IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM BOILER FURNACES, PUDDLING FURNACES, AND FURNACES FOR HEATING RETORTS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF GAS, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS MAY ALSO BE APPLIED TO OTHER KINDS OF FURNACES
Year: 1872

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left. by William Rose at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 26th July
1872.
66
I, WILLIAM ROSE, of Halesowen, in the County of Worcester,
Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM BOILER FURNACES, PUDDLING FURNACES, AND FURNACES
FOR HEATING RETORTS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF GAS, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS MAY
ALSO BE APPLIED TO OTHER KINDS OF FURNACES," to be as follows:―
My Invention consists in constructing and arranging the parts of the
said furnaces in the manner herein-after described.
I will describe my Invention in connection with a steam boiler
furnace. I construct a chamber or oven by preference of a rectangular
figure, and having an arched top. The said chamber or oven has an
ash-pit underneath it. On the bottom of the said chamber and over
the ash-pit is a small grate, consisting of a series of bars fixed in an
opening in the bottom of the chamber. The said chamber has at its
front end openings at which to charge in the fuel, and to withdraw the
coke formed during the action of the furnace.
The arch of the chamber

page_text: or oven is perforated, and constitutes the bottom of a second chamber
or oven surmounting the first-named chamber or oven. The said second
or upper
chamber or oven is filled with a series of retorts suitable for
the manufacture of coal gas. The said upper chamber or oven con-
taining the retorts communicates with a flue, whereby the gaseous
matter arising from the first-named or lower chamber or oven -is
conducted into a chamber under the steam boiler, in which it is
mixed with atmospheric air and burned. The retorts are also put
into communication with the chamber under the steam boiler, and the
gaseous matter delivered from them burned under the boiler.
In using my Invention the retorts are charged with coal or slack, and
a small fire being made on the fire-place of the lower chamber or oven,
the said lower chamber or oven is charged with coal or slack.
When the combustion has spread through the fuel, the ash-pit door
is closed and access of air so far prèvented as to limit the combustion
to that required for the coking of the fuel. The stoker adds fuel from
time to time on the top of the fire, and there is thus accumulated
a mass of fuel through which the coking process proceeds from the
bottom to the top. The heated air and products of combustion, con-
sisting mainly of gaseous hydrocarbons and carbonic oxide, pass through
the openings in the arched top of the lower chamber or oven into the
upper chamber or oven, and circulate about and heat the retorts in the
said upper chamber or oven, and, afterwards pass under the steam boiler
to be burned. The heating of the retorts containing coal gives rise to
the formation of coal gas, which is conducted and burned under the
boiler. After the combustion in the lower chamber has been carried
on sufficiently long to coke the coal in the retorts in the upper chamber,
the combustion is stopped and the coke removed both from the lower
chamber and the retorts in the upper chamber.
By means of my Invention the steam boiler is heated by the gaseous
fuel produced in the manner described, while the solid fuel or coke
'remaining may be used for any required purpose.
The gas produced in the gas retorts may be treated as ordinary
illuminating gas, and may be purified and stored in a gas holder for
use as ordinary gas.
The arrangement described with reference to the furnace of a steam
boiler, may be used for the manufacture of illuminating gas. In this

page_text: case the gaseous fuel from the lower chamber, after heating the retorts,
may either pass direct to the chimney stack, or before passing to the
stack may be employed for heating purposes.
1
The arrangement described with reference to a furnace for a steam
boiler, is applicable, without essential change, to a puddling furnace.
My Invention may also be applied to reverberatory furnaces generally,
as well as to furnaces in which gaseous fuel is.or may be employed.