US PATENT CLASS 48
Class Notes


Current as of: June, 1999
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48 /   HD   GAS: HEATING AND ILLUMINATING



DEFINITION

Classification: 48/

This class relates only to gas for heating and illuminating purposes and includes apparatus, processes, and compositions for the manufacture of such gas and means for the purification, distribution, and storage thereof.

(1) Note. Every plant for producing gas from the combustion of fuel necessitates the use of a furnace of some sort, and where the invention alleged includes more than the furnace and extends into apparatus for treating the gases or modifications of the furnace, adapting it to treat them, the application belongs in Class 48, whether the furnace, per se, be a limekiln or a smelting-furnace. In either case the furnace is merely an element of the plant and if divided out may be sent to its proper class.

LINES WITH OTHER CLASSES

This class does not include the manufacture of gas--such, for example, as oxygen, ozone, nitrous oxide, carbonic-acid gas, and chemical gases in general. These are not heating or illuminating gases. Gases consisting of a single "pure" carbon compound and a process for synthesizing such a compound where the intent is to recover the compound, per se, are in Class 260, Chemistry of Carbon Compounds, its daughter Classes 530-570, or Class 585, Chemistry of Hydrocarbon Compounds.

This class does not include charging and discharging devices for retorts, nor does it include charging devices for cupola-generators, such as the well-known bell-and-hopper type. For these two classes of inventions see Class 202, Distillation: Apparatus, and Class 266, Metallurigical Apparatus, respectively, and Class 414, Material or Article Handling, subclasses 147+.

This class does not provide for the destruction of gaseous hazardous or toxic waste. See Class 588, Hazardous or Toxic Waste Destruction or Containment, subclasses 208, 213, 226, 233, and 239 wherein the use of hydropyrolysis or destructive steam gasification is used. For the use of heat or vacuum to drive off or produce a volatile substance, see Class 588, subclasses 209, 213, 216, 220, 228, 234, 240, and 245. Also, see Class 588, subclasses 218, 221, 224, 236, 242, and 246 for the use of chemical agents in the destruction or containment of hazardous or toxic waste.

REFERENCES TO OTHER CLASSES

SEE OR SEARCH CLASS 44, Fuel and Related Compositions, appropriate subclasses for a solid or liquid fuel composition or a method for making or purifying such composition which may incidentally produce a burnable gas.

123, Internal-Combustion Engines, appropriate subclasses for devices for the purpose set forth above that are claimed in combination with an internal combustion engine or with any element thereof. This is not intended to apply to claims which, while in the form of a combination, state merely the intended use of the device--as, for example, "The combination, with an internal-combustion engine, of" followed by words defining the structure of a mixture-producing device not itself classified in internal-combustion engines.

Devices for producing an explosive mixture from a liquid hydro-carbon and air or for producing the combustible constituent for such an explosive mixture, in which the operation of the mixture-producing device does not necessarily depend upon the suction produced by an internal-combustion engine, which mixture-producing device is capable of operation independent of the engine and if continued in operation would continue to produce an explosive mixture whether or not the engine continued to operate, go in appropriate subclasses in this class (48), notwithstanding the fact that the device may be actually designed for the purpose of supplying an internal-combustion engine with an explosive mixture and may be operated by such engine.

Devices in which it does not positively appear whether they are operated by suction produced by an internal-combustion engine or not, which could be so operated, but which do not necessarily depend upon suction for their operation, go in appropriate subclasses in this class (48). These devices ordinarily consist, essentially, of a chamber containing a liquid hydrocarbon over or through which air flows, it not positively appearing whether such air is forced through such chamber as by a pump or is caused to flow therethrough by suction produced by an engine.

126, Stoves and Furnaces,

44, for a stove structure in which carbureted gas is burned.

201, Distillation: Processes, Thermolytic, appropriate subclass for a process directed to the production of both coke and gas.

202, Distillation: Apparatus, appropriate subclass for apparatus for the production of both coke and gas.

208, Mineral Oils: Processes and Products,

15+, for a mineral oil fuel, and other appropriate subclasses for a process of deriving or treating a mineral oil in which process no burnable gas composition is intended to be recovered.

220, Receptacles, 581+, for a high-pressure-gas tank.

423, Chemistry of Inorganic Compounds,

237+, and 352+ for processes of purifying or producing ammonia involving a chemical reaction.

431, Combustion,

11, for a combustion process involving a gas mixing or generating step, subclasses 36+ for a burner fed by a generator with automatic control of the generator; subclasses 203+ for a generating fuel tank and an associated burner; subclasses 233+ for a system in which a generator feeds generated gas to an external structure without purification, fixation or storage of the gas and also feeds gas to the burner heating the generator; subclasses 207+ for a generator feeding an immediately associated burner; and subclasses 354+ for a combined burner and mixer.

585, Chemistry of Hydrocarbon Compounds,

6, for a blend of gaseous hydrocarbons, subclass 14 for a hydrocarbon fuel and other appropriate subclasses for a process of deriving or treating a hydrocarbon in which process no burnable gas composition is intended to be recovered.

588, Hazardous or Toxic Waste Destruction or Containment, this is the generic class for destroying or containing nonradioactive hazardous or toxic waste.