IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND INTERNAL ARRANGEMENT OF FURNACES, AND IN THE PREPARATION, MANUFACTURE, AND TREATMENT OF CLAYS AND BRICKS, AND OTHER ARTICLES MADE OF CLAY, EARTHENWARE, OR STONE, USED FOR THE ABOVE AND OTHER STRUCTURES
Year: 1860

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Hale and Arthur Wall
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition, on
the 23rd November 1860.
We, THOMAS HALE, of No. 21, Barnsbury Row, Park Road, Islington, in
the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, and ARTHUR WALL, of Canton Street,
East India Road, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby declaro
the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND
INTERNAL ARRANGEMENT OF FURNACES, AND IN THE PREPARATION, MANUFACTURE,
AND TREATMENT OF CLAYS AND BRICKS, AND OTHER ARTICLES MADE OF CLAY,
EARTHENWARE, OR STONE, USED FOR THE ABOVE AND OTHER STRUCTURES," to be
as follows:-
So far as it relates to improvements in the construction and internal
arrangement of furnaces, and in the mode of economizing fuel, it consists in
erecting in the furnace a series of two or more walls or partitions, with
openings or perforations made in them for the passage of smoke, gases, or
vapours arising from the combustion of the fuel, and so erected as to form a
chamber (or two or more chambers). The uses of which are, first, for con-
suming smoke and its hydrocarbons, and thereby preventing the same from
passing up the chimney or shaft, or collecting therein, or in the pipes or flues.
Second, for preventing particles of partially consumed fuel from being
carried into the uplift, where they sometimes collect and form a separate fire
of no use in the generation of steam, but highly dangerous to the structure.
Third, for preventing those sudden chills noticeable in boilers every time the

page_text: furnace is fed, partly from the cold coals introduced, and partly from the rush
of cold air into the furnace on its being opened, as when the chamber is once
hot the admission of an extra quantity of air to it, with the smoke and
hydrogen evolved by the coals, tends to increase its heat to a degree far
superior to any obtained from coal or other fuel by the ordinary method of
combustion.
And, fourth, for economizing fuel, inasmuch as when the chamber has attained
its maximum heat, a much less quantity of coal than at present consumed is
sufficient to keep up that heat if thrown into the furnace in small portions from
time to time. The chambers can be erected with ordinary fire bricks, or with
fire clay, without any other admixture; but as the action of hydrogen and
oxygen is very destructive in a furnace where there is no intermission of heat
for days, or perhaps weeks together, as well as to increase their efficiency, we
prefer erecting them of fire or other clays, or bricks prepared, manufactured,
or treated in the improved manner hereafter mentioned, which very greatly
enhances their efficiency and adds to their durability.
Our improved mode of preparing, manufacturing, and treating clays and
bricks, and other articles made of clay, earthenware, and stone, is as follows:
-We add to clay in the process of manufacture a preparation of powdered
asbestos, pumice stone, or the lava of volcanoes, magnesia, and bone ash,
which is made as follows:-We take the asbestos and pumice stone in a
powdered state, and place them in a furnace or crucible, adding to them while
there a quantity of muriate of soda. When sufficiently treated, we take the
mass out and reduce it to a powder, and then add to it the magnesia and bone
ash, which is also first reduced to a powdered state, or we reduce such pre-
paration to a paste, wash, or paint, by the addition of carbonate of potash or
carbonate of soda, or both, and water, and then coat with it the bricks or other
articles when manufactured of clay, whether prepared by our process or not;
or we apply it to the surface of any erection after it is built therewith, or with
any earthenware or stone.
One effect of this process being to render the bricks or other matters so
prepared or treated less liable to the destructive action of fire, or the influence
of the atmosphere, it is applicable not only to the erection of the chambers wo
have described, bus also to the formation, manufacture, or treatment of any
erections or articles made of brick, stone, earthenware, or clay.