IMPROVEMENTS IN FURNACE GRATES, AND IN MECHANISM FOR SUPPORTING AND OPERATING THE SAME
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Robert Lake, of the Firm of Haseltine,
.Lake, & Co., Patent Agents, Southampton Buildings, London, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN FURNACE GRATES, AND IN MECHANISM
FOR SUPPORTING AND OPERATING THE SAME. -A communication from
-
abroad by S. Lloyd Wiegand, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United
States of America.
Sealed the 11th June 1875, and dated the 15th December 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Robert Lake
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 15th December 1874.
I, WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co.,
Patent Agents, Southampton Buildings, London, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN FURNACE GRATES, AND
IN MECHANISM FOR SUPPORTING AND OPERATING THE SAME," a communication,
to be as follows:-
:-
In practising this Invention I adopt a novel mode of forming the
bars of grates so that they may be reciprocated horizontally, and thus

page_text: sift out the ashes and cinders from the burning fuel without opening
the furnace, and I so form the bars that with a small amount of metal
numerous spaces for the admission of air are secured, and the fuel is
well sustained, and the parts of the bars are so formed as to avoid any
possibility of one bar becoming caught or fouled by the contiguous bars
and impeded in its reciprocating motion.
These results are obtained in the following manner :-At the upper
edge on one side of a deep web are placed projections of equal lengths
having air spaces between them, which air spaces are made taper with
their largest space downwards, so as to permit anything which falls
into the space to drop freely through it. These bars are placed parallel
with each other in the furnace so that the ends of the projections of
one bar are toward the smooth straight side of the next bar. On the
under side of each bar are formed cavities adapted to fit upon the
journals or wrists of rock shafts. These bars are supported upon rock
shafts capable of vibrating upon trunnions. The wrists on the rock.
shafts may be arranged diametrically opposite to each other with each
alternate wrist up and down, so that when the rock shaft is vibrated
alternate bars move forward and backward in vibrating; in this case
the bearings formed on the bars to fit the wrists of the rock shafts will
be of different vertical height on each alternate bar to adapt them in
height to their proper wrists.
In another arrangement of the rock shaft and grates the wrists of the
rock shafts are placed at such an angle to each other that when one
series of alternate bars is reciprocating in a horizontal direction the
other series is reciprocating vertically.
In conjunction with this last arrangement of the rock shaft it is
useful to employ grate bars with a web having angular loops formed
alternately on each side on the upper edge; the proportions of these
loops should be such that the space between each two contiguous loops
on the same side of a bar shall be less than the external width of the
loop in this way the loops of one bar can never become entangled or
fouled in the spaces of the next bar.
The rock shafts are formed with trunnions in which they vibrate;
and these trunnions rest in openings formed in stationary bars; they
are preferably made a single casting, and to form a part of the surface
of the grate, and to rest on the supports usually provided for stationary

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Robert Lake in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 11th June 1875.
'
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co., Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, London, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of December, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the
thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said William Robert Lake, Her
special licence that I, the said William Robert Lake, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William
Robert Lake, my exccutors, 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 Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN FURNACE GRATES, AND IN MECHANISM FOR SUP-
PORTING AND OPERATING THE SAME," a communication to me from
abroad by S. Lloyd Wiegand, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United
States of America, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said William Robert Lake, my executors or administrators,, by an
instrument in writing under my, 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 I, the said William Robert Lake, do hereby 1
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement, reference being had to the accom-
panying Drawing forming a part of this Specification:-
In practising this Invention I adopt a novel mode of forming the
bars of grates so that they may be reciprocated horizontally, and thus
sift out the ashes and cinders from the burning fuel without opening
the furnace, and I so form the bars that with a small amount of metal
numerous spaces for the admission of air are secured, and the fuel is
well supported, and the parts of the bars are so formed as to avoid any a
possibility of one bar becoming caught or fouled by the contiguous bars.
and impeded in its reciprocating motion.
.
Figure 1 is a plan, and Figure 2 a side clevation of this Invention.
Figures 3 and 4 are perspective views of a bar and rock shaft on which
the grates are supported and operated.
Figure 5 shows the bearing bars to support the rock shafts.
Figure 6 is a plan shewing a modified form of grate; Figure 7 is a
side clevation; and Figure 8 a front elevation of the rock shaft used in
supporting this modified form of grate.
Similar letters indicate the same parts throughout the Drawing.

page_text: In Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4, A is a grate bar formed with a central
web B at the lower part, and at the upper part with a series of angular
loops C, the spaces or openings D in and between the loops being so
beveled that they are wider below than at the top, thus permitting any
cinders or ashes that enter the spaces D to fall through readily to the
ash-pit. The spaces D should be less in width than the ends of the
loops C, so that a loop of one bar cannot be caught in the space of an
adjacent bar. In depth or height these loops are preferably made¨
greater than any rising or falling motion of the bars (herein-after
explained) in order that the bars may not override each other. On the
under side near each end of the central web B are formed two bearings.
E and E by which the bars A are adapted to fit indiscriminately on the
wrists F and F of rock shafts G; these rock shafts G have journals H
upon which they vibrate in bearing bars J. The relative angular
position of the wrists F and F¹ to the journals H is such that when
the wrists F are vibrated in arcs approximating to a horizontal plano;
the wrists F are vibrated in arcs approximating to a vertical plane,
and vice versa; when the wrists F' vibrate horizontally' the wrists F
vibrate vertically. The grato bars participato in the vibratory motion
of the wrists upon which they severally rest. The bearing bars J afford
a support for the journals H of the rock shafts G, so that they are
always in the proper relative position, and by their resting on the bars K
usually built in furnaces for common stationary grates the application
of these grates to existing furnaces is rendered very easy. A lever L
scrves to vibrate the rock shaft G, and the motion is transmitted by the
bars A to the other rock shafts. When the said rock shafts are vibrated
the fuel is supported only on alternate bars which move horizontally,
sift the ashes and cinders, break the clinkers, and produce the effect of
slicing or cutting the fire.
In wide furnaces several sets of the bearing bars J are introduced with.
several short rock shafts to facilitate their vibration and avoid the
warping to which long rock shafts are liable.
In the modified form of bar shown in Figures 6, 7, and 8, the bearing
bars are of the same construction as shown at J in Figure 5. The wrists
F and F are placed diametrically opposite to each other in relation to
the trunnions or gudgeons H, H, so that when one set of wrists F is up
at the highest point the other set F' is at the lowest point. The bars
are alternately formed with bearings or sockets Ẹ³ placed up and down

page_text: Fourth. The fuel supporting loops C combined with the supporting
veb-B in vibrating or reciprocating grates, as herein set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Robert Lake, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Tenth day of June, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
five.
Witness,
JAS. EDWARDS,
8, Southampton Buildings,
London.
W. ROBT. LAKE. (L.S.)