USRE679E - Improvement in making illuminating-gas - Google Patents

Description

N. AU BIN, Making Oil and Water Gas Reissued Apr. 5, 1859.

PATENT Orricn,

N. AUBIN, OF ALBANY, NEW' YORK.

JlMPROVEMENT IN MAKING tLLUl /llNATlNG-GAS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 14,045, dated ll'auuary 8, 1856; Reissue No. 679, dated r April 5, 1859.

To all whom it may concern: 7

Be it know u that I, N. AUBIN, of the city and county of Albany, and State of New York, have invented a certain new and useful Process for Making Illuminating-Gas; and I 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 elevation of the exterior of an apparatus by means of which my process can be carried out. Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the same. Fig. 3 is a vertical section. through it. Fig.4 is a vertical section through the retort or gas-generator. Fig. 5 is. a top or birds-eye view of the same. Fig. 6 is a vertical section through the cover of the 'retort; Fig. 7, avertical section through the charger and container of materials; Fig. 8, a horizontal sectionthrough the same, andFig. 9 a plan of the perforated bottomot' the charger. I V

The nature of my invention consists in generating gas, for purposes of heatin'g or illumination, from a mixture of grease, rosin, oil, tar,- or other similar substances rich in hydrogen an d carbon with other porous or coarselydivided substances which in themselves contain little or no gas'such.as charcoal, brokenbrick, coke, Ste-and are slow conductors of heat by introducing the same into a charger open at bottom,.which is inserted within a retort in such manner as to compel the products of the mixture, when acted upon by heat, to

pass out of this charger or interior chamberand in. close contact with the bottom of the retort, and thence to a gasometer or receiver, substantially in the manner specified.

I In the drawings, a 'fnrnace of any suitable inaterialsand form, and provided with acharging-door, for coaland another for cleaning fires, with grate, ash-pit, and chimney, or any proper equivalents for maintaining a fire, is represented at a a a, and. within this furnace, so supported as-to be heated by the fire, is, a retort, b b, of any proper forunin the present instance cylindrical, with a bottom dished upward. This retort is open at the upper end,

and provided with a suitable cover, 0, which may be fitted gas-tight, thereto in any proper manner, the joint represented being one made by allowing a rim, 0, in the cover to enter a groove, b, in the top of the retort, which is to be filled with metal or alloy fusing ata heat be low that to which the retort isexposed. This retort has any suitable neckf-such as d-through which the gas as made is to be carried off, and is' to be fitted with an interior cbamber-such as f-closed at top when in use, andcont'ormiug somewhat in shape to the interior ot the retort, but smaller. This-chamber is open at the bottom, but 11 is fitted thereto a grating or perforated piece of metal-such as shown at which may be removed therefrom, or titted into place,such bottom'being notched,- as at h "h,iu correspondence with certain lugs, jj, attached to the inner side of the chamber, near the bottom thereof, so that the bottom may he slipped in over the lugs and then turned parvtia-lly around, beingheld in place while in such position, or removable on being turned, so that the notchesand lugs again correspond. The chief use of this bottom is to prevent the dropping out of, the gas making materials while the chamber is introduced, or of the residuum thereof while the chamber is being remorn th the chamber being, in fact, open at bottom, as far a s'the process of making gas is concerned. This chamber has within it a pipe or tube opening .into the chamber at its top and bottom, the use of such pipe, as at 70, being to admit of the free passage of hydrocarbon vapors from one end 0 t'the cham her to the other, so as to equalize the pressure therein in case of. any solid closure across the retort, due to the melting and running together of its contents. This device is, however, a nicety or perfection in construction not absolutely iecessary inpractice, and the same may be said of the steam-generator b, which is to be filledfwith coke, broken bricks, pumic-estone, or such like substances-,aud tobe supplied with water through a siphon-tube, m, which receives water from a dropping-vessel, n. This genorator connects with the lower partof the retort, and when in use supplies it with superheated steauhwhich is found in practice to prevent the minute deposits of carbon that would otherwiseoccur. There is a dome, 0,

overthe retort having an opening iargerj'thanthe retort cover" and closed by a proper lid. The interior of this doni'e connects with the chimney by a pipe;-1:,-and when it is used it carries ofl' vapors or gas that ma y escape when as charcoal, bricks, &c.

the retort cover is removed, and also acts as a jacket, preventing loss of heat.

The essential parts of the apparatus for carrying out my process are, the retort, with means of heating the same, and the interior chamber for receiving the charge and cans ing the hydrocarbon vapors to descend to and pass over the bottom of the retort and in contact with the heated sides thereof.

In making gas bymy process porous or coarsely-divided substances, slow conductors of heat and containing little or no gassuch are to be mixed with materialsrich in gas when subjected to heatsuch as rosin, grease, oil, &c.and them ixture introduced into the interior chamber, the most advantageous proportions being about one part, by volume, of the latter to three of the former. The retort is then to be closed gas-tight, and on the mixture being subjected to heat the following results take place: The hydrocarbons form hydrocarbon vapors, which, with the melted or heated oils and tars, descend to the bottom of the retort, there coming incontact with the highly-heated bottom of theretort, whence they escape by passing under the interiorchamhcr, and thence rise between such chamber and the heated sides of the retort, being converted from vaporinto non-con densible gasin their passage over the highlyheated bottom and sides. Now, a consideration of the apparatus will show, first, that the mixture in the inner chamber can never be exposed to a heat as great as that possessed bythebottom or sides of the chamber second, that all the gas-making materials within the inner chamber must be subjected nearly to the same degree of heat; third,-that the vapors must all receive a nearly equal accession of heat, as they must pass over nearly the same amount of heated surface in the bottom and sides of the retort. It appears to me, moreover, that the conversion of each particle of the gas-making materials into gas must take place gradually, distillation going on in the inner chamber and conversion whilepassing over the heated retort-surface and under nearly, if not exactly, the same circumstances, this last efl'ect, as well as the second above stated, being due partly to the fact that the material subjected to heat within the chamber is a mixture substantially such a's'specificd, which, even when heated, is of an open porous texture-a sort of spon gy m ass-wh ich permits of the gradual and constant passage of "apo'rs or of oils as fast as they are evolved by heat. The heat is therefore abstracted from the'bottom and sides of the retort gradually andconstantly, and the retort remains at a constant heat, or nearly so. If the vapors and oilsdescended in masses, with greater or'lessintervals of time between them, the retort must be cooled while converting these masses into gas, and would heat up again while waiting for the descent of another mass. Whether this theory be correct or not is of no great importa as 9 ertain beneficial results certainly do folow 1 when gas is made according to my process whichvconsists, first, in mixing materials substantially such as are specified; second, in heating that mixture in achamber within a retort third, in causing the products of dis tillation to pass in contact with the highly heated bottom and sides ofa retort, all suit. i stantially in the manner specified. And there. can be no doubt but that there is an; nixtu re charged into a chamber within a retort, and that the products of distillation do,' in the course of their conversion into gas, first pass out of such interior chamber, and then in close contact with the heated bottom and sides of the retort. The vapors which have descended escape out under the sides ofthe interior chain ber, owing to the fact that there is no tight joint between it and the bottom of the retort, while the interior chamber itself is closed gastight at top while gas is being generated, and when the interior chamber is loose and light the vapor will lift it, owing to the pressure therein being slightly greater than it is within the retort.

carry out my process is a matter of but little importance so long as the construction'is such as to cause distillation in a comparatively cool place, and then to insure the vapors over a high ly-heated surface and in close contact therewith, substantially in the man-g ner specified. And although I have through out this specification spoken of bottom and sides of the retort as distinct surfaces acting to decompose the vapors, still it is clear that they are actually only one surface, and that if the bottom surface were sufliciently extensive to insure proper decomposition, the sides, or rather the passin got the vapors over the sides, would be a matter of no moment, as the same results would still be produced substantially in the same manner. 7

In order to produce the best results, the space between the charge and the bottom of the retort and between the sides of the-chem her and. sides of the retort should not be greater in proportion to the 'whole size of the retort than isrepres'entedin the drawings, the object being to pass all the vapors or mixed gas and vapors in contact, or nearly so, with the heated surface. 1

If the interior chamber be a removable one, the residuum may be removed in the chamber, and such is the construction of the apparatus that I prefer; but good-results may be obehamber when in position in the retort and Y the residuum removed without removing the -inner chamber.

I claim as of my own inventiou- The herein-described process of making gas for heating or'illumination, which consists;

as are herein" specified; second, in introducing them into a chamber, vsubstantially such going on, within the retort; third, in causing The'precise form of apparatus in which to passage of the tained when themixt'ure is charged into the that, in mixing materials substantially suohas is described, located, when the process is the products of distillation of thennixtnre to In testimony whereof I have hereunto snbpass out of such interior chamber, and then scribed my name,in the city of Albany, on this be subjec te(l' to a. higher degree of heat by 27th day of March, A. D. 1853.-

passing in contact with the heated surface of l I KUBIN the retort itself, substantially as specified, not i i intendingto claim any one step of the process In presence ofseparately; but only-the process substantially R. J. WILSON,

as herein set forth as a whole. I CHARLES KNICKERBOCKER.

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