IMPROVEMENTS IN REVERBERATORY FURNACES
Year: 1885

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I, THOMAS LEONARD ELLIS, of the North. British Iron Works, Coatbridge, in
the County of Lanark, North Britain, Ironmaster, do hereby declare the nature of
my said invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN REVERBERATORY FURNACES and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement, that is to say :-
My said Invention has for its object to still further improve the construction.
and action of reverberatory furnaces of the kind described in the Complete
Specification of Letters Patent N° 2190 of 1884 granted to me; and I hereunto
append a sheet of explanatory drawings showing my present improvements, in'
which drawings the same reference numerals are used to mark the same or like
parts wherever they are repeated.
My present Invention comprises, an improved construction and arrangement of
hopper and the feeding mechanism thereof; an improved form of the primary or
preparatory fuel chamber; and a modified form of the secondary chamber or fire-
place in combination with the improved primary chamber. The parts for heating
air and for introducing it into the gases and vapors evolved from the coal remain
substantially the same as in my earlier Specification hereinbefore referred to.
Figure, 1, on the accompanying sheet of drawings is a side elevation, and
figure, 2, is a longitudinal vertical section of my improved furnace. Figure, 3, is a
plan of the hopper; and figure, 4, is a horizontal section of the furnace.
The hopper, 5, is of an inverted pyramidal form and is arranged so that the coal
may fall directly down from it into the upper end of the primary chamber, 6, the
opening from the bottom of the hopper into the primary chamber extending across
that chamber. The supply of coal from the hopper, 5, into the primary chamber is
controlled by means of an open box, 7, of a semicylindrical or similar. form,
constructed with transverse end plates and intermediate plates, by means of which
it is fixed to a horizontal shaft, 8. This shaft, 8, is carried in bearings in the
bottom frame of the hopper and extends to the outside at one side of the furnace
to have fixed on its end a hand lever, 9, by means of which the box, 7, is turned
partly round so as to empty into the primary chamber the coals with which it
becomes filled when in its closed position as shown in figure, 2.
The primary chamber, 6, in which the coal. is first received for the purpose of
being acted on by the heat from the secondary chamber or fire place, 10, so that its

page_text: volatile gases and vapors may be distilled off, is made of an increased size as
compared with the corresponding chamber described in my earlier Specification
herein before referred to, and is made with a long inclined bottom, 11, down along
which the coal passes very gradually. Openings with covers, 12, are made in the
side of the primary chamber, 6, as in my former modification, for the introduction
of a poker or instrument for stirring the coal on the inclined bottom, 11, and for
gradually moving it downwards thereon. These side openings, one of which is
shown in section in figure, 4, are widened at their inner ends to allow of the
requisite movements of the poker or instrument introduced.
Between the primary chamber, 6, and the secondary chamber or fireplace, 10,
there is a curtain or inverted bridge, 13, which dipping downwards from the roof
causes the gases and vapors evolved in the primary chamber to pass downwards in
leaving that chamber. This bridge or curtain, 13, is hollow and is supplied with
air heated by passing through a passage, 14, partly indicated by dotted lines, and
formed in the walls and other parts of the furnace as described in my earlier
Specification bereinbefore referred to; or the air supplied to the hollow bridge or
curtain, 13, may be heated in any other convenient way. A number of perforations
or jet orifices, 15, are made through the inner face of the hollow bridge or
curtain, 13, and the heated air issuing therefrom intermingles with the gases
and vapors passing upwards from under the bridge and insures their thorough
combustion.
In combination with the enlarged primary chamber, 6, I now employ a com-
paratively shallow grate space, 10, as shown in figure, 2, the coal being very
completely reduced to coke by the time it has passed through the primary
chamber, 6, and reached the grate space, 10, where it is finally burned.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
Invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what
I claim is
1. The improved construction and arrangement of the coal hopper and its
feeding mechanism as herein before described.
2. The improved form and relative proportions of the primary or preparing
chamber, as herein before described.
3. The combination of the enlarged primary chamber with the comparatively
shallow grate space as and for the purposes hereinbefore described.
Dated this seventeenth day of February 1885.