IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF FIRE-BARS FOR FURNACES."
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Ellis Rowland and George Etchells Rowland,
both of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF FIRE-BARS FOR FURNACES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Ellis Rowland and
George Etchells Rowland at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 21st May 1873.
We, ELLIS ROWLAND and GEORGE ETCHELLS ROWLAND, both of
Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF FIRE-BARS
FOR FURNACES," to be as follows:-
Our Invention relates to movable or rocking fire-bars for furnaces,
and consists principally in making such bars in short lengths or sections
somewhat in the form of a bell crank.
The ordinary fixed fire-bars are placed so far apart as to admit of
a series of these sections to be mounted between each two bars, the
said sections and the fixed bars being drilled through with holes, through

page_text: which are passed rods, which form the fulcra upon which the sections
rock.
The sections are mounted with their horizontal arms in a line (or
nearly so) with the surface of the fixed bars, and with their vertical
arms extending downwards into the ash-pit, where they are connected
to a rod or rods, extending forwards to the front and provided with a
handle or lever, by means of which the engineer can cause all the
sections to rock at once, and thus break up or provent the formation of
clinkers.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Ellis Rowland and George Etchells Rowland in
the Great Seal Patent Office on the 21st November 1873..
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, ELLIS
ROWLAND and GEORGE ETCHELLS ROWLAND, both of Manchester, in the
County of Lancaster, send grecting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the thirty-sixth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto us, the said Ellis Rowland and George Etchells Rowland
Her special license, that we, the said Ellis Rowland and George Etchells
Rowland, our exccutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
we, the said Ellis Rowland and George Etchells Rowland, our 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
CONSTRUCTION OF FIRE-BAES FOR FURNACES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that we, the said Ellis Rowland and George Etchells Rowland,
our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our,
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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Ellis Rowland and George Etchells
Rowland, 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 and accompanying
Drawings (that is to say):-
Our Invention relates to movable or rocking fire-bars for furnaces,
and consists principally in making such bars in short lengths or sections
somewhat in the form of a bell crank, and in combining them with fixed
fire-bars in the manner herein-after described.
The ordinary fixed fire-bars are placed so far apart as to admit of a
series of these sections to be mounted between each two bars, the said
sections and the fixed bars being drilled through with holes, through
which are passed rods, which form the fulcra upon which the sections
rock.
Or (which we prefer) the fixed bars may be made with snugs, which
act as fulcra for the rocking bars or sections, and thus the rods are
dispensed with.
The sections are mounted with their horizontal arms in a line (or
nearly so) with the surface of the fixed bars, and with their vertical
arms extending downwards into the ash-pit, where they are connected
to a rod or rods extending forwards to the front, and provided with a
handle or lever, by means of which the engineer can cause all the
sections to rock at once and thus break up or prevent the formation of
clinkers.
Such being the nature and object of our said Invention, we will now
proceed to describe more in detail the manner in which the same is to
be or may be performed or carried into practical effect, and in order that
the same may be clearly understood we have annexed hereunto a Sheet
of Drawings illustrative thereof, and have marked the same with figures
and letters of reference corresponding with those in the following
explanation thercof :—
In the annexed Drawing Fig. 1 is a plan view of a set of fire-bars
constructed and arranged according to ur Invention, and Fig. 2 is a
sectional elevation of the same.
The grate is composed alternately of fixed plain fire-bars a, a, and
snugged fire-bars a', a¹, and movable sections or rocking bars b, b.

page_text: Every alternate fixed bar a is plain, and the form of the intermediate
fixed bars a¹ is shown clearly in the detached views, Figs. 3 and 4, and
they are made with, snugs c, c, at each side, which form the centres
or fulcra upon which the movable sections b, b, rock. The form of the
movable sections or rocking bars b, b, is seen clearly in Fig. 2, and
detached at Fig. 2*. Their vertical arms, which extend downwards
into the ash-pit, have rods d, d, passed through them, which are con-
nected to two notched bars e, e, which pass forwards to the front of the
furnace and are provided with a handle or lever f,f, by means of which
the fireman or engineer can rock all the sections or rocking bars at
once, and thus break up the clinker. The outer sections only are
made with holes through at their lower extremity to support the rods
d, d, the remainder being made with a "gab," so as to drop on to the
rod and to be easy of removal.
Having now described the nature and object of our said Invention,
together with the manner in which the same is to be or may be per-
formed or carried into practical effect, we wish it to be understood that
we claim as our Invention, the combination of the rocking bars b, b,
(formed in sections) with the plain fixed bars a, a, and snugged fixed
bars a, a, placed alternately, all constructed and arranged sub-
stantially as herein-before described and illustrated by the annexed
Drawing.
In witness whereof, we, the said Ellis Rowland and George Etchells
Rowland, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Eighteenth
day of November, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and seventy-three.
ELLIS ROWLAND.
(L.S.)
GEORGE ETCHELLS ROWLAND.
(L.S.)
Witnessed by
GEORGE DAVIES, C.E.,
Patent Agent,
Manchester.