Purifying argon for filling incandescent lamps : Robert P. Moran in Industrial Gas, Vol. 14, No. 6
✍ Scribed by R.H.O.
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 1936
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 72 KB
- Volume
- 221
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0016-0032
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✦ Synopsis
Argon as a filler for lamps has taken the place of nitrogen as it has a light transmission value of 12 per cent. better than nitrogen. Because of the cheapness of nitrogen it is still used as a flushing agent to drive out oxygen or other undesirable occupants from the lamp bulb prior to filling it with argon.
Impurities, with the exception of small amounts of nitrogen, may give rise to conditions which would result in a product unfit for the trade.
The purifying installation in the plant of the Penna. Illuminating Corp., where Keystone Lamps are made, consists of passing commercial nitrogen or argon from shipping cylinders through a pressure reducing valve into a system of 6 stages connected in series under 15 lb. per sq. in. pressure.
The stages are (I) soda lime, (2) phosphoric anhydrid, (3) copper chips, (4) copper oxide, (5) soda lime, (6) phosphoric anhydrid.
Each stage is made up of a cylindrical container 4 in. in diameter by 24 in. high, sealed at both ends. Stages I and 2 are at room temperature, 3 and 4 are immersed in a gas fired unit and operate at 932 deg. F., and 5 and 6 are at room temperature.
The gas fired unit is a vertical steel cylinder lined with firebrick.
Premixed city gas and air are directed tangentially in a neatly formed combustion chamber resulting in a uniform distribution of heat. The heater has no temperature control, this being accomplished manually within plus or minus 68 degrees allowable variation. This purifying plant can supply nitrogen and argon for 15,000 lamps in 8 hours.
R. H. 0.