IMPROVEMENTS IN WORKING COKE AND OTHER KILNS OR OVENS
Year: 1847

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FREDERICK
RANSOME, of Ipswich, in the County of Suffolk, Engineer, 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 Twenty-fourth day of
February, One thousand eight hundred and forty-seven, in the tenth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Frederick Ransome, my exors, admors, and assigns, Her especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Frederick
Ransome, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Frederick Ransome, my exors, adñiors, 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, my
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN WORKING COKE AND OTHER KILNS OR OVENS ;"
in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said Frederick
Ransome, shall cause a particular description of the nature of my said Inven-
tion, 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 said 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
Frederick Ransome, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully
described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, that is
to say:
My Invention consists of improvements in cooling coke and other kilns or
ovens by causing air to circulate or pass by mechanical apparatus or means
through flues or passages used for cooling such kilns and ovens and the charges
therein.
And in order that my Invention may be fully understood and readily
carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the means pursued by me.
In working of coke kilns or ovens, the cooling has been and is of late years
extensively done by having air passages or flues arranged in such manner as
to allow air freely to circulate in contact with the inner lining of the oven or
kiln, the air not coming in contact with the charge in the kiln or oven, such
circulation of the air in the passages or flues being caused by the rarification
of the air by the heat of the flues or passages; and such mode of working
coke ovens is according to a Patent granted to Jabez Church, on the Twentieth
day of December, One thousand eight hundred and forty-five. This mode of
making coke is very superior to the old mode, where the charge is drawn
when hot, and cooled down by water. In working of such description of
coke ovens or kilns, I have found that the time of cooling of a kiln or oven
is very uncertain, depending on the state of the outer atmosphere; and I
have found that it is important to cool down the charge as quickly as possible,
so long as the atmosphere is excluded from the charge. In coke ovens
constructed according to the said Letters Patent, the air, after passing through
the passages or flues, simply rises through a short pipe into the atmosphere by
its levity, the pipe having little if any effect in causing the circulation or
passage of the air through the flues or passages. I have found that by hastening
the draft, ovens or kilns arranged with passages or flues may be materially
quickened in the process of cooling, and this I prefer to do by connecting the
air or cooling flues with a rotatory fan or blower, in such manner as to
continuously withdraw the air from such flues or passages, by which means
the external air will rush into the flues or passages, and thus cool the same
quickly, and by these means the charge in the oven or kiln will also be
quickly cooled. I would remark, that although I prefer a rotatory fan or
blower for such purposes, I do not confine myself thereto, as other well-known
arrangements of blowing and exhausting apparatus may be employed, or, in
place thereof, the air or cooling flues or passages, or the pipe thereof, may be

page_text: conducted into a high shaft or chimney, thus adding additional power of
exhaustion to that which results from the heat of the passages or flues.
I however prefer to use a rotatory fan or blowing machinery for such purposes,
as being more certain and uniform; and there is also this advantage, that
when using blowing machinery the heated air propelled thereby may be
conducted by suitable pipes or apparatus, and thrown into drying rooms or
places requiring to be heated.
I have above described the Invention as applied only to coke ovens, but I
would state that my Invention is equally applicable to other kilns or ovens
wherever flues or passages may be built in the bottom, sides, or other part or
parts of a kiln or oven, so as to have streams of air drawn or forced through
by suitable apparatus or mechanical means, as herein described.
I would, however, remark, that I make no claim to building of such flues
or passages in ovens or kilns, my Invention consisting of applying mechanical
apparatus or means to air flues of coke or other kilns or ovens, for the
purpose of quickening the passage of air through the same, and thus more
readily to cool such kilns or ovens and the charges therein.
In witness whereof, I, the said Frederick Ransome, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Seventh day of August, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-seven.