From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
US patent specification for a liquid composition based on glycols for use as a coolant or anti-freeze.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 151\3\ scan0176 | |
| Date | 23th January 1917 | |
| PRESTONE IS MANUFACTURED UNDER THIS PATENT UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE. HAROLD HIBBERT, OF PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA. LIQUID COMPOSITION. 1,213,368. Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Jan. 23, 1917. No Drawing. Application filed January 10, 1916. Serial No. 71,215. To all whom it may concern: Be it known that I, HAROLD HIBBERT, a subject of the King of Great Britain, residing in Pittsburgh, Allegheny county, 5 State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Liquid Compositions; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as 10 will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same. The present invention is based upon the discovery that by mixing glycols of the 1,2-glycol type with water, the resulting 15 liquid composition has valuable and important properties as a heating and refrigerating liquid, being relatively non-volatile, and remaining liquid at temperatures far below the freezing point of the water itself. 20 While these particular glycols and water are capable of intermingling in widely differing proportions, I have found that the optimum results with respect to the absorption and retention of water are usually obtained when 25 the water and the glycol or glycols are used in about equal proportions, and particularly in the proportions of 60 to 65 parts water and 35 to 40 parts glycols. I have further found that the mixture of ethylene, propy- 30 lene and butylene glycols obtainable from oil gas, is a particularly valuable mixture for mixing with water to produce the water-glycol composition. The production of such a mixture is described more in detail in my 35 prior application Serial No. 9774, filed February 23, 1915. Thus, such mixtures of glycols can be produced from oil gas, obtained from the vaporization and gasification of a hydrocarbon oil such as naphtha, 40 solar oil, or the like. This oil gas is cracked at temperatures of about 600 to 900° C., and thereby converted into a mixture consisting of about 50 to 60% of unsaturated ethylene derivatives, the remainder being 45 largely hydrogen and saturated hydro-carbons of the methane series. The unsaturated derivatives of the ethylene series consist essentially of a mixture of ethylene, propylene and butylene, the proportions of 50 these several constituents varying to some extent, according to the apparatus employed, the temperature of the cracking, etc. The mixture of unsaturated derivatives can be converted into the glycols by first 55 treating with chlorin and thereby forming the corresponding dichlor derivatives, and then saponifying these chlorin compounds by heating in the presence of a suitable saponifying agent such as an aqueous carbon- 60 ate solution, e.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} g.{Mr Griffiths - Chief Accountant / Mr Gnapp}, at a temperature between 150 and 200° C. I find that under these conditions an excellent yield of the corresponding glycols can be readily obtained. I do not, however, desire to limit myself 65 to this particular method of producing the glycol mixture, since I believe the novel heating and refrigerating composition of the present invention to be broadly new in the art, irrespective of the method of pro- 70 ducing the glycol or glycols utilized therein. I consider, however, the particular mixture of ethylene, propylene and butylene glycols with water as a particularly valuable embodiment of the invention. The propor- 75 tions of the mixture of glycols and of water can be varied, as above stated, but the proportions of about 60 to 65 parts of water and 35 to 40 parts of the glycol mixture have been found of particular value for purposes 80 of the present invention. Instead of using a mixture of glycols, the individual glycols can be used in a similar manner and with corresponding advantages. Thus the composition may be made of ethy- 85 lene glycol and water, in suitable proportions. Ethylene glycol is readily obtainable from ethyl or grain alcohol, in the following manner. When the alcohol is passed over a heated contact mass, such as aluminum 90 oxid, it is converted into ethylene and water, with practically theoretical yield. By causing the ethylene to react with chlorin it is readily converted into ethylene dichlorid, and the latter, on heating with an aqueous 95 solution of sodium carbonate under pressure, as briefly outlined above and in my prior application Serial No. 9774, is converted into ethylene glycol, in excellent yield. The novel composition of the present in- 100 vention is characterized by the property of remaining liquid at very low temperatures, and of being relatively non-volatile at ordinary temperatures, and at temperatures much higher than the ordinary. It can be 105 used in circulatory cooling and refrigerating systems wherever a liquid composition is desired of a low freezing point. It is thus of particular value in automobile, aeroplane, and motor boat, cooling systems 110 where the cooling agent is circulated from the radiator to the jackets of the engines, and where the cooling agent is required to... | ||