A MODE OF UTILIZING THE WASTE HEAT OF FURNACES USED IN REBURNING ANIMAL CHARCOAL
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Phineas Cowan, of the Firm of L. Cowan, and Sons,
of Barnes, in the County of Surrey, Animal Charcoal Manufacturers, for
the Invention of "A MODE OF UTILIZING THE WASTE HEAT OF FURNACES
USED IN REBURNING ANIMAL CHARCOAL."
Sealed the 16th May 1862, and dated the 25th November 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Phineas Cowan at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 25th
November 1861.
I, PHINEAS COWAN, of the Firm of L. Cowan and Sons, of Barnes, in the
County of Surrey, Animal Charcoal Manufacturers, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "A MODE OF UTILIZING THE WASTE HEAT OF
FURNACES USED IN REBURNING ANIMAL CHARCOAL," to be as follows:-
In the reburning of animal charcoal in revolving or moving cylinders,
vessels, or retorts, the heat required for the purpose has to be raised to an
elevated point, and hitherto a large portion of this heat has been wholly wasted.
Now the object of my Invention is to utilize this waste or lost heat (of the
furnace), and for this purpose I apply to or combine with the furnace in which
the retorts, vessels, or cylinders are fitted and heated, or to or with the flues
communicating with such furnace, a boiler or generator, in such position as to be
exposed to the action of the waste heat of the furnace, so that if desired steain
shall be generated in such boiler or generator simultaneously-with the carrying

page_text: on of the process of reburning the charcoal. The steam so produced.may be
carried off for use as required. The word "revolving," above used, also
signifies partially revolving.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Phineas Cowan in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 24th
May 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PHINEAS
COWAN, of the Firm of L. Cowan and Sons, of Barnes, in the County of
Surrey, Animal Charcoal Manufacturers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fifth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Phineas Cowan, Her special licence that I, the said Phineas Cowan, my execu-
tors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Phineas Cowan, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with,.and.no
others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and
Isle of Man, an Invention for "A MODE OF UTILIZING THE WASTE HEAT OF
FURNACES USED IN REBURNING ANIMAL CHARCOAL," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I the said Phineas Cowan, my executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing, under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great
Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW-YE, that I, the said Phineas Cowan, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings, and to
the letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say:-
In the reburning of animal charcoal in revolving or moving cylinders,
vessels, cor retorts, the heat required for the purpose of reburning has to be
raised to a very elevated point. Hitherto a large portion of this heat has been
wholly wasted. Now the object of my Invention is to utilize this waste

page_text: or bitherto lost heat, and for this purpose I apply to or combine with the
furnace in which the cylinders, vessels, or retorts are fitted and heated, or to
or with the flues communicating with such furnace, a boiler or generator, in
such position as to be exposed to the action of the waste heat of the furnace,
so that if desired steam shall be generated in such boiler or generator simul-
taneously with the carrying on of the process of reburning the charcoal. The
steam so produced may be carried off for use as required. The word "re-
volving," wherever it is used in this Specification, is intended to include
partially as well as completely revolving.
I now proceed to exemplify the best means known to me for carrying my
Invention into effect.
Figure 1 is a longitudinal vertical elevation, and Figure 2 a transverse
vertical section, of a furnace and boiler combined according to my Invention.
A, A, is the furnace; B are the fire-bars; C, C, the retorts for containing the
charcoal to be reburned; D is the flue through which the flames and hot
products from the fire pass away to the chimney; E, E, is a boiler secured to
the brickwork of the furnace A, the lower portion of the boiler lies within the
flue D; F is the feed pipe, and G the steam pipe, but the position-and-ar-
rangements of these pipes may be varied as found-convenient. The boiler is
provided with a safety valve and the other usual appendages, but as these are
well-known contrivances they are not shewn in the Drawing. If water be
supplied to the boiler, the waste heat of the furnace, which, as before stated,
is raised to a high degree to reburn the contents of the retorts, will generate
steam in such boiler. The pipe F may be carried through a flue in the brick-
work of the furnace, as for example at H, so that the water will be partially
heated before entering the boiler; also, the steam generated in the boiler may
be superheated by carrying it away through a coil of pipes or ordinary super-
heating arrangements in a flue or flues in the brickwork, as for example,
at H.
Although I have shewn the boiler or generator as set at the top of the
furnace, I do not restrict myself to such position thereof, as it may be set in
other parts of, or in other positions in respect to the furnace or the flues
communicating therewith, but always in such manner as to be subjected to the
action of the waste heat of the furnace, so that steam may be thereby generated
in the boiler or generator; also, although I have shewn a particular form of
boiler or generator, as applied to a particular form and arrangement of appa-
ratus for reburning animal charcoal, yet I wish it to be fully understood that
I do not restrict myself to the particular form of boiler shewn, nor to the
particular form and arrangement of furnace and retorts, or reburning appa-

page_text: ratus shewn, as the same may be varied without departing from the nature of
my Invention, as herein set forth.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same may be performed, I declare that I do not claim as of my present
Invention a boiler or generator considered separately and uncombined with a
furnace or apparatus for reburning animal charcoal, nor do I claim as of my
present Invention a furnace or apparatus for reburning animal charcoal, con-
sidered separately and uncombined with a boiler or generator; and I declare
that what I do claim as constituting my said Invention, is the combination of
a boiler or generator with a furnace for reburning animal charcoal in revolving
or moving vessels or retorts, or with the flues communicating with such furnace,
in such manner that the said boiler or generator may be subjected to the waste
heat of the said furnace, so that steam may be thereby generated in the
boiler or generator, and the waste heat of the furnace thereby utilized.
In witness whereof, I, the said Phineas Cowan, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
Witness,
S. E. A. NEWSOME,
Patent Office,
84, Fleet Street.
PHINEAS COWAN. (L.S.)