IMPROVEMENTS IN BLAST FURNACES, AND IN APPARATUS CONNECTED THERE- WITH
Year: 1876

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by David George Hocy at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 4th August 1876.
DAVID GEORGE HOEY, of Workington, in the County of Cumberland, Ironmaster.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN BLAST FURNACES, AND IN APPARATUS CONNECTED THERE-
WITH."
This Invention relates, first, to the utilization of the waste gases of blast furnaces
for heating the stoves and boilers employed in connection therewith, and consists in
providing means for causing the waste gases to be mixed with air, which according
to my Invention is admitted to the interior of the furnace either through perfora-
tions provided in the tunnel head itself or in the charging doors, the tunnel head
being closed at the top by means of a damper of any suitable construction. Or in
lieu of providing perforations in the tunnel head, as above described, I sometimes
form them in the platform at the top of the furnace, or in the body of the furnace
itself below the tunnel head and immediately above the charge, in which latter case
an external gallery is provided round the furnace at that part to facilitate access to
the perforation in order to clear the same when necessary. The gases after having
"been acted upon by the air are conducted in an ignited condition to the stoves or
boilers by means of a pipe or flue provided with dampers when necessary for regu-
lating and directing the passage of the said gases.
My Invention relates, 2ndly., to an improved mode of maintaining the lower
outer portion of a blast furnace cool, and for conducting the vapour arising from
the cooling medium away from the tuyere room. According to this part of my
Invention I provide around the lower portion of the furnace a jacket forming a
chamber below the level of the tuyers, in which chamber there is arranged a per-
forated tube or series of perforated tubes through which water is caused to flow
and pass through the perforations on to or against the exterior of the lower portion
of the furnace, down which it flows continuously. The vapour from the water is
carried away from the chamber by means of a pipe or pipes which conduct it into
the atmosphere above the tuyer chamber. I also propose to cool the space imme-
diately surrounding the tuyers when necessary or desirable by providing at that
part a pair of hollow shutters or chambers containing a perforated tube or per-
forated tubes through which water is caused to flow and pass through perforations,
as before described, on to the interior of the shutters when closed against the surface
surrounding the tuyers, thereby maintaining it cool at that part, the vapour arising
[Price 2d.]

page_text: from the water being carried away by means of a pipe or pipes in the same manner
to that herein-before described with reference to the other cooling chamber.
My Invention further relates to means for drying the air before entering the
stoves. The air is forced by the blast engine through the receiver, from which it
passes into the stoves, but before entering the latter I cause such air to pass over or
in contact with a layer or layers of chloride of calcium or other suitable substance
or substances containing absorbent properties, or the absorbent materials may be
suspended or arranged in any other convenient manner.