IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF UTILIZING THE WASTE GASES OF BLAST FURNACES
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Frederick Levick, junior, Iron Master, and John
James, Furnace Manager, both of Cwm Celyn and Blaina Iron Works,
in the County of Monmouth, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MODE OF UTILIZING THE WASTE GASES OF BLAST FURNACES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Frederick Levick and
John James at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 17th December 1856.
We, FREDERICK LEVICK, junior, Iron Master, and JoпN JAMES, Furnace
Manager, both of Cwm Celyn and Blaina Iron Works, in the County of
Monmouth, do hereby declaro the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MODE OF UTILIZING THE WASTE GASES OF BLAST FURNACES," to be as
follows:-
The chief object of this Invention is to economize to a greater extent than
heretofore the waste gases from blast furnaces. This wo propose to effect by
applying the gases to the puddling or balling and reheating of iron, and
heating the air to be used in blast furnaces, or puddling iron and generating
steam simultaneously. The pipes of the hot blast stove instead of resting
upon brick pillars, as is commonly the case, we suspend above the arch of the
stove, and we form below the arch a puddling hearth. A pipe or flue from
the blast furnace conducts the waste gases to the puddling hearth, and as the

page_text: gases impinge upon the molten metal on the hearth, they will become ignited.
The arch is pierced to permit of the heat given off, or not absorbed by the
puddling operation, to pass upwards, and heat the blast pipes above in a
uniform and efficient manner, thus avoiding the necessity for the consumption
of fuel for this special object.
An advantage consequent on using suspended pipes in the blast stove,
besides admitting of a more equable distribution of heat among the pipes than
could otherwise be obtained, is that the arch may be renewed when burnt out
without the necessity for disturbing the pipes.
When we apply the waste gases to the puddling or balling of iron and the
generating of steam in combination, we build up puddling or balling furnaces
around or under a boiler, and cause the heated gases to impinge thereon or
circulate around or over the heating surfaces thereof in any well-known
manner.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Frederick Levick and John James in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 17th June 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, FREDERIC
LEVICK, junior, Iron Master, and JOHN JAMES, Furnace Manager, both of
Cwm Celyn and Blaina Iron Works, in the County of Monmouth, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the twentieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said Frederick Levick and John James, Her special licence that we, the said
Frederick Levick and John James, our executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as we, the said Frederick Levick and John James, our
executors, administrators, and 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 THE MODE OF UTILIZING THE
WASTE GASES OF BLAST FURNACES," upon the condition (amongst others) that we,
the said Frederick Levick and John James, by an instrument in writing under
our hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us, should parti-

page_text: cularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in.
the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Frederick Levick, on behalf of myself
and of the said John James, do hereby declare the nature of our said Inven-
tion, 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 Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked.
thercon (that is to say):-
This Invention consists in economizing to a greater extent than heretofore
the waste gases from blast furnaces, firstly, by applying the gases to the
puddling or balling and reheating of iron, and simultaneously with this heating
the air to be used in blast furnaces; or, secondly, by applying the heat obtained
by the construction of such gases to the generation of steam after it has
operated upon the molten metal in the puddling hearth.
In Sheet I. of the accompanying Drawings we have shown in several views
the stove or furnace which we prefer to employ in carrying out the first part
of our Invention, but it will be obvious that other arrangements of stove or
furnace than that shewn (which forms the subject of an application for a
Patent lodged with the Commissioners of Patents on the Fifteenth day of June
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven) may be employed, if thought
desirable. We have, however, considered it needful to shew our improved
stove, as it offers greater facilities than any with which we are acquainted for
carrying out this the first head of our Invention.
Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the furnace which we employ; Fig. 2 is an
end elevation; Fig. 3 is a longitudinal vertical section; Fig. 4 is a vertical
section taken at right angles to Fig. 3; and Figs. 5 and 6 are cross sections.
taken respectively in the lines 1, 2, 3 and 4 of Fig. 3. The furnace consists
mainly of a chamber A, containing the air pipes a, a, and a chamber B below
it, on the hearth 6 of which the puddling operation is effected. The waste
gases are brought from the blast furnace by a pipe C, and from this main pipe
depends a pipe c, which conducts the gases to the puddling chamber. On their
passage to this chamber they meet with a current of air which mingles there-
with, and expands the volume and affords the requisite amount of oxygen to
effect their combustion. A valve c', fitted in the pipe c, is employed for
adjusting the supply of the gases to the requirements of the puddling operation.
In the arch and inner end of the puddling chamber openings are made for the
passage upwards of the currents of beated air from the puddling chamber to

page_text: the chamber A containing the pipes a, a. These pipes are made of cast iron,
and suspended at their upper ends on brackets attached to the sides of the
furnace. A channel 6, leading to the chamber B, is made in the furnace wall
for the purpose of conducting the molten metal to the hearth 6. From this
description of our improved hot blast stove or furnace (which forms no part of
the present Patent), the system on which we propose to work will become
evident, (that is to say,) we propose, as has formerly been attempted, to apply
the waste gases of the blast furnace to the puddling of iron, and in addition
thereto, and when the heat generated in the puddling chamber has produced
the effect required from it, we cause it to pass from that chamber into an
adjoining chamber, and circulate around a serpentine or other suitable arrange-
ment of pipes connected with a blast furnace, and supplied with. air for feeding
the fire of such furnace, and we thus apply the heat generated from the waste
gases for heating the air blast on its passage to the blast furnace. In general
we propose to connect several of such hot blast stoves with one blast furnace
for receiving the waste gases therefrom, and in like manner several of such
stoves will be required for supplying one blast furnace with heated-air, but all
arrangements of this nature must be determined according to the capacity of
the stoves and furnaces in use at the works where our Invention is proposed
to be applied.
For the puddling or balling of iron, and the generation of steam simul-
taneously by the employment of the waste gases of blast furnaces, we propose
to employ apparatus arranged similar to that represented in longitudinal section
in Sheet II. of the Drawings, where a steam boiler and puddling furnace are
shewn as combined for the purposes of this part of our Invention. A is the
steam boiler, with a fire flue passing through it. This boiler is suitably mounted
in brickwork B, B, and has a return flue passing under it and communicating
with the chimney. shaft. C is the puddling furnace in direct communication
with the internal flue of the boiler. The wasto gases from the blast furnace
are supplied to the puddling hearth by a pipe D, connected with a main
pipe E.
Suitable provision must be made as before stated for regulating the
volume of waste gas admitted to the puddling furnace, and also for supplying
the molten metal to the hearth.
Having now set forth the nature and object of our Invention of improve-
ments in the mode of utilizing the waste gases of blast furnaces, and explained
in what manner our improvements may be carried into effect, we wish it to
be understood that under the above in part recited Letters we claim,―
First, utilizing the waste gases obtained from blast furnaces by causing such
gases, after heating tho molten metal on the puddling hearth, to heat the air on

page_text: its passage through the hot blast stove from the blowing engine to the blast
furnace.
And, secondly, applying the heat obtained from the waste gases of blast
furnaces to the generation of steam after the heat has been caused to act upon
the molten iron on the puddling hearth, as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Frederick Levick, junior, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Sixteenth day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
FRED LEVICK, JUNE. (L.S.)