The age-herald., 1901-02-03
4 NEW FILLER
 FOR FURNACES

Of the improvements which have been made in recent years in the manufacture of pig iron few are equal in importance to the charging device which does away en- tirely with top filters. says the Iron Trade Review By this means the personal equa- ton is entirely eliminated, and a furnace So equipped will be propely filled under all conditions, regardless of the weather the disposition of the workmen to do their work properly. Laborers as rule do not appreciate the importance of filling the stack with equal distribution all around
 the periphery of the bell, and experience
 shows that they deliver it where they were caused the least inconvenience and trouble
 If there happens to be a cold rain blowing from the north the workmen will probably deliver the charge on the south side of the furnace and vice versa. Labor troubles must also be taken into consideration, and in time of wage differences men have been known to charge furnaces in such a way that they would work badly. In addition the automatic top filler, if properly de- signed, prevents the escape of large vol | ume of gas which ordinarily takes place l with the old style top filling arrangements. | This gas is used in the generation of steam | and the loss in an old type furnace is from 15 to 30 per cent of the gas produced every 1 time the furnace is charged. l
 One of the principal difficulties encoun- l tered, however, in attempting to fill blast | furnaces by means of the skip hoist is to | get. operators that will run the skip with | the same velocity as 1t approaches the | point where the charge is to be dumped | into the furnace. When the charge is | brought up the incline very rapidly and is | brought to sudden stop, there is a ten- | dency on account of the acquired speed to | project the material across the opposite | side of the hopper in mass. On the other hand where the charge approaches the end of Its travel too slowly, the material would not have the required momentum to carry 1t beyond the nose of the skip, and the latter would be turned so slowly that the material would dribbe into the hopper, falling vertically from the edge of the skip nose and landing on the side of the bell
 toward the skip. The difficulties resulting
 from this irregular manner of filling have
 been particularly noticeable at a number
 of blast furnaces in the Pittsburg district,
 causing the irregular working of the fur
 hace, high coke consumption, irregular out
 put scaHolds, and undue wear on the lin Ing
 A device has recently been patented by Walter Kennedy, mechanical engineer of Pittsburg, Pa, by which the speed of the cars as they leave and approach the upper and lower ends of their traverse is regu- lated autopaticaly. In the accompanying Qr8WlnSS Fl6. l IS V1eW m elevation or blast furnace and the hoistng mechan- tsn1 showing the winding drum, while Fig. Is an end view of the winding drum The apparatus, though very simple and mex pensdve, has proved very effective and is being quite generally adopted. As shown in Fig. 2, the device consists of a cam con nected to a winding drum by means of gears, in such way that the cam makes one revolution while the skip is travelling the entire distance The motion from the I cam Is connected to the steam valve in such a way that the steam is automatically cut off in the main pipe leading to the en- zine, allowing only small opening which may be regulated by the blast furnace man. ager to give any required speed to the skip while approaching either end of the trav- erse. After the valve has been set 1t should be locked to prevent it's being tempered with by unauthorized persons. The valve can be operated from the cars as they pass along from the engine. A desirable con- struction for operating the valve from the l engine as shown in Fig. g. consists of a | disk loosely mounted on a counter shaft | and driven by suitable interposed gearing | from the shaft of the winding drums so | as to make one revolution while the car | Is moving from the bottom to the top of | the tracks. This disk is provided with a | groove for the reception of a pin or roller | On the rod which is connected to the stem of the regulating valve. The groove is so shaped that when the pin or roller is at one point the valve will be closed. and when the disk is rotated in either direction the valve will be gradually opened, the full opening of the valve being effected by the time the car has moved 30 or 40 feet, more or less, from one end of the track In lieu of operating the valve from the engine 1t may be connected to an electrically con trolled mechanism of any suitable construc- ton, thus operating 1t from the cars as they pass certain points on the tracks.