IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SMOKE-CONSUMING IN STEAM BOILER AND OTHER FURNACES
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Rothwell Bardsley, of the City of Manchester,
Watchman, and William Blackshaw, of Manchester, aforesaid, Boot
Maker, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SMOKE-
Sealed the 5th May 1868, and dated the 7th November 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Rothwell Bardsley
and William Blackshaw at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
.with their Petition, on the 7th November 1867.
We, THOMAS ROTHWELL BARDSLEY, of the City of Manchester, Watchman,
and WILLIAM BLACKSHAW, of Manchester aforesaid, Boot Maker, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR
SMOKE-CONSUMING IN STEAM BOILER AND OTHER FURNACES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object the consumption of smoke in steam boiler
furnaces by the introduction of heated air at the back of the bridge, which
mixing with the smoke is immediately converted into ignited gas, the heat
from which is at once communicated to the boiler; and this Invention consists
in the use and application of a tube formed of metal, fire-clay, or other
suitable material carried from the rear of the boiler (where a damper may be
applied to its end) into the metallic tubular flue, or through the brick flues
round the boiler, and thence through the metallic tubular flue, where it may
be perforated with small holes and open into a cavity formed at the back of
the bridge, which cavity has a narrow opening into the flue at the back of the

page_text: bridge, covered with an overhanging top to prevent soot falling into the cavity
and thus choking it up. Upright branch pipes may be taken from the main
pipe within the tubular flue with their ends bent round in the direction of the
draft, and in the front of such branch pipes convex diaphragm plates of a less
diameter than the flue may be mounted upon stands or feet resting in the
flue, thus reducing the area of the flue, and by their peculiar form causing
the admixture of the smoke and heated air to be more perfect.
The action of this apparatus may be thus described :-Atmospheric air is
continually passing through the metallic or other tube into the cavity at the
back of the bridge, which becoming heated in its passage is in the proper
state to be mixed with the smoke in the flues, and thus a smoke-consuming
apparatus is constructed which is always in action, and the quantity of air
admitted may be regulated by a self-acting damper, so that when the furnaces
are freshly fed a greater quantity of air may be supplied, which may again be
reduced by self-closing mechanism applied to the damper.
It will be readily apparent that these improvements are equally applicable
to other furnaces for the consumption of smoke.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Rothwell Bardsley and William Blackshaw in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 7th May 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, THOMAS
ROTHWELL BARDSLEY, of the City of Manchester, Watchman, and WILLIAM
BLACKSHAW, of Manchester aforesaid, Boot Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS. Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of November, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirtieth year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto us,, the said Thomas Rothwell, Bardsley and William Blackshaw, Her
special licence, that we, the said Thomas Rothwell Bardsley and William
Blackshaw, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we,
the said Thomas Rothwell Bardsley and William Blackshaw, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
time to time and at all times 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 Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SMOKE-CONSUMING

page_text: IN STEAM BOILER AND OTHER FURNACES," upon the condition (amongst others)
that we, the said Thomas Rothwell Bardsley and William Blackshaw, our
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our, 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 per-
formed, and cause the same to 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 we, the said Thomas Rothwell Bardsley and
William Blackshaw, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
a
This Invention has for its object the consumption of smoke in steam boiler
furnaces by the introduction of heated air at the back of the bridge, which
mixing with the smoke is immediately converted into ignited gas, the extra
heat thereby produced being at once communicated to the boiler; and this
Invention consists in the use and application of a tube formed of metal, fire-
clay, or other suitable material carried from the rear of the boiler (where
damper may be applied to its end) into the metallic tubular flue, or through
the brick flues round the boiler, and thence through the metallic tubular flue,
where it may open into a cavity formed at the back of the bridge, which
cavity has a narrow opening into the flue at the back of the bridge, which
may or may or may not be covered with an overhanging top to prevent soot
falling into the cavity and thus choking it up.
The action of this apparatus may be thus described :-By means of the
draught in the flues atmospheric air is caused to pass through the metallic or
other tube into the cavity at the back of the bridge, which becoming heated
and rarified in its passage is in the proper state to be mixed with the smoke
in the flues, and the quantity of air admitted may be regulated by a self-acting
damper, so that when the furnaces are freshly fed a greater quantity of air
may be supplied, which may again be reduced gradually until entirely cut off
by self-closing mechanism applied to the damper.
It will be readily apparent that these improvements are equally applicable
to other furnaces for the consumption of smoke.
That this our said Invention may be the more readily seen and understood,
we have hereunto annexed a Sheet of Drawings illustrative of two modifications
of our improvements in apparatus for smoke-consuming in steam boiler
furnaces. Similar letters marked on the Drawings are used to denote similar
parts in all the views.

page_text: Fig. 1 is a front view partially in section, Fig. 2 a longitudinal section, and
Fig. 3 is a plan of a double-flued steam boiler shewing one modification of our
improved apparatus applied thereto, drawn to a scale of about three-eighths.of
an inch to a foot; Fig. 4 is an exterior front view, Fig. 5 a side sectional
view, and Fig. 6 a plan of the self-acting arrangement for closing the damper.
for cutting off the supply of atmospheric air to our smoke-consuming apparatus.
And Fig. 7 is a side sectional view of a modification of such self-acting
mechanism, drawn to a scale of about two inches to the foot.
Fig. 8 is a sectional front view, and Fig. 9 is a side sectional view of a
steam boiler furnace, shewing another modification of our improvements in
apparatus for smoke consuming, drawn to a scale of about three-quarters of
an inch to a foot.
In Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4. 5, and 6, A represents the tubular flues of the boiler;
B, the furnaces; C, the furnace doors; and D, the bridges. In each of the
tubular flues E is an air supply pipe carried from the rear of the boiler, being
open to the atmosphere at the extremity marked F, and communicating with
the hollow chamber or nozzle G placed at the back of the bridge, such
chamber or nozzle being constructed with a narrow mouth H opening into
and extending from one side of the flue to the other (as seen in plan), and
situated by preference a little below the top surface or edge of the bridge D,
as illustrated in Fig. 2. The mouth or extremity F of the air supply pipe E
is arranged to be closed by self-acting mechanism, an enlarged view of which
is seen in Figs. 4, 5, and 6, consisting of an outer cylinder I containing water,
in which is partially immersed an inner cylinder K on the ordinary gasometer
principle, such inner cylinder having guide rods L affixed to its upper end,
which slide in holes formed in the lugs M projecting from the outside of the
outer cylinder, and a disc N is affixed to the lower extremities of such guide
rods, which disc when in close contact with the flange O of the air supply
pipe E effectually closes the mouth F of the air supply pipe E.
In the modification of self-acting closing mechanism represented by Fig. 7 the
outer and inner cylinders and disc are the same as in Figs. 4, 5, and 6, and
are distinguished by the same letters of reference, but the outside guide rods L
are dispensed with, and a single rod P situated in the centre of both cylinders
is substituted, being affixed at its upper extremity to the top of the inner
cylinder, and surrounded by an outer tube Q, which slides over an inner
tube R rising from the bottom and forming part of the outer cylinder, so that
together the two tubes constitute an air-tight slide for the rod P, which works
up and down the inside of the inner tube R, and has the disc N attached to
its lower extremity. The inner cylinders of both modifications of such closing

page_text: mechanism is attached to one end of a chain S, which after passing over the
pulley T-is affixed to the wheel U mounted upon the rod V, which is an
extension of the furnace door hinge pin, and consequently partially turns
round as the furnace door opens. W is a cock situated upon the top of the
inner cylinder, which regulates its fall, as herein-after described.
The action of this apparatus is as follows:-In, the act of opening one of
the furnace doors C to supply fresh fuel to either of the furnaces B the inner
cylinder K is lifted bodily out of the water by the chain S becoming partially
wound round the wheel U, and such cylinder immediately becomes filled with
air; at the same time the disc N attached to the guide rod or rods of such
inner cylinder is also raised so as to open the mouth of the pipe E, when the
draught in the flues causes the atmospheric air to enter into the air supply
pipe E, which in passing through into the nozzle G becomes heated to a high
temperature, and in such state enters the flue at the back of the bridge
through the opening H at a point where the smoke impinges upon the top of
the bridge, and there mixing with such smoke turns it into ignited gas, the
extra heat from which is at once communicated to the boiler inside the
internal flue. The furnace door being closed again, such is the peculiar action
of the self-closing mechanism that the chain S is left slack by the inner
cylinder K falling on to the surface of the water contained in the outer
cylinder I, into which it gradually sinks according to the speed at which the
air contained in it is allowed to escape through the cock W, which can be
regulated by opening or closing such cock to take place in two, three, four, or
more minutes; and it is only when the inner cylinder K has fallen to the
bottom of the outer cylinder I. that the disc N is in close contact with the
flange O and the supply of air cut off. It will thus be apparent that this
Invention aims more particularly at consuming the large volumes of black
smoke which are evolved when the furnaces are freshly fed with fuel, at which
time the greatest waste ordinarily takes place, and that as the smoke is
converted into ignited gas without any cost inside the internal flues, that a
greater effect must necessarily be produced from a given quantity of fuel than
would be the case if the smoke had been allowed to escape unconsumed into
the chimney shaft, and therefore we say that our Invention not only obviates
the nuisance and waste arising from the production of smoke, but economises
fuel at the same time, and this without requiring any attention at the fire-
man's hands, as the regulating cock W being once set need not be touched
afterwards. By preference we construct the air supply pipe E of cast iron,.
but it might be made of fire-clay, plumbago, or any other suitable material,
and we prefer to employ as large a diameter of pipe as the flues will allow

page_text: consistent with not interfering with the draught, say, from six to eight inches
internal diameter, and in short tubular boilers we pass such pipe through the
side flues, as well as through the internal metallic flue, in order to commu-
nicate the highest possible temperature to the air before mixing it with the
smoke. In some situations, where the size of the flues precludes the possibility
of using an air supply pipe of sufficiently large diameter to consume the
smoke, we prefer to use the modification illustrated in Figs. 8 and 9, which
only differs from the foregoing in dispensing with the ordinary fire-brick bridge
and bringing the nozzle a into almost close contact with the end of the fire-
bars b, and in the application of grated bars c, which are curved (as seen in
Fig. 9) so as to bend over the mouth of the nozzle a, and thus prevent any
tendency in firing to choke up the mouth of such nozzle, whilst the space d
left between the rear of such curved bars c and the nozzle a allows a small
quantity of air to pass between such bars and over the nozzle (which in this
modification forms the bridge), and thus serve the double purpose of pre-
venting injury to such bars and nozzle, owing to the great heat to which they
are subjected, and at the same time materially assists the combustion of the
smoke in conjunction with the heated air, which is supplied according to the
modification illustrated by Figs. 1, 2, and 3.
We would here remark that our improved apparatus is equally applicable
for single or double flued as well as to multitubular boilers, and to boilers
which are fired externally.
Having thus particularly described and ascertained the nature of this our
said Invention, together with the best methods with which we are acquainted
for carrying the same into practical effect, we wish it to be distinctly under-
stood that we do not confine ourselves to the precise details, relative proportions,
or dimensions of the several parts or portions of our improved apparatus, as
the same may be considerably varied without departing from the Invention;
but what we do claim is,
First. The general arrangement and combination of the various parts of
the smoke-consuming apparatus consisting of a pipe carried through the flues
of a steam boiler from the rear of a boiler to a chamber at the back of the
bridge, through which pipe a continuous current of air is drawn, so long as it
is required, by the simple action of the draught in the flues, which is heated
in passing through before mixing with the smoke, in conjuction with the
curved bars illustrated in Figs. 8 and 9, applied as and for the purpose herein-
before described and illustrated in the accompanying Drawings, or any mere
modification of the same.
Secondly and lastly. The self-closing mechanism for cutting off a supply of

page_text: atmospheric air gradually, and capable of being regulated for smoke-con-
suming purposes, as herein-before described and illustrated in the accompanying
Drawings, or any mere modification of the same.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Rothwell Bardsley, for and on
behalf of myself and the said William Blackshaw, have hereunto set
my hand and affixed my seal, this Sixth day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight.
THOMAS ROTHWELL BARDSLEY. (L.s.)
Witness,
JOHN G. WILSON,
Patent Agent,
1, Market Place,
Manchester.