Specification of Stephen White : apparatus for the manufacture of gases; furnaces and boilers of steam engines, &c.

  • White, Stephen.
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Specification of Stephen White : apparatus for the manufacture of gases; furnaces and boilers of steam engines, &c. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Whites Impts. in Appar. for the Manufacture of Gases; Furnaces, JBoilers, ^c. therein with luting; thus the retorts are divided into two compartments which are air-tight at the door end. The retorts i, i, are half filled with small iron or copper chains, arranged as shewn in Sheet 2 (I prefer iron or copper chains being used, but any other 5 metal capable of sustaining a white red heat may be used, or instead of iron or copper chains pieces of thick iron wire or copper wire, made spiral similar to a cork screw, or such similar shaped pieces of metal, may be used), the object being to expose the gas, which is passed through the retorts i, to the slight resistance of a heated material, but yet so as not materially to 10 check the passage of the gas through the retort. The retorts i are to be kept during the process heated to a moderate red heat, and the whole apparatus is heated by means of the furnace g, g, which has nothing peculiar in its construction. The bi-carburetted hydrogen gas is formed by the resin, oil, fat, or other substance of the kind herein-before designated coming in 15 contact with the heated surface of the retort ^, and of the chains or other materials with which they are, as herein-before described, partially filled. The resin, oil, fat, or other substajice being introduced as described into the lower portion of the retorts i, the gas as it is formed flows, together with the gas, introduced into the same lower divisions of the retorts i, from the retorts 20 a, h, as above described, along the lower part of the retort i in the direc¬ tion shewn by the arrows, and then turns back by the ends of the divisions s, and flows out through the ascending pipes t, see Sheet 2, into the hydraulic main u, thence through the cooling pipes, and an ordinary purifying vessel - or washer, containing lime water or milk of lime, to remove any portion of 25 carbonic acid that may be formed during the process, and thence into the gas holder for use. Note.—I have described only one division in the retorts i i, which is most convenient for an apparatus of moderate size; but the object being to cause the gases to make a sort of circuit, so as to expose them in their passage to as extensive a surface of the retorts and 30 of the heated materials contained therein as can conveniently be done, it is obvious that in a large apparatus it may be convenient to increase the circut made by the gas by* having .the retorts i divided into four or more compartments. ‘ The heat of the whole apparatus should be raised, and during the process 35 herein-after described kept up to such a degree as to maintain the charcoal, or coke, or anthracite coal, and thin pieces of iron plates or iron turnings, or iron wires, contained in the retorts a, h, at a good white red heat, and the iron chains or other such like metal contained in the horizontal retorts at a good red heat.