IMPROVEMENTS IN FURNACES AND APPARATUS USED IN THE MANUFACTURE AND WORKING OF GLASS
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Francis Hutchinson at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 13th April 1878.
FRANCIS HUTCHINSON, of Grimston, near the City of York, Glass Manufacturer.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN FURNACES AND APPARATUS USED IN THE MANUFACTURE AND
WORKING OF GLASS."
My Invention has reference to the furnaces and apparatus used in conducting
the manufacture of glass continuously, that is to say, in conducting that method of
manufacturing and working glass in which the glass-producing materials are charged
into the melting tank at one part, and the glass produced is gathered from and
worked at another part of the tank.
My said Invention consists in constructing and arranging in the manner herein-
after described the parts of the said furnaces and and tanks, whereby the continuous
manufacture and working of glass can be more conveniently and advantageously
conducted than by the use of furnaces and tanks of the ordinary kind.
I construct and arrange the parts of the said furnaces and apparatus in the fol-
lowing manner :-I place the fire-box of the furnace at one end of the tank in which
the melting of the glass-producing materials is effected and the working of the glass
conducted, instead of having fire-boxes at opposite sides or ends of the tank, as
usual, and I place the draught flues connected with the chimney stack at the end
of the tank opposite to that at which the fire-box of the furnace is situated. The
flame and products of combustion are thus conducted through the upper part of the
tank from one end to the other.
The tank is partially divided into two unequal compartments by means of a
bridge, the top of which is at a somewhat higher level than the working surface of
the glass. In the bottom of the said bridge is a passage, through which the glass
formed by the melting of the materials in the larger compartment of the tank flows
into the other smaller and working compartment.
The larger or melting compartment of the tank adjoins the fire-box, and the flame
and products of combustion pass first through the said larger or melting compart-
ment of the tank, next over the bridge and smaller compartment of the tank, and

page_text: finally pass through an opening in the end of the tank into flues connected with
the chimney stack.
The working holes are situated at opposite sides or at the ends of the smaller
compartment of the tank at a height a little above the level of the molten glass.
The draught power of the flues described is somewhat in excess of that required
by the furnace, and in consequence of this there is a slight exhaustion in the upper
part of the tank, by which a gentle current of air is determined through the working
holes into the tank. These currents clear the surface of the molten glass from flame,
rendering the glass clearly visible, and enabling the workman to gather the required
amount of glass at the working hole with great ease and certainty.
By the arrangements described the flame and heat from the fire-box first pass
over the glass-making materials in the larger compartment of the tank, fusing the
same into glass. This passes in the way described to the smaller compartment of
the tank, where it is maintained at a sufficiently high temperature to be conve-
niently worked by the passage over it of the flame and heated air from the larger
compartment, while the surface of the glass in the smaller or working compartment
of the tank is kept clear from flame and smoke by the gentle inward current of air
at the working holes, and can be readily seen by the workman.