IMPROVEMENTS IN PUDDLING & OTHER FURNACES EMPLOYED FOR MELTING, BOILING, OR HEATING IRON."
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Allcock Jones, Richard Howson, & John
Gjers, all of Middlesbrough-on-Tees, in the County of York, Engineers,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PUDDLING & OTHER FURNACES
EMPLOYED FOR MELTING, BOILING, OR HEATING IRON."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Allcock Jones,
Richard Howson, and John Gjers at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 14th August 1867.
We, JOHN ALLCOCK JONES, RICHARD HOWSON, & JOHN GJERS, all of
Middlesbrough-on-Tees, in the County of York, Engineers, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PUDDLING &
OTHER FURNACES EMPLOYED FOR MELTING, BOILING, OR HEATING IRON," to be as
follows:-
It consists in a mode of utilising the waste heat of puddling and other
similar furnaces by causing it to heat a mixture of air and steam, which
mixture of air and steam so heated is employed for the combustion of fuel,
thereby economising the consumption thereof and preventing smoke.
The mode of carrying out our Invention is as follows:-We place the
heating pipe or pipes in the uptake of the chimney, or in flues having com-
munication with the chimney, and we apply a jet or jets of steam at the
point where the air enters such pipe or pipes. By this means the air is

page_text: forced in under a certain degree of pressure mixed with steam, and the whole
is heated ready for introduction into the furnace. For this purpose the pipes
are caused to branch in such a way that one portion of the mixture of air and
steam may pass into the space below the fire-bars and the other portion into
the space above the fuel. In order to prevent the entrance of cold air into
the space under the fire-bars the ash-pit is fitted with doors, and the conducting
pipes are furnished with the necessary valves for regulating the quantity of air
and steam passing through.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Allcock Jones, Richard Howson, and John Gjers in
the Great Seal Patent Office on the 12th February 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
ALLCOCK JONES, RICHARD HOWSON, and JOHN GJERS, all of Middlesbrough-
on-Tees, in the County of York, Engineers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirty-first year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
John Allenck Jones, Richard Howson, and John Gjers, Her special license
that we, the said John Allcock Jones, Richard Howson, and John Gjers, our
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said John
Allcock Jones, Richard Howson, and John Gjers, our executors, adminis-
trators, 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 PUDDLING AND OTHER FURNACES EMPLOYED FOR
MELTING, BOILING, OR HEATING IRON," upon the condition (amongst others)
that we, the said John Allcock Jones, Richard Howson, and John Gjers, by
an instrument in writing under our hands and seals, or under the hand and
seal of one of us, 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 we, the said John Allcock Jones, Richard
"Howson, and John Gjers, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention,

page_text: and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement and accompanying Drawings
(that is to say) -
Our Invention consists in a mode of utilising the waste heat of puddling
and other similar furnaces by causing it to heat a mixture of air and steam,
which mixture so heated is employed for the combustion of fuel, thereby
economising the consumption thereof and preventing sinoke.
The mode of carrying out our Invention is as follows:-We place the
beating pipe or pipes in the uptake of the chimney, or in flues having com-
munication with the chimney, and we apply a jet or jets of steam at the point
where the air enters such pipe or pipes. By this means the air is forced in
under a certain degree of pressure and mixed with steam, and the whole is
heated ready for introduction into the furnace. For this purpose the pipes
are caused to branch in such a way that one portion of the mixture of air and
steam may pass into the space below the fire-bars and the other portion into
the space above the fuel. In order to prevent the entrance of cold air into
the space under the fire-bars the ash-pit is fitted with doors, and the con-
ducting pipes are furnished with the necessary valves for regulating the
quantity of air and steam passing through.
Fig. 1 is a longitudinal section of a puddling furnace with the arrange-
ments for heating and distributing the mixture of air and steam attached, and
Fig. 2 is a plan view of the same furnace showing the heating arrangement
in section; Figs. 3 and 4 are views corresponding respectively to Figs. I
and 2 of a similar furnace and connected apparatus, but with modified beating
arrangements; Fig. 5 is a vertical section, and Fig. 6 is a plan section of
another modification of arrangements for heating the mixture of air and
steam; Fig. 7 is a sectional view of the steam jet apparatus. The same
letters of reference are used for the same and corresponding parts in each
Figure of the Drawings.
a is the ash-pit; b, the fire-bars; b, the fire-place; b, the fire-bridge;
c, the hearth of the furnace; d', the flue leading to the chimney; d, the
chimney.
We will first describe the arrangements which may be employed for mixing
and beating the air and steam, and then the manner of using such mixture.
In the arrangement illustrated by Figs. 1 and 2 a damper (d) is
arranged in the chimney (d) by which the whole or part of the heated
products of combustion may be diverted and made to pass through the hole (d³)
in the side of the chimney into a chamber (e), and from the upper end of the
chimney through another hole (d) (above the damper d) back into the

page_text: chimney. In the lower part of the chamber (e) an iron box (f) (divided into
two parts) is fixed, and upon this box two pipes (f¹) are secured, each of
which is also divided by a partition that terminates short of the upper closed
end of each pipe. One side of the pipes (f¹) is open to one division of the
box (f), and the other side of the pipes to the other division of the box. A
mouth-piece (g) is fitted to one division of the box (see Fig. 2), and a jet of
steam is brought (by a pipe (9') provided with a stop-cock) opposite the mouth-
piece (see Fig. 7), thus causing a current of mixed air and steam to enter the
first division of the box; it then ascends one side of the pipes and descends
the other side into the second division of the box, and is thus heated, and from
the box (f) it is conveyed away by a pipe (h) to be distributed as herein-
after described.
Figs. 5 and 6 show another modification. In this case the whole or part of
the heated products of combustion are diverted by a damper placed in the
chimney (d) into an ascending flue (d³) which conveys them to the
chamber (e), to pass back from thence through the hole (d*) into the chimney.
In this case the 'heating pipes are carried by a plate at the top of the
chamber (e). Each pipe (f¹) is connected with a main pipe (f) at its upper
end, and is closed at its lower end, which descends nearly to. the bottom of the
chamber (e): Within each pipe (f¹) another pipe (f2) is placed concen-
trically terminating short of the end of the outer pipe (f¹), and a separate jet
of steam is brought by pipes (9) to the mouthpiece of each centre pipe (ƒ),
by which a mixed current of air and steam is caused to descend each centre
pipe and to ascend the annular space between the centre pipe (f) and the
outer pipe (f) and enter the main pipe (f) to be conveyed away to the
furnace.
In the modification shown by Figs. 3 and 4 part of the chimney is made
of fire-clay pipes (d), as shown; and is surrounded by a cylindrical casing (ƒ³)
of metal plates lined with bricks leaving an annular space. The jet of steam
drives the air into the annular space through the mouth-piece (9) at the side
of the casing, and the heated air and steam is taken away by a pipe (h) in
the line of the peculiar dotted line in Fig. 3.
The mixed air and steam heated by any of the arrangements above
described is conveyed by the pipe (h) (see Figs. 2; 3, and 4) to a box (k)
passing across the top of the furnace, and by means of a number of nozzles (¹)
in the box at intervals across the furnace or a continuous slit, a portion of the
mixture is discharged so as to meet the unburnt smoke as it passes over the
bridge; the remainder of the mixed air and steam is conveyed by a pipe (1)
into the ash-pit, the front of which is closed by doors (m).. Valves may be

page_text: placed in the pipe (h) to regulate the supply of mixed air and steam at any
convenient place; in Figs. 2 and 4 such a valve is placed at (h¹). The
pipe (h) may be made to branch in two directions, one to supply the nozzle
box (k) and the other the ash-pit (a), and in this case, instead of one
valve (h), as in Fig. 2, a valve may be placed in each branch, so that
the supply to the nozzle box (k) and to the ash-pit (a) may be adjusted
separately.
We have hitherto described our Invention as applied to a puddling furnace,
but it is equally applicable to all furnaces of a similar character used in the
manufacture of iron and steel.
We have now particularly described the nature of our Invention, and the
manner of carrying it into effect, and claim as our Invention in puddling and
other furnaces employed for melting, boiling, and beating iron, the use of a
mixture of air and steam for supporting combustion in the manner berein-
before described, such mixture of air and steam being previously heated by the
waste heat of the furnace.
In witness whereof, we, the said John Allcock Jones, Richard Howson,
and John Gjers, have hereunto set our hands and scals, this Seventh
day of February, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and sixty-eight.
JOHN ALLCOCK JONES. (L.S.)
RICHARD HOWSON.
JOHN GJERS.
(L.S.)
(L.S.)
JOHN ALLCOCK JONES. (L.S.)
RICHARD HOWSON.
JOHN GJERS.
(L.S.)
(L.S.)