IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR FEEDING FIRES AND FURNACES WITH FUEL
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Wright, of Forth Street, Newcastle-on-Tyne,
in the County of the same, Glass Manufacturer, for the Invention of
IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR FEEDING FIRES AND FURNACES WITH
FUEL."
Sealed the 20th November 1857, and dated the 9th June 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Wright at the.
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 9th June
1857.
I, WILLIAM WRIGHT, of Forth Street, Newcastle-on-Tyne, in the County
of the same, Glass Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR FEEDING FIRES AND FURNACES
WITH FUEL," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a peculiar construction and arrangement of self-
acting apparatus for feeding or supplying furnaces with fuel, whereby a regular
and gradual delivery of the coals into the furnace is effected, whilst the heat,
of such furnace will coke the coal before it actually reaches the fire, and thus
prevent the production of smoke. According to this Invention, the apparatus,.
which is more particularly applicable to glass furnaces, although it may be
applied to other furnaces requiring a regular feed, consists of an archimedean
screw placed within a cylinder, which is so situated between the outer wall of
the cone of a glass furnace and the upper part of the crown, that the coals
which are received from a spout into the cylinder at one end may be delivered
at the other end through an opening in the crown into the centre of the.

page_text: furnace by the propulsive action of the screw. This screw may be actuated
by a fan or helix placed inside the cone, or by any other convenient mechani-
cal arrangement. A chain of buckets may be employed to supply a hopper
at the upper end of the spouts, which convey the coal to the screw cylinders.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Wright in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
9th December 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
WRIGHT, of Forth Street, Newcastle-on-Tyne, in the County of the same,
Glass Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said William Wright, Her special license that I, the said William
Wright, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said William Wright, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, usc, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR FEEDING FIRES AND FURNACES WITH FUEL," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Wright, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
ivas to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent
Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the
said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Wright, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say:
My said Invention relates to a peculiar construction and arrangement of
self-acting apparatus for feeding or supplying furnaces with fuel, whereby a
regular and gradual delivery of the coals into the furnace is effected, whilst

page_text: the heat of such furnace will coke the coal before it actually reaches the fire,
and thus prevent the production of smoke.
According to this Invention, the apparatus, which is more particularly
applicable to glass furnaces, although it may be applied to other furnaces
requiring a regular feed, consists of an archimedean screw placed within a
cylinder, which is so situated between the outer wall of the cone of a glass
furnace and the upper part of the crown, that the coals which are "received
from a spout into the cylinder at one end may be delivered at the other end
through an opening in the crown into the centre of the furnace by the pro-
pulsive action of the screws. This screw may be actuated by a fan or helix
placed inside the cone, or by any other convenient mechanical arrangement.
A chain of buckets may be employed to supply a hopper at the upper end
cf the spouts, which convey the coal to the screw cylinders.
And in order that my said Invention may be fully understood I shall now
proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose I shall
refer to the several Figures on the Sheet of Drawings hereunto annexed, the
same letters of reference indicating corresponding parts throughout both
Figures.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Sheet of Drawings represents a front eleva-
tion of a portion of a glass house cone fitted with my improved self-acting
feeding apparatus; and Figure 2 is a corresponding vertical section of the.
same, showing the whole of the feeding mechanism.
A is the cone of the glasshouse, which is furnished internally with an
ordinary horizontal screw fan wheel B, nearly filling the internal horizontal
area of the lower portion of the cone. A bevil pinion C is fast on the upper
end of the spindle of the fan wheel, and gears into a bevil wheel D fast on
one end of the horizontal shaft E, which passes out through the side of the
cone, and carries near its opposite end a bevil wheel F, which gears into the
corresponding bevil wheel G fast on the upper extremity of the vertical shaft H.
The lower end of this shaft is fitted or formed with an endless screw or
worm I, gearing into a worm wheel K, which is fast on the outer end of the
archimedean screw shaft L; this shaft works in a cylindrical casing M, the
inner end of which opens into a vertical passage N leading to the furnace O,
whilst near the outer extremity on the upper side this casing opens into one
of the two inclined passages P, P', the latter passage, which leads to a second
furnace, being broken away in Figure 1. These two inclined passages unite at
Q, and there form a box or receptacle for the fuel, which is supplied thereto by
means of the elevator R, a portion of which only is shewn in the Drawings.
The elevator is also driven from the horizontal shaft E by means of a

page_text: worm S, fitted or formed thereon, and gearing into the worm wheel T fast on
the shaft U, which actuates the elevator. The ascending current of air
up the cone A will rotate the fan wheel B, which, through the gearing
herein-before referred to, imparts motion to the whole of the feeding
mechanism for a pair of furnaces. The elevator raises the coal, which
has been previously broken into proper sized pieces, and deposits it into
the receptacle at Q, whence it descends by its own gravity to the archi-
median feeding screws L in each furnace, and is thereby propelled until
it reaches the aperture N, when it falls into the furnace O, which is thus
kept constantly and regularly supplied with fuel. It is obvious that this self-
acting feed apparatus, although more particularly adapted to glass furnaces,
may be applied, with slight modifications, to other furnaces where a constant
and regular supply of fuel is required.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried
into effect, I would observe, in conclusion, that I do not confine or restrict
myself to the precise details or arrangements which I have had occasion to
describe or refer to, as many variations may be made therefrom without
deviating from the principles or main features of my said Invention; but
what I consider to be novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention
secured to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, is,-
First, the general construction and arrangement of self-acting machinery
or apparatus for supplying furnaces with fuel, as herein-before described.
Second, the application and use of a screw fan wheel, in combination with
an elevator and archimedian screw, driven by suitable gearing, for the pur-
pose of effecting a constant and regular supply of fuel to furnaces, as herein-
before described.
Third, the supplying of fuel to glass house and other furnaces through a
central opening made in the crown of the furnace, as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Wright, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Seventh day of December, One thousand eight
hundred and fifty-seven.
WILLIAM WRIGHT. (L.S.)