US5210A - coston - Google Patents

Description

UNITED STATES PATENT BENJN. F. OOSTON, OF WASHINGTONfDISTRIO'l OF COLUMBIA.

APPARATUS FOR THE MANUFACTURE GAS.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, B'. F. CosToN, of the city of Washington and District of Columbia, have invented a new and useful apparatus for the generationof gas from rosin and other suitable substances for the purposes of illumination and regulating the supply while burning, and that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the principle or character which distinguishesit from all other things before known and of the manner of making, constructing and using the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification, in which- Figure 1 is a longitudinal vertical section of the apparatus; Fig. 2 a horizontal section taken at the line 00 w of Fig. l, and Fig.

this surface frombeing gummed overr The retorts for the. generation of gas from various substances, as now and heretofore-used, consistof a cylinder placed horizontally in a;-furnace; and when used for making gas fromirosin this is partly filled up with bricks or other refractory and porous substances inbrokenifragments thrown in for the-purpose of increasing the heated surface over-v which the melted rosin and tar is to pass when introducedt-but as all this mass of materiallies in a horizontal cylinder thereais but very little tendency to pass through,-and therefore the upper surface of themass of bricks, & c. soonbecomes gummed over and the intersticesbetween them closed up so that the melted rosin and tar passes over, the whole mass instead of throughthe interstices, receiving but little heat, and therefore the greater part passes through and is delivered in the liquid form instead of being gasified. It is a well known fact that much heat is absorbed and becomes latentin the process of changing rosin into tar, and then again in the production of gas from the tar, and as the rosln when mixed Specification of Letters Patent No. 5,210, dated July 26, 1847'.

with the tar is a semi-fluid and the tar itself:

is a liquid it absorbs the heat withgreat rapidity directly from the surface with which it is in contact,cand soon'reduces it below the gasifyingvpoint, that is below 700 degrees Fahrenheits scale, and when this takes place the heat applied is all consumed in turning the rosin into tar and reheating thetars I The objectof the first part of my invent'ionis to avoid all these evils,'present a large extent of heated surface within a given co-mpass, and in such a situation that the gravity of the liquid will have its full effect to insure its passage through the retort, and at the same time prevent this heating surface from being gummed up. These endsI at-v tain by makingthe retort with a large ver- 131C211 branch-filled or ,nearlyso-with any: 7 L

kind of refractoryporous substance, such-as bricks, and feeding the material to begasial fied through the topof this vertical branch by placing the feeding reservoirlof; crudematerial directly over it that it maybe heated and kept at the required tempera-j ture by the heat of the furnace surrounding the reort,and at thesame timewha've the pressure of the whole column oflliquid in the reservoir to aid in forcing the crude material through the retort. I j i The second part of my invention relates; to: the method of preventing the tar, &c., from bakinginthe neck of the retort and thus clogging it, and consistsiin so -'co-m---.

bining the water vase with, the retort or cooler that it can be extended: around theneck of the retort up to the retort that .the water'in the cooler (which cannot be heated above the boiling point as it is in an open vessel,) shall circulate around the .neck and prevent it from being heated. abovethe boils ing point, instead of passing a current, ofwateraround it from a reservoir above,thusavoiding, the necessity of usinga separate reservoir of water-requiring constant atten-.-:

tion and the labor of-raising the water from the lower to the. upper level.

The third part of my invention relates to A the method of regulating the supply ofcrude material to the retort to regulate the supply of gas, ,and consists in connecting the hood of the gasometer wit-hvthe COCk OI'J' valvev in the pipe that supplies the crude material from the reservoir to the retort by a lever and its appendages so that when the gas is generated faster than it is consumed the rising of the hood of the gasometer shall gradually close this cock or valve and diminish the supply, and vice versaa And the fourth part of my invention relates to the condenser, and consists in. passing the retort fits with its ends projecting beyond the sides as shown in the figures. The heads (a, c) of this horizontal part (6) of the retort are ground in and the front one is constructed and afiixed in the usual manner to be easily removed to clean out the retort; the vertical branch (1)) made of about the same size as the horizontal part, is contracted at top with a conical aperture through it like a valve seat to receive the lower end of a tube (d) which is made conical for that purpose and fits with a ground joint; the lower end of this tube is almost closed the opening into the retort being through a pipe (6) that extends from some distance below the bottom of the tube up nearly to its top, both ends of said pipe being open. The upper end of the tube (4) is firmly attached to the bottom of an iron vase (f) which contains the rosin or other crude material from which gas is to be made. Through the bottom of this vase a small division (g) passes down nearly to the bottom of the above named tube (d); and in this division there is an openin into the vase provided with a stop cook (75 the spindle of which extends out through the side of the foot of the vase so that as the melted rosin &c. is fed in it rises above the lower edge of the artition and over the upper end of the pipe Fe) and thence into the retort, so that the gas which rises from the retort through this pipe is prevented from escaping by the liquid crude material which closes the passage below the partition. The foot of the vase rests on a ring ('5') which holds it at the proper elevation and within the lower edge of the ring a disk or valve (71) is placed which is pierced with holes like a heat register; this fits onto the top (7") of the stove, which is also similarly pierced with holes and on which it revolves to act as a damper in shutting off the heat from the vase by which means the heat applied to the vase can be regulated. By opening this register when the furnace is in operathence out through the neck (is) in the rear head of the retort. The fire surrounds the retort and its vertical branch, the outside plates of the furnace being lined with fire.

brick in the usual way of stoves forming a fire chamber. The neck (is) of the retort passes into the cooler (Z) which is a vessel open to the atmosphere in any mannerto prevent the water therein from being heated above the boiling oint. This vessel extends around the neck is) to the rear head of the retort as at (m) so that the water in the cooler shall circulate freely around it ,and

thus keep it down to or below the boiling point. The neck of the retort opens and discharges into a vertical pipe (n) thelower end of which is enlarged to form the tar box (0) to receive the tar which passes through and which has not been gasified, and which can be drawn off through a pipe andcock (p) to be returned into the vase andthence' through the retort, and the gas passes out through the upper end of the pipe into the gasometer, and 1f the main pipe thatsupplies the burners be closed, the hood will be forced up, carrying with it a lever (1') attached to a bevel cog wheel (8) the teeth of which engage with the cogs of-a similar wheel (t) on the spindle of the cookor valve (h) and closes it which stops the supply of crudematerial and therefore the generation of gas; but when the main is open the gas passes down the main pipe into the condenser 0) to which the main that leads to the burners is attached at- (w),

A water pipe (as) that ends in a seive (y) in the upper part of the condenser supplies water in spray which passing through the gas at it ascends to the main condenses it and washes out the impurities which pass out with the condensing water through'the bent up tube (a) to prevent the escape of gas.

If desired the gasometer just described may be dispensed with, and the cooler represented in Fig. 3substituted where it will be seen that the neck (is) discharges into a vertical tube (a) the lower end of which opens into and near the bottom of the tar box (0) so that the tar accumulates and rises above it to compel the gas to pass through the tar to reach the main pipe (03), the tar being prevented from rising above this pipe by a. siphon pipe and cock (6') from which it escapes when it reaches the level of the body of the pipe, the inner end being bent down to below the level of the tar to prevent the escape of gas.

It will be obvious from the foregoing that some parts of my apparatus, may be employed without the others and derive the advantages due to such parts as may be used.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is- 1. The employment of the retort with the vertical branch containing the material for presenting heated surface to the rosin and tar or other substance to be gasified as it descends from the reservoir, as described, whereby the required surface is obtained to insure the production of gas with economy and by which also the substance or substances from which the gas is to be produced is compelled to pass over and aroundthe heated surfaces, as described. 2. I claim placing the reservolr or vase of crude material above the vertical branch ploying the heat of the furnace which sur- I rounds the retort to keep the rosin &c. in V V the reservoir in a liquid state as described.

3. I claim'combining the neck of there tort with the cooler by extending this vessel (the cooler) entirely around the neck of the retort and keep its temperature down 40 t to the boiling point or below and thus prevent the tar &c from baking in the neck of the retort as described.

4. I claim the method of regulating the supply of crude material to the retort by the consumption of gas by combining the hood of the gasometer with the cock or valve of the supply pipe through which the crude material passes to the retort in the manner substantially as described, whereby the cock or valve is opened by the descent, andclosed by the rising of the hood, as described.

5. And lastly, I claim the method of condensing and washing the impurities from the gas by combining with the gas pipe a condenser provided with a sieve for the spray of water and the bent up pipe for the discharge of the condensing water 'andimpurities without permitting the escape of the gas as described.

B. FRANKLIN oosToN.

Witnesses:

CHAS. M. KELLEY, JAs. MONTGOMERY.

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