Ventilating and Air Moistening Apparatus for Industrial Premises.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 1st Jan., 1896-Accepted, 22nd Feb., 1896
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Ventilating and Air Moistening Apparatus for Industrial Premises.
I, CARL BUCHMÜLLER, Workmaster of Horde in the Province of Westfalia
and Kingdom of Prussia do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in
what manuer the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement :-
The invention represented in the annexed drawing refers to the apparatus
as used in industrial establishements such as mines smelting and metal-rolling
works etc. for the purpose of supplying fresh moist air and carrying off the dry
used-up air from work-rooms, which are exposed the development of dust, noxious
gases and vapours etc.
Up the present, three separate kinds of apparatus or contrivances for the
attainment of this object, have been required: 1) the ventilator, II) the apparatus
for moistening the air III) the working-engine for both with the necessary
gearing. In proportion to the necessarily limited number of revolution of the
steam-or other driving-engine-and the loss of power due to the gearing, very
large and comparatively slowly moving ventilators and heavy exceedingly
powerful engines with strong and massive foundation-plates, were necessary.
This caused the initial as well as the working cost of the apparatus to be very
great, so that in consequence except where absolutely necessary an apparatus so
essential to the health and well being of the workmen, was not adapted. In many
cases, also, the installation of suitable apparatus was impossible for the simple
reason that no suitable space was available, or else there was no possibility of
applying the beavy apparatus, and correspondingly massive bedding. The above
mentioned disadvantages are to be obviated or removed by our new invention,
which combines a light ventilator, which however, works with a very high number
of revolutions per minute (between three and four thousand) with a simple, light
driving engine, without gearing, which serves at the same time to moisten the air,
and has an equal number of rotations as the ventilator. At the same time all
the heavy, massive and expensive foundations are no longer needed, and the whole
apparatus may be applied with ease and at small expense in any place and in any
position necessitated by the peculiar conditions of space and working power no
matter, whether upright, horizontal, suspended, oblique or vertical.
In general it may be calculated that in our case the whole installation does not
cost more than in other cases the foundations of the ventilator do.
In the annexed drawing represents A the ventilator, which may be of any
shape and sucks in the bad air by means of wrings a through openings (bb) and
expels it through a tube in the circumference, B the axle, C the apparatus serving
at the same time for driving the engine and moistening the air.
While A and B offer nothing new expect in their being joined to C, C is an
essential part of the invention.
This apparatus C consists essentially of the case D, the wheel E and the
nozzle F. The wheel E is constructed in the following manner :
Between two disc-shaped or as in the drawing ring-shaped cheeks cca flat ring d
is arranged near the circumference by which a groove is formed, which receives a
large number of straight or crooked paddles e directed at an acute angle to the
radius of the wheel, and lying close to the sides cc and to the bottom d of the
groove. Hereby a circle of single pocket-like spaces or compartments is formed,
Serving as a turbine, and entering into action, when a stream of water or steam

page_text: coming from the nozzle F, which ends in a fine slite-shaped opening corresponding
to the breadth of the groove and lying in the direction of the compartments.
At the same time the water or steam acting as motive-power is turned into a fine
spray, which mixes with the air inside the case D and surrounding the turbine,
and thus moistens it. The outer sides of the cheeks ce in case they are of a disc-
or broad ring-shaped are fitted with radial straight or bent paddles, which serve
as wind-fans, or as in the drawing, the arms bearing the circle of compartments are
shaped as wind-fans.
These wind-fans serve for sucking in fresh-air through the openings gg situated
in the case D close to the axle, further to assive the mixing of the watery particles
coming from the turbine, with the fresh-air, and to drive out the air thus moistened
through the opening into the space that is to be ventilated.
In the drawing the wind fans ff are represented as paddles, which are gradually
narrowed from the inside towards the outside, and furthermore connected at the
sides with cach other by suitably rings. As these rings i pass below the
inlet y close to the walls of the case D it is obvious, that the air entering through g
is caught up between the wings ff and the rings ii, then is driven out being
compressed at the top off, where the breadth is diminished through the ring-
slits remaining at each side of the turbine-rings, and completely mixes with the
drops of vapour just where they fall to the ground in spray, thus increasing the
moisture of the air.
My invention is therefore of more effect.
In the turbines hitherto known, the water or steam used a motive-power cannot
be directly used again to moisten the air as it comes out in a compact jet, while
in our case it serves as it is directly turned into spray to moisten the air, thus
completely replacing a so-called Körting-ventilator.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is:
Ventilating and air moistening apparatus for industrial purposes, distinguished
by the apparatus C, serving at the same time as driving-turbine for the ventilator A
on a common axle B and as air-moistener, the water or steam in the apparatus C
coming out of the slit-shaped mouth of the nozzle F into the compartments of the
turbine-ring formed of the cheeks cc, bottom-ring d and paddles e e falling into
spray, and thereby moistening the fresh air sucked in by the fans ff at the
openings g g of the case and being driven out at h.
Dated this 22nd day of December 1895.
For CARL BUCHMÜLLER,
Bernh. Brockhues.