Improvements in Rocking Bars for Furnaces and in the Means for Operating them.
Year: 1885

page_text: Improvements in Rocking Bars for Furnaces and in the Means
for Operating them.
I JOHN SETTLE of 97 Ellesmere Street Hulme Manchester in the County of
Lancaster Engineer do hereby declare the nature of my invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN ROCKING BARS FOR FURNACES AND IN THE MEANS FOR OPERATING
THEM to be as follows:-
"
This invention relates to the construction and operation of the movable or
rocking fire bars of furnaces for steam engines and other purposes, and also to the
construction of the apparatus employed for operating the same.
I employ fire bars of the alternate toothed form, interlocking with each other,
but instead of having the pivots placed or cast opposite to the central line of the
bars as usual I have them at or near one edge thereof, so that the bars instead of
rocking in the usual manner will only tilt sideways in one direction.
By these means each bar when tilted will throw its fuel onto the next bar in
succession and as each bar works alternately (that is to say all the odd ones
together first and then all the even ones) whilst the intermediate bara remain
stationary the bars will act as carrying bars as well as rocking bars, and carry the
clinkers either towards the bridge or towards the furnace doors as may be required,
according to whether the pivots are placed or cast near the backward or the
forward edge thereof.
"
In the former case the fuel may be fed (either by hand or automatically) onto
the bars nearest to the dead plate" and will be carried on gradually towards the
bridge so that all the smoke from the fresh fuel will be consumed.
The alternate tilting of the bars may be effected by means similar to those
ordinarily employed for working the rocking bars, but with a slight modification
to cause them to tilt alternately as above described.
"
I prefer however to operate the tilting of the bars in the following manner.
Across the flue beneath the dead-plate" I mount a shaft to which I impart an
intermittent revolving motion by means of a "star-wheel" actuated in any con-
venient manner, either by hand or automatically.
Upon this shaft I fix two grooved cams or face plates in the grooves of which
work bowls attached to two levers hung from the lower side of the "dead-plate"
ID 077

page_text: the grooves being so formed that once in each revolution they give a sudden
alternate motion to the levers, whilst they remain stationary during the remainder
of the revolution.
One of these hanging levers is connected by a rod to all the odd bars and the
other lever is similarly connected to all the even bars, and the consequence is that
during one portion of each revolution all the odd bars tilt their fuel onto the even
bars next in advance, and during the succeeding portion of the revolution all the
odd bars will remain stationary whilst the even bars tilt the said fuel forwards
onto the odd bars next in succession and so on alternately.
All the bars remaining stationary during the remainder of the revolution.

page_text: Improvements in Rocking Bars for Furnaces and in the Means
for Operating them.
I JOHN SETTLE of 97 Ellesmere Street Hulme Manchester in the County of
Lancaster Engineer do hereby declare the nature of my invention for IMPROVE-
MENTS IN ROCKING BARS FOR FURNACES AND IN THE MEANS FOR OPERATING
THEM, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement:―
P
This invention relates to the construction and operation of the movable or.
rocking fire-bars of furnaces for steam boilers and other purposes and also to the
construction of the apparatus employed for operating the same.
Such being the nature and object of my said invention I will now proceed to
describe the manner in which the same is to be or may be performed or carried into
practical effect, and in order that the same may be clearly understood I have
annexed hereunto a sheet of drawings illustrative thereof, and have marked the
same with figures and letters of reference corresponding with those in the following
explanation thereof.
Fig. 1 on the drawings is a longitudinal section of part of a boiler furnace
constructed according to my invention.
Fig. 2 is an enlarged section of a portion of the bars. Fig. 3 is a plan view of
the same,
Fig. 4 is an elevation showing the cam shaft and apparatus for automatically
tilting the bars and Fig. 5 is a face view of the cams,-a, a is the boiler flue..
I employ fire-bars a¹, a¹ of the alternate toothed form interlocking with each other
as seen clearly at Fig. 3, but instead of having the pivots b, b placed or cast
opposite to the central line of the bars as usual I have them at or near one edge
thereof, so that the bars a¹, a¹ instead of rocking in the usual manner will only tilt
upwards in one direction as shown by the dotted lines in Fig. 2.
By these means each bar a¹ a¹ when tilted will throw its fuel onto the next bar
in succession and as each works alternately (that is to say all the odd ones together
first, and then all the even ones) whilst the intermediate bars remain stationary,
the bars will act as carrying bars as well as rocking bars and carry the clinkers
and fuel either towards the bridge or towards the furnace doors as may be required,
according to whether the bars are placed in the furnace with their pivots to the
back edge or to the front.
In the former case the fuel may be fed (either by hand or automatically) onto
the bars nearest to the dead-plate, and it will be carried on gradually towards the
bridge so that all the smoke from the fresh fuel will be consumed.
When the bars a¹, a¹ are placed with their pivots to the front edge (as shown on
the drawing Figs. 1. 2 and 3.) they will throw the fuel and clinkers towards the
furnace door. This is most suitable when hand firing is employed, in which case
the fireman works the tilting bars a few times only, when necessary by means of
two hand levers c, c as shown at Fig. 1.
The alternate tilting of the bars a¹, a' (if desired to be worked automatically)
may be effected by means similar to those ordinarily employed for working the

page_text: rocking bars, but with a slight modification such as will cause them to tilt
(alternately odd and even) as above described.
I prefer however to operate the tilting of the bars (if required to be automatic)
in the following manner, as illustrated at Figs. 4 and 5.
Across the flue a, a beneath the dead plate d, d I mount a shaft e, e to which
I impart an intermittent revolving motion by means of a star wheel actuated in
any convenient manner.
Upon this shaft e, e I fix two grooved cams or face plates fand f¹ in the grooves
of which work bowls g, g attached to two levers h, h hung from the lower side of
the dead-plate d, d the grooves being so formed and the cams so arranged with
regard to each other (see Fig. 5) that once in each revolution they give a sudden
alternate motion to the levers h, h one after the other, whilst they remain stationary
during the rest of the revolution.
One of these hanging levers h, h is connected by a rod i to all the arms a³ of the
odd bars, and the other lever is similarly connected to the arms a³, of all the even
bars, and the consequence is that during one portion of the revolution all the odd
bars tilt their fuel onto the even bars next in advance, and during the succeeding
portion of the revolution all the odd bars will remain stationary whilst the even
bars immediately after tilt the said fuel forwards onto the odd bars next in
succession, and so on alternately, all the bars remaining stationary during the
greater part of the revolution.
I sometimes dispense with the hanging levers h, h and attach the bowl g,g.
direct to the rods i, i.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what
I claim is
First, the construction of tilting bars for furnaces with their pivots placed near
to one edge, so that they tilt upwards only in one direction either forwards or
backwards as may.be required.
Secondly I claim the combination with tilting furnace bars of the class herein-
before described of arms and rods so connected thereto that the movement of one
rod shall tilt all the even bars, and the movement of the other rod shall tilt all the
odd bars, so that the even and odd bars can be tilted alternately either by hand or
automatically substantially in the manner and for the purpose hereinbefore more
particularly set forth.
Dated this 24th day of April 1886
GEORGE DAVIES,
Agent for the Applicant.