IMPROVEMENTS IN OVENS FOR COKING COAL.
Year: 1878

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Galloway, of Cardiff, in the County of Glamorgan,
Mining Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN OVENS FOR COKING
COAL.'
Sealed the 12th July 1878, and dated the 25th January 1878.
"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Galloway at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 25th January 1878.
WILLIAM GALLOWAY, of Cardiff, in the County of Glamorgan, Mining Engineer.
IMPROVEMENTS IN OVENS FOR COKING COAL,"
The coking of coal is usually effected in close ovens of various shapes and sizes,
either standing apart singly, or collected together in blocks under the same outer
building or mantle. The coal in a newly charged oven having been ignited, all
other openings are closed, except a small one for letting a little air pass into its
interior to keep up the combustion, and a larger one to allow the products of
imperfect combustion to escape.
The heated gases are sometimes allowed to pass directly from the interior of each
oven into the air, and sometimes before passing into the air they are made to
traverse a series of flues or narrow passages in the side walls, and under the floor of
the oven in which they are formed, or of one or more adjoining ones.
The second arrangement is only applicable where the ovens are built together
in blocks. In this case also a common flue or conduit is very often employed for
the purpose of collecting the heated gases from all the ovens of a block, and con-
ducting them to a common chimney either after they have passed under steam
boilers or not, as the case may.be. The common flue is constructed either on the
top, underneath, at the back, or at the front of the block.
According to my Invention, which is most applicable to ovens built together in
blocks, whether in single or double rows, I provide a second common flue similar to
the one just described. A passage of small dimensions connects the interior of each
oven with each of the common flues, but one or both of these short passages can be
closed at pleasure by means of a damper or valve. Although these two common
Dins 01

page_text: flues may be constructed in any convenient position in regard to the block, I prefer
to have one of them near the back of the ovens, that is, at the side furthest from the
door, and the other near the front, so that the passages which connect them with
the interior of the ovens may be as short as possible, and yet situated at opposite
sides or ends.
The two common flues may be further connected together by an independent
series of small flues which pass through the side walls, and if necessary, underneath
the bottom of the oven without communicating with their interior; these are
provided with regulators.
One of the common flues, and preferably the one at the back of the ovens has
not necessarily any other outlet, except through the short passages, and the small
side or bottom flues just described, the other on the contrary terminates in a
chimney or exhauster of sufficient dimensions to produce the required amount of
draught. Suppose now that the doors of all the ovens are shut, that the dampers
of some of them are open so as to place them in communication with the back or
closed flue, and lastly that there is a column of heated air in the chimney, or that
the exhauster is at work; then it is obvious that the atmosphere contained in the
whole system of flues and ovens will be at a smaller pressure than the air outside,
and consequently if an opening be made anywhere into any one or more of the
flues or ovens, air will flow in by it and find its way through the intervening
passages to the chimney or exhauster. Now let a small hole be made in the door
of each of the ovens that communicate only with the back common flue for the time
being, then all the air that enters by these holes will traverse the corresponding
ovens from front to back, and then escape into the back common flue; but while
the air is flowing into the back common flue in this manner, an equal volume will
pass through the interior of the other ovens, and through the passages in their side
walls into the front common flue, and thence to the chimney or exhauster.
may suppose that the ovens into which fresh air is flowing contain an incandescent
mass of fuel in an advanced stage of coking, while some of those which are
traversed by the current from the back of the front flue have been more recently
charged, and one or more of them may be quite empty. This part of the heat
generated in the first set of ovens will be conveyed into the second set, thereby
heating the surface of the charge by direct contact; part of it will be conveyed into
the interior of the one or more empty ovens which can be heated up in this manner
to any required temperature, so as to prepare them for a charge, and lastly, part of
it will be conveyed into the side walls between the ovens and under their floors if
necessary.
We
Since the combustion which takes place in the first set of ovens is necessarily
imperfect from the very nature of the process, the gases contained in the back
common flue will be more or less combustible, and therefore I propose if necessary
to admit a sufficient quantity of fresh air to ensure the combustion at the various
points where they leave the back common flue on their way through the ovens
towards the front common flue.
Although I have described the short passages at the front side or end of each oven
as entering directly into the front common flue, and the flues in the side walls and
under the floor as being supplied independently with heated gases from the back
common flue, this arrangement is not at all a necessary one, for the gases which
have passed from the back to the front in the interior of each recently charged or
empty oven may afterwards be made to traverse the flues in the side walls before
they are allowed to enter the front common flue. Similarly the passages which
connect the interior of each oven with the common flues may terminate at any con-
venient points in the ovens, and before doing so they may be divided into two or
(more branches, each branch having a separate opening into the oven. It is advisable
however that the passages through which the heated gases from the back common
flue enter the ovens should be as far apart as possible from those by which the same
gases escape into the front common flue.
In a block of ovens provided with two common flues, and connected with them

page_text: in the manner described above, it is obvious that any single oven in the block can
be heated up in the first place before being charged; then the surface of the new
charge can be coked as rapidly as may be deemed prudent by a current of highly
heated gases traversing the oven from back to front, or from one side to the other,;
and, lastly, when the process of coking is considerably advanced the direction of the
current may be reversed by shutting the passage which leads to the front common
flue, and admitting a little air at the front end in the usual way.
I may here remark that to save using the coke in the ovens one or more gas
generators may be placed in communication with the back common flue. In such
case the draught in the coking ovens will be always towards the door or front
coinmon flue.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said William Galloway in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 25th July
1878.
WILLIAM GALLOWAY, of Cardiff, in the County of Glamorgan, Mining Engineer.
IMPROVEMENTS IN OVENS FOR COKING COAL."
My said Invention has for its object, by an improved construction and mode of
working ovens for coking coal, to reduce the cost of the operation and shorten the
time occupied by it, and also to improve the quality of the coke.
The coking of coal is usually effected in close ovens of various shapes and sizes, either
standing apart singly or collected together in blocks under the same outer building
or mantle. The coal in a newly charged oven having been ignited all openings are
closed, except a small one for admitting a little air to keep up the partial coni-
bustion, and a larger one to allow the gaseous products evolved to escape.
The heated gases are sometimes allowed to pass directly from the interior of each
oven into the air, and sometimes before passing into the air they are made to
traverse a series of flues or narrow passages in the side walls and under the floor of
the oven in which they are formed, or of one or more adjoining ones.
The latter arrangement is only applicable where the ovens are built together in
blocks. In this case also a common flue or conduit is very often employed for the
purpose of collecting the heated gases from all the ovens of a block, and conducting
them to a common chimney, either after they have passed under steam boilers, or
without their doing so. This common flue has been constructed in various positions
relatively to the ovens, according to circumstances.
According to my Invention, which is most conveniently and advantageously
applicable to sets of ovens built in blocks, in single or double rows; I provide two
common flues or sets of flues, one of which communicates directly with the chimney
or outlet, whilst the other does not.
distinguished as the chimney flues and
block of ovens there may be two or
These flues are for convenience herein-after
the gas flues; and in the case of a set or
more gas flues, the chimney flues communi-

page_text: cating with each other, or with a single flue leading to the chimney or outlet, but
the gas flues not being necessarily in direct communication with each other. Each
oven communicates with a gas flue and with a chimney flue by a separate branch
or set of flues, and these branch flues are fitted with dampers or valves, and are
arranged so that the openings into the oven of the gas and chimney branches
respectively are at opposite ends or sides of the oven.
By another part of my Invention small flues connecting the gas flues and the
chimney flues are made through the side walls of the ovens, and also where con-
venient at the ends, or above or below each oven, or at one or more of such parts,
as found convenient or advantageous in practice. These flues in the oven walls are
designed to assist in heating the ovens, and small passages or tubes are provided for
admitting air to various parts of them for the combustion of the gases passing
through them. Inlets are also provided for admitting air for burning the gas
entering the ovens, and also for admitting the small quantities of air required inside
the ovens.
In working my improved coke ovens, when a charge in any oven has been
thoroughly ignited, and the coking process is in full operation, the dampers in or
controlling the branch flues of that oven are set so as to cause the gaseous products
from it to pass into the gas flue, or partly into the gas flue and partly into the
chimney flue. From the gas flue or flues the gases are directed by a suitable
adjustment of the dampers in or controlling the branch flues, so as to pass through
any oven that is empty and about to receive a charge, also through any freshly
charged oven, so as to expedite the ignition of the charge therein, and also through
the heating flues in the oven walls, when such heating flues are adopted. The
gases led in this way into empty or recently charged ovens traverse those ovens,
and pass off thence by the appropriate branch flues into the chimney flue or flues,
which also receive the gases that have passed through the heating flues. These
movements of the gases are produced by the chimney draught, or it might be, if
necessary or convenient, by gas-exhausting apparatus in connection with the
chimney flue or outlet; and the movements can be regulated mainly by means of
the dampers in or controlling the small branch flues connecting the ovens with the
chimney flues, the dampers in the other or gas branch flues never requiring to be
closed except when withdrawing a finished charge.
In the practical working of a set of my improved coke ovens it will generally be
best to discharge and recharge the several ovens in regular rotation, the gases from
the ovens in which the charges are in their more advanced stages being utilised in
heating up in succession the emptied and freshly charged ovens. With these
arrangements the heating up is effected in very much less time than in ordinary
coke ovens, and also with very much less consumption of the carbon of the coal.
And where convenient or desirable the consumption of the carbon of the coal that
is being coked may be much further reduced or entirely avoided by supple-
menting the gases in the gas flues with combustible gas formed apart from the
coke ovens, and led thereto by a flue or flues communicating with the gas flue or
flues of the ovens; or the gas producer or producers may be constructed in the
same building or block as a set of coke ovens. Such supplementary gas may be
such as is obtained by what are known as "gas producers," and may be derived
from coal of inferior quality to that which is being coked, or from waste coke unfit
for the market, or it may be a bye product from smelting or other operations.
And in order that my said Invention and the manner of performing the same
may be properly understood, I hereunto append four Sheets of explanatory Drawings,
to be herein-after referred to, and representing some of the various modifications of
which my improved system of coke oven construction is susceptible.
In these Drawings the same reference letters and numerals are used to mark the
same or like parts wherever they are repeated.
The coke ovens shown in the accompanying Drawings are all of the form pre-
senting an oblong form in horizontal section, or, in other words, of the form of
horizontal retorts with arched roofs, this form being preferable on account of its

page_text: simplicity and compactness. My improved system is however equally applicable to
beehive and other forms of coke oven, and the practical oven builder will have no
difficulty in carrying out such applications, either in the case of existing ovens, or
in constructing new ovens of any of the forms in use.
Figure 1, on Sheet 1 of the accompanying Drawings, shows four ovens forming
part of a single row block, one of the ovens being in plan, and the others in hori-
zontal section, each as at a different level. Figure 2 comprises a front elevation
and vertical sections corresponding to Figure 1, and taken_transversely as regards
the ovens. The sections A, B, C, Figure 1, and D, E, F, Figure 2, are taken
respectively as at the lines A-A, B-B, and the like in the other Figure. Figures 3
and 4 are vertical sections taken longitudinally as regards the ovens, and respec-
tively, as at the lines G-G, and H-H, in Figures 1 and 2.
In this modification the main chimney flue Z and the main gas flue X are con-
structed parallel to and near each other beneath the coke ovens V, which they
cross, running along under the entire row of ovens. The gas flue X is nearer the
outer ends of the ovens, and at each part between the ovens (or it might be at
more distant intervals) it communicates by a vertical flue 1 with an upper hori-
zontal flue 2, constructed across the front ends of the ovens. This upper gas flue 2
communicates with each oven V by two short branch flues or inlets 3 provided
with dampers or valves. The chimney flue Z has in communication with it at
the back of each oven V, two vertical flues 4, which communicate with the oven
by short branch flues 5 provided with dampers or valves. At each side of each
oven V a number of small horizontal heating flues 6 are formed, and connect the
front vertical gas flue 1 with the vertical chimney flues 4 at the back, the pro-
portion of gas passing through these heating flues 6 being determined by means of
plugs or regulating valves.
There are two sets of air-inlet passages, both entering from the back of the
block of ovens, one, 7, communicating with the interior of the oven by a series of
small inlets 8, and thereby supplying the air required for the imperfect combustion
taking place in the oven, the amount being determined by a regulating valve at
the outer end of the passage. The other air-inlet passages 9 communicate with the
heating flues by small inlets, and supply air for the combustion of the gas in those.
flues. In Figure 3 the arrows show the air entering the ovens V by the inlets 8,
and the gaseous products evolved from the charge (supposed in this Figure to be in
an advanced state of coking) passing by the flues 3, 2, 1, into the main gas flue X,
but in Figures 1, 2, and 4 the arrows indicate the currents as they are when the
gases from the flue X are directed through empty or freshly charged ovens.
The change of the currents is brought about simply by opening the dampers in
the chimney branch flues 5, these dampers being closed when the currents are as
in Figure 3.
The dampers in the gas branch flues 3 do not require to be closed, except when
drawing the finished charges.
In all the modifications the ovens and flues may be built of the materials usually
employed for such purposes, and spaces between the close brickwork may be
filled in with ashes, or clay, or any other suitable non-conducting waste or cheap
materials.
The oven doors, the flue, dampers, or valves, and other details may all be made
and arranged as in ordinary coke ovens or similar structures.
A second modification of my improved coke ovens is shown on Sheet 2 of the
accompanying Drawings, Figure 5 being a sectional plan; Figure 6 a sectional
elevation; and Figures 7, 8, vertical sections taken longitudinally as regards the
ovens. Each different section is distinguished by the same letter as the line in
another Figure, at which it is supposed to be taken.
In this modification there are two rows of ovens V, built back to back, with a
single main chimney flue Z between them, whilst a separate gas flue X is built
along each row over the front ends of the ovens. Each oven has, in the front end
of its roof, a single branch flue 3 from the gas flue X, and at its back end a single

page_text: outlet 5 into the chimney flue. Single deep heating flues 6 are formed in the side
walls of each oven, instead of there being a series of such flues at each part, as in
the first-modification.
)
The other differences will be easily understood on comparing the Drawings, the
corresponding parts being marked with the same reference letters and numerals.
A third modification differs from the second, as shown in Figure 9 (Sheet 2), this
Figure being a section taken at a similar part to Figure 7 in having the main gas
flue X constructed underground. There are small upper flues 2 across the front
ends of the ovens V, and these flues communicate with the main gas flue X by
flues 1 constructed between the ovens, as in the first modification.
In a fourth modification shown in Figures 10, 11, 12, on Sheet 3 of the accom-
panying Drawings, the gas flue X is placed at the back of a row of ovens V, and
the chimney flue Z is placed underground in front of the ovens; Figure 10 is a
horizontal section, partly at the level of the outlets 5, and partly at a lower level;
and Figures 11 and 12 are vertical sections, the former between two ovens, and the
latter along the centre of an oven V. In a double row of ovens like this modification
there may be a single gas flue X running along the middle between the rows, and
two underground chimney flues Z running along each outer side of the double row,
and converging to a single chimney stalk at one end, or communicating in any other
convenient way with one or more chimney stalks.
When the chimney flue is constructed underground across the front ends of the
ovens, each oven may communicate with it by a short vertical or inclined flue
having an opening in the front end of the floor of the oven, the coal being kept a
little back from this opening, and a lid being provided to cover it when the coke is
being withdrawn. Or each oven door may be formed with an externally hooded
opening, covering when the door is closed an opening in a flue leading down into the
chimney flue, the flue opening being also in this case provided with a cover to apply
to it when the oven door is opened.
Figure 13, Sheet 3, is a vertical section, and Figure 14 is a horizontal section
showing a fifth modification suitable for short blocks, and one in which the parts
and arrangements are all made extremely simple. There are two rows of ovens V
with a single gas flue X running along between them, and with two chimney flues Z
running along over the outer ends of the ovens, and communicating with a chimney
stalk at each one end. The gas and chimney flues X, Z, are nearly at the same
level, and communicate with the ovens V by very short brauch flues or openings 3, 5,
fitted with dampers or regulating valves. There are no heating flues in the sides of
the ovens. The section in Figure 14 is taken immediately above the ovens and
through the flues X, Z.
In the various modifications shown on Sheets 1, 2, 3 of the Drawings, and
herein-before described, the flues and communications are arranged so that inside of
the ovens the gaseous currents traverse from end to end; these currents may
however with equal, if not greater advantage, be made to cross inside of the ovens
from side to side, and arrangements for obtaining this action are next described
herein.
A sixth modification is shown in Figures 15, 16, 17, on Sheet 4 of the accom-
panying Drawings, Figure 15 comprising horizontal sections at different levels,
whilst Figure 16 is a vertical section, taken transversely as regards the ovens V;
and Figure 17 is a vertical section taken longitudinally, partly through secondary
chimney flues Y, and partly through secondary gas flues W. There are in this
modification two rows of ovens V with one main gas flue X running between the
rows, and with two main chimney flues Z running along above the outer ends of
the ovens. Above each oven there is at one side of it a branch or secondary gas
flue W, and at the other side of it a branch or secondary chimney flue Y; these
secondary flues W, Y, being at right angles to the main gas and chimney flues X,
Z, and parallel to the sides of the ovens V. The secondary flues W, Y, have short
branches or openings 3 and 5 through the oven sides, and the gaseous currents
entering by the gas openings 3 (when heating an empty or freshly charged oven)

page_text: proceed across the oven to the outlets 5. The dampers or valves are fitted where
the secondary flues W, Y, communicate with the main flues X, Z. The other
details of the modification will be sufficiently understood from the Drawings.
It is hardly necessary to say that the middle flue may be the main chimney
flue (Z), the two flues above the outer ends of the ovens being main gas flues
(X). Or either the secondary gas flues W or the secondary chimney flues Y, or
both may be connected by intermediate flues with main gas or chimney flues
constructed at a lower level than the ovens.
Figure 18 is a vertical section, showing an advantageous mode of connecting
the secondary chimney flue Y with a main chimney flue Z, placed below the outer
ends of the ovens.
A seventh modification is shown in Figures 19, 20, 21, Sheet 4, Figure 19 being
a horizontal section as at different levels, and Figures 20 and 21, vertical sections
at right angles to each other. In this modification main gas flues ✗ are con-
structed over the front ends of the ovens V and the main chimney flue Z, at the
back or between two rows of ovens. The secondary gas flue W of one oven is
constructed above the secondary chimney flue Y of the next oven, the inlets 3
and outlets 5 being inclined, so that their openings in the ovens are at the same
level, or nearly so. The other details of the modification will be sufficiently
understood from the Drawings; and the positions of the main flues may be
varied in ways, such as herein-before indicated in connection with the sixth
modification.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention, and the manner of per-
forming the same, have to state that I do not restrict myself to the precise
details herein described or delineated, but that what I believe to be novel and
original, and claim as the Invention secured to me by the herein-before in part
recited Letters Patent is,-
1. The improved system of constructing ovens for coking coal, wherein three or
more ovens are connected by valved passages with a chimney flue or flues and
with a gas flue or flues, substantially in the manner and for the purposes herein-
before described.
2. The combination of the heating flues having air inlets, with the separate
chimney and gas flues, which both communicate with the interiors of the ovens, the
parts being arranged and worked, substantially in the manner and for the purposes
herein-before described.
3. The supplementing of the gas in the gas flues, or passing through the ovens,
with gas obtained from "gas producers," or as a bye product of other operations as
herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Galloway, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight.
WILLIAM GALLOWAY. (L.S.)