USRE7024E - Improvement in processes for the manufacture of illuminating-gas - Google Patents

Description

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FREDERICK H. EICHBAUM, OF DETROIT, MICHIGAN, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, OF TWO-THIRDS INTEREST TO JOHN T. SALTE R, TRUSTEE,

OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

IMPROVEMENT IN PROCESSES FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF ILLUMINATING-GAS Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. [64,822, dated J arm 22, 18 5; reissue No, 7,024, dated April 4, 1876; application filed March 8, 1876.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, Fsnnnmcx H; Elon- BAUM, of Detroit, in the county of Wayne and ,ficient candlepower for commercial uses; and

my invention therein consists in the, production of a fixed or permanent illuminating-gas of a required candle-power at, a single operation, without the use of steam or of reheaters, by the simultaneous destructive distillation of wood and a definite quantity of hydrocarbons at about the same temperature.

In order to enable those skilled in the art to use my process, I proceed to describe the same more particularly.

When such woods are in the act of distillation, or in the act of evolving illuminatinggas in whatever apparatus may be convenient or suitable for the purpose, I combine with such gases by any proper mechanical means, in such quantities as may be desired, gases produced from the distillation of hydrocarbons, it being essential that both of the operations of distillation should go on at the same time, and that the combination of both gases should take place in the same vessel and under the same temperature. A convenient method of performing this process upon a small scale will be found in taking a retort adapted to be heated to a very high temperature, and having a stand-pipe, with a valve giving an opening into the air, and placing in the retort a certain quantity, by weight, of well-seasoned hard wood, and opening the valve in the stand-pipe so as to give a communication into the air. When this wood has been distilling a few minutes, the products of which first distillation should be permitted to escape through into the air, the valve in the standpipe should be closed, so as to turn the products of distillation into the receiver or hydraulic main. having become active and gases freely evolved, I permit a certain flow of fluid hydrocarbon, regulated by valves in a pipe leading into such retort in and upon the wood placed therein. v

' If it is desired to have an illuminating-gas of sixteen-candle power, I use three to four gallons of crude naphtha, or its equivalent in gas-producing capacity or carbon, in any solid or fluid hydrocarbons, and one hundred and twenty-eight pounds of dry hard wood, in the manner before described. From this formula, which is not intended to be precisely fixed, as both crude naphtha and dry hard wood vary alittle in their gas-producing capacities, but which is substantially correct, it will be perceived that the candlepower desired may be increased, either by increasing the quantit-y of hydrocarbon or by decreasing the quantity of wood, so that gas of any desirable candle-power may be produced.

In this operation it will be observed that the woodgas, which is generated in large quantities in its passage toward the standpipe, combines with the gas produced from the hydrocarbon, which is cbmparatively small in bulk, and carries the same along with it,

the two becoming thoroughly combined before reaching the stand-pipe.

An illuminating gas of a fixed or permanent nature is thus evolved at one operation, at the same time and under a high temperature, in the evolution of which the wood-gas serves as a diluent and a vehicle to carry the gas from the hydrocarbon, which is evolved without deposit or waste, and both produced at the same time form a single gas of precisely the candle-power desired.

I do not wish to confinemyself to any particular apparatus, as very many different kinds may be employed, one or more of which are of my own invention, and for which I am about making application for Letters Patent, my invention herein being simply the process before described.

At this time, the distillation Having thus described my process, what I claim therein as new, and for which Idesire Letters'Pate'nt, is-

1. The process of producing, at a single op-. eration, a fixed or permanentilluminating-gas ot' a required candle-power, by the simultaneous destructive distillation of wood, anda definite quantity of hydrocarbons at a high tem per-ature, common to both distillations, substantially as described.

2. The process of procuring, at a single operation, a fixed or permanent illuminating-gas of a required candle-power, by causing the gas prodncedfrom the destructive distillation of wood at a high heat to combine with, carry along, and dilute, in the same vessel, the gas evolved from hydrocarbons in its passage to the stand-pipe, substantially as described. Signedthis 28th day of February, 1876.

FREDERICK H. EIGHBAUM.

Witnesses CHARLES THURMAN, RN. DYER.