IMPROVE- MENTS FOR ECONOMISING FUEL IN EVAPORATING AND CONCENTRATING, CHIEFLY APPLICABLE TO THE MANUFACTURE OF CHEMICALS, AND IN THE APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH
Year: 1861

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Joseph Roman at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with bis Petition, on the 8th June
1861.
I, JOSEPH ROMAN, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Practical
Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS FOR ECONOMISING FUEL IN EVAPORATING AND CONCENTRATING, CHIEFLY
APPLICABLE TO THE MANUFACTURE OF CHEMICALS, AND IN THE APPARATUS CONNECTED
THEREWITH," to be as follows (that is to say):-
This Invention has for its object economising heat in the manufacture of
sulphuric acid, alkalis, salt, and other substances, and for heating steam
boilers, whether such heat be obtained from furnaces constructed for the
purpose, or from coke ovens, black ash furnaces, or other like source, and
consists in the peculiar form of the flues, pans, and so forth, and in the
arrangement of the several parts in relation to each other, and consists chiefly
in constructing the flues of a shape resembling in longitudinal vertical section
an elongated blunt pointed wedge and in pans which aro shallower at one end
than the other.
In applying this Invention to a black ash furnace the fire-grate is of the
ordinary description used in the manufacture of black ash, the flame being
carried over a bridge on one sido passes under the reverberatory arch which
is over the chamber containing the materials to be acted upon in the ordinary
way, but in place of passing the heated gases off through a flue shaft, as now
generally practised, the reverberatory furnace arch is extended, say, about
sixteen feet beyond the chamber in which the crude materials used to form
the black ash are operated upon, so as to cover almost half the length of an

page_text: evaporating pan. A pier run to within about fourteen inches of the under
side of the arch separates the oven from the evaporating pan which is set
in and enclosed suitable brickwork. The portion of the reverberatory
arch which is over the enclosed evaporating pan is carried down in an oblique
line so as to reduce the height from the upper edge of the pan to about 5
eight inches, thus forming a flue which in vertical longitudinal section
resembles a long blunt pointed wedge. The remaining portion of the top
of the flue above the evaporating pan, and the top of the down flue is
formed by the bottom of a suitably shaped pan, used for concentrating, say,
about twenty feet long, the bottom of which is formed to coincide with the 1
slope of the upper side of the flue.
The form of evaporating pan berein-before referred to consists of an oblong
-vessel-of, say, thirty-two feet long by eight feet six inches wide, and fifteen
inches deep at the end next to the furnace, and ten inches deep at the
end next to the down flue, through which the waste products of combustion
pass through an underground flue to the chimney shaft.
When this Invention is applied to the manufacture of sulphuric acid a
leaden pan of the form and about the size herein-before described is used,
placed in the same position in relation to the fire, and enclosed in brickwork
in the same way for concentrating the sulphuric acid, a reverberatory arch
being thrown over the furnace and about one half of the length of the pan,
and an open briek or skeleton arch over. the remainder. Upon the top of
the arch rests a large leaden vessel of a like shape. to those already described,
being, say, thirty-nine feet. long by eight feet six inches wide, and from,
say; one foot to one foot three inches deep at the end over the furnace,
and say two feet deep at the other. This vessel is used to prepare sulphuric
acid, and is fitted near the deep end with an open vertical pipe which projects
upwards to the height the prepared sulphuric acid is to attain in the vessel.
When the prepared acid rises above the end of the pipe it flows down, the
pipe and falls into the shallow end of the concentrating vessel. The con-
centrating vessel is also provided at its deep end with an overflow pipe
which admits the concentrated acid to flow into a suitable receptacle.
The heat generated, say, in the manufacture of coke or burning lime may
be applied to the evaporating and concentrating liquids by conveying the heat
through a suitable aperature. in the coke oven or kiln into the larger end
of the flue described, the outlet for the products of combustion being closed
damper. The heat from a coke furnace is applied to the pan for
concentrating and evaporating liquor, for refining alkali, or to generate steam
in a boiler, which may be also done at the same time by carrying the heat

page_text: from the coke oven through an elongated blunt pointed wedge-shaped flue
as described. The pan for evaporating liquor above referred to is, in some
cases, divided into five compartments, two of, say, five feet, two of eight feet,
and one of fourteen feet long. The smallest is used for concentrating liquor,
the two larger for evaporating and obtaining strong liquor, and the largest
for evaporating weak liquor. The boiler or pans may be heated at either
end by separate coke furnaces. Above the furnace a chamber may be
constructed for making or reburning charcoal by the same heat that is used
for the boiler or evaporating pan, and they may be so arranged that they
can be used separately by the use of suitable dampers.
The description of flue herein-before described, viz., of a blunt pointed, long,
wedge shape in longitudinal section, receiving heat at the larger and dis-
charging it at the smaller end, is equally applicable to pans, boilers, and other
vessels used in the manufacture of salt and other evaporating purposes, whether
the heat bo obtained from an independent furnace constructed for the purpose,
or from a coke oven or other source.