New or Improved Process and Apparatus for the Manufacture of Portland and other similar Cement.
Year: 1895

page_text: as amended in accordance with the decision of the Comptroller General
dated the 5th day of June 1901.
Date of Application, 3rd Dec., 1895-Accepted, 18th Jan., 1896
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION (AMENDED).
New or Improved Process and Apparatus for the Manufacture of
Portland and other similar Cement.
We, EDWARD HENRY HURRY of Number 1 York Avenue, New Brighton, Staten
Island, County of Richmond and State of New York, Engineer, and LARRY JOHN
SEAMAN of Number 527 North Third Street, Catasauqua, County of Lehigh, State of
Pennsylvania, Chemist, both in the United States of America, do hereby declare the
nature of this invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement:
The present improvements relate generally to the manufactureof Portland or similar
cement, and more particularly to a novel process of and apparatus for the cooling of
the hot cement clinker.
As most commonly practiced the hot cement clinker from, say a rotary furnace, has
been taken and heaped in piles or spread in a more or less thin layer upon a concrete
floor and left to cool, taking many days in the process, depending upon the depth of
the pile or the thickness of the layer; and in this way a very large floor space was
needed, requiring the employment of a great quantity of material in process of manu-
facture before it could be advanced to the finished product.
The present invention has for its object to provide a process for roasting the cement
material and cooling the hot clinker as a continuous process whereby a considerable
saving is made, a less extensive plant is needed, less material required to be in process
of manufacture without reducing the output, and to generally overcome the objec-
tions inherent in the modes of manufacture heretofore practiced. And to this end
the improvements consist in the continuous process and apparatus for roasting the
cement material and cooling the hot clinker; in the process and apparatus for cooling
hot clinker, irrespective of its mediate or immediate connection with a roasting pro-
cess and apparatus: and, in certain details of construction, all as will be hereinafter
fully set forth.
In order to aid a more complete understanding of the nature and scope of the
improvements we have illustrated in the accompanying drawings an improved
apparatus for roasting the cement material and cooling the clinker, embodying also
an apparatus adapted to the practical carrying out of the improved process; the
apparatus chosen for illustration being the preferred form, but which is obviously
capable of modification without departing from the essentials of the invention. In
said drawings:
Figure 1 is a sertional elevation of a roasting and cooling plant embodying the
present improvements and adapted to the carrying out of the novel process.
Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional elevation of a portion of the cooling cylinder and
its immediate adjuncts.
Fig. 3 is a cross section of the cooling cylinder on the line 3, of Fig. 2.

page_text: Fig. is an enlarged sectional detail of the connection between the rotatable cooling
cylinder and the stationary elinker guide-chute showing the manner of providing a
tight joint between the two; and
Fig. 5 is a similar view partly in elevation of the same parts.
Before entering into a detailed description of the apparatus it may be premised
that in the manufacture of cement, so far as the apparatus as herein shown is con-
cerned, the cement material is fed in a continuous stream into the roasting furnace,
preferably a rotary furnace, and inclined, with the heat or roasting flame entering
the furnace at its exit end and projected therethrough toward the entrance end of
the material in a direction opposed to the onward travel of the material being roasted.
In its passage through the furnace the material gets hotter and hotter until it gets
within the zone of the flame when the particles commence to adhere and finally
assume a clinker form or mass irregular in shape and size, in which condition masses
red or white hot pass preferably into a conduit consisting of a rotary cylinder through
which air passes to be heated by the presence of the hot clinker to be thence led to
the furnace to aid the support of combustion therein. So far, the mode of operation
described is one heretofore practiced, the hot clinker, not materially cooled, hitherto
being removed from the rotary cylinder conduit and piled in heaps upon the cooling
floor and there left for many days before adapted for the final grinding operation.
In the present improvements the hot clinker from the rotary or other conduit is
allowed to pass through a breaker by which the hot clinker masses are reduced or
broken into a small and more or less uniform size (but not finely pulverized as in its
finished condition), and as an additional step in the process, is also wetted by a
stream or streams of water which is applied to the hot material either before or after
the reducing operation or simultaneously therewith whereupon the reduced and
wetted material is conducted or passed through a conduit preferably a rotary one and
while being so conducted is subjected to a draft or strong current of air produced
naturally or artificially which causes a rapid evaporation of the water or moisture from
the reduced material and cools it down sufficiently so that at the time it reaches the
point of exit of the conduit it is in condition for immediate handling. The speed at
which the material is allowed to pass through the conduit will depend largely upon
the degree of fineness to which the hot clinker is reduced by the breaking operation,
the quantity of water supplied to and allowed to mix therewith and the volume of
air to which the material or wet material is subjected.
The apparatus in the preferred, but not necessary embodiment of the invention,
consists of a rotary cylindrical furnace A comprising an exterior metallic shell or
casing lined with fire brick and mounted in a horizontally inclined position having
tracks which bear upon roller bearings ; rotary motion being imparted to the
furnace by a pinion e meshing with a toothed wheel on the furnace shell, the
pinion being driven in any proper manner, as from a driven worm shaft
worm f.
and
The upper or entrance end of the furnace A projects into the upper end of a vertical
chamber B having connection with a stack C, for the escape of the waste heat and
products of combustion: while the opposite or exit end of the furnace projects into
an exit or fuel chamber D having an inclined floor or chute y for leading off the
hot clinker falling from the furnace. The two chambers B and D are formed by
masonry lined with fire-brick to withstand the great heat. The chamber B has
an opening closed by a door directly opposite the entrance end of the furnace to
view, if need be, the interior of the furnace; and the lower portion of the chamber
below the entrance of the furnace forms a pit to which access may be had through
a lower opening closed by a door: the communication of the chamber with the
stack being had through an opening preferably at the side of the chamber. This
chamber B also has a conduit m, water jacketed if need be, leading from top of the
chamber to the entrance end of the furnace for the feed thereto of the material from
any suitable source of supply.
The chamber D has means for supporting a fuel burner E, say an injector burner
for supplying crude petroleum andair introduced into the exit end of the furnace and

page_text: ignited, producing a long intensely hot flame through the furnace, heating the interior
thereof to the degree required to produce the cement clinker. The burner E projects
its hydrocarbon through an opening in the wall of the chamber, and below it is a
sight opening for viewing the interior of the furnace. The inclined floor or chute g
of this exit or fuel chamber D leads the red hot and freshly made clinker directly
into the entrance end of a conduit F consisting of a horizontally inclined rotatable
cylinder, through which the hot clinker is more or less slowly conducted to its exit
end, against a natural draft of air which is thereby intensely heated to pass upward
into the exit chamber and thence into the furnace to aid and support the combus-
tion of the hydrocarbon injected by the burner E.
The cylinder conduit F is mounted like the furnace A to revolve on roller bearings n
and rotated by a pinion e meshing with a toothed wheel on the cylinder, the pinion
being driven in any proper manner not necessary to describe.
The hot clinker from the exit end of the cylinder-conduit F is preferably allowed
to fall directly into a reducing or breaking apparatus G represented by a pair of
crushing rolls 8,9, rotated in any proper manner within a housing 10 and immediately
above and connecting with a closed inclined chute 11. While the hot clinker is being
reduced or broken, it is preferably wetted by, for instance, a supply of water from a
nozzle or nozzles 2, which direct streams of water onto the surface or surfaces of the
crushing rolls as they rotate in crushing the hot clinker.
The reduced clinker wetted and the surplus water, if there be any, is caught by
the closed chute 11 and directed into the entrance end of a cooling conduit H
preferably of considerable length and through which the material is slowly conducted
to the point of ultimate discharge ready for immediate and further treatment such
as pulverizing to the desired fineness necessary to the making of a hydraulic
cement.
The cooling conduit H. preferably itself receives and conducts the wetted material
to the point of discharge, that is to say, there need be no conveyor moving through it
to carry or convey the material therethrough, and for this purpose this conduit His
It is mounted in
also in the form of a rotatable cylinder similar to the conduit F.
an inclined horizontal position to rotate on roller bearings 7 and revolved at the
desired speed by a pinion 6 gearing with a toothed wheel 5 on the cylinder, the
pinion being driven in any suitable manner. The cylinder is made up of short con-
nected sections andits interior is provided with a multiplicity of short radial baldes 12;
straight blades alternated with curved or bent ones, the blades of one section alter-
nating with those in the adjoining sections, so that the material in its passage through
the cylinder is subjected to a constant tumbling or tossing action and made to fall
across the central space of the cylinder and thereby brought in more intimate and
repeated contact with the air therein or with a rapid current of cold air which, as will
presently appear, is drawn through the cylinder.
In lieu of wetting the hot clinker before or simultaneously with its being reduced
or broken or in addition thereto, a supply of water may be sprayed upon the material
after it has been reduced, and for this purpose the perforated end of a water pipe 14
may be led through a boss 13 into the chute and if desired projected into the entrance
end of the conduit H, as in Fig. 2, to direct water onto the material therein and into
intimate mixture therewith. The mixing of water, even with the reduced material
in the manufacture of Portland cement, we have found, so long as it is not pulverized
to the finished condition, has absolutely no deleterious effect, that is to say, there is
no danger of the material setting by the addition of water, for the reason that to
effect its setting the material must be reduced to an exceedingly fine state of
sub-division.
The current of air referred to is drawn from the outside atmosphere through the
cooling conduit H entering at its discharge end, passing theiice in contact with the
reduced and wetted material in the conduit in a direction opposed to the onward
movement of such material and out at its entrance end preferably through the
closed guide-chute 11 to a place of discharge. The continuous supply of cool air from
the atmosphere aids in materially reducing the temperature of the material, as well

page_text: as causing a rapid evaporation of the moisture contained with the material and by
such evaporation also effecting a cooling action, the heat and moisture therefrom
being absorbed by the air as it passes onward and is carried off from the conduit.
This cooling and evaporating current of air may be produced in any proper manner,
as by an exhaust or suction apparatus I, indicated by dotted lines, Fig. 2, connected
with the interior of the conduit and guide-chute by a pipe 15 leading from a nozzle 16
projecting from the guide-chute; the opening leading to the nozzle being covered by
a fine wire screen 42 to prevent the carrying off of particles of the material.
To compel the draught of air through the revolving conduit II to start from its
discharge end and thus obtain its maximum effect on the material, the joint between it
and the stationary guide chute 11 is preferably constructed air tight, and to this end
the guide-chute terminates in tubular extension 18 projecting into the central opening
of the head 19 of the conduit. Around the extension is mounted a longitudinally
movable annulus 20 having a vertical face bearing tightly against the head 19 thus
closing the joint between the conduit and chute. The annulus is prevented from
turning by lugs 21 which project into slots 22 formed, it may be, by ears projecting
from the chute or the securing flange of the extension 18; and it is held yielding
in surface contact with the conduit head by a number of suitable springs 23 inter-
posed between the annulus and the chute or the flange of the extension.
It is to be understood that the apparatus herein described is simply one we prefer
to use, not intending thereby to limit our invention to the precise apparatus, nor is
our improved process in its practical application necessarily limited to the use of such
apparatus.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what
we claim is: -
1. The herein described process-for-cooling hot cement-elinker,-which-concists-in
wetting-the-hot elinker-and-then-subjecting-it-to-a-tumbling-or-tossing-action-in-the
presence-of-air.
2. The-herein--described-process-for-cooling hot cement-elinker, which consists-in
wetting-the-hot-elinker-and-then-rapidly-evaporating-the-moisture-therefrom.
1. 3. The herein described process for cooling hot cement clinker, which consists
in reducing the hot clinker to a broken condition, wetting the hot clinker and sub-
jecting the wet and broken material to a cooling atmosphere.
2. 4. The herein described process for cooling hot cement clinker which consists in
breaking and wetting the hot clinker and then rapidly evaporating the moisture from
the broken material.
3. The herein described process for cooling hot cement clinker, which consists
in breaking and wetting the hot clinker, tossing the broken material and rapidly
evaporating the moisture therefrom.
4. 6. The herein described process for cooling hot cement clinker, which consists in
simultaneously wetting and breaking the hot clinker, supplying additional water to
the broken material and subjecting it to the action of the atmosphere.
5. The herein described continuous process in the manufacture of cement, which
consists in roasing the cement material, partially cooling the hot clinker, then
breaking and wetting it and then evaporating the moisture from the broken material.
6. S. The combination with a conduit for the hot clinker, a reducing or breaking
apparatus therefor, a pipe for supplying water to the hot material and a leading off
conduit for the broken and wetted material, as set forth. .
9. The combination-with-the-breaking rolls, the-housing therefor-and-the-inclined
ehnte-leading from-the-rolls,-of-a-conduit-leading-from-soid-chute-and-a-water-pipe
extending into the chute, as-set-forth.
7. 10. The combination with the breaking rolls, and the water supply for directing
water onto said rolls, of a conduit taking the material from the rolls, and 'an
exhausting apparatus for drawing air through the conduit, as set forth..
8. H. The combination with the breaking rolls, the water supply feeding water to

page_text: the rolls and a chute leading from the rolls, of a conduit extending from the chute, a
water supply leading into said conduit, and an exhausting apparatus for drawing air
through the conduit, as set forth.
Dated this day of December
E. H. HURRY
H. J. SEAMAN
Per W. H. Beck
Agent 115 Cannon Street London