IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM BOILER AND OTHER FURNACES
Year: 1882

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles Ritchie Wymer at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 15th April 1882.
CHARLES RITCHIE WYMER, Engineer, of 21 Picardy Road, Belvedere, in the
County of Kent IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM BOILER AND OTHER FURNACES
My improvements relate to steam boiler and other furnaces constructed with
closed ash pits into which air is blown by steam blast and are designed to better
adapt such furnaces for burning slow combustion coal such as anthracite, also
small or dust coal and other combustible rubbish, and for the prevention of
smoke.
To obviate the difficulty experienced with bars as heretofore usually constructed
owing to the great heat produced in furnaces burning slow combustion coal, with
artificial blast, and to at the same time dispense with the use of hollow bars,
I employ bars of an improved construction made extremely light and so arranged
that their ends overhang beyond the bearers in such wise as to protect them from
burning to which the ends of bars as usually employed are liable.
To collect and remove unburnt or incombustible particles deposited beyond the
bridge, I there provide a collecting pan with a pipe leading from it either to the
front of the furnace or otherwise to the exterior. The pipe is closed except when
cleaning out. When the pipe goes to the front of the furnace as in marine boilers,
it is led under the bars at a little distance below them and is preferably placed in
the middle of the width. Two steam air blasts are provided, one at each side of
the said pipe and their pipes extend lengthwise of the ash pit for a considerable
distance, their direction being inclined towards the lower part of the back end of
the ash pit. At the bottom of the closing front is formed a door for cleaning the
ash pit bottom. In this way there is produced a conveniently arranged apparatus
which permits the back chamber to be cleared of ashes at any time without
interfering with the action of the furnace. The blast nozzles will generally be
placed as described above, but where the arrangement of the boiler admits of it,
they might be applied at the back end of the boiler, thus leaving more room at
the boiler front.
At the front end of the blower and outside of the furnace front, I fix when it is
wished to lessen the noise, a deafening box made of cast iron or some suitable

page_text: material which is continued down nearly to the stoke hole plates or where
convenient for marine boilers it can be extended through the stoke hole plates in
which case all the air required for combustion passes under tho flooring plates.
The ash pit is made to extend some distance under the back bridge to enable the
blast to equalise itself under the whole surface of the grate. The steam for the
blast is to be taken from the highest part of the steam space in the boiler but for
boiler furunces where the steam pressure is below, say, 35 lbs. per square inch, it is
advisable to have a stall boiler for supplying the steam for the blast at not less
than 60 lbs pressure,
When required I provide small pipes or other passages
through the front dead plate or also through the bridge to allow a portion of
Eteam and air to pass from the ash pit to the top of the fires to assist the
combustion of the gases.