IMPROVEMENTS IN THE ARRANGEMENT AND CONSTRUCTION OF FURNACES FOR BURNING COALS OR OTHER COMBUSTIBLES
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Jordan, of Liverpool, in the County of
Lancaster, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
ARRANGEMENT AND CONSTRUCTION OF FURNACES FOR BURNING COALS OR
OTHER COMBUSTIBLES."
Scaled the 19th December 1871, and dated the 3rd July 1871.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Jordan at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
3rd July 1871.
"IMPROVEMENTS
I, JOHN JORDAN, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancastor, Engineer,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
IN THE ARRANGEMENT AND CONSTRUCTION OF FURNACES FOR BURNING COALS OR
OTHER COMBUSTIBLES," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to improvements upon the Invention for which
Letters Patent were granted to me on the 14th day of October 1870,
No 2717

page_text: My former Invention consisted principally of an air jacketted furnace,
and the present improvements are designed to render such furnace more
applicable to existing fire-placès.
The improvements in the arrangement and construction of the furnace
may be thus described :-
Firstly. Instead of making an air chambered furnace as described in
the Specification of my previous Patent, I take the lower portion only
not exceeding 6 to 12 inches in depth, and instead of firing the furnace
outside the fire-place I place it in the fire-place and lead the coals from
the feeder into the furnace by means of a pipe more or less bent, the
coals being assisted in their flight by a portion of the blast or air finding
its way along with the coals into the furnace. Where sufficient descent
or fall can be attained the action of the air will not be necessary.
Secondly. Instead of having the air chamber at the sides, which will
be found inconvenient in some shaped fire-places, I take an air bottomed
furnace and make it the desired shape to fit the fire-place to which it is
to be adapted. The upper surface of the air bottom is perforated to
allow the air to pass to the coals, and the air bottom itself has recesses
to receive the slag, with shutters to draw and let the slag out when
desired. The air bottom need not be more than a few inches deep for
any ordinary fire-place. The air bottom may be made of iron lined
with fire resisting materials, or may be made of fire resisting materials.
The coals may be fed in this case as in the case before described. The
air used for combustion is led into the air chamber for the first described
arrangement or into the air bottom in the second described arrange-
ment, and from thence it will escape through the blast pipes or per-
forations into and among the coals for the purpose of combustion, and
it may be either hot or cold before entering the air chamber.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Third day of July, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the thirty-
fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said John Jordan, Her special licence that I,
the said John Jordan, my exccutors, 'administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said John Jordan, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE ARRANGEMENT AND
CONSTRUCTION OF FURNACES FOR BURNING COALS OR OTHER COMBUSTIBLES," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Jordan, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or
their, or one of their hands and scal, 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.
Scal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Jordan, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement in writing, and on reference being had to. the
accompanying Drawings, that is to say :-
This Invention relates to improvements in the arrangement and
construction of furnaces for burning coals or other combustibles, being
improvements upon the Invention for which Letters Patent wero
granted to me on the Fourteenth day of October, A.D. 1870, No. 2717.
My former Invention consisted principally of an air jacketted furnace
fired and fed outside existing fire-places, and my present Invention is
designed to render such furnace more applicable to existing fire-places.
The improvements will be more readily understood on reference being
had to the accompanying Drawings, and to the following description or
explanation thercof:-
On the accompanying Drawings are delineated two forms of furnaces
adapted to the particular kinds of fire-places in general use.

page_text: The one illustrated in Figures 1 and 2 is circular and is adapted to fit
ordinary vertical boilers and is shown in situ.
The one illustrated in Figures 3 and 4 is oblong and is adapted to
suit a long firé-place where a large quantity of coals or other com-
bustibles may be burned.
Figures 1 and 2 are drawn to a scale of one and a half inches = one
foot, and Figures 3 and 4 to a scale of one inch = one foot.
Instead of constructing an air jacketted furnace as described in the
Specification of my former Patent above mentioned, I take the lower
portion only from (say) six to twelve inches or thereabout in depth,
and instead of firing and feeding the furnace outside the fire-place,
I place fire and feed it in the fire-place, as illustrated most clearly in
Figures 1 and 3. The furnace has a sand bottom and is provided with
air chambers 2 and jets 4, which are cased in by and rest upon fire
resisting materials 1 of the shape most suitable to the fire-place to which
the furnace is to be adapted. In Figures 1 and 2 it is shown as circular,.
and in Figures 3 and 4 as oblong. 2 represent the air chamber (or
chambers) at the sides, and from which blast passes to the furnace
chamber 3 through the jets 4. These air chambers may be formed of
iron as shown. In order that the coals may be properly distributed in
the furnace chamber, and perfect combustion ensured therein, I take
the feeder 5 and connect it to a common four-bladed fan 6 made
sufficiently strong to receive and scatter the coals in the space between
the jets 4, through which the high-pressure blast issues from the air
chamber 2. The ascending currents of blast from the high-pressure
jets are met and thoroughly mixed by a low-pressure current of air from
the fan, as it scatters the coals into the furnace chamber, so that perfect
combustion is ensured. The coals or other combustibles for combustion
are placed in a suitable hopper 7 which is provided with a grid (when
coals are used) so as to prevent pieces of coals, &c. which are too large
from entering the feeder, and passing thence to the furnace chamber.
When other combustibles are employed it is merely necessary to adapt
the feeder to the combustibles used.
In Figure 1 the blast is illustrated as passing into the furnace
chamber from the air chamber through one row of jets, but in Figures 3
and 4 as through two rows, but in some cases it may be desirable
to have 3 or more rows of jets. The jets are supplied by a blast
of (say) from 10 to 30 or more inches of water pressure and blow

page_text: directly upon the coals resting upon the sand bottom of the furnace
between the jets, and so decompose the harder substances, such as coke,
after the more volatile matters are driven off. S represents the high-
pressure air pipe, and 9 the exit pipe for coals and low-pressure air from
the fan. The fan scatterer is driven by a belt and pulley 10 or other
suitable means from any convenient machinery. The slag is removed
from the bottom of the furnace at intervals, depending on the kind of
coals used, in the ordinary way with a rake or fire tool for that purpose.
In my Provisional Specification commencing with the word
"secondly" and going on to the end of the said Specification I
described an air bottomed furnace as forming part of my improve-
ments, but since lodging the said Specification I have found (as the
result of extensive experiments) that furnaces constructed in that
manner do not give the results I had reason to anticipate, I therefore
make no claim to that part of my improvements, and consequently do
not further describe that part herein, but the description of furnace
delineated on the accompanying Drawings and herein-before described
I find to answer the desired purposes best, as giving results in excess of
any other, and of more practical utility.
Having now described the nature and object of my said Invention
for "Improvements in the Arrangement, and Construction of Furnaces
for Burning Coals or other Combustibles," together with the manner
in which the same is to be or may be performed or carried into practical
effect, I would remark in conclusion that I claim as my Invention, thic
peculiar novel construction and arrangement of furnaces for burning
coals or other combustibles, substantially as herein-before described and
as illustrated on the accompanying Drawings.
And more especially I claim, the general construction and adapt-
ation to any fire place of an air chambered furnace, from 6 to 12
inches in depth or thereabouts, provided with a suitable number of
blast jets in 1 or more rows, which furnace may vary in shape or form
according to that of the fire-place to which it is to be applied or adapted,
and which jets are to be supplied by a blast of (say) from 10 to 30 or
more inches of water pressure and blow directly upon and decompose
the coals resting on the bottom of the furnace combined with the peculiar
mode of feeding the coals and the supplementary air to decompose the
more volatile matters which have been driven off and in sufficient
quantity to thoroughly mix the escaping heated gases, and supply the

page_text: requisite quantity of air to complete the saturation with oxygen at the
proper time, so that the complete combustion of the coal and smoke is
effected.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Jordan, have hereunto set
my hand and scal, this Thirtieth day of December, in the year 5
of our Lord One thousand cight hundred and seventy-one.
JOHN JORDAN. (L.S.)