height.
In order to insure this respective motion of the internal and external vessels,
that is to say, that one shall rise as much as the other falls, and vice versa, I
so connect them together by chains or ropes passing over pullies that this
alternate motion must be produced. But it is unnecessary to describe the
particular apparatus, since the means must be evident to every mechanic, and
has been used in other machinery. But the process I prefer for producing and
regulating the motion of my vessels is by hydrautic pressure, which I bring
about as follows:-Two or more métallic or other sufficiently strong inverted
syphow tubes are to be placed at equal distances round the tank or cistern,
when it is a ring only of water, as last described, in such manner that one leg
of each syphow may rise up the outside of the cistern to the required height,
and pass under its bottom, and the other leg rises to nearly the top of the
inside of the tank. Into each of the external legs of the syphons a turned
metallic rod or piston enters, the upper ends of which are fixed to the top of
the external vessel. A similar set of pistons or rods are placed in the inner
legs of the syphons, having the upper ends secured by joints to the top of the
inner vessel; and all these pistons or rods are made to move up and down in
their respective syphons tubes in an air and water-tight manner by stuffing
boxes and proper packing. A small air or stop cock is also placed at the top
of each leg of the syphon, and I connect the syphons together by a pipe to
preserve a level in case of leakage. A small force-pump is necessary to fill
the syphons with water, which can be done while the stop cocks are open; and
when filled the cocks are to be closed, and the pumping continued until both
the vessels are raised to half their elevation, after which the supply of water is
cut off by turning another cock. And now it will be evident one vessel cannot
rise or fall without a proportionate depression or elevation of the other. This
contrivance is equally applicable when an entire cistern of water is used, but
with less convenience, as the syphons must then be placed in the water; and
whether this or simple chains of communication are used, it will be seen that
in all situations one vessel may be made to balance the other as nearly as may
be required, and that the perpendicular situation of the external vessel can be
maintained by guide rods attached to the exterior sides of the cistern without
balance weights or any assistance from the roof above. The pipe for con-
veying away the gas must of course be between the two vessels, in a cavity
made for it in one or both of them, and it must be higher than the water at
all times.

page_text: It will be seen. from the above account of my Invention that it extends to
the construction of double gasometers such as I have described, and to the
construction of a cistern of half the height of the external vessel, composed of
two concentric rings, the inner one of which has no top or covering, but admits
of access to the internal parts of the inner vessel; though my double
gasometer is equally applicable to a common simple tank of water, provided
an air-pipe passes through it, as herein-before described, to permit the air to
enter and escape when the vessels move. And although I do not claim either
the chain connection or hydraulic pressure syphons as any part of my Invention,
being aware they are used for other purposes, yet I claim the means of bal-
lancing one of my gasometers or vessels by means of the other without any
strain upon or assistance from the roof.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Stratton, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Third day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and eighteen.
Inrolled the Fourth day of June, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and eighteen.