Improvements in Furnaces.
Year: 1890

page_text: Improvements in Furnaces.
I, GEORGE WASHINGTON ENSINGER, a citizen of the United States, residing
at Elm Station, Lower Merion Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania,
United States of America, Contractor, do hereby declare the nature of this inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement :—
My invention relates to furnaces of the type disclosed in sundry Letters Patent
of the United States granted to Edward Fales, dated May 18th, 1886, and num-
bered respectively 342,080, 342,081, 342,082, and 342,083.
The Fales furnace referred to embodies an open-topped fire pot or chamber
provided with a grated bottom, and disposed within and clear of the walls and
above the bottom of the furnace proper, which latter is of considerably greater
diameter than said pot. A second and annular grate exists within and radially
and circumferentially bridges the space between the exterior of the pot and the
furnace wall, and is usually placed at an elevation somewhat above that of the
grate within the fire pot.
Heretofore the fire pot and the second grate, or that exterior to the pot, have
been together formed as a solid casting, and the exterior grate has been utilized
to support the pot within the furnace by resting as to its outer rim upon a ledge or
shoulder formed upon the inner faces of the furnace wall.
In practice the Fales grate has fallen short of its possibilities of usefulness in
that it has been found, in cases where it is desired to place a Fales fire pot and
grate in a completed furnace to replace a grate of another construction, to be
impossible to carry the fire pot and grates through the entrance to such furnace,
and it has therefore been necessary to take down its wall.
In cases, moreover, where breakage of or damage to any portion of the grate
has occurred, it has not been possible to replace simply the destroyed portion, but
it has been necessary to sacrifice the entire grate.
It is the object of my invention to so construct a grate of the Fales type as to
overcome these objections, and this object I accomplish by resort to a construction
hereinafter set forth, which, generally stated, consists in forming in sections, and
in providing with means for locking together, certain parts which have heretofore
been made as a rigid whole, and in providing special devices to take the place of
the second set of grate bars in supporting the fire pot.
In the drawings I illustrate, and herein I describe, a good form of a convenient
embodiment of my invention, the particular subject-matter claimed as novel being
hereinafter definitely specified.
In the drawings,
Figure 1 is a central vertical sectional elevation of a furnace provided with a
grate embodying my improvements.
Figure 2 is a top plan view of the grate removed from the furnace.
Figure 3 is a top plan view of the fire pot, its supports, and the grate within the
fire pot.
Figure 4 is a fragmentary detail of the lugs which support the fire pot grate.
Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts.
In the drawings, A is the furnace, the walls of which may be of any usual
form or arrangement, and B is the ash door. The charging door, not shown, con-
veniently exists on the side of the furnace nearest the eye in Figure 1.
C is the fire pot, the same being, when mounted in the furnace, an open-topped
receptacle of any desired dimensions, and being according to my invention formed

page_text: in sections. In the drawings I show said fire pot as being circular in plan, and as
being formed or composite of four segmental sections, ecce, the lines of division
between which are vertical.
The component sections are laterally joined to each other in any preferred
manner to complete the wall of the fire pot. I find it convenient to provide each
section with an outwardly projecting lug at or near each of its ends or lateral
margins, and of these pairs of lugs, which I respectively designate D D D D
and D D¹ D' D', and which are preferably respectively cast integral with the
section to which they respectively belong. I prefer to make one of each two, viz. D',
sufficiently long to act as a supporting arm. When then the sections are assembled
to form the pot, one long and one short lug at each of the joints will be brought
into registry with each other, and when said lugs are fastened together by the
bolts Dx, or otherwise, the pot will have become a rigid whole.
The meeting edges of the fire pot sections are, to effect a more close union,
dovetailed or otherwise fitted into each other, being conveniently provided each
at one edge with a tongue e and at the other edge with a groove e*.
The fire pot grate F, which I hereinafter for convenience term the lower grate,
may be supported within the fire pot in any preferred manner. It being, in the
construction shown, desired that the grate should be capable of being rocked, I
provide it with two lateral studs ff and with a shaking handle or rod fx, and also
provide the lower portion of the fire pot with suitable bearings within which said
studs are entered. Each of these bearings are, as shown in Figure 4, con-
veniently formed in lugs G which depend from the lower edge of the fire pot, and
which lugs are conveniently vertically divided, the respective halves appertaining
to different adjacent sections of the pot.
The inner face of the furnace is provided with two supports or ledges, the lower
one of which, H, I term the supporting ledge, and the other one of which, H*, I
term the grate ledge.
The arms D', radiating from the exterior of the fire pot as herein before explained,
are of sufficient length to extend to and rest upon the supporting ledge H, and by
so doing maintain the fire pot centrally within the furnace and above its floor.
The upper edge of the fire pot, which is about level with the ledge H* of the
drawings, embodies an external shoulder c. To complete the furnace it is necessary
to provide the second annular grate to cover the annular space between the pot and
the walls. This grate, which is lettered J, is, according to my invention, made in
sections, of which four, respectively designated j₁ 23 are shown in the drawings.
Each section rests as to its outer edge upon the ledge H* and as to its inner edge
upon the shoulder c, and the adjacent ends of the sections, in meeting, simply abut
against each other.
My improved grate, as is obvious, may, when breakage of any of its parts
occurs, be repaired by merely substituting a new member in place of a broken one.
It is also obvious that when it is desired to introduce the grate into a furnace
the wall of which already exists, the members of my improved grate may be inserted
one by one through the furnace door and put together after all are within.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. In combination with an enclosing furnace wall, a fire pot of less diameter than
said enclosing furnace and supported within the same, a lower grate within the fire
pot, and an upper grate surrounding the fire pot and detachable therefrom, sub-
stantially as set forth.
2. In combination with an enclosing furnace wall, a sectional fire pot, a grate
within the fire pot, means for supporting the fire pot within the furnace and
above the floor-thereof, and a grate surrounding the fire pot, substantially as set forth.
3. In combination with an enclosing furnace wall, a sectional fire pot, means
for supporting said fire pot above the bottom of the furnace, a lower grate within

page_text: the fire pot, and an upper grate formed in sections and surrounding the fire pot,
substantially as set forth.
4. In combination with an enclosing furnace wall, a fire pot divided into sections,
means for uniting said sections, supporting arms extending from said sections, a
grate within said fire pot, and a sectional grate extending from said fire pot to the
enclosing furnace wall, substantially as set forth.
5. In combination with an enclosing furnace wall embodying internal ledges or
supports, an open topped fire pot formed in sections, means for uniting said sections,
supporting arms extending from said sections to a ledge, and a sectional grate
extending from the fire pot to a ledge, substantially as set forth.
6. In combination with an enclosing furnace wall embodying internal ledges or
supports, an open topped fire pot formed of sections each of which embodies an external
lug and an external arm which reaches to the ledge of the wall, the lug and arm of
each section being respectively in registry with adjoining arm and lug of the
adjacent sections, means for securing said meeting lugs and arms together, a shoulder
formed upon the exterior of said fire pot, a grate supported within said fire pot,
and a grate formed of sections which sections rest upon the exterior shoulder of the
pot and a ledge of the furnace wall, substantially as set forth.
Dated this 13th day of November A.D. 1890.
GEORGE WASHINGTON ENSINGER.