IMPROVEMENTS IN FURNACES FOR BURNING OIL
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Rankin Weir and James Gray, both of Glasgow,
in the County of Lanark, North Britain, for the Invention of "IM-
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Rankin Weir and
James Gray at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 16th April 1868.
We, RANKIN WEIR and JAMES GRAY, both of Glasgow, in the County
of Lanark, North Britain, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN FURNACES FOR BURNING OIL," to be as
follows, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object the burning of oil in furnaces in a
satisfactory, efficient, and economical manner, and it consists in feeding
the oil from below into a layer or mass of porous or loose materials,
on the surface of which it burns with the aid of air currents or jets
induced by steam or otherwise. It is also intended to use water,
which is to be thrown upon the flames in minute jets, or in the form
of spray.

page_text: In practically carrying out the Invention a kind of shallow tray or
dish, which may be of cast iron, is fixed horizontally in the furnace
chamber or fire-box, and is covered or filled to a depth of a few
inches with the porous materials. A pipe or pipes opening into the
bottom of the tray lead the oil thereto from a tank or reservoir, which
is by preference placed at a somewhat higher level than that of the
tray. The porous materials which are placed in the tray to act as a
kind of wick for the oil may consist of asbestos, borings, turnings,
or filings of iron or steel, coils of iron or steel, wire balls or broken
pieces of fire-brick, sand, gravel, coke, or any suitable refractory
substance. Various oils may be used as the liquid fuel, such, for
example, as petroleum or shale oil, and the arrangements answer
efficaciously with oils of low cost and poor quality, such as pitch or
tar oils.
One modification of apparatus for introducing the water comprises
tubes or shallow hollow shells or casings placed over or in front of the
fire, and having their upper sides perforated with fine holes, from
which the water is projected upwards so as to fall upon the flames,
but any other convenient mode of throwing the water in the form of
spray may be adopted.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Rankin Weir and James Gray in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 15th October 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, RANKIN
WEIR and JAMES GRAY, both of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark,
North Britain, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of April, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-
first year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto us, the said Rankin Weir and James Gray, Her special
licence that we, the said Rankin Weir and James Gray, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Rankin Weir
and James Gray, our executors, administrators, and assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time, and at all times

page_text: 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 FURNACES FOR BURNING OIL," upon the condition
(amongst others) that we, the said Rankin Weir and James Gray, our
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our, or
their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly 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 immediately after the
date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Rankin Weir and James Gray, do
hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement in writing, reference being had to the
accompanying Drawings, that is to say :-
Our said Invention-has-for-its-object-the-burning-of-oil in-furnaces-
or fire-places in a satisfactory, efficient, and economical manner.
And in order that our said Invention and the manner of performing
the same may be properly understood, we have hereunto appended a Sheet
of explanatory Drawings, to be herein-after referred to, and representing
the application of our improved arrangements to a marine steam boiler
of a common type. It must however he distinctly understood that our
improved arrangements are applicable to various kinds of furnaces or
fire-places, and even to open furnaces, such as dwelling-house fire-places.
Figure 1 is a vertical section of a marine boiler with our improved
apparatus for burning oil, arranged in the space ordinarily occupied by
fire-bars; Figure 2 is a plan of the oil-burning apparatus by itself.
In practically carrying out our Invention a shallow tray or dish 1,
which is represented as of sheet iron, but which may be of cast iron or
fire-clay, is fixed horizontally in the furnace chamber or fire-box 2, and is
covered or filled to a depth of a few inches with iron turnings or
borings 3. The oil is led into the furnace from a tank or reservoir,
placed by preference at a slightly higher level than the tray 1 by a
pipe 4, which passing up through the tray bottom is jointed to the
middle of a horizontal pipe 5, disposed slightly above the tray bottom,
and having holes perforated along its bottom side. This disposition of

page_text: the pipe 5 with the perforations on its under side is adopted as the least
liable to have the flow of oil interrupted by the pipe, or its perforations
becoming stopped up. A series of fire-brick slabs 6 are placed across
the tray, being partly embedded in the turnings or borings 3, and they
become intensely heated, and serve to insure the thorough ignition of the
vapors rising from the oil; these slabs may be made with a number of
holes through them to promote the intermixing of the gases, vapors,
and air. The oil entering by the pipe 5 rises to the surface of the
turnings or borings 3, which act as a kind of wick for it, and it burns at
and above that surface, the air necessary for its combustion entering by
an aperture or apertures provided in the fire-door 7. If required the
inward flow of the air may be increased by jets of steam or otherwise,
and water in minute jets or spray may be thrown on the flames to
improve the combustion. When the furnace is that of a steam boiler as
in the example delineated on the accompanying Drawings, the water
may be taken from the boiler itself by a pipe 8, which enters above the
fire-door 7 into the furnace chamber 2. The inner end of the water
pipe 8 is formed with a bulb 9, across which a fine slit is made, and the
water issuing from this slit is projected in the form of fine spray over the
flames.
The water spray may be produced in various ways, and one modifi-
cation of apparatus for producing it comprises tubes or shallow hollow
shells or casings placed over or in front of the fire, and having their
upper sides perforated with fine holes, from which the water is projected
upwards so as to fall upon the flames. Instead of using turnings or
borings (3) to act as a wick for the oil, various other materials may be
employed for that purpose, such as asbestos, pumice stone, talc, mica,
filings of iron or steel, coils of iron or steel wire, balls or broken picces
of fire-brick, sand, gravel, coke, or any suitable refractory substance.
Various oils may be used as the liquid fuel, such for example as petro-
leum or shale oil, and our improved arrangements answer efficaciously
with oils of low cost and poor quality, such as pitch or tar oils. Any
hydrocarbon oils, either of mineral, vegetable, or animal origin, may be
used that can be obtained at a low enough cost, also hydrocarbon solids
or semi-solids, which can be rendered liquid by heating. Air may be
admitted between the fire-clay slabs 6 either by separate fire-clay or
other pipes, or the fire-clay slabs 6 themselves may be made hollow so
as to admit air from below, and allow it to issue by perforations on their
sides, or the tray 1 may be made of a corrugated section longitudinally,

page_text: the higher parts of the corrugations rising to the top of the tray, and
being perforated for the issue of air upwards from the ash-pit.
Having thus particularly described our said Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, we have to state that we do not
restrict ourselves to the precise details herein described or delineated;
but that what we believe to be novel and original, and claim as the
Invention secured to us by the herein-before in part recited Letters
Patent is,
1. The burning of liquid fuel with a wick of porous materials
supplied from below, and with accessory details and arrangements,
substantially such as are herein-before described.
And 2. The burning of liquid fuel with the aid of water thrown on
the flames in fine spray, substantially as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Rankin Weir, on behalf of myself
and the said James Gray, have hereunto set my hand and seal,
this Fourteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord-One-
thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight.