CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN PROCESS AND IN FURNACES FOR BURNING PULVERULENT FUEL, SUCH AS ANTHRACITE COAL DUST, COKE DUST, TAN, OR PEAT
Year: 1880

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henri Adrien Bonneville, of the British and Foreign
Patent Offices, 15, Rue de la Chausée d'Antin, Paris, France, and 5, Piccadilly,
in the County of Middlesex, for an Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS
IN PROCESS AND IN FURNACES FOR BURNING PULVERULENT FUEL, SUCH AS
ANTHRACITE COAL DUST, COKE DUST, TAN, OR PEAT." A communication
from Adolph Faber du Faur, of Newark, New Jersey, United States of
America Civil and Mining Engineer and Metallurgist.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Adrien Bonneville
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 1st May 1880.
HENRI ADRIEN BONNEVILLE, of the British and Foreign Patent Offices, 15, Rue
de la Chauséo d'Antin, Paris, France, and 5, Piccadilly, in the County of
Middlesex. "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN PROCESS AND IN FURNACES FOR
BURNING PULVERULENT FUEL, SUCH AS ANTHRACITE COAL DUST, COKE DUST,
TAN, OR PEAT." A communication from Adolph Faber du Faur, of Newark, New
Jersey, United States of America, Civil and Mining Engineer and Metallurgist.
The object of the Invention is to utilizo pulverulent fuel by surface combustion.
The Invention consists, first, in the process of burning pulverulent fuel, such as
anthracite coal dust, coke dust, tan, or peat, by feeding the fuel in its natural slope
beneath an inclined heated arch, admitting the air for combustion at or near the
bottom of the slope, and allowing it to pass over the surface of the fuel towards the
top. It also consists in a furnace having an inclined arch, a feed opening at the top,
a bottom which will allow the fuel to take its natural slope, an opening or openings
for admitting air at or near the bottom of the slope, and an opening or openings for
the escape of the flame near the top of the slope.
The arch of the furnace, built of fire-brick, is sloped about the same as the natural
slope of the fuel. The bottom may be inclined, or may be made stair-shaped, or in
any other suitable form to allow the fuel first introduced to arrange itself with a
sloped surface, on which the fuel subsequently fed in will slide down. The bottom

page_text: may, for instance, be made in a concave form, so that the mass of fuel first intro-
duced produces a slope on which the fuel subsequently fed in slides down. It is
desirable to contract the distance between the upper end of the arch and the fuel by
making the upper end of the arch nearly horizontal.
At the lower end of the furnace spaces allow air to be admitted into the furnace.
At the top of the furnace are a fire-bridge, through which the flame passes to the
space beneath the boiler to be heated, and the opening for charging the fuel.
At the charging opening a gate may be used to regulate the thickness of the layer
of fuel. This gate may have its lower edge serrated, so as to cause the fuel to
arrange itself with an undulating surface, and thereby to increase the exposed surface
of the fuel.

page_text: The natural slope may be modified in its form by a forced foed, but it is preferable
to feed the fuel simply by gravity.
The operation of the furnace is as follows:-The furnace is first heated up by
wood or by wood and coarse coal; the coal-dust is then thrown in, and kept piled
up at the charging opening. The hot gases and hot arch heat the fuel at the
surface to such a degree that the incoming air will burn it off at the surface, so that at
the lower end of the slope nothing nothing but ashes are left. The ashes are from
time to time drawn out at the bottom, and may at onco be racked into a car G.
The form of the furnace may be modified in different manuers; for instance, the
flamne may pass around the fuel at the top so as to have the boiler at the opposite
side from that shown in the Drawing.
In some cases, particularly with coarser fuel, a grate or perforated plate may be
used at the lower end of the furnace.
Having thus described the nature of tho said Invention, and the manner of
carrying it into effect, I claim and wish to secure by Royal Letters Patent,-
1. The process of utilizing anthracite coal-dust, or other pulverulent fuel by
feeding the fuel in its natural slope beneath an inclined heated arch, admitting air
at or near the bottom of the slope, and discharging the products of combustion at
or near the top, substantially as specified.
2. In a furnace for burning pulverulent fuel an inclined arch, a feed opening at
the top, a bottom which perinits the fuel to arrange itself with a sloped surface, an
opening or openings for admitting air at or near the bottom of the slope, and a
discharge for the products of combustion at or near the top of the slope, substantially
as described.
3. The combination in a furnace for burning pulverulent fuel of an inclined arch A,
an inclined bottom B, an opening F for introducing the fuel at the top of the
inclined bottom, one or more openings a for admitting air to the fuel, and openings &
for admitting air to the heated gases rising from the burning fuel, substantially as
shown and described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henri Adrien Bonneville, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twentieth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and eighty.