IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING HEAT AND LIGHT FROM GAS
Year: 1882

page_text: '
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Almon Henry Hearington at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 15th May 1882.
ALMON HENRY HEARINGTON, of 40, Southampton Buildings, in the County of
Middlesex, " IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING HEAT AND LIGHT
FROM GAS
"
My present invention relates to burners in which inflammable gas such as
ordinary coal gas is used for the purpose of obtaining heat or light. It has for its
objects improvements in the method of constructing and arranging the parts of
apparatus in which such gas is burned, in such manner that the apparatus is
simple, cheap, and effective, and the combustion is very perfect so that the desired
effect is produced with a comparatively small quantity of gas.
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"
In order to describe the method in which I put my invention in operation, I
will first suppose that it is to be applied to a portable circular burner to be used
for heating purposes. I take a portable stand or support of cast iron or other
suitable material, which may be made of any desired ornamental or other shape;
and which is provided with a vertical central pipe to the lower end of which is
admitted in regulated quantity, from any suitable source of supply, gas with which
is admitted and mixed atmospheric air through suitable openings in any of the
methods ordinarily used to form what is known as a Bunsen burner. Round
the upper part of the vertical pipe is fitted an external pipe or chamber of larger
diameter communicating by one or more openings with the inner pipe, and across
the upper open extremity of the latter is arranged a horizontal annular plate,
preferably circular, of finely perforated metal or wire gauze, which is held down
by the lower edge of a hollow cover which is itself held down by a central screw
screwed into a projection rising from the upper end of the inner tube, the whole
being thus firmly held together.
Mixed gas and air can therefore pass up into the hollow cover and thence down
through the perforations in the plate or wire gauze on issuing from which it can
be ignited..
Arranged round the interior of the upper part of the exterior pipe or chamber, I
fit in contact with each other a series of vertical cylinders of metal or other suitable
incombustible material, the upper ends of which at a level a little below that of
.

page_text: the perforated plate described are held down and retained in their places by a
flange upon the central pipe of such diameter as to cover the inner edges only of
the series of cylinders.
A part of the supply of gas and air therefore passes through the opening or
openings in the central, pipe and thence rises in small jets through the interstices
between the outer edges of the cylinders where it meets the ignited mixture
descending from the perforated plate or wire gauze and is ignited, the two separate
flames meeting and combining together and very perfect combustion with intense
heat being produced.
This combined flame spreads laterally and upward round the hollow cover
described, which may be provided with brackets or other device upon which any
article to be heated can be placed if desired.
Instead of perforated plates or wire gauze being used for the upper flame to
descend through as described, a series of vertical bars similar to those described for
the lower flame may be used, the ascending and descending flames meeting in the
same manner and with the same result. Or the descending flame may pass down
between the upper ends of the set of vertical bars first described.
Or vertical tubes instead of bars may be used, preferably provided with very
fine perforations at the outer part of their circumference, the inflammable mixture
escaping through these perforations as well as through the interstices between the
outer parts of the tubes.
Or, sometimes I use perforated plates or wire gauze both for the upper and
lower flames.
The following is a modification of my invention which may be used where such
method of arrangement is adopted.
The gas is admitted from any convenient source of supply through a horizontal
pipe fitted across the lower part of the stand of the apparatus and held in its place
by screw caps or stuffing boxes, the gas rising through a small central aperture
into a central vertical pipe the lower end of which is open so that air enters and
mixes with the gas.
The upper end of the central pipe is open, and at a sufficient distance above it
is fitted a horizontal plate of considerable diameter having on its lower side a
descending cylinder surrounding the end of the central pipe but of larger
diameter.
External to this descending cylinder, but of still larger diameter is arranged
round its central part a second short vertical cylinder open at both ends; and at
or near the outer diameter of the horizontal plate is fixed a third cylinder of
larger diameter the lower edge of which fits upon and retains in its place a hori-
zontal annular plate of perforated metal or wire gauze which fills the space between
the upper edge of the second cylinder and the lower edge of the third or outer
cylinder last described.
Round the central vertical pipe is fitted or fixed a plate preferably conical, upon
the outer diameter of which is fixed or fitted a fourth cylinder preferably of the
same or nearly the same diameter as the third or outer cylinder last described, its
upper edge fitting upon and retaining in its place a second horizontal annular plate
of perforated metal or wire gauze which fills the space between the lower edge of
the second cylinder and the upper edge of the fourth or lower outer cylinder last
described.
By the arrangement described, the combustible mixture of gas and air rising
through the central pipe thence descends between the latter and the cylinder
descending from the horizontal plate, part of it then rising inside the short
vertical cylinder and descending over its upper edge and through the upper hori-
zontal perforated plate or wire gauze, and the remainder passing up through the
lower horizontal perforated plate or wire gauze.
The separate currents are then ignited, and meeting together produce perfect
combustion with great heat as in the arrangement first described.
I prefer to arrange an external case surrounding the apparatus arranged as

page_text: described, openings being made in the lower part of the case for the admission of
air which circulates through them and escapes above through suitable openings in
a flat horizontal plate which forms the top of the case. A horizontal plate having
suitable openings through it may also be arranged between the apparatus described
and such external case, below the level where the currents meet and are burned as
described.
The separate parts of the apparatus are made and fitted so that they can be
readily taken apart and replaced, and radial or other ribs or stays may be provided
by which the perforated plates or wire gauze and the other parts of the apparatus
are supported and retained in their proper relative positions, and the currents of
inflammable gas and air are separated and directed.
Where it is required that the gas shall be utilized for the purpose of obtaining
light instead of heat, I prefer to use the arrangement as first described or a modifi-
cation of it, the gas being preferably admitted into the central pipe without
admixture of air, and the two descending and ascending currents of such gas
meeting and being burned in a way similar to those described.
Apparatus constructed according to my invention may be modified in its form
and details of construction, and may be applied to various purposes and used in
various positions. For instance it may be used for the purpose of heating ovens
or other cooking or other chambers, or for warming or lighting rooms or other
places or for heating water or generating steam.
The apparatus may be made circular, rectangular or of any other desired form,
and one or more, or a series, of compound burners of the novel kind described may
be used alone or in combination, according to the various purposes to which they
are to be applied, cocks or valves or other regulating apparatus of any of the
ordinary well known kinds being used for the purpose of adjusting and regulating
the supply of gas.