Improvements in Furnaces for Heating Steel or Iron Ingots, Slabs, or Piles, and for other purposes to which such a Furnace may be applicable.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 16th Sept., 1895
Complete Specification Left, 10th June, 1896-Accepted, 11th July, 1896
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Furnaces for Heating Steel or Iron Ingots, Slabs,
or Piles, and for other purposes to which such a Furnace may
be applicable.
I, HENRY WILLIAM HOLLIS of Whitworth House, Spennymoor, General
Manager of The Weardale Iron and Coal Company Limited, Tudhoe Iron Works,
Spennymoor, in the County of Durham, do hereby declare the nature of this
invention to be as follows:-
This invention relates to improved means for heating the furnace by one or
more jets of gas introduced through the crown or roof of the furnace, instead of
the heat being obtained either from a fire at one end of the furnace, or from a gas
flame entering at either end of the furnace; one of which modes of production is
at present the usual practice.
According to this invention it is proposed that the gas with the air necessary
to admit of its combustion, shall enter the furnace at its highest point through a
burner or burners, the flame passing downwards upon the ingots, slabs or piles to
be heated, and issuing from the furnace through suitable ports say at each end
thereof into a flue leading to a chimney. The air may either be drawn in by the
action of the chimney draught or may be forced in by steam jets or otherwise at a
pressure above that of the atmosphere, and may either be used at the atmospheric
temperature or heated by being previously passed through a hot chamber below or
above the furnace, such chamber being maintained at a high temperature by
means of the outgoing flame from the furnace itself.
L
The gas and air may be introduced by means of a central tube surrounded by
two similar concentric tubes the gas entering through the centre tube and the air
to support combustion through the inuer and outer ones or where cold air only is
employed one air tube may be omitted.
Deted the 16th day of Santambo- 1805
PHILIP M. JUSTICE,
& 56 Chancery Lane, London,, Chartered Patent Agent,
For the Applicant.
Improvements in Furnaces for Heating Steel or Iron Ingots, Slabs,
or Piles, and for other purposes to which such a Furnace may
be applicable.
I, HENRY WILLIAM HOLLIS of Whitworth House, Spennymoor, General
Manager of The Weardale Iron and Coal Company Limited Tudhoe Iron Works,
Spennymoor, in the County of Durham, do hereby declare the nature of this
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
This invention relates to improved means for heating furnaces by one or more
jets of burning gas introduced through the crown or roof of the furnace instead of
[D071

page_text: the heat being obtained either from a fire at one end of the furnace, or from a gas
flame entering at either end of the furnace, one of which methods is at present the
usual practice.
According to this invention it is proposed that the gas with the air necessary to
support combustion shall enter the furnace at its highest point through a port or
ports, the flame passing downwards upon the ingots, slabs or piles to be heated and
issuing from the furnace through other ports, say at each end thereof, into
chambers leading by suitable flues into a chimney or chimneys. The air may be
drawn in by the action of the chimney draught or forced in by steam jets or
'otherwise at a pressure above that of the atmosphere, and may be used at the
atmospheric temperature or heated by being passed through hot chambers or flues
above or below the outlet ports, such chambers or flues being maintained at a high
temperature by means of the outgoing flame from the furnace, the air afterwards
passing into the furnace through other hot chambers between the double walls and
roof arches of the furnace itself.
In the accompanying drawings
Fig. 1 is a horizontal sectional plan on the line a-b of Fig. 2.
Fig. 2 is a vertical longitudinal section on line c-d of Fig. 1.
Fig. 3 is a vertical cross section on line e-f of Fig. 1.
Fig. 4 is a vertical cross section on line g-h of Fig. 1.
Fig. 5 is an elevation of the front or working side of the furnace.
The drawings and the scale upon which they are made have reference to a
furnace, the inside measurement of the working chamber of which is thirty feet
long and seven feet wide, but the size of the furnace would be such as to be
suitable for the purpose it is intended to serve, and the dimensions indicated by
the drawings would be varied in accordance therewith.
In the drawings:
A represents the interior of furnace, B the hot air chamber at back of furnace,
-C the flues from cold air inlets to chamber B, D the outlet ports, E the cold air
inlets, the doorways, G the foreplates of doors, H the buckstays, I the shutters
regulating admission of air to flues C, J the slag hole, K the gas inlet ports in
upper arch of roof, L the flame inlet ports in lower arch of roof, M the hot air
chamber between arches of roof, N the chimneys, O the gas flue, P the upper arch
of roof, the lower arch of roof, R the hand wheel and connections for opening
and shutting gas valve, S the gas valve.
The mode of working the furnace is as follows:-After the whole of the
brickwork of the furnace has been thoroughly dried by a fire kept burning in the
interior for a sufficient length of time the gas is admitted through S by turning
the handwheel R and is ignited by the fire left burning for that purpose. The
gas flame strikes the floor of the furnace and passes along it through the outlet
ports D at each end of the furnace to the chimneys, on its way passing over the
arch of the air flues C which it brings to a red heat. The air to support
combustion of the gas is drawn in at the inlets E and passes through the flues C
into the hot air chamber B at back of furnace and thence into the hot air chamber M
between the arches which form the roof of the furnace, the chambers B and M
being in free communication.
From the chamber M the hot air passes with the ignited gas through the inlet
ports L into the interior of the furnace, the gas burning with an intense white
flame which in a short time brings the whole of the interior of the furnace to a
white heat. The relative proportions of gas and air required to produce the
character of flame and degree of heat desired are adjusted by the hand wheel R
and the shutters I. The chimneys N are provided with dampers either at the top
or elsewhere by which they can be regulated either to have an equal draught and
80 distribute the flame equally over the floor of the furnace, or one chimney may
be allowed to have a stronger draught than the other, in which case the flame may
be directed to one end of the furnace if it be so desired on account of the nature
cr progress of the work to be done. The floor of the furnace is formed so as to

page_text: have an inclination to the slag hole J in the centre of the back wall through which
any melted slag produced flows out of the furnace either continuously or at intervals.
when the stopping of the tap hole is removed. The iron or steel ingots, slabs or
piles, or other articles to be heated, are introduced into the furnace or withdrawn
therefrom through the doorways F in the usual way, the doors being hung
upon counterpoised levers by which they are made to slide up and down as
required.
It will be noted that in a furnace constructed as described the two internal end
walls, the internal back wall and the internal roof, form the internal walls of hot.
air chambers, and are thus protected from the cooling action of the atmosphere.
outside the furnace, and also increase the useful effect of the gas flame by the
radiation of heat from their intensely heated internal faces.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
-
1. The improvements in furnaces consisting in forming the furnace with a gas.
inlet entering such furnace through the crown or roof, substantially as and for
the purposes set forth.
2. The improvements in furnaces consisting in forming said furnaces with a gas.
inlet entering such furnace through the crown or roof and in providing an air inlet
so arranged as to supply a current of preferably highly heated air to support the
combustion of the gas, substantially as set forth.
3. The improvements in furnaces consisting in forming said furnace with air
inlet tubes or passages so arranged as to be externally heated by the outgoing
flame, and to deliver the air in a highly heated condition in proximity to the
burners situated in the roof, the gas thus entering the furnace through a stratum.
of highly heated air, substantially as described.
4. The improvements in furnaces substantially as hereinbefore described and as.
illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
Dated the 9th day of June 1896.
PHILIP M. JUSTICE,
55 & 56 Chancery Lane, London, Chartered Patent Agent,.
For the Applicant.