IMPROVED MEANS OR METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR TRANSMITTING HEAT FROM FURNACE OR OTHER DRY HEATED GASES TO ATMOSPHERIC AIR OR TO OTHER GASES
Year: 1873

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Carter Ramsden at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 12th February 1873.
I, JOHN CARTER RAMSDEN, of Smith House, in the Parish of Halifax,
in the County of York, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "IMPROVED MEANS OR METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR TRANSMITTING
HEAT FROM FURNACE OR OTHER DRY HEATED GASES TO ATMOSPHERIC AIR OR TO
OTHER GASES," to be as follows:-
:-
This Invention has for its object the utilization of the peculiar
property possessed by "rock salt," namely, its power of transmitting
heat, in fact it may be said that it is almost absolutely transparent for
every
kind of heat, as colourless plates of glass are to rays of light.
The first object of this Invention is to utilize this peculiar property
for the purpose of working hot air engines, and comprises apparatus for
transmitting heat from furnace gases to atmospheric air, by which
means I obtain the motive power necessary to work these said engines,
and this I accomplish somewhat as follows:-The heated gases arising
from combustion are passed into a receiver or receivers; these com-
municate by pipes with air chambers for supplying the engine. The
air within the receiver (taking one for example) is exhausted by means

page_text: of a fan or other suitable means, and the air so withdrawn is replaced
by heated gases from the furnace. The action of the fan is arrested, and
the further admittance of heated gases to the receiver is shut off. As
before stated this receiver communicates by means of pipes to air-tight
chambers. To each of these pipes is a valve to prevent any communi-
cation betwixt the receiver and the chambers until requisite or necessary
to accomplish the objects in view. The receiver being now full of heated
furnace gases the valve of one of the pipes connected to an air chamber
is opened, and as a natural consequence (unless preventative measures
were used) the heated gases within the receiver and the atmospheric air
or other gas within the air chamber would intermingle, but this I prevent
by means of a slab of rock salt introduced between the valve and the
air chamber, which will allow the transmission of the heat from the
and the
gases to the air, but prevent any intermingling of the two;
consequence is that the atmospheric air within the air chamber con-
nected to the pipe, the valve of which is open, will have transmitted to
it a large amount of heat from the heated gases within the receiver, and
these said gases will be at a much less temperature than heretofore by
reason of the heat abstracted by the air in air chamber No. 1. The
valve in the connecting pipe is then closed, and the valve in the pipe
connected to air chamber No. 2 is opened, the same process is repeated,
and so on. Of course it will be understood that there are as many slabs
of rock salt as air chambers. The result of these processes is that the
heat is abstracted from the furnace gases within the receiver, and thereby
a considerable or partial vacuum is formed, into which the cylinder or
cylinders of an air engine can discharge their contents every stroke.
The heated air within the air chamber will be found to vary con-
siderably in temperature; that within No. 1 chamber will be found to
have absorbed more heat from the gases than that within No. 2, and so
on, but this can be equalized for the purpose of obtaining an equal
pressure upon the piston by having communications to be opened when
required betwixt these said chambers.
The admission of a further supply of heated gases to the receivers,
and the cold air therein expelled or warmed up when the vacuum has
been sufficiently vitiated will be necessary, and this can be accomplished
by the same means as were adopted when the said receivers were first
filled with the heated gases.

page_text: It will likewise be found necessary to admit fresh air into the air
chambers, and this can be done either by means of a pump valve or other
suitable apparatus.
It will be evident that the means herein described for transmitting the
heat from furnace gases to atmospheric air or other gases in air-tight
chambers can be applied to a variety of purposes besides the working
of hot air engines.
In the dyeing of fibrous substances, or wherever clean hot air or gas
is advantageous, the method or process and apparatus herein described,
or some modification of it, will be found of great value.