IMPROVEMENTS IN THE ARRANGEMENT OF GAS RETORTS AND THEIR APPLIANCES, TOGETHER WITH APPARATUS AND MACHINERY FOR CHARGING AND DISCHARGING THEM
Year: 1874

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION. left by William John Warner at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
10th March 1874.
I, WILLIAM JOHN WARNER, of the Gas Works, South Shields, in the
County of Durham, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE ARRANGEMENT OF GAS RETORTS AND THEIR APPLIANCES,
TOGETHER WITH APPARATUS AND MACHINERY FOR CHARGING AND DISCHARGING
THEM," to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to so arrange the retorts and apparatus
for charging and discharging the same, that the machinery employed
may be exceedingly simple and as nearly as possible self-acting, the
varying movements of the machine being produced by its passage over
fixed tappets or levers.
The Invention consists in building the retorts in a circle, or segment,
or segments of a circle, in sections of six and tiers of three. The
number however in each section or tier is not limited. The retorts are
made to open at each end, and have attached lids which may be made...
entirely removable, or they may be hinged to the mouth piece, and by a.
.

page_text: •
system of levers or other suitable appliances may be opened and closed
automatically by the machinery to be presently described..
.
The furnaces for heating the retorts are constructed so that they may
be fired from the exterior of the circle, and the scar or clinker broken
up by the action of the machine mentioned above. The retorts being
set in a circle the retort house is built in the same form, and has an
annular gallery situated above the retort benches running around it.
The coal or other gas making material is either drawn up an inclined
roadway or hoisted in waggons to run upon a tramway in the gallery, or
if the coal is brought into the works from the siding of a railway at
sufficient elevation the coal may be at once tipped or otherwise unloaded
into a large hopper which occupies the upper part of the inner circle of
the retort house, and in this case the hopper may be extended over the
retorts. At the bottom of the hopper but not connected to it is a
chamber, and attached to the chamber are three or more or less shoots
which terminate just above the scoops they are intended to fill. The
scoops are in number equal to the number of retorts set in each tier, and
are each somewhat more than double the length of each retort, which is
by preference to be about twelve feet. The scoops are mounted in a
frame extending to nearly the diameter of the inner circle of the benches,
the said frame being arranged so as to carry the chamber and shoots,
and to revolve with them round the inner faces of the benches, the axis
of which is common to the frame, the shoot chamber, and the hopper.
At the rear end of the frame or in other convenient position is fixed a
steam engine or engines and boiler from which is derived motion to
actuate the different parts of the apparatus, or the same may be driven
by power external to itself. The scoops are driven forward and drawn
backwards by means of chains which pass over pullies and are attached
to the scoops, and by a peculiar adaptation of the chains no reversal of
the engine is required to produce the requisite forward and backward
movement of the scoops.
:
The action of the apparatus is as follows:-The coals having been
brought on to the gallery before described are tipped into the hopper.
Motion is imparted from the engine to a central shaft which passes
through the chamber into the hopper, and on that part within the
hopper is fixed a short archimedian screw,
the revolution of which causes
the coal to descend into the chamber. The doors of the retorts are then
opened either by the action of the engine or by hydraulic power

page_text: operating upon a system of levers through the intervention of an
accumulator. The retorts being now open the scoops are driven forward
into the retorts, the front half of the scoops in length being empty while
the rear half of the scoops in their progressive movement receive their
charges of coal from the shoots depending from the chamber under the
hopper. The scoops being semicircular in form will on their entry into
the retorts glide underneath the coke until they have attained the full
length of the retorts, when the coke will be found lying in the scoops,
self-acting catches, levers, or forks being attached to the scoops for the
better delivery of the coke. A continuation of this progressive move-
ment will carry the scoops and consequently the coke out at the opposite
end of the retorts, while the rear half of the scoops which are charged
with coal will enter the retorts and proceed until the whole or nearly the
whole of the scoops have been inserted. At or near the extreme rear
end of the scoops an arrangement is made, so that upon attaining their
full thrust the scoops are caused to turn over, the front half of each
depositing its coke upon the floor or into a receptacle placed to receive it
while the rear half deposits its coal in the retort. The scoop is now
withdrawn, the lids closed by the same means as they were opened, and
the coals left to distil. The frame is then moved to the next section or
tier of retorts to be charged, when the operation before described is
repeated.
In building the retort benches an opening or openings are provided
for ingress and egress and for the withdrawal of the frame, which is con-
structed so as to run upon a rail or tramway specially adapted for it, or
the frame may be carried or partially carried by a central shaft.
Instead of chains for actuating the scoops a rack or racks may be
attached to each, and the same driven by a pinion or wheels, the end of
the scoop having a toothed segment and channel for the turning over
and withdrawal of the scoop by a continuance of the same motion of the
pinion.