Specification of Robert King and Kenneth Robson : consuming smoke.

  • King, Robert.
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Specification of Robert King and Kenneth Robson : consuming smoke. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    King Hobsons Method of Consuming Smoke. be filed in tbe Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent. 4 NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Robert King and Kenneth Robson, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the 5 same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement:— Our Invention consists in consuming or condensing the smoke from furnace or other flues in such a manner that when emitted from the shaft or chimney it shall be comparatively colorless. We draw the smoke as emitted from the 10 furnace, by means of a fan, pump, or propeller worked by any suitable power, through a down-cast pipe or tube into a vessel of water at the lower part of the chimney or shaft, so that the smoke, however dense, shall pass into or through the water, thus depositing the narcotic properties of the smoke at the bottom and top of the water, leaving the rarefied portion to pass upwards into 15 the chimney or shaft perfectly free from soot or other impurity; by which means, when such smoke is emitted into the atmosphere, it assumes more the appearance of steam or almost a colorless vapour. The same means may also be adopted for carrying off the unpleasant smells arising from soap-boiling, chemical, or other works. When applied to locomotives it will be found that 20 the velocity with which they travel will be sufficient to drive the smoke by means of an inverted funnel or other suitable contrivance through a pipe into a suitable water vessel without the necessity of a fan, pump, or other appliance. In order to explain our said Invention as completely as possible, we now 25 proceed to describe the best means we are acquainted with for carrying the IT same into practical effect, as follows :— The smoke arising from the combustion of fuel in a steam boiler or other furnace passes into the flue in the ordinary course, whence it is drawn by a rotary fan or blower, or by any of the well-known mechanical contrivances 30 for effecting such a purpose (worked by any suitable gearing, such as a driving wheel, band, and pulley), and forced downwards through a pipe or con¬ tinuation of the flue into a reservoir of water (into which the pipe descends) situated at the lowest part of the chimney or shaft, by which means the soot and other impurities of the smoke are retained by the water, and the colorless 35 vapour alone allowed to be carried up the shaft by the action of the draft; the result is not only that the emission of black vapour or smoke is entirely obviated, but that the products of the combustion of coal or other fuel in the furnace are collected and preserved, and may be made available for many valuable and useful commercial purposes.