Scientific American Supplement, No. 561, October 2, 1886 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 141 pages of information about Scientific American Supplement, No. 561, October 2, 1886.

Scientific American Supplement, No. 561, October 2, 1886 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 141 pages of information about Scientific American Supplement, No. 561, October 2, 1886.

[Illustration:  FIG. 5.  REGENERATIVE BURNER WITH FLAME DEFLECTED OUTWARD.]

Owing to these various circumstances, the final effective duty of this burner is advantageous, so that it yields an illuminating power which may be put at from 200 to 250 per cent. above that of ordinary burners, and about 25 per cent. more than that of other regenerative burners.  The flame is comparatively steady; the loss due to the friction over the white porcelain being almost eliminated, because the flame only presses upon the guide for a small portion of its surface, and is only spread out to the extent of its dark zone.

The contact between the incandescent sheet of flame and the guide may be made as short as desired, and the motion of the gaseous mass be directed by a simple button placed in the center of the burner; thus giving the form shown by Fig. 5, which, however, differs from the previous figure in the fact that the inverted flame is directed outward instead of inward.

In this arrangement the button, T, is fixed in the middle of the burner, which is made cylindrical and annular, or may consist of a ring of small tubes, to which the gas is led by a single pipe; leaving the whole “furnace” free for the circulation of air and the products of combustion.  This is the most recent development of the principle patented by M. Somzee in 1882, viz., the formation of an illuminating sheet of flame, spread out laterally, while heating the gas and air by the products of combustion.

Figs. 6 and 7 show two forms of burner designed especially to give economical results with a small consumption of gas.  The former is an ordinary Argand burner in which hot air is introduced into the upper portion of the flame, so as to increase the activity of combustion.  The luminous sheet of flame is then spread out by a metal disk attached to the end of the tube, D, which introduces the air into the flame.  The outer air becomes heated in its passage through the wire gauze, T, which absorbs the heat liberated in the interior of the apparatus, and also that which is radiated from the incandescent sheet and reflected by a metal shield, P, surrounding the dark part of the flame.

[Illustration:  FIG. 6.  FIG. 7.  TYPES OF ECONOMICAL BURNERS.]

It is the combustion of gas, without the production of useful luminous effect inside the shield, which supplies the reflected as well as radiated heat to the air.  The temperature is still further increased by the heat transmitted to the metal portion of the burner, and absorbed by the wire gauze, between the close meshes of which the air from outside is forced to circulate.  Air is admitted inside the flame by the chimney, D, placed above the focus, and in which it is raised to a high temperature by friction on the upper part of the lamp glass, at E, and afterward by its passage through the horizontal portion of the bent tube.  This tube is impinged upon on the outside by the flames, and also by the products of combustion, so that it forms a veritable heater of the currents which traverse it.

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Scientific American Supplement, No. 561, October 2, 1886 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.