Improvements in Reverberatory Furnaces.
Year: 1891

page_text: Date of Application, 23th Nov.. 1891
Complete Specification Left. 27th Aug.. 1892-Accepted, 1st Oct., 1892
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Reverberatory Furnaces.
I, EDUARD GOEDICKE, of Schwechat near Vienna, in the Empire of Austria,
Engineer and Manager of The Schwechat Iron Works, do hereby declare the
nature of this invention to be as follows:-
:-
This invention relates to reverberatory furnaces of all kinds, such as puddling-
furnaces, welding-furnaces Martin-furnaces and melting-furnaces whereby they are
adapted for being heated by gaseous fuel, and it has for its object to so arrange
such furnaces as to admit of a current of flames of alternate directions being
obtained with the gas passing directly from the gas-producer into the furnace, that
is to say, without being previously heated by means of regenerators.
According to my invention, the purpose in view is attained by arranging at each
end of the furnace to be heated a gas chamber, communicating on the one hand,
through a narrow passage or slot with the furnace, and on the other hand, through
an orifice that may be closed by a valve, with the gas collecting top portion of a
gas-producer underneath or a series of gas-producers connected with each other,
while passages branching off from the said slots run to recuperators or regenerators,
adapted to be connected either with the open air (blast-main) or with a chimney.
According to the direction which is intended to be given to the current of flames
passing through the furnace, one or the other of the two gas chambers is put in
communication with the gas-producer and the open air, while the other gas chamber,
for the time being, is connected with the chimney, which sucks the fuel gas and the
air necessary for its combustion through the furnace.
As the whole gaseous products of combustion yield their caloric to the
regenerators destined to heat the air supporting combustion, the said regenerators
or recuperators may be made as large as the recuperators for gas and air of an
ordinary Siemens regenerative furnace together. The effect of this is that the air
is heated to a considerably higher temperature than was the case heretofore and
that this air when mingling with the generator gases, which still retain the
temperature at which they are evolved, causes combustion at such a high
temperature as could not be produced heretofore in an economic way.
The invention also consists in special features of construction viz. in hollow
valves for closing the apertures through which the gas-producers communicate with
the gas chambers, the said valves having cooling-water introduced into and educed
from them by means of the tubular valve stem and a pipe arranged within the same
respectively. Furthermore, the pipes for cooling-water, which hitherto were cast
in the cast-iron parts of the furnace, are freely placed in grooves of the castings,
where they are imbedded in iron filings or turnings.
In order to enable my invention to be fully understood I will describe how it can
be carried into practice by reference to the accompanying drawings, which illustrate
its application to a double puddling-furnace.
In the drawings:-
Figure 1 is a sectional side elevation of the furnace on line A B C D E of
Figure 2, line F G of Figure 3 and line H 1 of Figure 4.
Figure 2 shews the furnace partly in top side view and partly in horizontal
section on the line J K L M of Figure 1, the line NO of Figure 3, and the line P.Q
of Figure 4.
Figure 3 is a cross section on line T U of Figure 2 and line V W of Figures 1
and 2.

page_text: Figure 4 is a cross section on fine R S of Figures 1 and 2.
Figure 5 is a sectional elevation of a hollow valve adapted to be cooled by water,
which flows in and out through the hollow valve stem.
Figure 6 is a cross section of a cast-iron fire-bridge, provided with a groove
within which the pipe for the cooling-water is embedded in iron filings or
turnings.
C
Referring to the drawings, a and a' are the two hearths of the double puddling-
furnace, communicating, by means of the two short gas passages band with the
gas chambers and c'. Through the apertures e and el, which can be closed by the.
valves d and, the said chambers communicate with the gas collecting spaces of
gas-producers and arranged underneath, and the outer end of each gas chamber
is provided with a dust chamber c. As the said gas collecting spaces are connected
with each other at their top ends by means of a slot in the separating brickwork
partition, the whole fuel gas produced may be caused to pass either through the
open valve into the gas chamber c or through the open valve d' into the gas
chamber c¹.
From the gas passages and b, passages g and g' respectively, of flat transverse
section are branched off vertically downward, these passages serving, according to
the direction of the current of flames in the furnace, either for the introduction of
the air supporting combustion, or for the eduction of the burnt gases. The said
passages g and g open into large horizontal chambers, arranged below the level of
the work and containing the recuperators of caloric and . The said chambers
are separated from each other by the reversing valve, whose chamber also com-
municates by means of the smoke passage with a chimney and by means of
passages and with flat hollow spaces 3, which are arranged above the
recuperators and , beneath the level of the work, and are connected by means
of the common passage either to the open air or to a blast-main. When the
reversing valve has the position shewn in the drawings, the air supporting com-
bustion enters through the passage, the hollow spaces and 3 and the passages k
and into the recuperator k, and thence rising through the flat vertical passage y,
it mingles with the fuel gas arriving through the passage b, and is ignited in
consequence of its mixing with the air. The flame passes over the hearths a and a',
is sucked downward through the passage and passes through the recuperator /
and the smoke passage j into the chimney. The arrangement of the flat hollow
spaces, ³, swept through by the air for combustion, above the recuperators of
caloric offers the advantage that the floor of the works is cooled.
The gas-producers shewn in the drawings are blast-furnaces for pit-coal; it is
obvious however that, according to the nature of the fuel to be used, other gas-
producers may be employed such for instance as draught furnaces, stepgrate-furnaces,
and the like.
The valves d and d³, which are exposed to the high temperature of the freshly
evolved generator gases must be very resistant. To this end they may be formed
of a cast-iron core with a coating of chamotte, as shewn in Figure; but by
preference they are made hollow, as shewn in Figure 5, and cooled by water passed
through them. In this case the tubular valve-stem serves for the eduction of the
cooling-water, which is introduced through a pipe arranged within the tubular valve-
The gas-tight closure of these valves is fully insured by the particles of
ashes and dust, large quantities of which are carried along by the current of
fuel gas.
stem.
In order to prevent the heavy valves from falling upon their seats, when the
current of flames is reversed, whereby the roofs of the gas-producers might become
damaged, the said valves are controlled in all their movements by a suitable
reversing gear. The said gear consists of the beam, from which the valves d
and are suspended by means of chains, and of the nut n, which is linked to the
arm p of the beam-shaft o, and may be moved in either direction by means of the
screw carrying the hand-wheel m³.
In the drawings two gas-producers are shewn, communicating with each other,

page_text: but it will be readily understood that one gas producer or a greater number of gas-
producers may be employed.
As the high temperatures, which can be produced by means of the described
furnace might possibly cause the cast-iron fire-bridges to crack and the pipes in
which circulates the cooling water if cast in the said fire-bridge as usual hitherto,
would crack at the same time, I provide the fire-bridge with grooves as shewn in
Figure 6, and into these grooves the pipes are laid on a layer of iron filings or
turnings, whereupon the groove is filled with stamped material of this kind.
As the iron turnings or filings are a good conductor of heat they do not sensibly
diminish the cooling effect, and at the same time, they are sufficiently yielding not
fully to transmit to the cooling-water pipes the pressures consequent on the
dilatation of the cast iron.
Dated the 28th day of November 1891.
G. F. REDFERN & Co.,
4, South Street, Finsbury, London, Agents for the Applicant.
Improvements in Reverberatory Furnaces.
I, EDUARD GOEDICKE, of Schwechat, near Vienna, in the Empire of Austria,
Engineer and Manager of The Schwechat Iron Works, 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 reverberatory furnaces of all kinds, such as puddling-
furnaces, welding-furnaces, Martin-furnaces and melting-furnaces, and it has for its
object to so arrange and construct the constituent parts of such furnaces as to avoid
in a more thorough manner than has hitherto been the case the heating of
unnecessarily long passages and the loss of heat, caused by radiation, which
generally amount to about 30 per cent. of the heat produced by the combustion of
the fuel.
.
According to my invention, the gas producers are arranged close by the hearth,
into which the fuel gas directly enters without being previously passed through
regenerators, and the said gas-producers and the hearth are so constructed as to
form one undivided whole, inclosed in a common encompassing wall of a circularly
cylindrical shape or nearly so, as this shape admits of the smallest possible radiating
surface for a given volume. Unlike existing furnaces, the gas-producers of which
are arranged adjacent to the hearth, and in which the current of flames is always in
one and the same direction, the furnace forming the subject of this invention admits
of periodical reversals of direction of draught, whereby, on the one hand the
temperature in different portions of the hearth can be altered when required and on
the other hand the heating of the air to support combustion is effected on the
counter-current principle, that is to say, the air entering the cold end of a
regenerator encounters throughout the whole of its passage brickwork of gradually
increasing heat.
For this purpose I arrange at each end of the hearth a gas chamber, which
communicates, on the one hand, through a flat flue or slot with the hearth, and on
the other hand through an aperture adapted to be tightly closed by a valve, with
the gas collecting top portion of a gas-producer underneath or of a series of gas
producers connected with each other, while flues branching off from the said slots
run to recuperators or regenerators, adapted to be connected either with the open
air (with a blast-main) or with a chimney. According to the direction, which is
intended to be given to the current of flames sweeping through the furnace, one or
the other of the two gas chambers is put in communication with the gas-producer
and the open air, while the other chamber for the time being is connected with the

page_text: chimney, which sucks the fuel gas and the air necessary for its combustion through
the furnace.
As, owing to the arrangement just described, the whole gaseous products of
combustion yield their caloric to the regenerators destined to heat the air supporting
combustion, the said regenerators may be made as large as the recuperators for gas
and air of an ordinary Siemens regenerative furnace together. The effect of this
is that the air, passed through these large regenerators on the principle of counter-
current, is heated to a considerably higher degree than in any other known furnace,
and that this air, when mingling with the generator gases, which still retain the
temperature at which they were evolved, and thereby igniting these gases, produce
in an economical way such a high temperature as it has not been possible to obtain
heretofore.
The invention also comprises special features of construction, viz. hollow valves
for closing the apertures through which the gas-producers communicate with the
gas chambers, the said valves having cooling water introduced into and educed
from them through the tubular valve stem and a pipe arranged within the same
respectively. Furthermore, the pipes for cooling-water, which hitherto were cast
in the cast-iron parts of the furnace, are freely placed in grooves of the castings,
where they are embedded in iron filings or turnings.
In order to enable my invention to be fully understood, I will describe how it
can be carried into practice by reference to the drawings filed with my Provisional
Specification, which illustrate the application of the invention to a double puddling
furnace.
In the drawings filed with my Provisional Specification-
Figure 1 is a sectional side elevation of the furnace on line A B C D E of
Figure 2, line F G of Figure 3 and line H I of Figure 4.
Figure 2 shews the furnace partly in top side view and partly in horizontal section
on the line J K L M of Figure 1, the line NO of Figure 3 and the line PQ of
Figure 4.
Figure 3 is a cross section on the line T U of Figure 2 and the line V W of
Figures 1 and 2.
Figure 4 is a cross section on the line R S of Figures 1 and 2.
Figure 5 is a sectional elevation of a hollow valve adapted to be cooled by water,
which flows in and out through the hollow valve.stem.
Figure 6 is a cross section of a cast-iron fire-bridge, provided with a groove,
within which the pipe for the cooling-water is embedded in iron filings or
turnings.
Referring to the drawings, a and a¹ are the two hearths of the double puddling-
furnace, which is of the usual well known construction and consequently need not
be described. By means of the two short flues and the opposite ends of the
hearths communicate with the gas chambers c and c', built up of refractory bricks
and coated with cast-iron plates, which are held in place by rails and tie-rods
connecting the latter. Through the apertures e and e¹ which can be closed by the
valves d and d' respectively, the said chambers communicate with the gas collecting
spaces of gas-producers fand f¹, arranged underneath, and the outer end of each
gas chamber is provided with a dust-chamber c². As the said gas collecting spaces
are connected with each other at their top ends by means of a slot in the
separating partition of refractory brickwork, the whole fuel gas evolved can be
caused to pass either through the opened aperture e into the gas chamber cor
through the opened aperture el into the gas chamber c¹.
From the gas passages and b!, other Hues y and g', respectively of flat transverse
section, are branched off vertically downward, these flues serving, according to the
direction of the current of flames in the furnace either for the introduction of the
air to support combustion, or for the eduction of the burnt gases. The said
passages or flues and g' open into large horizontal chambers, arranged below the
level of the work, and containing the regenerators of heat and . The said
chambers are separated from each other by the reversing valve i, whose chamber