IMPROVEMENTS IN CUPOLAS, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO SMELTING AND OTHER
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Wright and George Brown, trading under
the firm of Wright and Brown, of the Town and County of Newcastle-
upon-Tyne, Iron Founders, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
CUPOLAS, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO SMELTING AND OTHER
"
Sealed the 7th July 1854, and dated the 31st January 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Wright and
George Brown at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 31st January 1854.
We, WILLIAM WRIGHT and GEORGE BROWN, trading under the firm of
"Wright and Brown," of the Town and County of Newcastle-upon-Tyne,
Iron Founders, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN CUPOLAS, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO SMELTING
AND OTHER FURNACES," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to an improved mode of introducing the blast into
cupolas or melting furnaces of any kind, and consists in directing it downwards,
and causing it to enter chambers placed at the bottom and sides of the cupola
or other furnace, whereby it is made to pass over the heated metal at the
bottom of the furnace, and becomes considerably heated. This hot blast is
afterwards made to re-enter the cupola or furnace a little above the blast hole,
and pass through the coke and metal with which the cupola or furnace is

page_text: charged. The cupola or other furnace may be made of any size, and the
internal space may be contracted by filling up the chambers with suitable
materials to any extent required.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Wright and George Brown in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 12th July 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
WRIGHT and GEORGE BROWN, trading under the firm of "Wright and Brown,"
of the Town and County of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Iron Founders, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirty-first day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the seventeenth year of Her
reign; did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said William Wright and George Brown, Her special license that we, the
said William Wright and George Brown, our executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as we, the said William Wright and George Brown,
our executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and
no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN CUPOLAS, WHICH
IMPROVEMENTS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO SMELTING AND OTHER FURNACES," upon the
condition (amongst others), that we, the said William Wright and George
Brown, by an instrument in writing under our hands and seals, or under
the hand and seal of one of us, should particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be per-
formed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within
six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said William Wright and George Brown,
do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement, reference being had to the accompanying Draw-
ings, and to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say :-
Our said Invention relates to various arrangements and constructions of

page_text: cupolas, blast furnaces, and apparatus for melting or smelting metals and me-
tallic ores, whereby superior economy in the manufacturing cost and rapidity
of production are secured. According to this Invention, instead of blowing
the air into the melting contents of the cupola or furnace, either in a cold
state or primarily heated, by passing through a separate heating apparatus, the
cupola or furnace is so formed that it may act as the heater for its own .blast.
Under such modification, the lower portion of the cupola or furnace is formed
with receiving chambers, so contrived that they may hold a mass of melted
metal as descended from the body of the cupola or furnace, and thus act as
the heating surface for the cold air supply. Thus the external cold air is first
blown into these chambers, and being there heated it passes off into actual
contact with the melting mass of material under treatment. As applied in
the construction of smelting or blast furnaces, the cold air is first blown into
the lower part of the body of the furnace, and it is then passed into heating
chambers formed in the bottom and sides of the furnace body. It is then
conveyed into the furnace at a level slightly above that of the blast hole, and
made to pass through the coke and metal with which the furnace is charged.
And in order that our said Invention may be properly understood, we shall
now proceed to describe the several Figures on the Sheet of Drawings here-
unto attached.
Fig. 1, on our Sheet of Drawings, is a vertical longitudinal section of a
cupola, as constructed with the view of carrying out our improvements;
Fig. 2 is a sectional plan of the same, corresponding; Fig. 3 is a vertical
longitudinal section of a smelting furnace, as built for smelting iron, with
heating chambers according to our Invention; Fig. 4 is a sectional plan of
the same. In Figs. 1 and 2 the air enters from the blowing engine or
blast fan by the pipe A, passing thence through the cupola wall at B, into the
central portion C, of the bottom of the cupola. This primary air-receiving
portion of the cupola being thus filled with air under pressure, which air is
restrained from passing upwards by the presence of the mass of contained
materials above, a partially descending current necessarily arises. Hence the
air diverges downwards, and passes out of the part C, through the vertical
division walls D, by the archways E, which are open to the base line F of the
cupola bottom. The air thus reaches and enters the bottom expanded 'cham-
bers G, which, together with the central portion of the cupola base, have their
bottoms covered to a greater or less extent with melted metal. The arrows
indicate the course of the air, shewing how it circulates to the extreme end
of the chambers G, and returns along the arched tops H of these chambers.
The air is by this means heated to a very high temperature, and in this con-

page_text: dition it passes onwards, and re-enters the main body of the cupola, by passing
through the walls D by the lateral ports I. Here it permeates the melting
mass of metal and coke, through which it finds its way in the usual manner.
The upper portion J of the cupola may be built to any desired form; and
as the melted metal comes down it gradually accumulates in the bottom, and
is tapped or withdrawn, as required, through the archway doors K. The heat-
ing chambers may be filled up more or less with sand when small castings
are to be made. The slag-hole is at L..
In the smelting furnace, Figs. 3 and 4, the external contour is not at all in-
terfered with, the main body A being a pure cylinder all the way down; the air
from the blast engine is supplied by the four pipes B, which enter the furnace
body at regular distances asunder. This quadruple/current thus keeps up a
constantly uniform air pressure in the central space C, beneath the mass of
melting materials. This compressed air supply can only escape through the
four lateral archways D, alternated with the four entrance thoroughfares. In
this way the air is made to pass in contact with the surface of the melted
mass of material on the bottom E of the furnace, as well as with that con-
tained in the archway passages D, and their external corresponding chambers
G. This heated air then rises up through the chambers G, and returns towards
the body of the furnace through the converging thoroughfares H, and pene-
trates the melting mass of metal and materials at I, by issuing through the
ports J. The tapping takes place through the outlet K, whilst the bottom of
the furnace can be cleared out through the slag aperture L. It will be obvious
to the practical man that this system of self-heating furnaces may be carried
out with various forms of chambers and apparatus, and that it is applicable to
all forms of melting or reducing furnaces.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of our said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried
into effect, we would observe, in conclusion, that we do not confine or restrict
ourselves to the precise details or arrangements which we have had occasion
to describe or refer to, as many variations may be made therefrom without
deviating from the principles or main features of our said Invention; but
what we consider to be novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention
secured to us by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, is,―
1st, the general arrangement and construction of cupolas and smelting
furnaces for the self-heating of the air blast, as herein-before described.
2nd, the application and use in cupolas, smelting and other furnaces, of
receiving chambers or sections for the reception of the metal or mass of
material under treatment, to form heating surface for the air blast.

page_text: 3rd, the system or mode of heating the air blast of cupolas and furnaces,
by passing the air over the surface of or in contact with the melted or heated
mass of material, as brought down from the cupola or furnace body.
4th, the system or mode of working furnaces, wherein the air is first
passed through the fire, or through the body materials of the furnace, and then
through furnace-heating chambers, or in contact with the heated metal or
materials, brought down from the furnace body.
In witness whereof, we, the said William Wright and George Brown,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, the Fifteenth day of June,
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
WILLIAM WRIGHT. (L.S.)
GEORGE BROWN.
(L.S.)