IMPROVEMENTS IN FURNACES
Year: 1841

page_text: COUPLAND'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MICHARL
COUPLAND, of Pond Yard, Park Street, Southwark, Millwright, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Fourth day of September, in the fifth year of Her reign, did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Michael
Coupland, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the
said Michael Coupland, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I,, the
said Michael Coupland, my exors, adññiors, or assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term of years
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick upon Tweed, my Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN FURNACES;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a
proviso that I, the said Michael Coupland, should cause a particular description
of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within
six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said in part
recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had,
will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Michael Coupland, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
which relates to that class of furnaces where the fuel is supplied from below the
fire upwards, consists in causing a portion of the open fire bars to descend to

page_text: receive fresh supplies of fuel as occasion may require, leaving a portion of the
fire on the remaining fixed portion of the open fire bars above, while the portion
of the open fire bars which descends to receive the said fresh supplies of fuel,.
having been supplied, is raised again to its former position; by this means the
fuel which is on the moveable or descending part of the open fire bars (while
such open fire bars are up in their proper position) will have a full supply of
atmospheric air supplied thereto; in place of the surface which raises up the
fresh fuel being a close surface or platform or piston, such as has heretofore
been used or proposed to-be-used, through which no air could pass to the fuel
above, such close surface heretofore used tending materially to prevent the
combustion of the fuel placed thereon in consequence of not allowing the
requisite passage of air to the fuel; hence the principle of feeding furnaces from
below upwards, which has been many years well known, has not come into
general use. Now my Invention, as before stated, has for its object the raising
fuel from below the fire upwards into the fire by means of part of the open fire
bars being made capable of descending and ascending while in a horizontal
position, and when such part of the open fire bars is in its place to allow of a
free passage of atmospheric air to the fuel above, by which means great improve-
ments, will be obtained in furnaces made on the principle of being fed with fuel
from below upwards. And in further compliance with the said proviso, I, the
said Michael Coupland, do hereby describe the manner in which my said Inven-
tion is to be performed by the following statement thereof, reference being had
to the Drawing annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon, that is

page_text: in order to allow of the open fire bars marked a, a, descending, the bolts c, c, are
withdrawn, as will be hereafter explained. dis a wheel (with several handles d¹)
affixed to the axis e; this axis turns in suitable bearings at f, f, and has a
bevilled toothed wheel g affixed thereto. This wheel works into and drives
:the bevilled pinion h which is affixed to the axis i. This axis has two screws
formed. thereon at i, 2, which are cut in opposite directions, and the axis i
turns in suitable bearings j, j¹. On the screws of the axis are applied the two
blocks k with female screws formed through them. To each of the blocks k
are attached connecting links 1, 2, by means of pin joints, the other ends of the
connecting links being attached by pin joints to the under part of the lifting
bars m, which lifting bars m are so arranged as to interspace the open fire bars a,
by which means, when the lifting bars m are in action, they will keep the open
fire bars a, a, from sliding sideways or endways out of their proper position
while in the act of ascending or descending, and the raising of the lifting
bars m, m, will be accomplished by causing the axis i to revolve in a direction
to cause the screw blocks. k to approach each other, and when the lifting bars m
are thus raised high enough to interspace with the open fire bars a, a, they may
be.released by withdrawing the bolts c in the following manner: n is a handle
attached by a pin joint to the lever o, such lever having two of the bolts c thereon;
those bolts will be withdrawn when the handle n is drawn outwards. P
is a
connecting rod which connects the lever o and the lever q, as is shown, and one
end of the lever q..being the other bolt c, it will follow that when the bolts c, c,
at the front end-are withdrawn, the bolt c at the back will be removed out of the
way and the open fire bars a, a, allowed to descend with the lifting bars m,
which is accomplished by reversing the direction in which the axis or shaft i is
caused to turn. The apparatus will now be in a position for receiving fresh
supplies of fuel on to the descended portion of the open fire bars a; a, while a
portion of the fire above is still sustained by the fixed side fire bars b, b. The
fresh supply of fuel being placed on to the open fire bars a; a, those bars
are to be raised up into their places by means of the lifting: bars m, and when
the open fire bars a, a, are again raised up, they are secured in their places by
the .bolts c, which are forced into the end transverse bars a¹ by means of the
handle.n and apparatus worked thereby, and then the lifting bars m are to be
immediately lowered out of the way so as to allow the atmospheric air to pass
freely through to the, fuel on the open fire bars a, a, and thus an uniform set of
open fire. bars.will be preserved over the whole surface of the bottom of the
furnace for the burning fuel to rest upon, and it will be evident that the rising
and falling bars-m, m, which I have.called lifting bars, simply act to raise and
lower the open fire bars a, a, and are not used in any way for supporting the fuel,

page_text: such lifting bars m being intended only to raise the open fire bars which do sup-
port the fuel into a proper position, and then to be removed, in order to allow of
the atmospheric air passing between the said open fire bars a, a, which they have
so'raised as aforesaid. In some cases where the space filled up by the open fire
bars a, a, is too wide for the fuel to sustain itself across from the fixed side
bars to b, when the open fire bars a have descended I apply a series of
bars r, r, to be forced across the opening, as is indicated by dotted lines in
Figure 4, but I make no claim to such means of giving temporary support to
the fuel in the absence of the open fire bars a, a, similar bars having been before
used for that purpose. I have not thought it necessary to describe the con-
struction of the other parts of the furnace, as they form no part of my Invention,
and they are clearly shewn in the Drawing. Now whereas it is evident that a
descending cross grating, open lattice, or extensively perforated plate might be
substituted for what I have called my descending open fire bars a, a, for I would
have it understood that I do not confine myself to the precise form of descend-
ing open fire bars herein-before described, but claim as my Invention. the
lowering at pleasure and in a horizontal position by any suitable apparatus
(though I prefer that herein-before described) a portion of the open fire bars of
a furnace to a position sufficiently below the fire to enable a fresh supply of fuel
to be placed thereon, and then raising them again to their former position in the
furnaces, and retaining them there till the fuel is consumed and a fresh supply
required without interfering with the draught necessary for the combustion of
the said fuel while being so consumed, as aforesaid, and thereby I am enabled
to do away with all feeders, hoppers, pushers, plungers, pistons, inclined planes,
and other the like objectionable apparatus which have heretofore impeded the
successful application of Inventions for feeding furnaces from below upwards.
And such my Invention being, to the best of my knowledge and belief, entirely
new and never before used within that part of Her said Majesty's United King-
dom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her said Dominion of Wales,
and Town of Berwick upon Tweed, I do hereby declare this to be my Speci-
fication of the same, and that I do verily believe this my said Specification doth
comply in all respects, fully and without reserve or disguise, with the proviso in
the said herein-before in part recited Letters Patent contained. Wherefore I
do hereby claim to maintain exclusive right and privilege to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Michael Coupland, have hereunto set my
hand and seals, this Fourth day of March, One thousand eight hundred
and forty tina

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fourth day of March, in the year
in the year of our Lord 1842, the aforesaid Michael Coupland came before our
said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and everything therein contained and specified, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the
Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Fourth day of March, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and forty-two.