USRE1497E - Improvement in making illuminating-gas - Google Patents

Description

L. L'. HILL. 3 Making Oil and W ater.Gas.

Reis sued June 16. 1863.

PATENT OFFICE.

LEVI L. HILL, OF HUDSOECNEVVYORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN MAKING lLLUMlNATlNG-GAS,

S ecification forming part of Letters Patent No. 35,616, dated June I7, 1862; Reissue MIL I97, dated June 16, 1863.

T 0 all whom it may concern..-

Be it known that l, LEVI I1. HILL, of Hudson, in the county of Columbia and State of New York,have invented a new and Improved Mode of Generating Gas, intended chiefly for illuminating purposes; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof.

The nature of my invention consists in a process for generating an illuminating-gas by the decoinpositionot' water and oleaginous substances simultaneously applied to incandescent carbonaceous materials recently produced by the expulsion of the volatile parts of wood or bituminous coal.

To enable others skilled in theart to practice and use my invention, I will proceed to describe it in conjunction with and by the ..,.assistance of the drawing hereto annexed.

Other forms and arrangement of apparatus may be adopted; but this-l havefound entirely satisfactory in practice and-to fully exhibit the principles of my invention. As this invention relates only to the process, the device here represented will serve as well as any I other to elucidate it.

In the drawing,A and, B I( present a store and the retort therein. I

0 indicates the main feed-pipe, and DD its branches, twice bent and terminating in a double can, E E, and arranged with regulating holes and wires F F F F. The holes are in the top end of feed-pipes, and the wires run through these holes and project upward through the top of the can, so that they can be pushed up and down in case of cloggage. The size of the wires relatively to that of the holes regulates the amount of flow. The cap of the retort is marked G. The boiler-openings of the stove are marked H H, and I indicates the smoke-pipe.

J J is the discharge gas-pipe, provided with a valve, K, to prevent a return of gas into the stove in case of a fracture of the retort.

L is the service-pipe, and M the lever for closing the stop-cocks'N N. This lever has its fulcrum at O, and is lifted by pin 1?, being so arranged that it shall be lifted just before the gasometer is full. A cord or chain may be used instead of the lever.

The retort may be made of cast-iron or any other suitable material, one end permanently closed,the other open, but capable of being closed perfectly by a cap or head,and having two side openingsone at ornear each endfor the main feed-pipe O and the discharge gas-pipe J J. One of the cans E E is for water, the other for a hydrocarbon fluid, and are both connected with the main feed-pipe G by separate pipes D D. The eduction or discharge pipe J J, which is connected with the retort at the other or back end, conducts the gas to the gasoineter. When the gasometer has been lifted to a certain height by the influx of gas, it operates the lever M, and thus closes the stop-co ks N N, cutting oil; the flow of the water and hydrocarbon fluid to the retort, and consequently stopping the generation of the gas. From this it will be seen that if the gas generated and passed into the gasometer be used as fast as it is made the process will be continuous until the materials usedare exhausted; but it it be generated more rapidly than it is consumed the process can only go on until the gasometer is filled. The checkvalve K prevents the reflow of the gas from the gasometer into the retort, and thus prevents the escape ofany of it when it is necessary to recharge the retort or when this part becomes cracked or burned out during the operation.

For portable gas-works arranged in this manner I make the retort about thirty inches long and four inches iii-diameter inside, and place it transversely across the center of a small stove, the two ends projectingfrom the sides by openings in the sides of the stove. This stove is about twenty inches long, twelve inches wide, and twelve inches high, and provided with boiler openings for cooking --purposes, so that the gas required for anevenings use may bemade with the same heat that cooks the daily meals. This,'with a suitable gasometer and fixtures,makes a very convenient arrangement for domestic purposes 5 but where other purposes on a larger scale are required other arrangements may be adopted.

My method of operating with this apparatus is as follows: When wood is used,I charge the retort with small billets of this material,

preferring those kinds of wood which yield by destructive distillation aconsiderable quantity of gas. When coal is used, I charge the retort in like manner with that of a bituminous character, that I may have the benefit of the ordinary illmninating-gas produced by the distillation of the material before it becomes reduced to coke. Having secured the cap properly upon the retort, I kindle the fire and bring the retort to abright-red heat. When this temperature is attained, nearly the whole of the volatile matters will have been expelled from the wood or\coa1, if no impediment be offered .to their free escape, and there will be left in the retort either charcoal or coke, incandescent and almost entirely freed from bituminous matters, moisture, and such other substances as are volatile at this temperature. In the meantime, while this part of the process is going on. or before, oneof the cans E is to be charge I with-water, the other with the. hydrocarbon fluid; and when the retort has reached the temperature just indicated the two stop'eoeks N N in the feed-pipes are opened, and the two fluids, in due proportion,

allowed to flow into the retort.

The charcoal or coke, just reduced from wood or coal and still incandcscent,'is in the most favorable condition forprompt and energetic action upon the two fluids. ory of the action and reaction that then take place between the three substances may be presumed to be this '1 1e oxygen of the water combines with a portion of the carbon of the charcoalor coke, forming carbonic oxide or carbonic acid, or both. The hydrogen of the water, being set free, combines with the ex cess of carbon in the hydrocarbon fluid, and

. thus converts this fluid into a permanent hydrocarbon gas, and which results in producing from the same amount of a hydrocarbon. fluid some four or five times as much gas as could be obtained simply by its destructive distillation. In this operation it'is also veryprobable that some portion of the liberated hydrogen in its nascentstate combines with the carbon of the charcoal or, coke, and in this manner actuallyincreasing the volume lot the hydrocarbon. gases evolved. The gas thus produced passes into the gasometenmixin g there with the previously-thrilled gas from the wood or coal, the combination yielding a very superior illuminating-gas at a very mod erate cost.

The the w in this process I prefer the hoary 'or paraffine oil of coal or petroleum, but can use oil or any other fluid hydrocarbon, and by placing one of the cans E within the other and supplying the outer with hot or boiling water can use those that are solid at ordinary temperatures. The gas produced by this process may be used for any of the purposes to which ordinary illnmina-tin ggas is applied.

'Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim-in relation thereto, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the .UnitedStates,

i 1. Generating gas for illuminating and other purposes by bringing-water and a hydrocarbon -fluid simi'iltan'eously in contact witlrl'rcshlyformed incandescent charcoal, substantially as set forth. 7

Generating'gas forilluininatingand other purposes by bringing water anda hydrocarlmn fluid simultaneously in contaebwith freshlyforn edfincandescent coke, substantially as setforth.

3, The use of freshly-formal ineamlesceut charcoal or coke for the decomposit on of water or a hydrocarbon fluid, or of both combined, when applied simultaneously to the charcoalor coke, for the production of gas for illumination and other purposes, substantially as described. I

4. The combination of the gas from the-distillation of wood with that produced from the action of water and a hydrocarbon fluid-sir mnltancozisly applied to the freshly-formed incandescent charcoal from the wood, in the manner substantially as set forth,for the production of gas (or illuminating and, other pnrposes.

The combination of the gas from the dis-. tillatiou ot' bituminous coal or its equivalent with that produced from the action of water and a hydrocarbon fluid simultaneously ap plied to the freshly-formed incandescent coke from the coal in the manner substantially as set forth, for the production of gas for illuminating and other purposes.

r LEVI .L. HILL. Witnesses: m a

' 'TAPPE TOWNSEND,

WYMANR. BARRETT.

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