AN IMPROVEMENT IN AND IN APPARATUS FOR COLLECTING HYDROGEN GENERATED IN CLEANING IRON WIRE, PLATES, BARS, SCREWS, AND OTHER ARTICLES OF IRON
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Alexander Melville Clark at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 13th October 1880. A communi-
cation from abroad by Richard Nafis Rhodes Phelps, of Brooklyn; in the
County of Kings, State of New York, United States of America.
ALEXANDER MELVILLE CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex,
Patent Agent. "AN IMPROVEMENT IN AND IN APPARATUS FOR COLLECTING
HYDROGEN GENERATED IN CLEANING IRON WIRE, PLATES, BARS, SCREWS, AND
OTHER ARTICLES OF IRON." [A communication from abroad by Richard Nafis
Rhodes Phelps, of Brooklyn, in the County of Kings, State of New York, United
States of America.]
When in the manufacture of iron wire the wire is put through the forming rollers
in a heated condition a scaly envelope is formed around it. To remove this
envelope and present the wire in marketable condition the same is plunged into a
bath of diluted sulphuric or muriatic acid, which acid removes said envelope and
leaves the surface of the wire bright; but the action of the acid upon the wire
generates hydrogen, which in all wire works as at present constituted is allowed to
escape into the room in which the bath is placed. This hydrogen is highly
injurious to health and seriously affects the workmen whose duty it is to attend to
the bath. Moreover, this hydrogen is a valuable substance, and its escape into the
air is an unnecessary waste.
This Invention has for its object, 1st, to prevent the hydrogen generated in
the bath from entering the air and from vitiating it in manner stated; and 2nd,
to collect such hydrogen for use in the arts, such for example, as admixture with
carbon in the making of illuminating gas, or for combustion for generating heat.
The Invention consists in supplying the vat which contains the bath with a
loosely fitting cover adapted to dip into the diluted sulphuric or muriatic acid, and
provided with a pipe or pipes for carrying away the hydrogen gas generated to
places where it can be utilised.
The tub or vat is of usual or suitable size or form adapted to receive a wooden
post or frame that is embraced by the coil of a scaly wire. The frame has a ring
or hook at the upper part, so that by attaching thereto the tackle of a crane
or hoisting apparatus it may be lifted together with the coil of wire out of or
placed into the tub or vat as occasion requires. The coil rests on sidewardly
projecting feet of the frame, so that it will follow said frame when the same is

page_text: hoisted out. The vat is to be filled nearly to its upper edge with mixture of water
and sulphuric or muriatic acid in the usual proportions, which mixture is to
remove the scale from the surface of the wire by chemical action, such action
generating hydrogen gas as is well known.
To prevent the waste of this gas I place over the coil a cover which loosely
enters the vat and dips into the liquid therein contained, said cover being
preferably of truncated conical form. This cover is provided also with a ring or
hook at its upper part so that it can be readily lifted out and replaced by suitable
hoisting tackle.
Through the cover passes and from it extends outwardly a pipe which carries a
suitable cock and which leads into a suitable gas purifier and thence into a
carburetting or mixing apparatus, where the hydrogen gas may be mixed with
evaporating gasoline or other hydrocarbon in the making of illuminating gas.
Another pipe having a cock projects likewise from the cover and is open at its
outer and inner end.
When the operation commences the hydrogen gas generated within the vat and
beneath the cover first expels the atmospheric air which fills the space between the
cover and the surface of the liquid, and this air is allowed to escape through the open
pipe, the cock of which is kept open for the purpose. But as soon as the air has
been expelled, which the attendant will readily perceive, the cock is closed and the
cock of the pipe leading to the purifier opened, so that the hydrogen gas generated
during the continuation of the process may pass up into the pipe and be conducted
into the purifier, and thence into the carburetter or reservoir where the gas can
be collected for use in the arts. The cover during the operation rests either on
top of the frame or on other suitable support which may be provided for it. The
open pipe instead of projecting directly from the cover may be a branch of the
other pipe, in which case a three way cock in the pipe or an equivalent construction
of cock may be used to operate, so that when the branch is open to permit the air
to escape, the pipe will be closed, and vice versa.
By the arrangement of loosely fitting cover with its gas discharge pipe, the
escape of the hydrogen gas into the air is prevented, the health of the operator is
preserved, and the valuable gas collected for use in the arts. The frame is not an
essential element of this apparatus, as the coil of wire may be thrown into the vat
without first placing it upon such a frame. But the frame is preferable, as it serves
to centralise the position of the coil and keep it upright beneath the most elevated
part of the cover, so that the hydrogen gas will all be centrally discharged upward
towards the pipe.
The apparatus is also available in cleaning iron plates, bars, rods, screws, and
other articles of iron.