US1618726A - Humidifier - Google Patents

Description

Feb. 722, 1927.

C. J. RAMSBURG HUMIDIFIER Filed Jan. '5. 1926 .4 n J n m n I INVENTOR Patented Feb. 22, 1927.

- UNITED-STATES :PATE'NT OFFICE.

CHARLES JOSEPH RAMSBUBG OF EDGFWOBTH, PENNSYLVANIA.

scummran.

' Application filed January 5, 1926. Seriai ii'o. 79,415,

' The present invention relates to humidifiers, and more especially to a humidifier for humidiiying the atmosphere of inhabited rooms, such, for example, as a dwelling house. v j

During the winter the houses and oflices in the northern part of the United States I arensually maintained at a temperature of 70 F. orabove. The result is that the humidity of the air is very low, approaching" a desert humidity" in dryness. While the outside air may have a humidity of 60 or .80'

house temperatures, the perheating of the air, because for the same absolute amount of water per unit volume,

the percentage humidity decreases with the temperature.

The high temperatures and low humidities at which the American people maintain their houses are becomingto be recognized as seriously prejudicial to health. Varlous devices have been suggested to overcome this condition and supply moisture to the air, but such devices have usually been vir tually valueless because they have not supplied a sufficient amount of moisture. Such devices as water pans in furnaces and water pans on radiators do not supply enough moisture, because in order to maintain the atmosphere in an eight or ten room dwelling house at a proper humidity in cold weather, several gallons of water should be evaporated per day. With the increased use of hot water or steam radiatorsfor house heating the problem is particularly diflicult,'be-

cause there is no central supply of air as in the case of a hot air furnace which may be humidified and because pans or tanks of waterplaced on the radiators are ineffective.

and usually forgotten. p a

My humidifier is particularly designed to be put into houses having the heating plants already installed and will convert the exsmall drip, say of about to 100 drops of water per minute. This amount of water is suificient to the atmosphere the percent, when this air isheated to the usua centage humidity is decreased due to the usual eight. or ten room dwelling house at V I a humidity of about/t0 to 50% and at'a temperature of about 7 0 F. 'As is well known,

if the humidity is increased to say 40, 50 or the atmosphere is not only more healthful to breathe, but the house will be comfortable at. a lower temperature than where the humidity is low, say'lO to 20%'which is not unusual in -houses during the winter. Referring to the drawings which illustrate the preferred embodiment of my invention,-

. Figure l-is an elevation partially in sectlon, through a portion of a house cellar 'showing the humidifier installed;

Figure 2'-is a vertical section through the humidifier;

Figure 3 is an'elevation of the-humidifier.

taken at right angles to the sectionof' Figure 2 and indicating its internal construction in I dotted lines.

Referring to the illustrated embodiment of, my invention, reference numeral 1 indicates generally the humidifier. This humidifier may be placed anywhere in a house or 1n auofiice such as being placed in one of the rooms. However, in the case of a dwelling house, it is preferably located in the cellar 2 and is connected by its flue 3 to discharge into one of the living rooms 4 of the house. As shown in Figure 1 the humidifier is supported on the cellar wall 5 at a con venient height.

I- found that there is suflici'ent diifusion of air through the ordinary house so that a single humidifier discharging its humidified air into one of the living rooms on the first floor is suflicient to maintain the desired humidity throughout the house'.- The humidifier comprises a chamber 6 which contains a hot plate 7 upon which the water drips and is evaporated and a gas burner 8 for heating the hot plate. The bot-' tom of the chamber 6 is open and it connected at its top to the flue .3 which serves as a chimney to assist in maintaining 'a' good convection current of air through the hu V midifier chamber to carry ofithe humidified air. While it is preferred to'employ a fair- I 1y long flue 3 particularly in cases where the humidifier is located in a cellar, a shorter flue might be used or the flue might be dispensed with in case the humidifier is located directly in the room whose atmosphere is to be humidified.- It is preferred, however, to use the flue 3 in order t mm an a?- tive convection current and guard against down drafts through the chamber 6.

A small and regulated flow or drip of water is supplied to the top of the hot plate 7 through. a drip valve 9 which may be either a needle valve or preferably a valve havin a porous and adjustably compressible felt washer through which the water seeps. The valve 9 is connected to a water supply pipe 10. The drip from the talve 9 alls'for a short distance through the open air where it can be readily observed and the number of drops per minute counted, into a cup 11 and through a feed pipe 12 .to a point directl above the hot late' 7. The water may rip from the en of the feed pipe 10 upon the hot plate, although it is preferred to feed the water down by means of a wick which will revent splashing of the water or the formation of small globules of water which might dance along and off the edge of thehot platevbefore evaporation.

- Such small dancing lobules of water are section s familiar to anyone w 0 has dropped water on -a hot stove lid. In order to furnish a suitable wick feed, a small piece'of wood 13 like a-match or a tooth pick is inserted in the lower end of the pi 11 and is su ported' by the hot plate. referably a sma disc or septum 14 of asbestos paper-is placed on the center of the hot plate below the water drip to insure the even spreading of the moisture without spattering or the formation of the dancing globules. r

The hot plate 7 is preferably of the form shown in the drawings and consists of a flat central portion 15 surrounded by a downwardly depending fluted flange 16. Beneath the edge of the flange 16 is an annular overflow an 17 having the U-shaped crossl iown in the drawing. An overflow pipe 18 is provided for discharging excess water if it fills the overflow pan .17. The overflow pan 17 is supported within the chamber 6 by suitable brackets 19 on the chamber wall. The hot plate 7 is spaced above the overflow pan 17 by the supports 20 which allow a free space between the'top of the pan 17 and the hot plate 7; The gas burner 8, which is preferably a Bunsen burner, is supported by. its supply pipe'21 which is secured at 22 through the wall of the chamber 6. The upper part of the burner 8 terminates at about the level of the top of the overflow pan 17 and discharges its flame into the concave lower face of the hot plate 7. The products of combustion pass up, heati the center of the hot plate and then re out laterally and flow downwardly un er the lower edge 16' of the 16 and then upwardly over the top hot plate and into the flue 3. 'There is, of course, a considerable amount of entrained air which pames around the burner Sand around the overflow pan 17 and which and is further eva is carried along to form a con vection cur rent which sweeps by the burner and over the top of the hot plate along with the gases of combustion, thus insuring a sufliciently large current of air through the humidifier to insure a good distribution of the humidified air as it is discharged into the room. Moreover, since there is a considerable flow of air through the humidifier, the air dischar (1 into the room does not need to be as highly humidified as would be the case in a humidifier which did not have a considerable circulation of air through it. This obviates any danger of the deposit of condensed moisture in the room nearthe discharge of the humidifier.

Normally the hot plate is maintained at such a temperature and the flow of water is so regulated that the water'is substantially all evaporated from the center of the hot plate. However, if the flow of water is increased or the gas flame cut down, the water may flow out and into the troughs in the corrugated flange 16 where it is held rated. If the water is not all evaporate in the troughs of the plate flange,eany excess will drip into the overflow pan 17 where it is subject to still further eva oration.

The ove ow pan 17, with its U-shaped cromsection, insures a rapid circulation of the products of combustion andentrained air under theedge of the flange 16', thus insuring agood heat delivery to heat such flange" to cause evaporation of any water collecting in its troughs, as it is well known that the absorption of heat b a surface is a. function of the velocity of fl ow of a heating gas over the surface. The downwardly extending flange also directs the products of combustion and heated air against the surface of water in the pan 17 in case it is 4 filled with. water, thus insuring further evaporation. The arrangement of the annular pan and the downwardly flanged hot plate has been found to be very eflicient in protecting the. gas 'flame against accidental down drafts through the humidifying chamber. If down drafts occur, the downwardly and outwardly extending flange 16 tends todeflect them down through the annular space 23 between the walls of the chamber 6 and the outside of the pan'17 and to thus shield the flame of the burner 8.

The arrangement has also been found to be veny eflicient as an evaporator. It is found that a humidity of 40 to 50%ma be maintained inan eight to ten room dwel g house in freezing weather with a consumption of about 1 to 1% feet of natural as per hour. It will, therefore, be seen t at the expense of ne ligible. a

The products of combustion pass with the entrained air through the flue 8 into the running the humidifier is I:

room which is to be humidified. With a good burner 8 the burning gas is completely converted into water vapor and carbondioxide, since the combustible's in the gas are hydrogen and carbon. The amount of carbon dioxide from the burning of one to two feet of gas per hour is not at all objectionable. The water formed by the burning of the hydrogen of the gas, of course, contributes to the humidit but moreimportant still is the fact that t e hot. gases serve to mingle with and heat the entrained air passing through the humidifier and thus give a good circulation'of heated air over the evaporating surfaces and into the room whose atmosphere is to be humidified.

The flow of a liquid such-as water from the house sup'ply'pipesis more easily and accurately regulable than the flow of a heating-gas. I therefore prefer tosupply gas in excess of that requlred to evaporate the maximum amount of water to. be used and to set the gas flame with a fixed adjustment, and to regulate the amount of moisture supplied by the humidifier by the water supply. A This can be very readily regulated by means of the valve- 9. The excess heat also Serves to produce a good convectlon current of air through the humidifien If desired a hygrometer may be employed to indicate t e humidity of the air in the house, although this is not necessary since the frosting of the window panes in. freezing weather is an indication .of suflicient humidity. Ordinarily, a humidity of about 40 to at 70 F. is satisfactory.

The tests of heating engineers show that there is a much larger infiltration of air into an ordinary dwellin house than is generally suspected, such i ltration serving to effect a complete chan e of air every few hours. Since the outslde air in winter is cold and thereforewhen heated is very arid,

a considerable amount of water is.- necessary for satisfactory humldificatlon and this may amount to several gallons a day in a fair.

sized dwelling house. Since my humidifier may be connected directly to a water supply pipe, suflicient water is supplied, which is'not the case where attempts have. been made toward humidification by means of pans placed in furnaces or on radiators.

While I have specifically illustrated and described the pre erred embodiment of my invention, it is to be understood that the invention is not so limited, but may be otherwise embodied within the scope of the following claims.

I claim:

1. A humidifier comprising a chamber, a hot plate in the chamber having a flattened central portion and a downwardly extending flange at. its edge spaced from the walls of the chamber to allow an air passage between the edges of the hot plate and the walls of thechamber, a gas burner beneath the hot plate and discharging its flame against the central portion of the hot plate within the downwardly extending flanged edge, a shielding means spaced inwardly ,from the walls of the chamber. and also spaced vdownwardly from the edge of the flange on the hot plate, whereby the products of combustion are allowed to flow under the edge of the hot plate but down drafts are directed away from the flame and through the space between the shielding means and the sides of the chamber, and means for supplying a small regulated flow of water onto the top of the hot plate.

2. A. humidifier comprising a chamber, a hot plate in the chamber having a downwardl extending flange around its edge spa from the walls of the chamber to leave an air passage between the edge of the hot plate and the chamber walls, an overflow pan supported in the chamber and spaced from the sides thereof, saidoverflow pan having a U -shaped cross-section and lo,- cated beneath the edge of the hot plate flange to receive any water. dri therefrom,

.a gas burner beneath the hot p ate and arranged to discharge its flame against the .central portion of the hot plate, the hotplate flange and overflow pan cooperating to cause the flow of the products .of combustion downwardly beneath the edge of the hot plate flange and into the open top of the overflow pan, .and meansfor supplying a small regulated flow of water to the top of 100

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