IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND MODE OF FITTING AND WORKING FURNACES
Year: 1860

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Bartholomew Hockin at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 8th December
1860.
I, BARTHOLOMEW HOCKIN, of Limehouse, Engineer, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND MODE
OF FITTING AND WORKING FURNACES," to be as follows:-
Instead of constructing furnaces for steam boilers, and for other purposes
in the ordinary manner of forming them, and instead of charging them with
fuel as furnaces are ordinarily charged, I am by means of the present Inven-
tion enabled to combine fuel economy with the smokeless combustion of
bituminous coal, and at the same time secure a supply of feed water, heated
to as high a temperature as may be required, or as can be pumped or otherwise
fed into a steam boiler or other close vessel.
I divide the furnace longitudinally with a hollow iron box or case, which is
made to extend from the bridge or any point behind it to the front of the dead
plate, or as near to the furnace doors as will permit of the escape of the pro-
ducts of combustion from one side of the furnace to pass round the front end
of the hollow case or longitudinal division, and so pass over the entire length
of the other half of the furnace.
This hollow case or longitudinal division does not form part of a steam
boiler, nor has it any openings thereinto, but it may rest upon the bearers or
extend to the bottom of the flue or the bottom of the ash-pit, whilst at the

page_text: top it may be secured to or left free from direct attachment to the boiler; and
the end furthest from the mouth of the furnace may be secured in the
bridge.
Along each side as near the top as may be convenient, one or more rows of
holes may be drilled to permit of the escape of steam when formed within the
casing and which are also available in case of necessity, for readily extinguish-
ing the fires. Into this hollow case or longitudinal division, cold water is
pumped or permitted to flow to any desired level, and in proportion to the
quantity required or the temperature to which it may be required to be raised,
either for feeding the boiler or for any other purpose for which it may be needed,
and the water is either permitted to overflow into another vessel from a pipe
placed at a convenient height, or it may be pumped direct therefrom or fed in
or discharged by means of an injector.
Behind the bridge, which is divided into two parts in width, and which may
either be of fire-brick supported in an iron frame, or constructed of any other
material, I place a vertically sliding damper or shut-off plate to cach division
or portion of the furnace, and by means of levers and connecting rods, I am
enabled to close or shut off-the-direct-communication between either of the
furnaces and the flue, so that whilst the one division contains fuel in a bright
incandescent state, the gases distilled off from the green fuel charged into that
furnace are caused to travel forward instead of going direct into the flue; and
after passing to the front of the furnace, and round the end of the longitudinal
division, are made to pass over the incandescent fuel, where they become
ignited and add to the total heat giving power of the fuel.
When the fuel last charged has become thoroughly coked, and the other
furnace requires replenishing, the arrangement of the dampers is reversed;
that which was previously closed is now opened, and the direction of the gases
in a corresponding manner changed.
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