USRE681E - Improvement in tight joints for gas-retorts - Google Patents

Description

N. AUBIN.

Making Oil and Water Gas.

Reissued Apr q5, 1859.

AM. PHGFD-LITHQCQNX (OSBORNE'S PROCESS) N. AUBIN, OF ALBANY, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN TIGHT JOINTS FOR GAS'RETORTS.

Specification forming part of Lett ers Patent To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, N. AUBIN, of the city and county of Albany, and State of New York, have invented a certain new and useful Iniprovements in Apparatus for Making illuminating-Gas; and 1 do hereby declare that the following specification, taken in connection with the drawings, is a full, clear, and exact description thereof.

In the drawings,Figure 1 is a front view of an apparatus to which myinvention is applied. Fig. 2 is a side view of the same. Fig. 3 is a vertical section through such an apparatus, exhibiting the improvements invented by me. Fig. 4 is a vertical section through a retort. Fig. 5 is a top view of the retortandits groove; Fig. 6, a vertical section through the cover of a retort. Fig. 7 is a section through a charger and reservoir of gas making materials; and Figs. 8 and 9 are, respectively, a horizontal section through, and a plan of, the bottom of the same; these drawings being merely a type of one of the many forms of gasmaking apparatus to which my invention is applicable.

In all kinds of gas-retorts known to me it is necessary at certain times to open the retort for various purposes-snch as charging it with new gas-furnishing material or cleaning the retortand previous to my invention this end has, as far as I know, been accomplished by forcing a door or cover or man-hole plate down upon the body of the retort itself so as to close a hole left therein. This door is usu ally set into place by a screw or wedge, and is generally packed between itself and the retort by fire-lute or some such substance, as it is essentially necessary that the joint should be gastight under the pressure due to the load on the gasometer and the friction due to thepassage of gas throu gh the pipes and purifiers. This lute usually hardens by heat, is dilfticult to make tight originally and keep tight when once made so, and the opening and closing of the retort is usually a dirty piece of work, requiring some strength, skill, experience, and time.

Now, my invention has for its object the remedying of these objections in a simple and efficient manner, and thenature of my invention consists in making a gas-tight joint between the cover or doorof a gas-retort and the retort itself by means of a groove and rim,

No. 14,045, dated January 8, 1856; Reissue No. 68 1, dated April 5, 1859. I

the former of which contains a fusible metal or alloy into which the latter dips and by which it is encompassed, the whole being substantially such and for the purposes herein specified.

The apparatus shown in the drawings, to which my invention is applied, consists of a stove or furnace of any suitable construction,- provided with suitable doors for cleaning the fires and charging coal, and also with a grate and chinnley. In this stove is inserted a gasmaking retort, a, of any proper form, having a neck or some suitable provision for connecting it with the pipes leading to the gasometer. This gas-retort is provided with a groove, Z), and a cover or stopper plate, 6, the latter having around its periphery a rim, (1. Both the retort and the cover are to be made of. some suitable metal. This cover is for the sake of convenience provided with a handle, 0, so that it may be lifted and replaced by hand or by a crane, or tackle, ifoflarge size. The gas-making materials may be charged directly into the interior of this retort when the cover is removed, but the plan I prefer is to use a charger and container ofmaterials-such as having holes or perforations in its bottom, which can be attached to and detached from the charger by any suitable device. Over the cover of the retort is a dome, also ha-vingan tion, as they have no bearing on the invention claimed in this patent.

Before using the apparatus the groove is to be filled with some fusible metal or alloy which will melt at a heat below that at which the-top of the retort remains when in use. The art of compounding alloys fusible at many different temperatures being well known, this direction will be sufficien t. Fire is then got up in the furnace, and the retort is to be charged either directly into its interior or by means of groove.

. thejoint. V

to resist lifting by the pressure of the gas or be weighted down, or it may be held by a I place.

the charger, which is'to be filled and inverted into the position shown in Fig. 3. The cover isthen to be put in place and its rim will sink into the melted fusible metal contained in the p The groove must be of such depth that the elastic force of the gas under ordinary circumstances will not blow out the melted fusible metal, and the rim should be made so as to reach nearly to the bottom of the groove. Adcpth-ofgroove of from three quarters of an inch to an inch will be usually ample. Now, it is clear that the melted fusible metal surrounding the rim on the cover will make a gas-tight joint between the retort and the cover, and also that the cover can be lifted off or replaced at pleasure, and, further, that such lifting and replacing will unmake and make The cover should be heavy enough catch or stop. The formeris the best plan, however, as the cover will then serve as a safetyvalve in case of any dangerous accumulation of pressure. It needs no skill to replace or remove the cover to make or unmake the joint, and noannoyance from dirt need take If desired,a layer of lamp black or some such substance may be laid on top of the. fusible metal to check oxidation. Now,-

I am aware of the fact that seals, technically so called, or joints formed by water, coal-tar,

oil, and other such fluid substances applied in grooves into which a rim dips, have been and are used in many chemical processes, but any such joint would be useless in the combination in which I use my fusible-metal joints, and the peculiarity of this joint is that it is aseal, technically so known, solely on account of the tempera-tire to which the apparatus in which it is used is subjected. If there were no heat applied the joint would be asolid one-such as is made by solderingand the making and unmaking of thejoint and the removal and replacement of the cover would be as diflicult, or more so, than is now the case with luted joints.

- N. AUBIN.

\Vitnesses:

CHARLES KNICKERBOCKEB, A. J. MILTON.

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