IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSUMPTION OF SMOKE, AND IN THE APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREFOR
Year: 1874

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Wrigley, George
Bradley, and Joseph Matters at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 10th August 1874.
We, THOMAS WRIGLEY, of Bury, in the County of Lancaster, GEORGE
BRADLEY, of Islington, and JOSEPH MATTERS, of Bloomsbury, both in
the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare-the-nature-of our said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSUMPTION OF SMOKE, AND IN THE
APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREFOR," to be as follows :-
The Invention is designed for the purpose of consuming smoke from
the furnaces of steam boilers, and the improvements which it includes
may also be applied with advantage to furnaces employed for other
purposes. As an example of the application of these improvements,
which comprise two distinct arrangements, we will describe each one
separately in connection with the furnace of an ordinary, cylindrical
boiler..
"1.
The first of these-improvements consists in placing a. regulating
damper or door in front of the ash-pit and a shield plate to the crown
of the furnace behind the door. The ash-pit damper is connected to

page_text: the other is closed, so that at the time of feeding the furnace with fuel,
or for raking the fire, the ash-pit door will be closed and the air feeding
the furnace will enter only through the open doorway or through a
second inner perforated door, which has no connection with the ash-pit
damper, the furnaco door proper remaining open during the time the
smoke is being evolved from the fresh fuel, and which as it comes in
contact with the upper current of air becomes consumed. When the
_fire. has burnt up and the gases are ignited the outer door of the
furnace is closed, the action of which opens the ash-pit damper and so
allows the furnace to bo fed with air under the fire-bars in the ordinary
manner.
Secondly. The improvements relate to a novel construction of parts
regulating and,, directing the admission of air to the furnace, and
consists in adapting moveable dampers to the bridge of the furnace
connected with an ash-pit door so arranged that the opening or closing
of such door will simultaneously actuate tho dampers.of the bridge in
a manner which will cause the air feeding the furnace to be directed
downwards through the bars and under the bridge, or upwards through
the bars and over the bridge. A "dog" or projection on the ash-pit
door prevents the furnace door being opened whilst the ash-pit door is
open.
In order to open the furnace door when firing up, the ash-pit door
must necessarily first be closed, the action of which, through the
medium of rods connecting such door with the dampers of the bridge,
simultaneously opens the thoroughfare under the bridge and closes the
thoroughfare from the furnace over the bridge, thus effecting a down-
ward draught through the bars and under the bridge, which causes the
smoke evolved from the fuel of the green fire to be drawn into the fire,
whero it is consumed, the residue passing off with the draught through
the bars and under the bridgo and over a second or back bridgo; but
as soon as the fire has taken hold of the fuel and a bright fro is
produced the furnace door is closed and the ash-pit door opened, the
action of which reverses the dampers of the bridge to their normal
position, at which time the air feeding the fire enters the ash-pit and
passes through the bars over the bridge in the ordinary manner. An
arrangement of levers and apparatus can be applied connecting the
doors together-in-such a manner that the closing and opening of the
"

page_text: doors and reversing the dampers of the bridge may be gradually
accomplished by self-acting means during the time the fire is progress-
ing from a green to a bright fire. A baffle plate or shield is placed in
the furnace immediately over the "dead plate," which protects the
crown of the furnace when the door-is-open, and-also-directs the cold
air right on and through the furnace in the manner as before described.
The fire-bars may be hollow for the passago of the food water.
In applying the second portion of these improvements to household
fire-grates a passage or thoroughfare for the draught is formed under as
well as over the grate. These thoroughfares are provided with dampers
which are connected together by. rods and actuated by a lover con-
veniently placed. These dampers are so arranged that when one is
open the other is closed, so that at the time of replenishing the fire
with fuel the upper or top damper will be closed and the under or
lower one opened, the effect of which will cause a downward draught
which draws the gases into the fire, where they are consumed, the
residue passing through the bars of the grate into the flue through the
open damper of the ash-pit, but when the fire has brightened up
the dampers are reversed and the draught passes off in the ordinary
manner.