IMPROVEMENTS IN PUDDLING AND OTHER REVERBERATORY FURNACES USED IN THE MANUFACTURE AND HEATING OF IRON AND FOR OTHER LIKE PURPOSES, AND IN ECONOMIZING THE WASTE HEAT OF THE SAID FURNACES
Year: 1859

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Frederick Levick at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 27th December
<:1859.
I, FREDERICK. LEVICK, of. Blaina Cwm Celyn and Coalbrook Vale Iron
Works, in the County of Monmouth, Ironmaster, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PUDDLING AND OTHER
REVERBERATORY FURNACES USED IN THE MANUFACTURE AND HEATING OF IRON AND
FOR OTHER LIKE PURPOSES, AND IN ECONOMIZING THE WASTE HEAT OF THE SAID
FURNACES," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in so constructing puddling and other reverberatory
furnaces that in addition to ordinary fuel employed therein, they may be fitted
to receive and burn a mixture of hydrogen and carbonic oxide produced by
passing steam over ignited coke, the waste heat of the furnace being employed
to superheat the steam, and heat the coke from which the said gaseous mixture
is produced, as well as to heat an ordinary steam boiler for the supply of steam
to a steam engine.
I will describe my Invention with reference to a puddling or balling furnace:
I construct a reverberatory furnace having a gas generating apparatus
connected therewith similar to the gas reverberatory furnaces used in the-
manufacturo of iron in Germany and elsewhere. Near the bridge of the
furnace, and where the coal gas and air blast meet, or at other convenient
place in the furnace, I deliver a current of the gaseous mixture of hydrogen

page_text: and carbonic oxide. The flame and products of combustion, after passing over
the bed of the furnace and performing its work in puddling or balling, is made
to heat a retort or vessel containing coke, and also a tube through which steam
is made to pass from a steam boiler into the said retort. The superheated
steam passing over the ignited coke produces a mixture of hydrogen and
carbonic oxide, which is conducted from the retort underneath the bed of the
furnace, and delivered into the furnace at or near the bridge. The gaseous
mixture, in its passage from the retort to the furnace, may pass through a
purifier. The waste heat of the furnace may be further employed to heat a
steam boiler by being made to circulate through or about a vertical or other
suitably shaped boiler. Instead of a gas reverberatory furnace, I sometimes
carry my Invention into effect in connection with a reverberatory furnace,
having a fire-grate, and burning solid fuel, and where it is not required to
generate steam for a steam engine, the waste heat of the furnace is only
employed for heating the retort and superheating the steam to be decomposed.
Although I prefer to employ my. Invention in the manner hercin-before
described, yet instead of introducing a mixture of hydrogen and carbonic oxide
at the bridge of the furnace, pure hydrogen may be obtained and introduced
by charging the retort with fragments of iron in place of coke; and my
Invention may be employed generally in all cases where it is wished to
introduce gases or mixtures of gases into reverberatory furnaces at or near the
bridges of the said furnaces. My Invention is particularly applicable to
reverberatory furnaces used in the manufacture and working of iron, but it is
also applicable to reverberatory furnaces used for various other purposes.