IMPROVE- MENTS IN GLASS FURNACES
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George White, of No. 5, Laurence Pountney Lane,
Cannon Street, in the City of London, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN GLASS FURNACES"-A communication.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George White at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 26th
March 1857.
I, GEORGE WHITE, of No. 5, Laurence Pountney Lane, Cannon Street, in
the City of London, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN GLASS FURNACES," a communication, to be as follows:-
'These improvements in glass furnaces or ovens for manufacturing glass
ware consist in heating the same by means of the inflammable gaseous
products evolved from any suitable fuel in any suitable generator, these
gases being ignited by means of a jet or jets of heated air forcibly injected
in them by a fan or any other suitable blowing machine. The ignition of
the said gaseous products may take place either in the interior of the furnace
or before their entering in the same; and, if required, they may be previously
passed through a suitable condensing apparatus or a proper strainer, after
which the parts that have retained their gaseous state must be heated again
before being brought in contact with the air to be injected in them, which
air may, if required, be mixed with hydrogen or oxygen gas obtained by the
decomposition of water, or any other suitable means.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George White in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
26th September 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
WinTE, of No. 5, Laurence Pountney Lane, Cannon Street, in the City of
London, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said George White, Her special licence that I, the said George White, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said George
White, 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
GLASS FURNACES," (a communication from a foreigner residing abroad), upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said George White, 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 George White, 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:
The Invention consists in heating glass houses or furnaces for the manu-
facture of glass by means of the complete combustion of the gases deriving
from wood, coal, peat, lignite, anthracite, or any other suitable fuel, whether
the said gases be evolved in one or more generators, in which the fuel is
entirely decomposed by means of a sufficient supply of air, or whether they
result from one or more generators arranged in such manner as to distil the
fuel, and thus offer the means of utilizing the coke and other secondary
products deriving from the fuel, the full combustion of the said gases taking
place by means of a blast of hot air, that is to say, by a forced injection of

page_text: atmospheric air suitably heated previous to its introduction in the combustible
gases, the injection being thus regulated that the full combustion of the gases,
and consequently the highest temperature, takes place in the central part of
the furnace towards the melting pots. By this process the degree of heat.
in the furnace may be regulated with the utmost precision, thus allowing of
increasing the heat progressively in certain moments, such, for instance, as
immediately after the filling of the pots, when an exceedingly high temperature
is required for melting the materials in the pots, which heat by any of the
ordinary modes of firing is not to be obtained in that moment, the draught
not being sufficiently strong for introducing quickly enough the quantity of
air required for burning entirely the gaseous products; whereas in furnaces
heated and arranged according to this system the gaseous products are at any
time during the entire process fully consumed. This system of heating is
applicable to glass furnaces of any size, the fire grates being entirely done
away with, thus offering an additional space for the melting pots; whereas.
in the glass furnaces hitherto in use, the size of the fire grates could not be
reduced under a certain size. In the present process the combustible gases
and the heated air required for their full combustion are projected together
in the furnace, thus allowing of obtaining very quickly the high temperature
required for the melting of the materials in the pots. Another great advantage
of the process consists therein that fuel of every description is made serviceable.
As the successful operation depends in great part on the suitable arrange-
ment of the furnace, I will give a description of this latter, and of its mode
of working, referring therein to the annexed Drawing, in the various Figures
of which corresponding parts are indicated by the same letters.
Fig. 1 shows partly a vertical section of the furnace over the line 1, 2, of
Fig. 2, which Fig. 2 represents a plan view of the furnace, Fig. 3 showing
partly a vertical section over the line 3, 4, of Fig. 2. The furnace is made
with an arched top. The pots K are placed on sieges in the ordinary mode.
No fire grates existing in the furnace, the space left for the pots is considerably
larger than in the furnaces hitherto in use, so that the number of pots may
be increased. G is the trough round which the pots are situated. The fuel,
from which the gases evolved are to serve for heating the furnace, is put in
any suitable generator, situated outside of the furnace at any suitable distance
of this latter, so as to form an entirely separate part. The said generator
may be constructed in such manner as to give rise either to a distilling of
the fuel, so as to allow of obtaining the coke and other secondary products,
or to allow of consuming the fuel entirely by means of a sufficient supply
of air

page_text: As the construction of the said generator does not form an essential part
of the Invention, I have in the Drawing only indicated the flue A, by which
the gases evolved in the generator are conducted through a dust chamber E,
and from thence by the pipe B to the furnace. This dust chamber E has a
partition H for preventing dust, undecomposed parts, or other impurities
from being carried into the furnace, the said impurities falling at the bottom
of the dust chamber E. From E the gases pass through the pipe B to the
furnace, in the lower part C of the trough G of which they are introduced,
heated air being in this part C injected in them in small streams through a
number of tuyeres g, in order to promote the combination of the oxygen of
the air with the combustible gases, which air and gases thus become intimately
mixed during their ascension in the trough G, the said combination being
ultimately completed towards the upper part of the trough, where consequently
the full combustion and intense degree of heat required for melting the
materials in the pots will be produced, and diffuse itself all over the pots, so
as to make the lower part of them as hot as the top. The heated air injected
through the tuyeres g proceeds from any suitable blower or ventilator V, and
is conducted through the pipes p, which latter have a part of their length
situated in the interior of the walls of the furnace, so that the air in passing
through the said pipes very soon acquires the degree of heat required for the
purpose. The supply of air as well as that of the gases is regulated by valves,
dampers, or any other suitable means. The annealing kilns may be, if thought
proper, annexed to the furnace in the manner as is indicated by L, in Fig. 2.
By this arrangement the said kilns are heated by the heated air proceeding
from the furnace. The said kilns may also be separate from the furnace,
and be heated for themselves, according to the principles above explained,
which latter are also applicable to flattening kilns, and in general to the
manufacture of any description of glass, such, for instance, as plate, window,
flint, bottle, or coloured glass, and to the melting of silicates in general.
As for the general arrangements of the melting pots, their seats, the working
and foot holes, these parts do not offer any particular difference with those
hitherto employed for glass furnaces. The bottom of the trough G is suitably
hollowed out, and furnished with an opening for receiving and discharging
the glass spilt in filling the pots or by the breaking of them. For the supply
of air any suitable blowing apparatus may be made use of, and any suitable
condensing apparatus may be annexed to the generator for collecting or
purifying the condensable parts of the combustible gases, such, for instance,
as the pyroligneous acid, the tar, and other analogous products. The gases
after having passed through the condensing apparatus may be carried through

page_text: any suitable heating apparatus, in order to furnish them with the quantity
of heat required for their combustion. In such cases any suitable exhausting
or aspirating apparatus may be inade use of for carrying the gases into the
glass furnace.
Having thus described the nature of the Invention, and the mode of working
the same, what I claim consists in the heating of furnaces employed in the
manufacture of any description of glass by means of the full combustion of
the gaseous products evolved from any suitable fuel in any suitable generator
separate from the glass furnace, the said gaseous products being conducted
into the centre of the furnace, and their combustion obtained by means of a
suitable injection in them of heated atmospheric air, the mixing of the air
and gases beginning in the lower part of the centre of the furnace, and being
ultimately completed towards the centre of the melting pots, or in that spot
where the most intense degree of heat is required.
In witness whereof, I, the said George White, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of September, in the year
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
T. A. CLAEYS.
GEO. WHITE. (L.S.)