AN IMPROVED METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR INCREASING THE HEAT OF BLAST AND REVERBERATORY FURNACES AND 'BESSEMER' CONVERTERS
Year: 1879

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Robert Lake at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 18th August 1879. A communication
from abroad by The Gutehoffnungshutte Actien-Verein für Bergban und Hütten-
betrieb, of Oberhausen, and Reiner Maria Daelen, of Dusseldorf, Civil Engineer,
both in the Empire of Germany.
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the firm of Haseltine Lake & Co., Patent Agents
Southampton Buildings, London. "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR
INCREASING THE HEAT OF BLAST AND REVERBERATORY FURNACES AND 'BESSEMER'
CONVERTERS." [A communication from abroad by The Gutehoffnungshutte Actien-
Verein für Bergbau und Hütten-betrieb, of Oberhausen, and Reiner Maria Daelen,
of Dusseldorf, Civil Engineer, both in the Empire of Germany.]
This Invention relates to an improved method of and apparatus for introducing a
considerable amount of heat into high-furnaces, reverberatory-furnaces, or what are
known as "Bessemer" converters, during the operation of producing iron or steel,
the local and direct supply of heat being in many cases of the greatest importance
for the process taking place in the said furnaces.
•
The use of heated air is always accompanied by the inconvenience that the large
amount of nitrogen contained in the air positively counteracts the heating effect for
the reason that it leads off a great amount of heat.
The said Invention therefore comprises the application of a suitable fuel mixed
with suitable substances, such as salt-petre, manganese, or the like, which deliver a
considerable amount of oxygen and have a brisk combustion, while but a compara,
tively small quantity of air is admitted.
The said Invention is carried into practice as follows, that is to say:-
Into the high furnace this mixed fuel is conducted through the air-pipe along
with the blast.
With the reverberatory-furnace or "Bessemer"-converter I use an apparatus
constructed for the purpose as hereinafter described, that is to say,-To the side of
the furnace or of the converter I secure a cylinder made of sheet iron, or other
suitable material, and lined with refractory stones or other suitable material. The
said cylinder communicates with the interior of the furnace or converter by means
gases and
of an orifice arranged at a proper height and in such a manner that the
fluid slags coming from the said cylinder must pass through the molten iron and
ores to arrive at the surface. The said cylinder is provided at the top with a

page_text: suitable valve to allow the filling in of the fuel, and with a pipe to admit the wind
from the blast.
With the "Bessemer" converter the said apparatus may also be used to [charge
solid fusible material, in order to avoid the tilting of the converter.
The
Another feature of the said Invention consists in the arrangement of a nose-pipe 5
in the Bessemer-converter, entering the same a little above the molten iron.
combustible gases still rising from the charge are burned by the air thus conducted
across the surface, and the heat thus produced by combustion helps to act upon
the iron.