IMPROVED MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR EMPLOYING GASES PRODUCED FROM WOOD OR CORK, IN FURNACES USED FOR THE SMELTING OR REDUCTION OF MINERALS OR ORES."
Year: 1881

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Maurice Bauer at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 8th June 1881. A communication from
Auguste Combes d'Alma and Frederic Girot, Civil Engineers, of Paris, in the
Republic of France.
E
MAURICE BAUER, Civil Engineer, of the Firm of Messrs. M. Bauer & Co.,
Solicitors of Patents, at Paris, in the Republic of France. IMPROVED MEANS
AND APPARATUS FOR EMPLOYING GASES PRODUCED FROM WOOD OR CORK, IN
FURNACES USED FOR THE SMELTING OR REDUCTION OF MINERALS OR ORES."
A communication from Auguste Combes d'Alma and Frederic Girot, Civil Engineers,
of Paris, in the Republic of France.
The Invention relates especially to means and apparatus for conducting gases
produced from wood or cork in special retort ovens into furnaces used for the
smelting or reduction of minerals or ores.
The gases employed are produced from wood or cork in special ovens in the
usual way; they are then conducted, for the purpose of saving the bye products,
such as tar, etcetera, into a condenser, and thence into a gas holder.
The employment of the gas holder has for object the securing of a certain dis-
tribution and regular mixture of the gases with air, according to the degree of heat
it is desired to obtain.
From the gas holder the gases are conducted to special-receivers surrounding the
blast furnace, whence it enters the furnace through suitable pipos.
The shell of the furnace consists of three separate parts. The first or inner
casing is built of fire bricks, the second consists of special bricks or refractory
mortar; it insulates the inner casing from the third part or outer wall, forming
the actual body of the furnace, and allows at the same time of a sufficient
expansion of the inner refractory lining which comes in direct contact with the
flame.
The top of the furnace is closed hermetically by two dampers which are covered
on their inner sides with refractory material; these dampers can be moved by levers
furnished with balance weights.

page_text: A block consisting of very refractory stone which is furnished on its upper
surface with a layer of lime, serves as a support for the layers of lime stone, and
mineral;
at the upper circumference of this block the smelting of the raw ore is
Below the aforesaid block is the hearth of the furnace with an opening which
serves for the overflow of the slag or cinder, and a tapping hole through which the
melted metal is withdrawn.
effected.
Round the furnace is arranged an air receiver, from which pipes lead into the
furnaco for the supply of air to the flame at the upper edge of the aforesaid block,
and for the supply of air to the flame over the hearth.
There are also arranged round the furnace the aforesaid gas receivers, which
supply gas through suitable pipes to the flame at the upper edge of the aforesaid
block, and to the flame at the upper surface of the hearth.
Each air pipe is joined to a gas pipe, and forms therewith a blow pipe before the
entrance into the interior of the furnace.
The air and gas pipes are each furnished with a pressure gauge and a regulating
cock which allow of accurate observation and regulation of the entering gas and
air. The direction of these pipes is nearly tangential to the inner circumference of
the furnace.
The proportion of gas to air is about 1 to 10, that is to say, 1 volume of gas is
burnt to 10 volumes of air.
The air and gas receivers rest on a gallery supported by small columns, and
connected round the furnace. At the height of the upper surface of the aforesaid
block, sightholes are placed for observing the progress of the operation.
The gases forined from the combustion and smelting escape through pipes which
are each laid in a coil round the furnace in the insulating casing.