AN IMPROVED FURNACE FOR TREATING IRON ORE
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Michael Henry, of 84, Fleet Street, in the City of
London, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED FURNACE FOR
TREATING IRON ORE."-A communication from abroad by Joseph Alexandre
Marcel Bonne, of Cluis, in the French Empire.
Sealed the 13th May 1862, and dated the 1st April 1862.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Michael Henry at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and Declaration, on
the 1st April 1862, pursuant to the 9th Section of the Patent Law
Amendment Act 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MICHAEL
HENRY, of 84, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent Agent, send
greeting.
WHEREAS I have petitioned Her Majesty Queen Victoria, for Letters
Patent for an Invention of "AN IMPROVED FURNACE FOR TREATING IRON ORE,"
communicated to me from abroad by Joseph Alexandre Marcel Bonne, of Cluis,
in the French Empire.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Michael Henry, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be fully described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof,
as communicated to me, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object certain improvements in the construction

page_text: of a furnace, for which the aforesaid Joseph Alexandre Marcel Bonne obtained
British Letters Patent bearing date the Seventh day of August 1860, and
numbered 1904. The height of the furnace as constructed according to the
herein described improvements should never exceed about nine metres French,
(that is twenty-nine feet six inches English) nor be less than about seven
metres French (that is twenty-two feet six inches-English), the height pre-
ferred being between these extremes, namely eight metres, (i. e. twenty-six
feet two inches English) and it should be of sufficient capacity to contain
twenty charges of one cubic metre (or rather more than one English cubic
yard) each. One cubic metre French equals 1.308 cubic yard English. It
is recommended that ten charges should be worked in the furnace at one time,
as with that quantity its action may be properly ascertained and regulated.
The accompanying Drawings represent the improved furnace as constructed
according to the present Invention communicated to me.
Figure 1 is a vertical section of the furnace on the line a, b, of Figure 2;
Figure 2 is a horizontal section on the line c, d, and Figure 3 a horizontal
section on the line f, g, of Figure 1. (The red lines on Figure 1 shew the
furnace as constructed according to Bonne's aforesaid Patent of August 1860,
and are merely inserted in order that the modifications introduced according
to this Specification, may be compared therewith and better understood, but
of course the following description and claim at the end thereof do not in
anywise refer to the old form of furnace as shown in red lines, but only to the
improved construction of furnace herein-after described.
f..
A is the belly of the furnace, it is of the recessed or spread-out form shown
in Figure 1; B is the sole or floor of the portion of the furnace called the
"crucible or hearth." This sole B is composed of sand and fire-brick, the
bottom C, and sides D, of the crucible or hearth are of cast-iron, the sides D
consist of four strong curved plates firmly secured together from the bottom
up to the bearers E, and lined with a layer of fire-brick and fire-clay not less
than about fifteen or sixteen inches English, or forty centimetres French
thick, (say about thirteen and a half inches brick, with one inch and a half
clay;) I are annular plates forming bearers for supporting the inner "shirt" or
lining H, which is of fire-brick, and the boshes A¹, which are also of fire-brick,
which material also forms the bely; E are annular or nearly annular plates
forming bearers for supporting the outer shirt or casing F, which is of common
brick hooped with iron;. J are cast-iron pillars (five in number for example)
supporting the bearing plates E and I; Lis a cast-iron dam-plate which
covers the front of the crucible or hearth completely, except that two openings
are formed in it, one at bottom to run off the metal when the furnace is tapped,

page_text: and the other at top forming the fore part of the hearth, and affording an
outlet for the slag which flows down by its own gravity (without requiring to
be raked out) and drops into a wheeled truck or waggon, which when full
can be wheeled off by a single workman; M is a hinged plate reaching to the
tymp, it helps to close the upper opening in the plate L; P is a moveable
cast-iron cover or cap for closing the mouth or throat of the furnace, it is hung
by a chain O from a cross bar fixed in the chimney R, and carries a balance
weight (not shown in the Drawing), by means of which the cover P may be
drawn up to open the throat when the charges are to be fed in; the cover
gradually sinks as the operation proceeds (and the charges become reduced),
and thus indicates the progress of the work, and it also serves to concentrate
the heat within the furnace. When sufficiently depressed it prevents the
gases given off during the process from escaping into the chimney R, but
forces them to find their way into an outlet V, through flues S, formed in the
shirt, and communicating with an annular flue T leading into the pipe V,
through which these gases are conveyed into any convenient receiver, whence
they may be taken and applied to the heating of lime kilns, and steam boilers,
and other useful purposes, as stated in the Specification of the Patent of 1860
before referred to. When the cap P is raised and the mouth open, the gases
escape through the chimney R; W are blocks for raising the crucible when
required.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same may be performed, I declare that I claim, the arrangement and
combination of parts constituting the improved furnace constructed as herein-
before described, and represented in the accompanying Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Michael Henry, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this First day of April One thousand eight hundred
and sixty-two
Witness,
S. E. A. NEWSOME,
84, Fleet Street,
London.
M. HENRY. (L.S.)