An Improved Form of Furnace for Heating Rivets or other small Articles.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 30th Sept., 1897
Complete Specification Left, 31st Mar., 1898-Accepted, 11th June, 1898
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
An Improved Form of Furnace for Heating Rivets or other small
Articles.
We, FRANCIS EDWARD Ross, Civil Engineer, of 17, Morland Road, Addiscombe,
Surrey, and ALEXANDER JAMES GIBSON, Civil Engineer, of Cornish Villa, Sutton, Surrey,
do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
This invention deals with the heating of rivets or other small articles without
bringing them into contact with the fuel, & the improvement consists in so
constructing the furnace that the hot gases & flame from a suitable fire are drawn
or blown amongst a large number of rivets or other articles to be heated which are
contained in a hopper or chamber of such a depth that while those at the bottom are
hot enough for use those at the top are almost cold. Thus more of the heat produced
by the fire is utilised than is possible with other furnaces & the heating is done more
rapidly.
The furnace consists essentially of a. grate & fireplace, a combustion chamber & a
hopper, placed one over the other in the order named, & separated by suitable
partitions of firebrick having openings for the passage of flame from one to the other
& having a chimney or other means of producing a draught through the whole.
There are suitable doors for introducing coal to the fireplace, cold rivets to the hopper
& for extracting the heated rivets from the combustion chamber. There are also
openings for the admission of air into the combustion chamber for the efficient
combustion of the gases from the fire.
The fire being lighted & the hopper afterwards filled with the articles to be heated,
the chimney draught or blast, will cause the ignited gases to traverse the combustion
chamber, to impinge on the rivets or other articles at the bottom of the hopper, &,
passing up through the interstices amongst those above, to issue through the chimney
into the atmosphere at a comparatively low temperature.
As the hottest rivets are withdrawn from the combustion chamber those above will
descend by gravity, & being already nearly hot enough, will very quickly become
ready for use, and fresh ones may be put into the hopper to replace those
extracted.
The fireplace, combustion chamber & hopper are constructed of firebrick, the
whole being surrounded by a light iron casing having standards to support it at a
suitable height above the ground. It may also be fitted with wheels for ease of
moving from place to place.
The furnace may be worked either with natural, induced, or forced draught & if
desired an oil burner of suitable construction may be fitted to the fire-place to take
the place of the coal fire.
1004

page_text: An Improved Form of Furnace for Heating Rivets or other small
Articles.
We, FRANCIS EDWARD Ross, of 17, Morland Road, Addiscombe, in the County of
Surrey, Civil Engineer, and ALEXANDER JAMES GIBSON, of Cornish Villa, Sutton, in
the said County, Civil Engineer, 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 the heating of rivets or other small articles (hereinafter
called rivets) without bringing them into contact with the fuel. A furnace for
effecting this according thereto is so constructed that the hot gases and flame from a
suitable fire are drawn or blown amongst a large number of rivets or other articles to
be heated, which are contained in a hopper-like chamber of such a depth that when
those at the bottom become hot enough for use, those at the top are comparatively
cold. Thus more of the heat produced by the fire is utilised than it is practicable to
utilize in furnaces heretofore used for this purpose and the heating is done more
rapidly than in such furnaces.
In the accompanying drawings, Figs. 1 to 4 inclusive show one example of a
furnace constructed according to this invention, Fig. 1 being a vertical section, Fig. 2
half an elevation and half a section corresponding to the line A B of Fig. 1, Fig. 3 a
horizontal section, the upper half corresponding to the line C D of Fig. 1 and the
lower half to the line E F thereof, and Fig. 4 a plan. Figs. 5 to 8 inclusive show
another example, Figs. 5 and 6 being vertical sections taken at right angles to each
other, Fig. 7 a horizontal section, the upper half corresponding to the line A¹ B', and
the lower half to the line C¹ D¹, of Fig. 5, and Fig. 8 a plan.
The furnace in each case comprises a grate 1 and fire-place 2, a combustion-
chamber 3, and a hopper-like chair.ber 4 placed one above another in the order named
and separated by suitable fire-brick partitions having openings 5 and 6 for the passage
of hot gases and flame from the fire-place to the combustion-chamber and from the
latter to the chamber 4. In the example shown in Figs. 1 to 4 the communication
between the fire-place 2 and the combustion-chamber 3 is formed by two openings or
passages 5, one on each side of the said fireplace and chambers whilst in the example
shown in Figs. 5 to 8 a single opening 5, extending from side to side of the fireplace
and chambers, serves for this purpose. A chimney 7, which may be furnished as shown
in Figs. 1, 2 and 4, with a damper 72, is provided for producing a draught through
the furnace. There are suitable doors, 9, 10, and 11 respectively, for the introduction
of coal to the fireplace 2, for supplying cold rivets to the hopper-like chamber 4, and
for the withdrawal of the heated rivets from the combustion-chamber 3. The narrow
lower end of the hopper-like chamber 4 controls the supply of rivets to the hottest
part i.e., the combustion-chamber-so that only a few pass thereto at one time;
12 (Fig. 1) indicates approximately the outline of the lower portion of a mass of
rivets being heated in the furnace.
Openings are provided for the admission of air into the combustion-chamber to
insure complete combustion of the gases coming from the fire. In each of the
examples hereinbefore described, the fire-door 9 is for this purpose provided with
slots 9 the extent of opening of which can be varied by means of a sliding
regulator 9b connected to the door 9 by screw studs engaging in slots in the said
regulator. As will be seen the air is admitted at such a point that it has a long and
tortuous way to travel in contact with the hot brickwork and the gases before
reaching the rivets, thus ensuring its intimate admixture with the hot gases and
complete combustion of the latter before they reach the rivets in the interstices
between which there is not sufficient space for combustion to take place. In this

page_text: way we prevent unconsumed gases passing upward amongst the mass of rivets and
burning at the top thereof or passing away as smoke, and consequently we effect
considerable saving in fuel as compared with known constructions of furnaces for
heating rivets and other small articles.
It is obvious that instead of providing the hopper-like chamber 4 with one door 10
for the introduction of rivets, and one door 11 for the withdrawal thereof, such doors
may be duplicated, as shown in Fig. 9, which is a vertical section of an example in
which there are likewise two combustion-chambers 3 opposite to the doors 11.
As will be seen the heated rivets in each case descend onto the bottom of the
combustion chamber which is smooth and free from solid fuel so that the rivets can
be readily drawn over the same and out of the opening or openings closed by the
door or doors 11.
The fireplace 2, combustion-chamber 3, and hopper-like chamber 4 are constructed
of firebrick, the whole being surrounded by a light iron casing 13 having standards
14 to support it at a suitable height. It may also be fitted with wheels (not shown)
for ease of moving from place to place.
In operation, the fire having been lighted and the hopper-like chamber 4 after-
wards filled with the rivets to be heated, the chimney-draught will cause the ignited
gases to traverse the combustion-chamber 3 and impinge on the rivets at the bottom
of the chamber 4, and, passing up through the interstices amongst those above, to
issue through the chimney into the atmosphere at a comparatively low temperature
not much above that of the rivets at the top of the chamber 4. Un account of this
the general temperature of the furnace may be kept lower than that of rivet-heating
furnaces in which the rivets are placed upon horizontal hearths and heated by flame
and hot gases passing over them, as in the latter, the heat being thus wastefully
applied, the flame and hot gases must be much hotter than the rivets become.
As
the hottest rivets are withdrawn from the combustion-chamber 3, (where, and in
contact with the rivets next to be withdrawn, the hot gases reach their highest
temperature) those immediately above them will descend by gravity, and, being
already nearly hot enough, will very quickly become ready for use, and fresh ones
may be put into the hopper-like chamber to take the place of those extracted.
Instead of working the furnace by natural draught as herein before described, it
may be worked by means of draught-inducing apparatus such as shown in Fig. 10, in
which 15 is the base of a steam-jet exhauster that takes the place of the chimney 7,
16 the exhauster-pipe, 17 the steam-supply pipe, and 18 a needle for clearing the
jet-nozzle 19; in the example, the base 15 of the exhauster forins the inlet for rivets,
and is provided with a hinged door 10. Again, the furnace may be worked by forced
draught as in the example illustrated in Fig. 11, in which the walls of the furnace
are continued to the ground, 20 is a blast-pipe arranged with its nozzle beneath the
grate; and 21 an ash-door; small passages 22 are formed between the casing 13 and
the firebrick lining, in lieu of the slots in the fire-door, for the admission of air into
the combustion-chamber 3 to insure efficient combustion of the gases. If desired,
again, an oil-burning apparatus may be fitted to the furnace, as shown at 23 in
Fig. 12, and the furnace worked by means of oil instead of coal. It will be
obvious that gas may also be used for heating furnaces constructed according to
this invention.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what
we claim is :-
1. For heating rivets and other small articles, a furnace having a combustion
chamber into which flame, hot gases and air are introduced through a passage or
passages from a separate fire-place, and a hopper-like chamber arranged vertically
above and communicating at the lower end with the combustion chamber, the
arrangement being such that when the furnace is in operation and the hopper-like
chamber is filled with small articles, complete combustion of the hot gases from the

page_text: fire place will be effected before such gases reach the mass of articles and the resulting
flame and hot gases will impinge upon the lower articles and the hot gases will pass
upward through the interstices between those above so that when the articles at the
bottom are hot enough for use those at the top will be comparatively cold, and when
the hottest articles are removed through the combustion chamber they will be replaced
by others that will have descended automatically by gravity from top to bottom of
the hopper-like chamber, substantially as herein before described with reference to the
drawings.
2. A furnace for heating rivets or other small articles, comprising a fireplace, a
combustion chamber, and a hopper-like chamber placed one above another in the
order named and separated by partitions having openings for the passage of flame
and hot gases from one chamber to the other, openings for the admission of air into
the combustion chamber without passing through the fuel, means for producing a
natural, induced, or forced draught through the furnace, and doors for the introduc-
tion of cold rivets to the hopper-like chamber and for withdrawing the heated rivets
from the combustion-chamber, the arrangement being such as to ensure efficient
combustion of the gases from the fire-place in the combustion chamber, substantially
as herein before described.
3. The improved furnace constructed, arranged, and operating as hereinbefore
described with reference to and shown in Figs. 1 to 4 inclusive of the accompanying
drawings, and its modification according respectively to Figs. 5 to 8 inclusive, to
Fig. 9, to Fig. 10, to Fig. 11, and to Fig. 12 thereof.
Dated this 30th day of March 1898.
For the Applicants,
W.
LLOYD WISE,
46, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C., Chartered Patent Agent.