A NEW OR IMPROVED ELECTRO-DYNAMIC APPARATUS FOR DEPOLARISING THE ATMOSPHERIC AIR BY MEANS OF ELECTRICITY, PRODUCING OZONE, AND PURIFYING THE AIR
Year: 1876

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Henri Adrien Bonneville at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 17th February 1876. A com-
munication from Marques de Carvalho, residing at Rio de Janeiro, Brasil,
Gentleman.
HENRI ADRIEN BONNEVILLE, of the British and Foreign Patent Offices, 18, Rue
de la Chaussée d'Antin, Paris, France, and 6, Piccadilly, in the County of Middle-
sex, Patent Agent. "A NEW OR IMPROVED ELECTRO-DYNAMIC APPARATUS FOR
DEPOLARISING THE ATMOSPHERIC AIR BY MEANS OF ELECTRICITY, PRODUCING OZONE,
AND PURIFYING THE AIR." A communication by Marques de Carvalho, a person
resident at Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, Gentleman.
The Invention illustrated in the accompanying Drawings relates to an apparatus
consisting of two copper plates arranged horizontally, they are placed the one a
above the otlier b, but at a certain listance between. On one of these copper plates,
namely, the lower plate b, a sheet of glass c has been applied covered with a layer of
gum lac; the sheet of glass passes breadthwise and lengthwise in extent over the
copper plate. Between the copper plate thus doubled by a sheet of glass and the
other copper plate is left an interval of 3 millimètres (about 1/8 of an inch)
determined by two small glass insulators g. There is then a space of 3 millimètres
(about 1/8 of an inch) in which is a layer of air. This system of plates is fixed by
means of two insulators / made of hardened india-rubber to two copper standards j,
but in such a manner that any such inclination as may be desired can be given to
them by means of the oscillation axis i, or they can be placed parallel with the
ground; the whole is fixed to a pedestal. The two india-rubber insulators are
inounted on the glass plate.
The apparatus is connected by means of two wires f, f¹, and two posts a fixed to
the upper copper plate, and to the lower copper plate with a Ruhmkorff bobbin
induced by a voltaic battery. As soon as this connection is established the air
existing in the space between the plates begins to be depolarised, and is polarised
afresh immediately afterwards; there ensues a production of ozone, and this ozone
purifies the air of the apartments and towns. This operation continues as long as
the apparatus remains in connection with the bobbin.
The depolarised atmospheric air gives forth a sapphire blue colour, and a dry
herbaceous smell, which is easily perceptible at a certain distance from the apparatus.
The experimental apparatus has been constructed in the following proportions:-
Breadth of the plates, 4 centimètres (about 13 inches); length, 10 centimètres
[Price 4d.]

page_text: (about 4 inches), but any other proportions can always be given to it, and several
systems of plates be superposed, thus increasing its power of action.
To this apparatus is connected an accessory exhausting apparatus k made of wood
or any other non-conducting material, the object of which is to produce a greater
quantity of air, and to determine the current of this air. This apparatus is very
simple; and consists of two small planks cutting each other at an acute angle, care
having been taken to contrive a groove nearly corresponding to that which divides
the two plates of the principal apparatus; the two apparatuses are joined together
at the moment of the operation, and placed either at a window or even in the
middle of the room the air of which is to be purified. This apparatus was intended
for rendering wholesome the air of tropical towns where epidemic elements are
developped in the atmosphere, but it is equally capable of rendering great services
in Europe. Its use in hothouses, where it would diffuse ozone, seems obvious; it
would produce in such places a luxuriant vegetation.
The special attribute of this apparatus is being a generator of ozone. It can supply
any quantity of it that may be desired, and as such it ought to form part of the
collection of instruments of every study of physics or chemistry.