US65296A - Improved appaeatus foe caebueettfflg aie - Google Patents

Description

L. STEVENS.

Apparatus for C'arbureting Air.

Patented May 28, 1867.

N. PEI'EHS. Pnoloum n hen Washingnn, 0.0.

guitar giant gaunt @ffirr.

LEVI STEVENS, OF FITOHBURG, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGN OR TO NORMAN O. MUNSON, OF SHIRLEY, MASSACHUSETTS.

Letters Patent No. 65,296, dated ZlIag 28, 1867.

IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR OARBURETTING AIR.

TO ALL PERSONS TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME:

Be it known that I, LEVI ,STEV ENS, of Fitchburg, in the county of Worcester, and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improved Apparatus for Carburetting Air, or vaporizing a volatile hydrocarbon, and mixing air therewith, for the purpose of'producing light and heat by the combustion of the mixture; and I do hereby declare the same to be fully described in the following specification, and represented in the accompanying drawings, of which Figure 1 is a top view.

Figure 2, a front elevation.

Figure 3, a rear elevation.

Figure 4, a side elevation; and

Figure 5, a longitudinal section of such apparatus.

Figure 6 is a vertical section, taken lengthwise through its vaporizer, and the tank or reservoir beneath the same.

Figure 7 is a horizontal section of such vaporizer, such being taken through its tortuous passage.

Figure 8 is a vertical section of the elevator by which the hydrocarbon fluid is extracted from the tank and delivered into the vaporizer.

In the various kinds of air-carburetting apparatus in which air is made to flow through a vaporizer for containing and vaporizing a hydrocarbon fluid, the pumping or air-mixing apparatus employed has been so applied as to force the air into and through the vaporizer, water being used in the meter or pumping-wheel case to aid such wheel in its operations. In my improved apparatus the air-pump is employed to draw air into and through the vaporizer, and thereby extract from it the mixture of air and vapor, such being drawn into the meter-wheel case of the pumping apparatus. Furthermore, I have so combined and arranged the vaporizer and the meterwheel case or air-exhausting apparatus that the hydrocarbon fluid may flow freely from the vaporizer into the case of the pumping apparatus, and serve in the place of water or a separate liquid, as generally used with the wheel and its case. Under, this improvement the pumping apparatus or meter-wheel, and its case, becomes an additional means of aiding in the evaporation or vaporizing and aeration of the liquid.

In the drawings, A denotes the meter-wheel, and 13 its case, the same constituting the main parts of what may be termed the air-forcing apparatus, and being constructed like the corresponding parts of a common wet gas meter used in measuring the flowage of gas. The shaft O of the meter-wheel projects through one end of the case. A train of gears, a I; e d, connects the said shaft with a horizontal shaft, D, which extends along underneath the case B, and a tank, E, arranged in rear of the said case. The shaft D, while the apparatus may be in use, is to be put in revolution by suitable means, the gravitating power of a weight being generally employed for such purpose, and in a manner well understood by persons skilled in the art to which the apparatus appertains. Directly over the tank E is the vaporizer F, which consists of an oblong and closed vessel, provided with an induction pipe, e, which enters its top and opens directly into a circular box or vessel, f, whose top around the pipe 0 is perforated with a series of holes, which are covered by a flat, annular valve or ring, h. The said valve apparatus not only will allow the passage of air into the vaporizer when the exhaust-pump may be at Work, but it will prevent the escape of the hydrocarbon vapor of the vaporizer through the inlet-tube 0, whenever the pump may not be in action. Underneath the boxf there is an inclined plane, 2', arranged within and across the reservoir from side to side, and end to end, or thereabouts, the said plane being perforated with numerous holes. Below the partition are two or any other suitable numbcrof wire gauze partitions, 70 Z, which I term the dissemina tor. Furthermore, below the said disseminator is a series of inclined perforated planes or plates, m n 0, each of which is covered with one or more layers of cloth, or its equivalent. Below the series of planes m n 0 there is a tortuous passage, G, formed by a horizontal plate, 9, and a strip of metal, 7, the said strip being extended downward from the said plate, and bent in manner as shown in fig. 7. It is intended that the hydrocarbon liquid in the vaporizer shall extend above the lower edge of the strip 7, in manner as shown at s s. A bent pipe, t, leads from the inner terminus of the tortuous passage into the air-exhausting or pumping apparatus, in manner as-shown in fig. 5. From the meter-wheel case one or more pipes, a, load into the lower auras part of the vaporizer or liquid space thereof, in order that the hydrocarbon liquid may enter the case B, and stand at the same level therein, as in the vaporizer. The meter-wheel, while rotating, wallows or runs in the hydrocarbon liquid, which in my apparatus I use in the place of water as usually employed-in a gas-meter, or in the same when combined with a vaporizer and used therewith for carburetting air.

From the above it will be seen that by the'movement of the wheel in the hydrocarbon liquid, the pumping apparatus not only performs its function of drawing air into and from the vaporizer, but acts as an additional means of vaporizing the liquid, for by the wheel A agitating the liquid within the case B, and elevating more or less of it above the upper surface of such liquid, it will facilitate or effect the evaporization. of more or less of the liquid.

The mixed air and vapor received into the case B may be led therefrom through an educt, u, opening out of the top of the said case. There is a small filling tunnel, 1), (provided with a screw-cap, 211,) on the case B.

When the cup is oif the tunnelthe hydrocarbon fluid lnay be poured into the latter, and from thence will run 7 into the case B, and will rise in the same to the level of the pipes at u. Flowing through the said pipes at u the liquid will pass into the vaporizer and rise therein up to the top-of a pipe, x, which extends up from and leads out of the tank E, and is open at its upper end. After having arisen to the top of. the pipe 11;, the liquid will flow from such pipe and descend into and fill the tank E. From the tank E an elevator, H, arranged in rear of the tank and the vaporizer, will transfer the liquid to the upper part of the vaporizer, and so as to cause such liquid to flow upon the perforated plane 2'. This elevator consists of an endless belt, a, provided with a series of buckets, y 3/, and extended around two pulleys, b 0, arranged within a long case, d, which at its lower end opens into the tank. In passing around the higher of the pulleys, each bucket will discharge its liquid contents into a spout, a, leading into the upper part of the vaporizer. For. operating the elevator there is a grooved.

pulley, f, fixed on the shaft of the pulley 0. Around the pulley f and a pulley, g, fixed on the shaft D, a crossed band, 7/, runs. Thus, while the shaft may be in rotation, motion from it will be communicated to the pulley f and the elevator.

In the operation of the above-described apparatus, the liquid hydrocarboh thrown into the upper part of the vaporizer will run down the plane 2', and trickle through its holes upon the'disseminator of wire gauze, by which the liquid will be separated into numerous very small streams, and will fall upon and slowly descend the cloth of the plane 111. After the said cloth may have been saturated with the liquid, the surplus liquid will drop on and descend-tho cloth n of the plane n, which in turn will become saturated with the liquid, the surplus of which will fall upon the cloth of the plane 0. After this latter cloth may have become saturated, the surplus liquid from it will drip into the liquid at the bottom of the vaporizer. By means of the cloths a great amount'of evaporating surface will be exposed to the air while being drawn through the vaporizer. In this way the vaporization of the liquid will take place, and the air mixed with the vapor produced will flow into and through the tortuous passage G, and over the surface of the liquid at the bottom thereof. In passing over such surface the air willcausc an additional evaporation of the liquid. Finally, the air, with the vapor so produced, will be drawn into the case B of the meter-wheel A, from whence the mixture of air and vapor may be led by the educt to one or more burners, on which it may be burned for the purpose of illumination or heat.

Having thus described my improved air-carburetting apparatus, and its mode of operation, what I claim thereof as of my invention is as follows: I

I do not claim the combination of an air-forcing apparatus with the vuporizerof the hydrocarbon.

I claim the combination of an air-exhausting apparatus with the vaporizer, separate or distinct, in such manner that air may be drawn through the vaporizer, and, with the hydrocarbon vapors thereof, be drawn out of such vaporizer and into such exhausting apparatus, the whole being substantially as described.

I also claim the arrangement and connection of the air-pumping apparatus and the vaporizer, separate or distinct, in such manner that the hydrocarbon fluid may pass freely frou one into the other of them, so as to stand at-one level in both, and so that the wheel of the pumping apparatus,-'while in rotation, may revolve in such liquid as specified.

I also claim the combination of the fluid elevator audits operative mechanism, or their equivalents, with the tank E, the vaporizer, and the air-pumping apparatus.

I also claim the combination of the wire-gauze disseminator is Z with the perforated distributor i, and the series of inclined plates or evaporating surfaces arranged beneath the same, as specified.

I also claim the combination of one or more plates m n 0, and clothsppp, arranged together in the vaporizer in manner and so as to operate as set forth. v

I also claim the combination of the tortuous passage G, at the lower part of the vaporizer, with the series of perforated plates m n 0, covered with layers of cloth, as explained.

I also claim the arrangement of the tank E with the vaporizer and the air-pumping apparatus, such tank being made to communicate with the vaporizer by means of an overflow pipe, :21, leading up into the vaporizer,

as specified.

I also claim the peculiar valve apparatus at the top of the vaporizer, the same consisting of the tube e, the box f, the holes g g, and the annular valve 7:, arranged together as described.

I also claim the combination of the fluid elevator and its operative mechanism, or their equivalents, with the vaporizer, arranged substantially as described.

I also claim the fluid elevator, or its equivalent, so arranged as automatically to elevate the carburetting liquid to the top or upper part of the vaporizer, substantially as described.

LEVI STEVENS.

Vitnesses:

-R. H. EDDY,

NATHL O. FowLER.

Images