USRE2253E - Improved apparatus for carbureting air - Google Patents

Description

BEST AVAILABLE COPY BEST AVAILABLE COPY VUNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR CARBURETING AIR.

Specification formingr part of Letters Patent No. 44,883, dated November 1, 1864; Reissue No. 2,253, dated May 22, 1866. I

To all u'hmn it may concern.-

Beit known that I, GEORGE ODronNE, ot' Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and usef'ul Improvements in Apparatus for Making Gas from Liquid Hydrocarbons; and I do hereby declare that the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying plate of drawings, hereinafter referred to, forms a full and exact specification of the same, wherein I have set forth the nature and principles ofmy improvements, by which my invention may be distinguished from all others of a similar class, together with such parts asl claim and desire to have secured to me by Letters Patent.

In the production of illuminating-gas from volatile hydrocarbons the process consists simply in imi'negnating atmospheric air with the vapor of the hydrocarbon liquid. The success of this operation depends, rst, upon applying a constant and uniform current of air to the apparatus; and, second, upon causing the air to take up a fixed and stated amount of hydrocarbon vapor under all circumstances. Thus, for instance, if the pressure of air in the apparatus. is not uniform at all times, it will pass with unequal velocities through or over the liquid', and change the temperature of the latter accordingly; and, again, the air will be changed more or less with the hydrocarbon liquid,according tothe length of time it occupies in passingthroughthe same, thus rendering the gas heavier or lighter, as the case may he, and, of course, aiecting the lights in the same degree.

One of the principal difficulties heretofore experienced in making illuminating gas bydepending upon the evaporation of liquid hydrocarbon has arisen from the fact that the quan tity of gas required for the minimum and maximum number of burners had'to be furnished by the supplying of greater or less quantities ot' air, and thus, while the gas for a small number of lights would be too highly charged with carbon, the gas produced for a large number of burners would not be suiiciently rich in illuminating qualities, because, in the latter case, the air could not become saturated to the requisite degree.

The objects of the present invention are then, tirst, to pass through the apparatus a constant and uniform current of atmospheric air; and,

second, to insure the saturation of this air with a xed and stated amount ot' hydrocarbon vapor, whatever may be the consumption of the gas-that is, so that the relative proportions of atmospheric air and carbon contained in the gas shall remain the same under all circumstances.

The most essential features of my improved apparatus consists of a peculiar construction and arrangement of the device employed for forcing the air through the apparatus and aself-regulating tloatrestingin the liquid hydrocarbon, and maintained therein at a uniform depth at all times, through which iioat and stratum of liquid hydrocarbon the ail1 is made to pass into the gas-reservoir.

My improvements are represen ted in the accompanying plate of drawings, of which Figure 1 is a plan or top view of the air-forcing apparatus; Fig. 3, a perspective view of the oat; Fig. 2, a transverse vertical section of the Awhole apparatus, and Fig. l a transverse vertical section of the air-forcing device.

In the accompanying drawings, a, a, a represent a vessel of any suitable form, partially lilled with water, as shown in Figs. 3 and 4. Within the vessel a a a is the air-forcing apparatus, cons'sting of a hollow drum, b b, into which the w ext/,enters atcand d, Fig. 3. The drum b b is by means of perforated plates e and shaft, g, made to revolve by means of a weight or in any other suitable manner.

h h, &c., are a serious of sector-shaped chambers or buckets arranged upon the periphery of the drum b b, as shown in the drawings. Each ot' these buckets or chambers is open at one end and closed at the other, and communicate with the interior of the drum b b by an opening, t', near its closed end 1:.

The drum-shaft g, before referred to, has a vbearing at one end in the side of the vessel @EST AVAILABLE COPY ing upon the hydrocarbon liquid so as to be slightly-immersed therein, is a traveling hollow float, o p, guided in its Lip-and-down motion by ahollow shaft, q. Around the closed base o o'f-the float are a series of short tubes, r 1, Src., communicating with the upper portion,p, thereof, and with their lower ends opening into the hydrocarbon liquid. The connection between the gasometer 'n n n and the vessel au. a is made by means of the right-angular tube or passage s s, which communicates both with the hollow shaft q and the tube I, before referred to.

The operation of the apparatus is as follows: The drum b 15 being revolved, the open ends of the buckets or chambers k h, Snc., necessarily dip into and pass through the water in the vessel a a a, thereby forcing through their openings t' 'i air into the drum b b, the space above`the level of the water thus becomingr a reservoir of compressed air, which is delivered through the pipe m into the tube l. The perforated plates e and f serve, it will be observed, both to connect the drum b b with its shaft g and to allow the t'ree passage of the air and water through them. By the peculiar construction and operation of the above-described device for passing the air through the apparatus, it will be seen that the desired e'eet will be produced, not only with much less friction than by an ordinary center drum, or other devices heretofore used 'for the purpose, but the supply of air, instead of being intermittent, as has heretofore necessarily been the case, is continuous and uniform, the buckets or chambers operating one after the other in and upon the water in the vessel a a instead of encountering the whole resistance of the water in a body, so as to furnish a steady supply of air to the drum b b. The air heilig forced into the tube l, as hereinbefore described, passes through the right-angular passage s s, up through the vertical hollow shaft q, down through the upright portion of the float o p, through the short tubes r r, Src., and into the hydrocarbon liquid, from which it emerges, charged with the vapor of the saine, into the gasometer In n n, whence it can be delivered, as desired, through an opening, t.

It will be evident that the oat o p can have its weight so regulated as to cause its short tubes` r r, &c., to be immersed any desired depth in the hydrocarbon liquid, and according as this depth is greater or less will the quantity of carbon taken up by the air beA varied, because the longer the airis in passing through the liquid, or, what is the same thing, the greater the depth of the stratum of the liquid through which the air has to pass the richer will be the gas formed, so that when the extent lo which the short tubes r r, Ste., shall be immersed in the hydrocarbon liquid is once determined and regulated the relative proportions of air and carbon contained in the gas produced must always remain the same, whether the amount consumed be varied or not.

Placed over the gasoineter is a cap, u u, the sides of which play up and down in an annular chamber, v n, formed in the top ofthe gasometer, and sealed with any suitable hydraulic joint. The extent to which it shall rise can be regulated by springs or otherwise, and its operation and purpose will be readily understood without further explanation.

Having thus described my improvements, l shall state my claims as follows I do not claim the enriching ot' gas by passing it through or over liquid hydrocarbons; but

What I do claim as my invention, and desire to have secured to me by Letters Patent, is-

1. So constructing and arranging a oat in connection with a suitable air-forcing apparatus as to invariably cause the air to be forced through the liquid hydrocarbon in the manner herein described-that is to say, by divid- -ing the volume of air into uniform streams 'which shall flow from or escape through apertures at the periphery ot' the float, as set forth.

2. The airforcing apparatus herein defi` scribed, the same consisting of a hollow drum having a series of buckets or chambers arranged upon the4 periphery of the same and communicating with the interior thereof, al as specified.

3. The combination of the air-forcing apparatus and tioat, arranged and operating with regard to each other as described.

GEO. ODIORNE.

Witnesses:

GEORGE W. MANN, SAML. M. BARTON.

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