CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN EVAPORATING FURNACES
Year: 1848

page_text: BLACKWELL'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
BLACKWELL, of Winsford, in the County of Chester, Salt Proprietor, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Second day of February
(One thousand eight hundred and forty-eight), in the eleventh year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said James Blackwell, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, Her especial licence,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said James Blackwell, my
exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said James Blackwell,
my exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in the Islands of Jersey,
Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and in all Her Majesty's Colonies and
Plantations abroad, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN EVAPORATING
FURNACES;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the
said James Blackwell, shall cause a particular description of the nature of
my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the
same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at-large appear,

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
James Blackwell, hereby declare that my said Invention has relation generally
to all furnaces employed for the purpose of evaporating fluids or bodies in a
fluid state, as water, brine, oils, syrups, &c., and has for its nature or object
the producing and sustaining of an intensity of heat in such furnaces greater
than usual, a saving in the consumption of fuel, and the avoidance or diminu-
tion of smoke; and I further declare that the manner in which the said Inven-
tion is performed is fully set forth in the following description thereof, reference
being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed; that is to say:―
The said Drawings exemplify my said Invention as applied to a furnace
suitable for the evaporation of brine or manufacture of salt.
Figure 1 is a front elevation of this furnace; Figure 2 a longitudinal section
of it; and Figure 8 a plan on the line a, b, of Figure 1. A, A, A, are the
external walls of the furnace, which are formed throughout of fire brick. B is
the fire place, and a, a, a, the grate bars. B¹ is the bridge, which is composed,
like the outer walls, of fire brick. C is an ante-chamber through which the
fireplace is supplied with fuel in manner to be presently herein-after explained.
D, D, D¹, D¹, are two sets of air holes formed in the front wall of the furnace
immediately over and under the fuel supply chamber C, which holes lead into
the fireplace B, and are left always open. Beneath D', D', there is an open
passage E, leading to the part of the fireplace immediately above the grate
bars, which serves also as an inlet for air, and through which all such solid
residual matters as are left on the bars are raked out from time to time. Fis
the ash pit, G salt pan, and H the passage to the chimney. The manner of
operation is as follows: A fire is first made in the fireplace B, with wood and
coal as usual; the ante-chamber C is then filled to the top and from end to
end with coal or good coal slack. The fire as it burns in B gradually cokes
the green or crude fuel in the adjoining chamber C, and draws from it various
gaseous vapours which contribute more or less combustible matter to the fire.
When the original supply of fuel to the fireplace B begins to be exhausted
(which the person in charge can readily ascertain by looking through the open
passage E), a farther supply is furnished by pushing forward the contents of
the ante-chamber C, and to the extent of the void thereby made in that cham-
ber it is refilled with fresh coal or coal slack. When that second supply is
nearly consumed a third. is pushed forward in like manner, and so on. For
the first time or two that the contents of the ante-chamber C are ejected upon
the fire they are commonly in an imperfectly coked or carbonized state, and
there is consequently a considerable escape of smoke (or unconsumed fuel)
from the chimney (though still much less than usual); but after the fire has

page_text: been well got up, and the walls of the furnace have become thoroughly heated,
the coking keeps so ahead of the consumption of fuel in the fireplace that
there ceases to be any discharge of crude fuel into the fire, and only a colour-
less or imperceptible vapour is emitted from the chimney. The whole or nearly
the whole of the combustible matters in the fuel are thus turned to profitable
account, and a saving in fuel is the result much exceeding (I believe) any
which has been hitherto effected.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim as my Inven-
tion is the constructing of evaporating furnaces with an ante-chamber for the
preparatory coking or carbonizing of the fuel, and open air holes or passages,
placed and arranged as before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Blackwell, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of July, in the year of our
JAMES (L.B.) BLACKWELL.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-eighth day of July, in
the year of our Lord 1848, the aforesaid James Blackwell came before our
said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Second day of August, in the year of our Lord One thou-
sand eight hundred and forty-eight.