IMPROVEMENTS IN VERTICAL FURNACES FOR MELTING AND REFINING METALS
Year: 1867

page_text: 1867.
I, JOHN CLAYTON, of West Bromwich, in the County of Stafford, Furnace
Builder and Contractor, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN VERTICAL FURNACES FOR MELTING AND REFINING METALS,"
to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in constructing and arranging the parts of vertical
furnaces for melting and refining metals in the manner herein-after described.
Furnaces constructed according to my Invention are especially applicable to
melting and refining iron, but may also be used for melting and refining
various other metals. I construct and arrange the parts of a furnace for
melting and refining iron according to my Invention in the following
manner-I make the body of the furnace of a cylindrical figure, terminating
at top by a cone, which cone is surmounted by a chimney about three times
the height of the furnace. The chimney is closed at top by means of a
damper or dampers which may be provided with counterbalance weights.
The furnace is supported upon four cast-iron pillars which may be protected
on two sides by brickwork. Underneath the furnace and between the said
columns is a tramway on which wagons run for the purpose of receiving the
scoria from the furnace. The bottom of the furnace is provided with a door
from which the scoria is allowed to fall from the furnace from time to time
into the said wagons. At the conical part of the furnace are doors at which

page_text: the iron and fuel are introduced, and around the said conical part of the
furnace is a gallery to which the iron and fuel are hoisted by hydraulic or
other power, and received by the workman and introduced into the furnace.
At about one-third the height of the furnace from the bottom is a series of
tuyeres or air 'passages through the sides of the furnace; these tuyeres are
arranged radially and by preference in three or more rows of twenty-one
tuyeres each. The said tuyeres are provided with covers at their outer ends
by which either row of tuyeres or a part of either row can be closed at
pleasure. Two or more large tuyeres provided with covers may be placed
near the bottom of the furnace for occasional use. A cylindrical screen or
guard closed at top and open at bottom surrounds the furnace at that part
where the first-mentioned tuyeres are situated to protect them from wind.
The melted iron is tapped from the furnace at a hole made in a small door at
the bottom and one side of the furnace. A sand bottom on a metal plate is
employed while the metal is being melted, but which is removed when the
scoria is being taken from the furnace in the manner herein-before explained.
In using the furnace it is charged with alternate layers of iron and coke, as in
the ordinary cupola, the tuyeres being all open when the furnace is in full
work. When the charge has sunk below the first row of tuyeres the said
tuyeres may be closed, and as the charge sinks below the other rows of tujeres
they are also closed; the two large bottom tuyeres are then employed to
carry on the combustion. The draught produced by the chimney occasions
such a copious supply of air through the tuyeres that no blast is required.
The vertical furnace described is equally applicable to the melting and refining
of other metals besides, iron.