IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER BY MEANS OF CARBONIC ACID, AND ALSO BY A PECULIAR APPLICATION OF HEATED AIR
Year: 1842

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ISHAM
BAGGS, of King's Square, in the County of Middlesex, Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Ninth day of February, in the fifth year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Isham Baggs, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said Isham Baggs, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Isham Baggs, my exors, adñiors, or assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
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 IN OBTAINING MOTIVE
POWER BY MEANS OF CARBONIC ACID, AND ALSO BY A PECULIAR APPLICATION OF
HEATED AIR;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the
said Isham Baggs, shall cause a particular description of the nature of niy said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in
Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said in part Letters Patent, as in and
by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, 1, the said Isbnm
Baggs, lo hereby declare that the nature of my Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and ascertained
in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawing
hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon (that is 5
to say)-
My Invention of Improvements in Obtaining Motive Power by Means of
Carbonic Acid, and consists of so constructing machinery and apparatus that
suitable chemical matters may be employed to evolve carbonic acid gas, the
pressure of which, acting against a piston in a suitable cylinder or engine, pro-
duces motive power, and the carbonic acid gas having been thus employed is
allowed to pass from the cylinder or engine into a vessel containing suitable
chemical matters, to absorb or take up the carbonic acid, and thus for a time
destroy the force previously possessed; and by a constant repetition of these
changes, using the same materials over and over again, a very powerful engine,
occupying but a small space, may be constructed, owing to the great force
exerted by carbonic acid when in the form of gas. And in order that my
Invention may be fully understood and readily carried into effect, I will pro-
ceed to explain the Drawing hereunto annexed.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
The Drawing represents a section of the apparatus used for evolving car-
bonic acid in the form of gas, and for again absorbing that gas when it has
been used for moving a piston in a suitable engine or cylinder. a is what I
call the generator, which consists of a strong vessel, into which the chemical
matters employed are introduced; and the matters I employ for generating
carbonic acid, and evolve it in the form of gas, are the super-sulphate of
ammonia and carbonate of ammonia, which are respectively contained in tho
two vessels b and c, and these matters are constantly introduced by the pumps d
and c, they having cocks to regulate the two materials that they may be sent
into the vessel a in proper quantities in relation to each other, so as to evolvo
the whole of the carbonic acid contained in the carbonate of ammonia; and
this will readily be judged of by having a pressure guage and safety valve to
indicate the pressure, and the pumps are to be driven by any suitable machinery
from the engine. The gas evolved from the combination of the two liquors
from the vessels b and c so introduced into the vessel a, will pass off by the
pipe or tube f to a cylinder or engine having a piston and piston rod in like
manner to a steam engine, having suitable valves or slides for opening and
closing the ports for the induction and eduction of the carbonic acid gas. I

page_text: have not thought it necessary to show the engine, as the same will ready be
applied by an engineer, the only difference being in the greater strength of
metal which will be required for an engine to be worked by carbonic acid in
the form of gas in place of steam; all which, however, is well understood,
and will readily be constructed by an engineer, according to the power and
size of the engine desired to be made, taking care that the generator is of
sufficient capacity to supply the cylinder. The pipe f, in passing to the
cylinder or engine, passes through the vessel g, and is coiled therein, as is
shown. The object of this arrangement is, that as the gas passing through
the pipe will be at a very low temperature, it will receive heat by taking up
heat generated in the vessel g, by coming in of carbonic acid from the eduction
way of the engine or cylinder, such carbonic acid being conducted from the
eduction way of the cylinder into the vessel g by means of the pipe h, such
pipe dipping into the liquor in the vessel 9, as is shown; and such liquor is a
solution of ammonia, which, quickly taking up the carbonic acid, reduces the
pressure thereof on the eduction side of the piston; and it is desirable to keep
down the temperature of the liquor in the vessel g by passing the pipe con-
taining the cold carbonic acid through the vessel g, as above explained, as on
the one hand the expansive force of the carbonic acid gas passing to the engine
is thereby enhanced, whilst the liquor contained in the vessel g is prevented
volatilizing; but in order to ensure the complete taking up of the carbonic
acid brought from the engine by the pipe h into the vessel g, there is a second
vessel i used also containing a solution of ammonia, and the vessels g and i aro
connected by the pipe j, and any gas not absorbed will pass into the vessel i,
and be there taken up; and in case of too much pressure, there is placed the
pipe k, rising to a considerable height, so as to prevent the pressure injuring
the vessels g, i, or safety valves may be used. In the progress of working, the
liquors contained in the vessels g and i will be converted into carbonato of
ammonia, and the same must from time to time be drawn into the vessel c by
the pipes l, and the vessels g and i are to be kept supplied with a solution of
ammonia, in order to take up the carbonic acid as it comes from the eduction
way of the engine, and the vessels 9 and i are supplied with a solution of
ammonia by a pipe m, which is connected with the vessel n into which the
solution of ammonia is received from the still o, into which still the sulphate
of ammonia is drawn, which is from time to time withdrawn from the gene-
rator a and conveyed to the vessel p, the formation of sulphate of ammonia
in the generator being the consequence of the evolution of carbonic acid gas
from the mixture of the super-sulphate of ammonia and the carbonate of
ammonia, and by submitting the sulphate of ammonia to heat in a suitable
still or retort o, a portion of the ammonia is driven off' in the shape of vapour,

page_text: which is absorbed by the water contained in the vessel 2, the remaining matter
in the still being the super-sulphate of ammonia, which may be drawn off into
the vessel b. And it may be here remarked, that it is not necessary that the
operations of obtaining the super-sulphate of ammonia, and ammonia from the
sulphate of ammonia, should be going on simultaneous with the working of
the other parts of the apparatus, for if the vessels b and c, and the vessel for
receiving the sulphate of ammonia, are sufficiently large, the engine may be
worked for a considerable period without the recovery of the ingredients by
the still, that process being applied at any convenient period; thus it will be
seen that the matters are used over and over again in generating carbonic acid
in the form of gas, and using it as a means of moving the piston of a suitably
constructed engine, which gas is then absorbed or taken up so as to remove
the pressure of the gas from the eduction side of the piston. I would remark,
I am aware that carbonic acid has before been attempted to be used as a means
of obtaining power, but in such case it was acted on by heat to expand, and
cold to contract, its bulk; and a Patent was obtained several years back by
Mark I Brunel, now Sir Mark I
Brunel, for such means of employ
ing carbonic acid. I do not, therefore, claim to use carbonic acid generally as
a means of producing power, and it should be stated that I am aware that the
chemical properties of the matters employed are well known. I do not, there-
fore, claim any novelty in evolving carbonic acid gas by combining super-
sulphate of ammonia and carbonate of ammonia when separately considered,
nor do I claim the absorbing of carbonic acid by means of a solution of
ammonia; neither do I claim the obtaining of ammonia by submitting sul-
phate of ammonia to hoat when separately considered. The object of the
Invention being to combine those three processes with a suitable engine, so
that the power of the evolved gas may be exerted on the piston of such engine
before the gas is absorbed or taken up. It should be stated that, although I
believe that the chemical material above named are the best and cheapest for
evolving and absorbing carbonic acid, there are other matters acting in a
similar manner. I do not, therefore, confine myself to the precise means herein
described, so long as the peculiar mode of working herein described be retained,
whereby carbonic acid in the form of gas is evolved and used as a means of pros-
sure to obtain motive power, and then absorbed, and thic matters used for evolving
and absorbing the gas are used over and over again, as above described.
In witness whercof, I, the said Isham Baggs, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-two:
ISHAM BAGGS. (L.S.)

page_text: DISCLAIMER.
In the Matter of a Patent granted to Isham Baggs, of King's Square,
in the County of Middlesex, Chemist, for his Invention of "IMPROVE
MENTS IN OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER BY MEANS OF CARBONIC ACID, AND
ALSO BY A PECULIAR APPLICATION OF HEATED AIR," bearing date at
Westminster, the Ninth day of February, in the fifth year of the
reign of Her present most Excellent Majesty.
DISCLAIMER proposed to be entered by the said Isham Baggs with the
Clerk of the Patents of England, pursuant to an Act passed in the fifth
and sixth year of the reign of His late Majesty King William the Fourth,
entitled "An Act to amend the Law touching Letters Patent for
Inventions."
I, the said Isham Baggs, do declare that, since I obtained the said Letters
Patent, I discovered that the Invention which was intended to have been described
under that part of the title which is contained in the following words, "and also
by a peculiar Application of Heated Air," is not of such practical utility as
would make it desirable to retain it in the said Patent; for which reason I am
desirous to and do hereby disclaim all that part of the title which is contained
in the following words, "and also by a peculiar Application of Heated Air."
In witness whereof, I, the said Isham Baggs, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Ninth day of August, One thousand eight hundred and

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Ninth day of August, in tho
year of our Lord 1842, the aforesaid Isham Baggs came before our said
'Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
L