A NEW PROCESS AND IMPROVED MEANS FOR CARBURETTING AIR AND RENDERING IT EITHER EXPLOSIVE OR ILLUMINATIVE AT WILL
Year: 1880

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edgar Edmonds, of the Firm of Robertson, Brooman, and
Company, of 106, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent Agents, for an
Invention of "A NEW PROCESS AND IMPROVED MEANS FOR CARBURETTING
AIR AND RENDERING IT EITHER EXPLOSIVE OR ILLUMINATIVE AT WILL."
A communication from abroad by Eardley Louis Charles d'Ivernois, of 17,
Boulevard Saint Martin, Paris, France.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edgar Edmonds at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 8th July 1880.
EDGAR EDMONDS, of the Firm of Robertson, Brooman, and Company, of 166,
Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent Agents.
"A NEW PROCESS AND
IMPROVED MEANS FOR CARBURETTING AIR AND RENDERING IT EITHER EXPLOSIVE
OR ILLUMINATIVE AT WILL." A communication from abroad by Eardley Louis
Charles d'Ivernois, of 17, Boulevard Saint Martin, Paris, France.
This process for carburetting air and rendering it either explosive or illuminative
at will consists in placing a hydrocarburet in contact with a body heated to a
temperature sufficient to vapourize the hydrocarburet immediately, and in mingling
the vapours thus produced with the air which it is desired to render carburetted.
In the present Invention the heated body generally preferred for vapourizing
the hydro-carburet employed is a metallic plate, and although the Invention is not
limited to a plate for this purpose, yet in the present Specification the words
"hot plate" will be used to indicate the body on which the hydro carburet is
vapourized.
It will be easily understood that if carburetted hydrogen is caused to arrive on to
a plate heated to a temperature sufficient to immediately reduce it into vapours, and
if at the same time air is conducted on to this hot plate, which air absorbs theso
vapours and intermingles itself with them, this air will then at once be found to be
carburetted.
The mixture or compound of air and hydrocarburet vapours thus obtained will be
rendered either explosive or illuminative at will, according to the greater or less
proportion of the hydro carburet vapours mixed with a given quantity of air. It
can consequently be immediately utilized, providing it is conducted either to the
Paine Gd1

page_text: cylinder of the explosive engine which it is to work, or to the burners where it is
required to illumine, through tubes or pipes, in which it is kept from contact with
the exterior air which would deteriorato it. These tubes or pipes are provided with
checks and wire gauze for ensuring the thorough mixture of the air and the vapours
and to prevent all possibility of communication of flame from the mixture to the
interior of the apparatus.
For the formation of the required mixture the flow or arrival (and consequently
the vapourization) of the hydro-carburet on the hot plate will take place during the
whole time of the arrival or flow onto the said plate of the air to be carburetted, so
that all the parts of this air successively encounter the nascent vapours, which
transform them into an explosive or illuminative compound.
Pumps, pistons, bellows, or any other means are employed to conduct the hydro-
carburet by one or more tubes or other means onto the hot plate. It is conducted
either from above to below, horizontally, obliquely, or from below to above. It
may also be conducted to the plate with greater or less pressure, and, if necessary,
projecting it against an obstacle to divide it, rendering it easier to vapourize.
The action of these various appliances is regulated in such a way as to conduct in
a gradual manner onto the hot plate the exact quantity of hydrocarburet necessary
for these vapours to "carburet "to the desired degree all the air arriving or flowing
during the given time onto the hot plate. This quantity of air is exactly regulated
in proportion to that of the hydrocarburet by means of openings of a certain size,
through which it passes onto the hot plate.
By this process not only petroleum and volatile oils, but also thick oils, which
are very cconomic, may be utilized by giving a higher or lower temperature to the
hot plate, according to the nature of the hydro carburet to bo vapourized.
Now supposing that it is required to work-a-gas engine by means of the present
process, and that the cylinder of this engine sucks or draws in at cach stroke of the-
piston two litres (or 2000 centimetres cube) of explosive mixture or compound,
composed for example of 97 per cent. of air (or 1940 centimetres cube) and of 3 per
cent. (60 centimetres cube) of hydrocarburet vapours. It will only be necessary,
1. To conduct the exact quantity of hydrocarburet necessary to produce 60
centimetres cube of vapours onto the hot plate, and
2. To regulate the flow or arrival of this fixed quantity of hydrocarburet onto
the hot plate in such manner that its vapourization is effected in a regular manner
so as to carburet all the parts of the 1940 centimetres cube of air which sucked
or drawn in by the piston pass onto the hot plate and mix with the vapours which
arise there.
As soon as the cylinder of the engine charged with this mixture is closed, the
emission of the hydrocarburet onto the hot plate and the draught of air will cease.
They both recommence together or nearly so at the given time. As before said,
they recommence together or nearly so, because as the vapourization of the hydro-
carburet is not instantaneous it is better that its emission onto the hot plate should
take place a little before the flow or arrival of the air, which latter should incet the
vapours already formed, by which it is carburetted.
All these arrangements are so easy to effect by means of the motion of the engine
that it is unnecessary to explain them more fully.
For illuminating the air is drawn by the combustion at the burners. The piston,
pump, or bellows may be worked by any kind of motion or by a weight. They may
be replaced by a meter.
The air which is to absorb the hydro carburet vapours on the hot plate may be
heated by any suitable means, and when an explosive engine is being worked the
air may be heated by means of the heat produced by the explosions, either by
causing it to circulate in tubes wound around the cylinder or its jacket, or passed
through the water reservoir, if there be one, by utilizing the residual or spent gases
from the combustion, or by combining these various means.
Also when an explosive engine is boing worked, the plate on which the hydro-
carburet is vapourized may be heated by means of the residual or spent gases from

page_text: the explosions, the temperature of which at their exit from the cylinder is generally
more than 300 degrees.
These economical means of heating are available at the beginning of the working
of an explosive engine. It is therefore necessary to heat the plate by a lamp or
other means only during the very short time required to bring it to the temperaturo
necessary for the vapourization of the hydrocarburet employed.
These various means of heating the air and the plate constitute an excellent
utilization of the heat lost or wasted, and are claimed in this Specification.
As regards the hot plate, the following modifications are included in this
Invention:-
Making it of any shape whatever, cylindrical, spherical, or other shape, regular or
irregular, as well as that of a plate properly so called.
Making it of any metal, placing it in a horizontal, inclined, or vertical position;
making it any thickness, and specially large enough to store up a certain quantity
of caloric ready to instantly replace that which is absorbed by the vapourization of
the hydrocarburet.
Roughening or corrugating its surface by grooving, filing, or any other means
This rugosity, which is specially insisted upon, has the double advantage of rendering
the vapourization of the hydrocarburet more rapid by the augmentation of the heated
surfaces, and also to oppose itself to the spheroidical state. This is also prevented
either by regulating the temperature of the hot plate so as to be under that at
which it is produced in the hydrocarburet employed, or by placing above and at a
short distance (about 1/2 to 2 millimetres) from the hot plate another plate which is
intended to flatten or crush the drops of hydrocarburet which cause the spheroidical
state. This upper plate is, if required, pierced with openings or spaces, so that the
vapours which form under it may rise freely and mix with the air they are to
carburet. It may if required have a circular or other motion, and it may also bo
heated.
And, finally, it is well understood several hot plates, pumps, pistons, bellows,
meters, and other appliances may, if necessary, be employed.
Having now made these reservations, two apparatus for carburetting air by the
means indicated in the present Specification will now be described, but only as
examples, without limitation to these arrangements, which may be modified, and
others may be employed.
According to one method orifices are made in the apparatus for the introduction
of the air to be carburetted, which is conducted to a roughened or grooved hot
plate through channels formed by partitions.
The air in passing over the hot plate intermingles with the hydrocarburet vapours,
which are conducted onto the grooved hot plate through a tube whose interior
diameter is very small. This air and the vapours are compelled to mix intimately
with each other by means of "checks," they are at onco carburetted.
For the purpose of thoroughly effecting the mingling or compound of the air and
hydrocarburet vapours before entering into an explosive engine or into an illumi-
nating apparatus, to which the present apparatus may be applied, a tube or cylinder
is fixed outo the base plate of the apparatus, in which tube or cylinder are fitted
two other "checks" pierced respectively with holes. After passing through these
checks the mixture is screened by means of wire gauzes separated one from
another by wires one and a half millimetres in thickness.
The carburetted compound then passes into the engine or the illuminating
apparatus by a distributing tube.
The upper part of the tube or cylinder fixed on the base plate is closed in by
means of a washer pierced with a small hole which allows the carburetted air and
the hydrocarburet vapours, which may be found above the distributing tube, to
escape so as to avoid a counter pressuro which would injure the proper working of
the apparatus.
When the apparatus is applied to an explosive engine the spent gases from the
combustion (as before described) are utilized to heat the grooved or corrugated

page_text: plate, and for this purpose openings are provided in the plate which are in direct
communication with the exhaust or escape pipe of the explosive gas, the temperaturo
of which may be ascertained by means of a thermometer attached to the hot
plato.
The under or sole plate is fixed to the upper plate by violin screws (vis a violon) !
or by any other suitable means.
The air is conducted onto the hot plate by introduction pipes or tubes arranged
all round a cylindrical trunk piece, but at different angles, so that the air introduced
is caused to strike the plate at points more or less removed from the centre.
This arrangement of the introduction or inlet pipes for causing the air to strike
the plate obliquely is for the purpose of causing the air to remain a greater
length of time in contact with the hydrocarburet vapours and thoroughly mix
with them.
The hydrocarburet is conducted onto the hot plate through-a-tube. The carbu-
retted air then passes through wire gauzes, each separated by wires one a half
millimetres in thickness, and from thence into a tubo or cylinder constructed in the
same way as that described in the preceding apparatus; finally, the carburetted
air passes into the engine or motor by another tube.
When the explosion is produced the gases resulting from the explosion escape by
another tube, pass through orifices in the hot plate, thereby heating this plato, und
from there into the atmosphere by another pipe.
The hot plate, which in this case is cylindrical, rests on a rectangular picce
provided with two tubes, to which the pipes are fixed.
This rectangular piece is pierced with an opening in the centre, the diameter of
which is sufficiently large-to-leave-an-annular space or chamber around the hot
plate.
This hot plate is provided with a tube, in which a thermometer is placed.
The introduction of air into the apparatus is regulated by means of tubes or
'pipes of gradually decreasing diameters that they may fit into each other like a
telescope.
It is understood that "checks" and any other obstacles may be placed in the
interior of the space in which the hydro-carburets are vapourized so as to ensure the
most perfect mixture of the introduced air with the hydrocarburet vapours.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Edgar Edmonds in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 8th January
1881.
EDGAR EDMONDS, of the Firm of Robertson, Brooman, and Company, of 166,
Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent Agents. A NEW PROCESS AND
IMPROVED MEANS FOR CARBURETTING AIR AND RENDERING IT EITHER EXPLOSIVE
OR ILLUMINATIVE AT WILL." (A communication from abroad by Eardley Louis
Charles d'Ivernois, of 17, Boulevard Saint Martin, Paris, France.)
This process for carburetting air and rendering it either explosivo or illuminative
at will consists in placing a hydrocarburet in contact with a body heated to a
temperature suflicient to vaporize the hydro-carburet immediately, and in mingling
the required proportion of the vapours thus produced with the air which it is
desired to render carburetted.
"
In the present Invention the heated body generally employed for vapourizing
the hydrocarburets is a metallic plate, and although the Invention is not limited
to a plate for this purpose, yet in the present Specification the words "hot plate
will be used to indicate the body on which the hydro-carburets are vapourized.
It must be also observed that in the following description tho "hot plate" is
understood as forming the bottom of a kind of box or receiver of little height, and
pierced laterally with openings, some of which serve for the entry of the exterior
air and the others to conduct this air away to where it is to be utilized after having
been previously carburetted in the said box by its intermixture with the vapours
produced by the flow of the hydro-carburets onto the "hot plate" forming the
bottom of the said box.
This "hot plate" is shown at B in Figures 1 and 3 of the Drawings hereunto
annexed.
When the present process is employed for working engines driven by explosion
the "hot plate" may be maintained at the required temperature either by means of
the heat developed in the cylinder by the explosions or by means of the residual
gases from the explosions, and in this latter case the degree of this temperature is
regulated by means of a cock placed in a convenient position on the escape or
"exhaust" pipe of the gases or on the box itself for the purpose of permitting the
entry of the whole or a part only of the residual gases from the explosions.
In consequence of this new and excellent utilization of the heat in these machines
which is usually lost, gas engines may be worked henceforth in the open country
as well as in towns, also on roads, on water, in fact anywhere they are required, by
means of this small vaporizing apparatus whereby these motors are enabled to
produce their own gas at any required place.
For practically applying the above process (which is claimed by the inventor)
all that is required is to cause the residues from the explosions to pass under the
"hot plate" when they leave the cylinder, either by the openings h, h, h, as
indicated in Figures 1 and 4 of the annexed Drawings, or in any other way.
The temperature of these gases is sufficiently high to easily maintain the
necessary heat in the "hot plate" for the continuous vapourization of the hydro-
carburets.
Now, supposing that it is required to work a gas engine by means of the present
process, and that the cylinder of this engine sucks or draws in at each stroke of
the piston two litres (or 2000 cubic centimetres) of explosive mixture or compound
composed, for example, of 97 per cent. of air (or 1940 cubic centimetres) and of
3 per cent. (or 60 cubic centimetres) of hydro-carburet vapours.
All that is required is-First. At each stroke of the piston, to conduct onto the
"hot plate" the quantity of hydro-carburet necessary to produce sixty cubic
centimetres of vapour.

page_text: Secondly. To allow the entry during this time into the flat box, of which the
"hot plate" forms the bottom," of 1940 cubic centimetres of air, which in mixing
with the nascent vapours on the "hot plate" forms the required explosivo
compound, and which, sucked or drawn in as required by the piston, will fill the
empty space in the cylinder there to be ignited and cause the explosion.
It is optional for the inventor to directly introduce pure atmospheric air into the
cylinder or into the tubes leading to it when the air that has passed over the "hot
plate" is carburetted to a too high degree. As soon as the cylinder of the motor
thus charged is closed the flow of the carburetted air ceases naturally, to commence
again at the required moment, and the action of the motor or engine goes on
regularly and indefinitely.
For ensuring the thorough mixture of the air with the vapours, and to prevent
all possibility of communication of flame to the mixture from the interior of the
motor engine to the exterior, it is advisable to provide the tubes through which the
carburetted air flows from the "hot plate" to the cylinder with "checks"
or wire
gauze. It is also desirable to regulate the emission of the hydro-carburet onto the
hot plate" in such manner that its vapourization takes place in a continuous and
regular manner, so that the various parts of the air passing over the "hot plate"
are carburetted. All these arrangements are so easy to be effected or realized that
they do not require further explanation.
It is of course necessary for the first starting of the apparatus to heat the "hot
plate" to the required temperature either by means of one or more lamps, blow-
pipes, braziers, hot irons, by chemical process, or other means, until the heat of the
residual gases from the explosions is sufficiently great to maintain this temperature
at the required degree.
"
By the present process not only petroleum and volatile oils, but also thick oils,
which are very economic, may be utilized by giving a higher or lower temperature
to the "hot plate," according to the hydrocarburet to be vapourized.
--Meters, pumps, cocks, pistons, bellows, or any other appliances or means are
employed for conducting the hydrocarburet on the "hot plate." through one or more
pipes from above to below, obliquely, horizontally, or from below to above, as found
convenient. It may also be allowed to flow gently or with more or less force, and if
necessary may be projected against a "check or obstaclo for dividing it and render
it easier to vapourize. The appliances are regulated in such manner as to conduct
the hydrocarburet gradually onto the "hot plate," so that it will vapourize the
necessary quantity of hydrocarburet during a given time in such manner that its
vapours will successively carburet to the required degree the different parts of the
quantity of air flowing onto the "hot plate" during this time. This quantity of
air is easily regulated in proportion to that of the hydro carburet by means of larger
or smaller openings through which it is introduced onto the "hot plate." In using
the present process for the manufacture of gas for lighting purposes the proportion
of mixture of the hydrocarburet vapours with air is regulated accordingly.
The carburetted air is drawn off by the combustion at the burners, but it is
assisted, if necessary, by a small blower.
It is also optional to employ a blower to throw the air onto the "hot plate,"
even when it is required to work an explosion engine. The tubes also, which are
provided with "checks" and wire gauze, through which the carburetted air passes
in its passage from the "hot plate to the cylinder, may likewise be heated, if
found desirable.
"
The air, previous to its mixture with the hydrocarburet vapours, may be heated
either by the residues from the explosions, by causing it to circulate in tubes made
to wind round or encircle the cylinder or its casing, by a combination of these
different means, or in any other manner.
As regards the "hot plato" the following modifications are included in this
Invention-Making it of any shape whatever, cylindrical, spherical, or other shape,
regular or irregular, as well as that of a plate properly so called; making it of any
metal; placing it in a horizontal, inclined or vertical position; making it any

page_text: thickness, and specially large enough to store up a certain quantity of caloric
ready to instantly replace that which is absorbed by tho vapourization of tho
hydro carburet.
To give a certain height to the sort of box of which the "hot plate" forms the
bottom, so that the air will flow in sufficiently largo quantities, and may thoroughly
mix with the hydrocarburet vapours.
Roughening or corrugating its surface by grooving, filing, covering with wire
gauze, or any other means. This rugosity, which is specially insisted upon, has the
double advantage of rendering the vapourization of the hydro carburet more rapid
by the augmentation of the heated surfaces, and also to oppose itself to the
spheroidical state. This is also prevented either by regulating the temperature of
the hot plate so as to be under that at which it is produced in the hydrocarburet
employed, or by placing above and at a short distance (about '% to 2 millimetres)
from the hot plate another plate, which is intended to flatten or crush the drops of
hydrocarburet which cause the spheroidical state. This upper plate is, if required,
pierced with openings or spaces, so that the vapours which form under it may rise
freely. and mix with the air they are to carburet.
It may, if required, have a circular or other motion, and it may also be heated.
And, finally, it is well understood several hot plates, pumps, pistons, bellows,
meters, and other appliances may, if necessary, be employed.
Having now made these reservations, two apparatus for carburretting air by the
means indicated in the present Specification will now bo described, but only as
examples, without limitation to these arrangements, which may be modified and
others may be employed.
Figure of the annexed Drawings represents a vertical section through the
lines x, y, z, of Figure 2; Figure 2 is a view of the apparatus from beneath the
under plate, which is affixed to or may form part of the hot plate B, being '
removed for the purpose of affording a better view of the interior.
A are the orifices for the introduction of the air to be carburetted, which is
conducted to the roughened or grooved hot plate B through the channels a
formed by the partitions b. The air in passing over the hot plate intermingles
with the hydrocarburet vapours, which are conducted onto the hot plate B
through the tube C, whose interior diameter is very small. This air and the
vapours are compelled to mix intimately with each other by means of "checks"
c and d, and they are at once carburetted,
For the purpose of thoroughly effecting the mingling or compound of the air and
hydrocarburet vapours before entering into an explosion engine, or into an
illuminating apparatus, to which the presont apparatus may be applied, a tube or
cylinder D is fixed onto the plate E of the apparatus, in which tube or cylinder D
are fitted other checks e and f, pierced respectively with holes c¹, e¹¹, and ƒ',ƒ".
After passing through these checks the mixture is screened by means of wire
gauzes g. 9, 9, separated one from another by wires of about one and a half
millimetres in thickness. The carburetted compound then passes into the engine or
the illuminating apparatus by the tube F.
The upper part of the tube or cylinder D is closed in by means of a washer
pierced with a small hole d', which allows the carburetted air and the hydro-
carburet vapours which may be found above the tube F to escape, so as to avoid a
counter pressure which would injure the proper working of the apparatus. When
the apparatus is applied to an explosion engine, the spent gases from the com-
bustion (as before described) are utilized to heat the grooved or corrugated plate B,
and for this purpose openings h, h, h, are provided in the plate, which are in direct
communication with the exhaust or escape pipe of the explosive gas, the temperature
of which may be ascertained by means of a thermometer attached to the hot
plate B. The under or sole plate E¹ is fixed to the plate E by screws, or by any
other suitable means.
Figures 3, 4, and 5 represent in elevation, in vertical section, and in plan
respectively an apparatus specially applicable to engines or motors driven by

page_text: explosion. In these Figures the same letters refer to the same or corresponding
parts of Figures 1 and 2.
The air is conducted onto the hot plate B by introduction pipes .or tubes A
arranged all round a cylindrical trunk piece E, but at different angles, so that the
air introduced is caused to strike the plate at points more or less removed from
the centre.
This arrangement of the introduction or inlet pipes for causing the air to strike
the plate obliquely, is for the purpose of causing the air to remain a greater
length of time in contact with the hydro-carburet vapours, and thoroughly mix
with them.
The hydrocarburet is conducted onto the hot plate B through the tube C.
The carburetted air then passes through wire gauzes g, g, g, each separated by
wires one and a half millimetres in-thickness, and from thence onto the tube D,
constructed in the same way as that described in the preceding apparatus; finally,
the carburetted air passes into the engine or motor by the tube F.
When the explosion is produced, the gases resulting from the explosion escape by
the tube G, pass through the orifices h, h, h, in the hot plate B, thereby heating
this plate, and from there into the atmosphere by the tube H. The hot plate B,
which in this case is cylindrical, rests on an octagonal piece K provided with two
tubes or branches h, k, to which the pipes G and H are fixed. This rectangular
piece is pierced with an opening in the centre, the diameter of which is sufficiently
large to leave an annular space or chamber around the "hot plato" B. This
"hot plate" B is provided with a tube L in which a thermometer is placed.
The introduction of air into the apparatus is regulated by means of tubes or
pipes of gradually decreasing diameters that they-may-fit- into.cach other like a
telescope, as shown in Figure 6.
Instead of employing the tubes A. arranged as in Figures 3, 4, and 5, they may
be dispensed with and be replaced by an opening formed around the apparatus.
It is understood that checks and any other obstacles may be placed in the
interior of the space in which the hydrocarburets aro vapourized, so as to ensure
the most perfect mixture of the introduced air with the hydrocarburet vapours.
Having thus described the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim on behalf of my foreign
correspondent,
The new process and improved menns of utilizing hydrocarburets for engines
driven by explosion, for lighting and for other purposes, the said hydrocarburets
being conducted onto a "hot plate" heated to the required temperature by means
of lamps, blow pipes, braziers, chemical mixtures, or other suitable means, which
said means are replaced in the case of working an explosion engine by the heat
of the cylinder, or by that of the residual gases from the explosions as soon as the
said gases have attained a sufficiently high temperature to maintain this "hot
plate" at the required degree of heat, the vapours resulting from the contact of the
hydrocarburets with the "hot plato" mixing intimately with air brought in
sufficient quantity into the vapourizing apparatus or into the cylinder, as herein-
before described and shown by way of example only in the annexed Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edgar Edmonds, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Eighth day of January, One thousand eight hundred and
eight ana
EDGAR EDMONDS. (LS.)