A NEW OR IMPROVED INSTRU- MENT OR APPARATUS TO BE USED FOR PURIFYING OR OTHERWISE TREATING GAS
Year: 1855

page_text: Sealed the 20th November 1855, and dated the 28th May 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Rowlands at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 28th
May 1855.
I, SAMUEL ROWLANDS, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Saddler,
do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "A NEW OR IMPROVED INSTRU-
MENT OR APPARATUS TO BE USED FOR PURIFYING OR OTHERWISE TREATING GAS" to be
as follows:-
The said instrument or apparatus consists of a vessel or chamber through
which gas is made to pass, and in passing through which the said gas is
brought in contact with a large surface of the liquid, to whose action the gas
is to bo subjected. The chamber is filled or partly filled with liquid, and in
the said liquid is a float, which turns upon a central axis. The said central
axis is hollow, and constitutes the entrance pipe for the gas. The said gas
passes through a spiral channel connected with the float, and communicates a
rotatory motion to the said spiral and float. By the motion of the float the

page_text: liquid is kept in agitation, and the gas during its passage through the spiral
is maintained for a long time in contact with the liquid, and the said gas is
thereby effectually deprived of anything which the liquid is capable of absorbing,
or impregnated with anything which the liquid will yield up to the gas. The
said instrument or apparatus may be used for purifying gas by putting in the
chamber a liquid capable of dissolving the sulphuretted hydrogen or other
impurity, and it may be used for improving the illuminating power of the
by putting naptha therein, so as to charge the gas with the vapour of the said
naptha.
gas
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Samuel Rowlands in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
27th November 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
ROWLANDS, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Saddler, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the eighteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Samuel Rowlands, Her special licence that I, the said Samuel
Rowlands, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Samuel Rowlands, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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 IMPROVED
INSTRUMENT OR APPARATUS TO BE USED FOR PURIFYING OR OTHERWISE TREATING
GAS," a communication, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Samuel Rowlands, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
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 Samuel Rowlands, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof (that is to say):-

page_text: The said instrument or apparatus consists of a vessel or chamber through
which gas is made to pass, and in passing through which said vessel or
chamber the said gas is brought in contact with a large surface of the liquid, to
whose action the gas is to be subjected, the said liquid being at the same time
kept in motion.
Figure 1 represents the said Invention in elevation; Figure 2 represents a
vertical section of the same; and Figure 3 represents a portion of the same in
plan and side elevation.
I will describe the said Invention as used for the purpose of impregnating
coal gas with the vapour of coal or mineral naphtha. The chamber a is partly
filled with the said naphtha, the level of which is shown in the Drawing at b.
c is a float, made of cork or other light substance; the said float has a spiral
channel d made therein, and a series of holes are made in the said float.
Upon the float e a spiral strip of metal ƒ is coiled, as represented in Figure 3,
the said spiralf deepening, as it were, the spiral channel d; a metal plate g
closes the top of the spiral channel made by the spiral f. h is a tube, closed at
top, and opening at bottom into the spiral channel. The tube h passes through
a guide plate i, by which its central position is preserved. The gas to be
treated enters by the pipe k, rises up by the pipe l, and is delivered into the
pipe h, from whence it descends, as indicated by the arrows in Figure 2, and
enters the spiral channel d. The course of the gas from the centre to the
exterior of the spiral is indicated by the arrows in Figure 3. When the gas has
arrived at the end f' of the spiral stripf, it escapes from the said spiral into the
vessel a; the gas finally escapes by the pipe m to the burner. The naphtha or
other liquid is supplied to the vessel a by the opening n, and the said naphtha
or other liquid may be withdrawn by the opening o. p is a guage, resembling
the ordinary steam boiler guage, by which the height of the liquid in the vessel
a is indicated. During the passage of the gas through the long spiral channel
d, it becomes thoroughly impregnated with the vapour of naphtha. By the
reaction of the gas from the centre to the periphery of the float, a gentle
rotatory motion is communicated to the said float, whereby the naphtha is kept
in a state of agitation, and its action on the gas promoted.
the
Although for convenience of description I have described the said instru-
ment or apparatus as being used for the purpose of impregnating coal gas with
vapour of naphtha, yet the said instrument or apparatus may be used for
impregnating gas with any other volatile matter, or absorbing from the gas any
impurity which can be removed by liquid absorbent; for example, the said
instrument or apparatus may be used for absorbing the sulphuretted hydrogen
and ammonia with which coal gas is commonly contaminated, by supplying the

page_text: said instrument with liquids capable of absorbing the said impurities. The
said Invention is, however, especially useful in improveing the illuminating
power of gas, by impregnating it with the vapour of naphtha, as herein
described.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and the manner of
carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that I do not limit
myself to the precise details herein described, as the same may be varied
without departing from the nature of the said Invention; but I claim as the
said Invention, the new or improved instrument or apparatus herein described,
and illustrated in the accompanying Drawing, for purifying or otherwise
treating gas; that is to say, an instrument or apparatus in which the gas to be
treated is made to pass through a long spiral channel made in a float floating
on the liquid to which the gas is to be exposed, the said float being so disposed
as to be susceptible of a rotary motion by the passage through it of the gas.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Rowlands, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of November, in the
year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
Witness,
GEORGE SHAW.
SAMUEL ROWLANDS. (LB.)