IM- PROVEMENTS IN GLASS FURNACES, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO PUDDLING FURNACES AND OTHER REVERBERATORY FURNACES
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Henry Joseph Ingram and George
Ingram at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 22nd June
1878.
HENRY JOSEPH INGRAM, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Furnace
Builder, and GEORGE INGRAM, of Birmingham aforesaid, Furnace Builder.
"IM-
PROVEMENTS IN GLASS FURNACES, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO
PUDDLING FURNACES AND OTHER REVERBERATORY FURNACES."
Our Invention consists of the construction and arrangement herein-after described
of the parts of glass furnaces to be heated by gaseous fuel, that is to say, furnaces
in which the glass producing materials are melted in pots arranged in a heated
chainber.
By constructing and arranging the parts of glass furnaces according to our
Invention the consumption of fuel is economized, the distribution of the heat is
equalized and readily controlled, and in the case of the breaking of a pot, the
escaping glass is gathered without interfering with the working of the furnace.
Further, the air flues or passages of the furnace are easily cleared in case of stop-
pages, and the withdrawal of clinkers and slag, so as to prevent the clogging of the
fire-bars and other parts of the furnace, is effected with great ease.
Although our improvements are especially applicable to glass furnaces, yet they
may also be applied to puddling furnaces and other reverberatory furnaces.
We will describe our Invention as applied to a glass furnace:-The furnace is
made of a circular figure in plan, and the gas generator in which the gaseous fuel,
consisting mainly of carbonic oxide is produced, is situated below the level of the
glass house.
The said gas generator consists of a chamber under the middle of the furnace,
into which chamber two inclined passages or shoots open the outer and upper
ends of the said passages, being external to the furnace and on the ground level.
The sides of the gas generator are inclined and are formed of fire-bars, through
which air passes to support the low combustion of the fuel in the chamber of the
gas generator.

page_text: The bottom of the gas generator is open, but the said open bottom is closed
during the use of the furnace by the ash resulting from the combustion of the fuel
air for supporting combustion passing principally, through the fire-bars.
Fuel is fed to the gas generator by the inclined passages or shoots described,
either from the glass house or from the "cave" beneath the glass house.
In the axis of the base of the furnace and above the gas generator is a vertical
shaft or flue, commonly called the eye of the furnace, up which shaft or flug the
gaseous fuel from the gas generator rises, the said shaft or flue opening at top into
the chamber, in which the glass melting pots to be heated are arranged. This
chamber has an arched reverberating top without any opening in it. Opening into
the eye or central vertical flue of the furnace.below the "seige" or bed of the glass
pot chamber is a series of air flues or channels for supplying heated air to the
gascous fuel rising up the said vertical flue or eye. These air channels are con-
structed in the brickwork of the furnace, and are arranged radially therein, their
inner ends opening into the eye or vertical flue, and their outer ends into the glass
house. The inlet ends of the air flues or channels are furnished with valves for
regulating the admission of air. The said air channels are straight but incline
slightly downwards from the outside of the furnace to the eye or central flue, into
which they open. By this construction of the air channels they can be readily
cleared when required without interfering with the working of the furnace.
By the passage of the air through the air channels described it is heated by
coming into contact with the heated walls thereof, and the said heated air is
delivered into the eye or central flue of the furnace. in the form of a series of con-
verging currents, and mixing with the gaseous fuel rising in the said eye or central
fluc effects its combustion and produces an intense heat in the chainber containing
the glass pots.
The flaine and products of combustion supply to the glass pot chamber circulate
about and rapidly heat the said pots, which are arranged in a circle in the said
chamber, and the waste heat and products of combustion are conducted to a scries
of small chimneys or vertical side flues arranged equidistantly at the side of the pot
chainber and beyond the line of the glass pots. Each of the said chimneys or vertical
side flues is furnished with a damper, whereby the amount of heat circulating about.
each pot or group of pots can be controlled by the attendant raising or lowering
one or more of the said dampers.
By constructing the gas generator with an open bottom (closed during the
working of the furnace by ash or other matter as described) the clearing of the
fire-bars of clinkers or slag, and the gathering of the glass in case of the breaking
of a pot, are very readily effected.
In applying our Invention to puddling furnaces and other reverberatory furnaces,
we construct and arrange the parts substantially as described with respect to a
glass furnace.