USRE8728E - merrill - Google Patents

Description

RUFUS s. MERRILL, or CAMBRIDGE, MASSAOHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR, BrMEsns ASSIGNMENTS, TO WM; I; MERRILL, JOSHUA, MERRILL, AND RUFUss.

MERRILL.

IMPRLVEMENT IN HE AVY HYDRUCARBON OILS FOR ILLUMINATION.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 100,915, dated March 15, 1870; Reissue No. 7,096, dated May 2, 1871"; Reissue No. 8,728, dated May 27,1879; application tiled April 4, 1879.

To all 201mm it'mny concern:

Be it known that I, RUFUS S. MERRILL, of

Gambridge, in the county of liliddlesex and of distillingpetroleum and oil produced from coal, shale, and schist that when either of these substances is subjected to distillation a great dili'crcnce exists in their respective boilhug-points, and in the production of the various oils and spirits that come over during the process ot' distillation; and, first, there is always a considerable pementage oi naphtha or volatile spirit, varying in gravity and boiling-point, some of it being so volatile that it is difficult to condense it by ordinary means. These spirits are termed naphthas or benzolcs, and usually embrace the portion coming over between 85 and 60, Baums scale. They are too light, volatile, and dangerous to be generally used for burning in lamps, and are principally used for paint, varnish-making, and for carbureting atmospheric air for automatic gas machines, the article so used being known as gasoline.

At'ter the naphthas have been distilled oil" down, say, to 60 Baum, there begins to come over an oil more lixed in character and of higher boiling-point, which oil is used as an illuminating-oil, and is burned in lamps provided with flat or round-wick keroseneburncrs, and it constitutes from fifty to seventy per cent. of the products of distillation. In other words, when the distillation is continued from 60 Bauln to about 40 Banm the light thin oil that com s over between these degrees Baume is abou sixty per cent. of the petroleum from which the naphtha has been removed, These oils have been universally used for burning in lamps for illuminating purposes, and are so well known under the name of relined petroleum or kerosene oil that they need no description.

After the oil running from the condenser has reached about sixty per cent. of the petroleum put into the still the products of distiltensively as lubr cating-oil "or machinery.

Attempthas been made to utilize the above-named heavy products for illuminating purposes by cracking them up into a light thin oil resembling kerosene, or by mixing them with naphthas, and again distilling to make a cheap illuminating-oil; but such mixlurcs are poor in quality and extremely dan-' gerous to use.

)ils made from petroleum and coal, shale, and schist have been burned in Argand and similar lamps, when'such oils have been so distilled as to simply remove those portions that are readily removed by steam, or by boiling water put. into the still with the petroleum or coal oil. The quantity removed usually varies from ten to fifteen pcrcentum in coal and shale oil. When heated by steam-that is, by simply steaming the oil-thc amount of light products that can be removed is, with coal and shale, from ten to fifteen per cent, and from petroleum, from fifteen to twenty-Jive percent. The whole of the remaiiringportion will burn poorly in Argand or buttonlamps.

I am not aware that any attempt has been made to burn in lamps and for illuminating purposes the heavy oils-that is, oils which represent only the last twenty-five to forty per cent. of the distillatcs of coal, shale, and petrolcum oils. The heavy 011 isrich in carbon, but will not burn satisfactorily in the ordinary lain ps,,such as are usedfor burning kerosene oil. It rapidly crusts the wick, and smokes so badly as to be impracticable as an illuminating material. The heavy oil as made by a process patented May, 1869, by Joshua Merrill, of Boston, is of so fixed a character that it will not ignite until heated to a temperature of 400 Fahrenheit.

1 have discovered that distillates of coal, shale, and petroleum oils weighing heavier than 38 Baum, which, being collected in suit able tanks and chilled and pressed, and thc solid paralliuc removed by well-known pro This oil known to the trade as paraitine oil, and is used exheat the cesses, weighs from 28 to 36 Baum at 60 Fahrenheit, and is heavy and oily in body, having also a high distilling-point, nearly 600 l' ahrenheit, and an igniting-point about 300 Fahrenheit, can be burned continuously ina lamp and with a wick, to produce a brilliant, white, and beautiful flame, under the following conditions combined, to wit:

First, the oil should be maintained, while burning, at a temperature of from 100 to 250 Fahrenheit.-

this temperature the oil ac quires snflicient fluidity to ascend the wick b capillary action. I

Second, the wick should be cylindrical, or so shaped as to produce a circular or otherwise equivalentfiame, whether continuous'or not.

Third, there should be artificial draft, so as to supply atmospheric air 'to the flame both internally and externally.

I do not claim any particular apparatus. Indeed, any lamp which is arranged so as to burning material in its reservoir, whether by heat applied to the vessel from without or from within-i. 6., by transmissionof the heat generated by the burner itself-and is provided with a round or equivalent wick tube, and with appliancesto produce an internal and external draft, will more or less answer the purpose, according to the arrangement and particular adaptation of the devices for producing the functions described.

To obtain oil possessing the above characteristics I take the' heavy vproducts of distillation above referred to, and preferably that portion of said products intermediate between the kerosene and the very heavy lubricating oil. This portion ofisaid products, which is' really a combination or mixture of such heavy oils and varying densities and boiling-points as pass over under the influence of the higher temperatures, I redistill, the resulting vapors being passed through a condenser and lique' fied in the usual way.

Among other advantages attending the use of this oil as a burning-fluid is, that it is so Fahrenheit, that -it'is perfectly safe and, free from all danger of explosion, or such accidentsas daily occur in the use of the light products known as kerosene. It is alsowery economiquantity of ordinarykerosene oil. K

This oil is as safe to use in railroad-cars, factories, and other places as the best spermoil, and is perfectly free from tendency to exand property. In many States the use-of kerosene oil as an illuminating material is prohibited by law in railroad-cars, owing to its inflammable character, which, in. case of accident to the cars, at once involves the passengers .in great danger of being burned; The t-heavy oil described is so safe that it would not ignite any more than sperm or lard oil, and if the lamp should be thrown down in which it'was burning and the oil becomespilled it would not catch fire, but the flame would .be immediately extinguished by the fall of. the

lamp.

distilling points, and ,its greater density as compared with ordinaryilluminating-oils, may be properly termed a heavy illuminatingoil.

' Having thus fully described my invention, and the manner in which thesamc is or may be carried into practical operatioml would state my claim as'follows: V

A heavy illuminating-oil derived from pctroleum, coal, shale, or schist, possessing an igniting-point of about 300 Fahrenheit and a distilling-point of about, 600 Fahrenheit, substantially as set forth.

In testimony whereof 'l h ave hereunto signed my name this 2d day of April, AJ). 1819.

RUFUS. S. MERRILL;

Witnesses: JOHN B .Goo1m1on,

Urns. H. PmMP'roN.

fixed, having an igniting-point of about 300 cal, as it' burns much longer than the same plodea source 'ofgreat'destruction of life' This oil, by reason of its high igniting and-