US1307500A - Quartz i - Google Patents

Description

F. G. KEYES.

QUARTZ LAMP.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 211. 10x3.

- Patented June 24,1919.

16 p INVENTOR ATTOHNE s WITNESSES UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FREDERICK G. OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, .ASSIGNOR T0 COOPER HEWITT ELECTRIC COMPANY,. OF. HOBOKEN, NEW'fJEBSEY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

: Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 24., 1919.

Application filed June 28, 1913. Serial No. 776,212.-

To all whom 2'13 may concern Be it known that I, FREDERICK G. Knrns, a citizen of the United States, and resident at Boston, county of Sulfolk, State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful-Improvements in Quartz Lamps, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates, among other things, to the treating or sterilization of liquid, by exposure to a suitable active influence. I have applied my inventionin one embod1- ment to the use of a quartz mercury vapor apparatus, that is a device comprising a hermetically sealed container having an active portion of fused quartz, electrodes and suitable leading-in wires. When current is passed through such a device certain rays and emanations pass through the quartz walls which are capable of acting upon air and liquids exposed thereto, so that they become sterilized and the various bacteria and other organisms therein are killed or rendered harmless or some other desired effect is produced.

In one embodiment here shown I have spread the material (which it will be assumed is to be sterilized and Which may be milk) in a thin film over a surface down which it passes in virtue of gravity.' A quartz tube is placed in close juxtaposition to this thin film of milk so that the rays above referred to may impinge thereupon. In another embodiment I have shown the application of my sterilizing means to a more transparent liquid such as water intended for drinking or other purposes. The method of practising my invention will be seen somewhat more in detail from the following descriptions of the drawings in which Figure 1 represents an apparatus for sterilizing water; Fig. 2' a milk sterilizer, Fig. 3 a modification of Fig. 2 and Fig. 4 a detail showing a regulating nozzle for the apparatus of Fig. 2.

In Fig. 1, 1 is a-tank containing a quantity of liquid, 2, which is to 'be sterilized, such, for example, as the water supply of a municipality and 3 is a regulated 4 is a regulated outlet therefor; 5 is a mercury vapor quartz lamp comprising a lightgiving tube, 6, a solid anode, 7, and a mercury cathode 8. Leads 9 and 10 provide for supplying current thereto. As this lamp is well known, I will not further describe it. Since this quartz lamp is operated under inlet and water, there will be a tendency for the mer-n cur'y to condense upon the tubular portion 6 and lessen the radiation through the quartz wall. Such condensation would also tend to hinder the normal operation of the-"device. I have provided means for eliminating or correcting this difiiculty by preventing the too rapid cooling of this active surface. As shown in Fig. 1, this is accomplished by placing a quartz jacket, 11, carried on the tubular portion, 6, which prevents contact of the'tube, 6, and the water, 2. The effectiveness of this jacket is greater if the air be exhausted from the space between it and the tube,6.

When in operation water enters at one end through the entrance 3 and passes out at the other end through the outlet 4, being regulated to the proper rate so that the water passing by and around the sterilizer, 5, is sufficiently subjected to the influence of the rays and the bacteria and other organisms are rendered innocuous. the shape of the box, and the position of the burner as well as that of the outlet and the inlet in such a way as to secure a relatively equal and complete exposure for all port-ions of the water which will pass through the sterilizer.

I wish it understood that other means for protecting the tube, 6, from contact with the water, 2, and other specific arrangements of parts canlbe utilized and various forms of baflies and channels provided to secure the proper exposure of all of the water passing, in place of the particular expedients shown in this figure without departing from my invention.

In Fig. 2 I provide a surface, 12, slightly concave toward the sterilizing source, if desired, and provided with horizontal grooves, 13, 13, at intervals whose, effect will be to distribute the liquid to be sterilized, which may here be taken to be milk, over the whole surface. The surface, 12, is made the face of a hollow box, 14, through the interior of which cooling water or other material may be passed to prevent warming the milk due to heat which may be received from the sterilizing source. I provide an entrance, 15, and an exit, 16, for this cooling fluid.

The milk is fed to the top of the surface, 12, through a pipe, 17, and various drips, 18. The pipes, 17, and the drips, 18, should be so adjusted as to give a relatively even dis- I especially arrange necessary, especially when all the milk receives exposure during its whole course from the top to the bottom. A relative position of the tube and surface such as is desirable in Fig. 2 is shown in Fig. 3 which figure illustrates a modified form of box, 21. In the embodiment shown in Fig. 3, the surface, 22, is made in steps, the active portion of each step being roughly on a circumference drawn about the axis of the sterilizing tube, 23, and the portions connecting the steps being substantially radial therefrom. The object of this arrangement is to provide as nearly as possible normal incidence of the effective rays upon the exposed surface. As shown this "result is accomplished without interfering with the flow of the milk from thetop to the bottom. This box,

.21, is provided with an inlet, 15, and an outlet, 16, as in the case of Fig. 2. In Figs. 2 and 3 care should be taken not to have the film of milk too thick. I have found that useful radiations do not penetrate very deeply below'the surface. I would recommend athickness of a small fraction of an inch in practical use. Other materials than milk may be sterilized and other effects than sterilizationmay be produced in any of the liquids used. For example oil may be bleached or, if it be drying oil, it may be partially oxidized in the resence of oxygen since this isone of the effects of a radiation from a quartz tube. \Vith the use of other tubes the results appropriate to their properties as affecting the particular liquids exposed may be availed of. Fig. 4 shows'the detail of an adjustable drip useful in distributing the milk or other fluid uniformly over the exposed surface of Figs. 2 and 3.

The structure. Willbe evident from the draw- -17 being the main supply pipe, 2a the the regulating needle carried by the nut, 26, with a mill head, 27, threaded to fit the tapped hole, 29, in the wall of the pipe, 17

I wish it understood that in connection with the various forms of my apparatus any suitable form of radiating source or sterilizing means may be substituted for the quartz tube and any other mechanical structure which will spread and evenly distribute the liquid to secure complete sterilization by equivalent means falls within my invention.

ing,

hollow box having a concave ultra violet radiation,

Furthermore I do not wish to be limited to the sterilization process since other uses of radiating energy may be availed of therethrough.

I claim as my invention:

1. A sterilizing apparatus comprising a surface, a quartz tube having its axis parallel to the axis of said concave surface, means for distributing liquid to, be sterilized along the top of said surface and a trough for collecting the sterilized liquid at the bottom.

2. A sterilizing apparatus comprising a hollow box having a concave surface, a quartz tube having its axis parallel to the axis of said concave surface, means for distributing liquid to be sterilized-along the top of said surface and a trough for collecting the sterilized liquid at the bottom, together with means for passing a cooling liquid through the interior of said box.

3. A sterilizing apparatus comprising a hollow box having a concave surface, a quartz tube having its axis parallel to the axis of said concave surface, means for distributing liquid to be sterilized along the top of said surface and a trough for collecting the sterilized liquid at the bottom in combination with horizontal grooves in said surface for securing uniform distribution of said liquid longitudinally.

l. A sterilizingapparatus .comprising a corrugated surface exposed to the action of the said, surface being provided with steps, of Which the rising portions have surfaces normal to the radiation from its source.

5. A sterilizing apparatus comprising a corrugated surface exposed to the action of ultra violet radiation, a source of radiation capable of projecting rays against said surface, the surface being provided With steps, the rising portions of. which have surfaces normal to the radiation from the said source.

6. A sterilizing apparatus comprising a"11o stationary surface exposed to the action of ultra violet radiation, the said surface being corrugated.

7 .A sterilizing apparatus comprising a stationary corrugated surface exposed to the action of ultra-violet radiation, means for applying to the said surface liquid to be sterilized of any desired thickness and means for cooling the liquid during its passage across the corrugated surface.

8. A sterilizing apparatus comprising a corrugated surface exposed to the action of ultra violet radiation, means for applying to said surface, at the top thereof, liquid to be sterilized in any desired quantities where- 12! by the liquid will descend by gravity across the surface of the corrugations.

9; A sterilizing apparatus comprising a corrugated surface exposed to the action of ultra violet radiation, a source of radiation 13 capable of projecting rays against said sur- York and State of New York this 27th day face, the surfaoehbeing prog ided wlith steps, of June, A. D. 1913. the bottom of W ich are su stantia 1y radial v 1 to the source of radiation and the rising por- FREDERICK F 5 tions of which have surfaces normal to the Witnesses:

radiation from the source. WM. H. CAPEL,

Signed at New York in the county of New THOS. H. BROWN.

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