CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN SMELT- ING IRON STONE OR IRON ORE
Year: 1835

page_text: DEVAUX'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
PIERRE DEVAUX, of Fenchurch Street, in the City of London, Merchant,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Eighth day of October, in the sixth year of His reign, did,
for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Charles
Pierre Devaux, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said Charles Pierre Devaux, my exors, admors, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Charles Pierre Devaux, my exors, admors, or
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and
at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, the Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN SMELT-
ING IRON STONE OR IRON ORE," communicated to me by a certain Foreigner
residing abroad; in which said Letters. Patent is contained a proviso that I, the
said Charles Pierre Devaux, shall cause a particular description of the nature
of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
inrolled in His said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully
and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Charles Pierre Devaux, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and
ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference being had to

page_text: the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon
(that is to say):
The improvements relate to the placing or arranging of certain apparatus
between the ordinary blowing machine and the furnace which contains the
iron stone or iron ore to be smelted, whereby the blast of atmospheric air
caused by the ordinary blowing machinery is forced through and amongst
the fuel in a fire enclosed in such superadded apparatus, and whereby the
atmospheric air so forced supports combustion in such fire, becomes heated
and in some degree decomposed, and is thence constantly forced forward by
the pressure of condensed air in the apparatus (carrying with it the gas and
vapours evolved by the fuel in the fire) into and becomes a heated and
gaseous blast to the ordinary furnace containing the iron stone or stone ore to
be smelted; great improvement will take place in the process of smelting iron
stone or iron ore, and fuel saved.
In order that the Invention may be more fully understood, I will first
describe the arrangement of apparatus constructed according to the Invention
as communicated to me from abroad; I will then point out those parts of the
apparatus, the peculiar arrangement of which constitutes the improvements
claimed under the present Letters Patent.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 represents a longitudinal section of the apparatus constructed
according to the Invention for supplying a constant blast of heated and partly
decomposed atmospheric air, gas, and vapours, to the ordinary furnace con-
taining the iron stone or iron ore. Figure 2 is a plan (also in section) of the
apparatus. In each of these Figures the same letters indicate the same parts.
The apparatus I prefer to be arranged as follows:-The chambers A, B, and C,
are formed of plates of iron connected by screw bolts or otherwise, the joints
being properly stopped and perfectly secured with ordinary iron cement, in
order not to leave any opening for the escape of the condensed air which they
are to contain. The chamber A is sufficiently large to admit a man into it
in order to feed and examine the state of the fire, as hereafter described. B is
another chamber, into which the man first enters, and C is the chamber in the
upper part of which a furnace or fireplace is constructed. D, E, are pipes to
convey the heated and partly decomposed atmospheric air, gas, and vapours,
from the fireplace or furnace, or constructed in C, through the tewyer pipe, to
the furnace containing the iron stone or iron ore. The lower part of the
chamber C forms the ashpit M, which is open to the chamber A, so as to
permit the free passage of air. The chamber A communicates with the

page_text: chamber B by an opening sufficiently large to allow of a man to pass from one
to the other. The chamber B communicates with the atmosphere by a similar
opening. These openings are covered by doors P, P', which are made of plates
of iron, and their edges are faced with leather or other material to close the
same air-tight. These doors can be easily opened when the pressure is not
greater than that on the outside, as they turn upon iron pivots or hinges, and
open inwards.
In these doors are openings a, a, which are covered with a
plate or disc of metal, which can be turned from the outside or inside, and the
openings and plates being so formed and arranged that in turning the plates the
openings are uncovered and passage left for the air in A to pass into B, to
equalize the pressure on the two sides of the door P, or the air in B to pass
into the outer atmosphere and to equalize the pressure on the two sides of the
door P, as is more fully described hereafter, in order that the doors P, P¹, may
be opened. On the upper part of the chamber A is a valve L opening
inwards. In the chamber C are placed the fire bars F. The sides and part
of the top of the chamber C above the fire bars are cased with fire bricks,'
which are separated from the plates of iron of which the chamber is formed by
several inches of sand, or ashes, or any other bad conductor of heat. The
conduit pipes D and E are formed of iron, and lined with brick, stone, or
other material suitable to bear a high temperature. The pipe E may be made
to move backward or forward when required by means of a wheel and collar,
as shewn in the Drawing, the ends being formed so as to fit close by the ends
of the pipes in which they are inserted when at work. The fireplace C has an
opening G, to feed the fire with fuel, and to clean the fireplace when requisite.
This opening G is shut and opened by means of a small valve, as shewn by the
Drawing. The chamber A communicates with a blowing machine of any
of the known constructions by the pipe k. This communication between the
chamber A and blowing machine may be at any part of that chamber, as
local circumstances may make convenient. In the Drawing this commu-
nication is shown at one side of the chamber A at k.
From the foregoing description, aided by an examination of the Drawing,
the construction of the apparatus will readily be understood.
I will now proceed to describe the manner of working the same:-A fire
being lighted at F, the door P and the valve L being shut, the atmospheric air
from the blowing machine comes in through the opening k, it fills the
chamber A and presses against the door P of that chamber A, and also on
the valve L, and thereby keeps the same closed by the pressure of the
condensed air. The air forced into the chamber A, in filling that chamber
and also the ashpit M, presses up through the fire at F, and supports com-

page_text: bustion; it is pressed forward carrying with it the gas and vapours evolved by
the fuel. This partly decomposed air, gas, and vapours are forced into the
smelting furnace, where they operate more effectually in smelting the iron
stone or iron ore; and produce great economy in the
process.
I will now explain how the feeding the fire with fuel is performed, in the
midst of the compressed air in the chamber A. The man having entered into
the chamber B, and the door P to that chamber and also the opening a in
that door being shut, it is necessary to turn the handle of the opening a in the
door P to establish a communication between A and B. This being done, the
compressed air from A enters into the chamber B, and causes an equal
pressure in both chambers, and the weight which presses against the door P
being equal on both sides it may readily be opened, and permit the workman to
enter into the chamber A, and clean out the grate and feed the fire at the
opening G with nearly the same facility as if it were free from compressed air.
If the blowing machine should stop whilst the man is in the chamber A, and
there should be any partly decomposed air or gas therein, which would be
injurious to the workman if ventilation of fresh air was not immediately
accomplished, the valve L, not being pressed on by a continuance of compressed
air, would open and admit of the escape of the impure air, and thus prevent
the workman from running any risk of being injured. I would also remark,
that the fuel to be used in the fireplace F is pit coal, coke, charcoal, or a
combination of these or other well-known materials. It should be understood,
that I am aware that furnaces for smelting iron stone or iron ore have been
before worked by means of a blast or currents of heated atmospheric air, and a
Patent was obtained by James Beaumont Neilson on or about the Eleventh day
of September, One thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight, for an apparatus
for heating atmospheric air in its progress from the blowing machine to the
furnace containing the iron ore or iron stone; but in such apparatus the atmo-
spheric air. did not pass into and amongst the burning fuel contained in a closed
fireplace, similar to that described in this Specification, but such atmospheric air
was heated by its being driven or forced through vessels heated from without,
the vapours and gas evolved by the fire by which such vessel is heated not
And there
passing into the furnace containing the iron ore or iron stone.
was also another Patent obtained by Thomas Botfield, on or about the
Second day of January, One thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight, in the
Specification, of which it was proposed to draw atmospheric air through a
fire, and thence into and through the furnace which contained the iron stone
or iron ore; but in this last-mentioned Patent it was essential to have a high
chimney with flues from the smelting furnace thereto, in order to obtain a

page_text: draft to the furnace; but by the Invention secured by the present Letters
Patent, no additional chimney is required to produce a draft. And also the
said Thomas Botfield in some instances proposes in his Specification to use
common blowing machinery in aid of the draft produced by a chimney, but
in such cases the air is forced by the blowing machinery directly into the
furnace containing the iron stone or iron ore, and is not first forced into a
chamber A, similar to that herein described; nor does the compressed air feed
and support the combustion of a fire in a close fireplace, such as is herein
fully described. I would therefore wish it to be understood that I do not
claim as new the application of heated air combined with gas or vapours
evolved by a fire, unless the operation be performed by an apparatus con-
structed by forcing air through the fire which heats it. But I do hereby claim
the constructing and using an apparatus of a like nature as that above
described, between the blowing machine and the furnace containing the iron
ore or iron stone to be smelted, in such manner that the blast proceeding from
the blowing machine shall pass into and amongst the ignited fuel and support
combustion in a closed fireplace, and from thence the heated and partly
decomposed air from therein, by the pressure of the continued working of the
blowing machine, urged onwards (carrying with it the gas and vapours evolved
by the ignited fuel) into the furnace containing the iron ore or iron stone, by
which means much saving in fuel, in addition to other advantages, will be
obtained in the process of smelting iron or ironstone; such apparatus being
so arranged as to adinit of a man managing the fire during the time that
condensed air is being forced through the fireplace, as above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Pierre Devaux, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Eighth day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-six.