IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CLOSING THE THROATS OF AND INTRODUCING THE CHARGES INTO BLAST FURNACES AND OTHER SHAFT FURNACES FOR METAL- LURGICAL AND OTHER PROCESSES
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles Denton Abel at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 31st May 1878. [A communication from
abroad by Leonhard Wollheim, of Vienna, in the Austrian Empire.]
CHARLES DENTON ABEL, of Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CLOSING THE THROATS OF AND INTRODUCING
THE CHARGES INTO BLAST FURNACES AND OTHER SHAFT FURNACES FOR METAL-
LURGICAL AND OTHER PROCESSES." [A communication from abroad by Leonhard
Wollheim, of Vienna, in the Austrian Empire.]
The apparatus for closing and charging the throats of blast furnaces and other
draft furnaces, which forms the subject of the present Invention, is shown in its
most simple arrangement on the accompanying Drawing, in which Fig. 1 shews an
elevation partly in section, and Fig. 2, a plan.
d, d, d, is the cover to the throat of the furnace, which prevents almost entirely
the escape of the gases through the throat. This is partly effected by not raising
the cover at all from the throat while the furnace is working, and partly by pro-
viding a packing between the cover and the casing of the throat.
On the Drawing this is effected by providing on the throat casing an annular
cylindrical receptacle or trough m, m, which is filled with water, into which the
lower cylindrical part of the cover dips.
On the upper part of the cover are provided one or more charging boxes for
receiving the furnace charges before they are introduced into the furnace.
In the accompanying Drawing it is assumed that only one such charging box 1, 1,
is employed; o, o, is a passage, through which the charges can be made to pass
from the charging box into the furnace after the door of the passage has been
opened.
The cross section of the passage is shewn on the Drawing as approximately of
the form of a segment of a circle, but this form may be modified.
The closing of the passage can be effected by a slide or by a flap 8, 8, as shewn,
this being opened at the desired moment by any suitable known mechanism.

page_text: The top of the charging box is by preference provided with a cover or slide (not
shewn on the Drawing) of any suitable construction, which is closed at the time
that the passage o is opened, so as to prevent the escape of gases from the furnace
at that time.
The above-described charging boxes may be dispensed with if the usual charging
trucks are so constructed that when brought into the position of the charging
box on the cover they will admit of the above-described manipulation for introducing
the charge.
In order to spread the charge as uniformly as possible over the whole area of
the furnace throat, any suitable known mechanism is employed, whereby a hori-
zontal rotary motion round the axis A, A, of the furnace is imparted to the cover d,
and consequently to the charging passage o, while the charge is being introduced
through the latter.
The uniformity of such distribution may be increased by so arranging the
mechanism for turning the cover that it at the same time also effects the opening
of the flap 8, 8, more or less, the charging box being formed suitably for this
purpose, and a still greater uniformity of the distribution of the materials in the
lower layers of the furnace may be effected by causing the introduction of each
fresh charge to commence systematically at a different section of the area of the
throat.
The throat cover must be caused by suitable contrivance to have its axis of
rotation always coincident with the axis of the furnace throat, and also to be
always at the same height above it. This is effected in the arrangement shewn
on the Drawing by providing on the cylindrical part of the cover brackets e, e,
carrying the axes of the rollers r, r, which are made to run in a circular path
formed on the annular trough m, m, as shewn.
The charging of the furnace may be effected, either by introducing each of the
materials separately in layers, or by first mixing them altogether.
In the accompanying Drawing the furnace gases are taken off at the circum
ference of the throat, but with the above-described arrangement a central escape
pipe for the gases may also be provided, in which case the charging box must be
so constructed that it leaves the central part of the cover sufficiently free for the
escape pipe to pass through at that point, and provision must be made for effecting
a gas-tight packing between the sides or the pipe and the central aperture of the
cover, through which it passes, such as the arrangement described with reference
to the outer circumference of the cover.