IMPROVEMENTS IN
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Adolphe Espinasse, Engineer, of Firminy, Depart-
ment of the Loire, France, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
Dunn
"
Sealed the 28th April 1876, and dated the 2nd November 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Adolphe Espinasse
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 2nd November 1875.
I, ADOLPHE ESPINASSE, Engineer, of Firminy, Department of the Loire,
France, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN PUDDLIng Ovens and Puddling Apparatus," to be as follows :—
These improvements relate in the first place to mechanical puddling
apparatus to be applied to ovens for smelting and refining metals
generally, especially to puddling ovens and to furnaces for roasting ores.
And in the second place to the application of a blast of air to
puddling, refining, and other furnaces, the said air being heated by its

page_text: passage in heated flues, the said flues being either made in the oven
where the blast is applied, or in flues independent of such oven.
In practice my apparatus consists in a shaft passing vertically through
the crown of the furnace or oven, provided at its lower extremity with
one or more horizontal helicoidal arms descending in close proximity with i
the surface of a circular bed in which the metal to be puddled is
placed. I impart rotary motion to this shaft by means of appropriate
gearing situated without and preferably adapted to the furnace itself, and
at the same time a simple mechanism of any appropriate description for
raising the shaft with its working arms out of the circular bed and for
lowering the same as required, and a slot may be made in the crown of
the furnace for the purpose of drawing the shaft with its blade or blades
entirely out of the furnace.
For the purpose of heating the blast by means of the furnace itself
such blast is conducted cold to one or several lateral openings leading to 1
flues or passages passing in appropriate directions in proximity with the
bed, from whence, having derived sufficient heat, similar flues conduct
the heated blast under the fire-grate.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Adolphe Espinasse in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 2nd May 1876.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ADOLPHE
ESPINASSE, Engineer, of Firming, Department of the Loire, France,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Second day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the
thirty-ninth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Adolphe Espinasse, Her
special license that I, the said Adolphe Espinasse, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Adolphe
Espinasse, my 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

page_text: Figures of the accompanying Drawing, of which Figure 1 is a plan of a
puddling oven in section through A, A, Figure 2, provided with my
improvements; Figure 2, a longitudinal elevation of the same in section
through B, B, Figure 1; Figure 3, an end elevation of the same in
section through C, C, Figure 1; and Figure 4, a longitudinal external
clevation.
In these Figures a is the working vertical shaft, provided at its lower
extremity with one or more helecoidal pallets c, made fast thereto by
keys or otherwise; the form and the number of these pallets will vary,
according to the nature of the puddling required; b, b', are bevel wheels,
which transmit rotary motion to the working shaf a by means of the
horizontal driving shaft d driven by steam or other appropriate power
by means of a belt passing over the pulley e or otherwise; the above
apparatus is supported and runs in a frame bolted to the furnace. The
pallets c and the shaft a at its lower extremity are made of ordinary
and may be luted or protected by fire-clay when the nature of the metal
treated requires it. The shaft a can be raised when necessary by means
of chains and pulleys or other appropriate tackle.
The working of this apparatus is exceedingly simple. The shaft a,
with its palets c, is first held suspended near the roof of the oven, and
at the required moment it is lowered in the heated metal (for this
purpose a hole is made in the roof of the oven); the wheels then gear
together, and rotary motion is imparted to the whole, which causes the
palets to raise the lower layers of the metal to the surface, thereby
thoroughly puddling the mass thereof.
the very
Some of the most prominent advantages of this apparatus are,
laborious operation of puddling by hand is reduced to the superinten-
dence of the oven and keeping up the fire, the charges may be very
heavy and are very rapidly worked, the cost of the apparatus is rela-
tively trifling since it consists of but a few simple mechanical parts
which can be readily adapted to any existing furnace.
The second part of my improvements consist in directing one or
several blasts of air through passages, making numerous circuits, and
terminating under the fire-grate. The air forced through these passages
is heated by its contact with the sides thereof, and arrives at the grate
heated to a high temperature, favoring combustion, hence a greater heat
is obtained in the furnace, and a considerable economy of fuel is effected.

page_text: 9, 9, 9, 9, Figures 1 and 4, represent nozzles to which the blast pipes of
cold air are connected, and from whence it is forced through various
passages indicated by arrows in close connection with the bottoms and
sides of the furnace bed, from which it derives heat; and h, h, h,
Figure 2, the openings through which this heated blast comes under the
fire-grate.
Having thus explained the nature of my Invention, as well as the
best means that I am acquainted with for carrying the same into
practical operation, I claim as my Invention,
Firstly. The vertical shaft a, with its helicoidal palets c rotating in
the metal heated in a puddling or other furnace, together with the mode
indicated or its equivalent for rotating it from without, and the means
of raising the same out of the metal and at the same time out of contact
with its driving apparatus.
And, Secondly. The mode above described and illustrated of heating
a cold blast of air by forcing it through circuitous passages arranged
near the bed of the furnace from which it derives its heat, and from
thence directing it under the grate of the furnace.
In witness whereof, I, the said Adolphe Espinasse, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Second day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-six.
ESPINASSE. (L.S.)
Witness,
D. H. BRANDON.