CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF FURNACES AND FLUES
Year: 1843

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ELISHA
HAYDON COLLIER, of Goldsworthy Terrace, Rotherhithe, in the County of
Surrey, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-eighth day of September, in the seventh year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Elisha Haydon Collier, Her especial licence, that I, the said Elisha
Haydon Collier, my exors, adññors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Elisha Haydon Collier, my exors, adiñors, or assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term of
years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within that part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
called England, Her Majesty's Dominion of Wales, and the Town of Berwick
upon Tweed, and also within the Islands of Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark,
and Man, and all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Inven-
tion of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF FURNACES AND FLUES;"
in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said
Elisha Haydon Collier, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to

page_text: be enrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery with SIX Calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully
and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Elisha Haydon Collier, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention
to consist, first, in so arranging the flues of furnaces that the smoke and other
offensive matters which ordinarily pass up the chimney shall, previously to
entering the chimney, be conducted over a clear fire in a furnace, wholly
distinct and separate from the original heating foul fire furnace, such clear fire
furnace being placed in some central or other convenient situation, where it
may be made available either to increase the heat around the boiler or other
apparatus to be heated by the original heating furnace, or to heat other appa-
ratus at a distance or separate from the said boiler or other apparatus before
mentioned; secondly, in forming a double flue in the chimney for the purpose
of causing a current of warm air down the same to feed the furnaces; thirdly,
in peculiarly shaped flues; and, lastly, in stepping the chimney or funnel in an
improved manner. And in further compliance with the said proviso, I, the
said Elisha Haydon Collier, do hereby describe the manner in which my
said Invention is to be performed, by the following statement thereof, reference
being had to the Drawings annexed, and to the figures and letters marked
thereon, that is to say :-
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
In the Drawing marked Drawing 1, my Invention is shewn as applied to
a set of marine boilers. Figures 1, 2, and 3 are a plan of a set of marine
boilers, shewing three descriptions of flues (chambers or tubes) with return
flues into the centre furnace, Figure 2, with a clear fire, by which all the
smoke and unconsumed combustible matter will be ignited, and the flame
passing through the lateral flues beyond the whole of the heat is made avail-
able, and the nuisance of smoke got rid of. Figure 4 is a vertical section,
taken through Figure 2, at A, A; Figure 5, a front elevation, with part of the
furnace plates removed, shewing an end view of the flues f, and the chambers
and tribes at the back of the furnace bars; also steam chest M and funnel I,
water jacket H, water ways e, mud hole doors Q, &c., &c. Figure 6, a vertical
back section, taken through Figure 2, at B, B; Figure 7, a vertical end view,

page_text: circular tubes in the same space; Figure 9, a vertical section, taken through
Figure 5, at W, W; Figure 10 is an horizontal section of the funnel I,
shewing descending flue or division K, for supplying hot air down the funnel
to the furnaces; Figure 11 is an horizontal section of funnel I, shewing hot
air cylinder G, and the water jacket H, for supplying hot water as feed to the
boilers; Figure 12 is a vertical section, taken through Figure 1, at X, X;
Figure 13 is a section of a square tube, on a much increased scale; c, c, c, c,
furnace bars; e, e, e, e, water ways or spaces; f.f.f.f, furnaces and tlues;
G, hot air cylinder, for stepping down the funnel to the water line; H, hot
water jacket round the funnel; I, funnel; L, L, are ash pits; D, D, iron lattice.
work for admission of air to centre furnace from the ash pit in front of the
furnace bars; M is a steam chest; N, N, are furnace doors; O, water line in
boilers; P, P, plates of iron or other metal; Q, Q, are doors for cleaning out
boilers; r, r, blow-off pipes and cocks; s, steam pipe, broken through; t, feed
pipe and cock, from hot water jacket H; u, force pump pipe, broken off for
supplying the jacket H with cold water; V, waste pipe, broken off to discharge
surplus of water through the side of vessel; Y, Y, are connecting pipes and
cocks between the boilers, Figures 1, 2, 3. In the Drawing marked N° 2, my
Invention is shewn as applied to boilers set on land, my Invention being intended
both for marine and land purposes. For marine purposes, I will refer to
Drawing annexed, N° 1, with the references thereto, in order to explain more
in detail the manner in which it is carried out; and I will here describe it as
concisely and intelligibly as I am able. In the first place, I construct two or
more wing or side furnaces, as Figures 1 and 3, in Drawing 1, and which may
have the flues in the common or old form, as in Figure 1 (and which Figure 1
is no part of my Invention, and is merely delineated on the said plan or
Drawing 1 in order to shew the mode of adapting my Invention to the old
boilers commonly in use, without its being necessary to go to the expence of
having entirely new boilers until the old ones are worn out), or with improved
flues (chambers or tubes), as in Figure 3, f1; and I then lead all the flues
on either side, which, in adopting my whole Invention, and in order to gain the
greatest generating surface, should be either narrow conical chambers, or
square tubes, as in f 1, Figure 2,) at the back of the furnace bars C, and through
which the flame and smoke passes into a back flue f 2, which I have continued
and returned by the side of or over the first flues f 1 to the front of the furnaces,
and there by an easy turn f 3 have brought them together at f 4 over or in
front of a distinct and separate centre furnace c 2, by which return flues all the
smoke and hitherto unconsumed combustible matter enters on either side into
such distinct and separate centre or other furnace, and thence having received

page_text: and been mixed with a fresh supply of air, which I introduce in the manner
herein-after described, passes over a clear coke or cinder or charcoal or other
clear fire, whereby such smoke and hitherto unconsumed combustible matter
and gases, being chiefly composed of carbon, carbureted hydrogen and carbonic
oxide, will be perfectly ignited and consumed, the carbonic acid gas being the
only gas which will escape at the top of the chimney, and by this means the
objection is obviated which properly exists to passing the carbonic acid gas,
always more or less generated in the furnaces, over a clear part of the
same fire at the back, where it is, I conceive, impossible to get a sufficient
fresh supply of air without injury to the boilers, and from which clear fire the
carbonic acid gas will therefore imbibe a greater proportionate quantity of
carbon, and become carbonic oxide, which will be wasted, and so escape from
the chimney in this most deleterious form; whereas by my Invention the car-
bonaceous matter and gases, which form the smoke, being turned into a
distinct and separate furnace, will receive a plentiful fresh supply of oxygen
before they come in contact with the incandescent fuel, fully sufficient to
consume any additional carbon which the carbonic acid gas might otherwise
imbibe therefrom; and not only so, but the carbonic oxide already produced at
the back of the common furnace (where the fire is in general clearer than in
front) by the carbonic acid gas generated near the front, passing over such
clearer fire in a close furnace, will, when brought round by the return flues
with the other portions of the smoke, and passed over the clear fire, after having
received its fresh supply of oxygen, become a valuable combustible, and be
entirely consumed. Having by the means thus described ignited the smoke in
such distinct and separate centre or other clear furnace, I then further make
the flame or product of combustion arising therefrom available for generating
steam, by passing it over a bridge or waterway, and into the flue ƒ 5, beyond,
and thence, allowing it to divide itself into two separate streams of flame to the
right and to the left, lead it on either side into and through the lateral flues
beyond f6, in which, having travelled round to that part over which the last
flue or chimney or funnel is placed, the remaining gas escapes up the chimney,
heating in its ascent, by whatever portion of heat it may yet contain, the
water placed in the jacket or cylinder round such funnel for the purpose of
supplying the boilers with a hot feed instead of a cold one, and in which lateral
flues, and in the water jacket above, the heat contained in such flame or
product of combustion is totally or almost totally absorbed before it reaches
many feet above the deck, and by the above means I therefore get rid of the
nuisance of smoke. I make almost every particle of heat available, and
reduce the height of the funnel to a few feet above the deck. And with respect

page_text: to the mode by which I afford a fresh supply of air to the smoke before it
passes over the clear fire in such centre or other furnace, I consider it desirable
that the air should as far as practicable be introduced at as high a temperature
as possible, as the smoke will not then be cooled by it, and will therefore
ignite at a lower temperature in the consuming furnace, and will not require
so great a heat to be kept up in such furnace as can be in any way injurious
to the boilers, as might possibly be the case if a perfectly cold stream of air
was allowed to mix with and cool the smoke in its entrance to such consuming
furnace. And in order to effect what I desire, I have adopted two modes of
introducing the supply of air to mix with the smoke; one of which modes
consists in having a division K. in the funnel or chimney, as shewn in Figure 10,
divided from the main body of the funnel or chimney, which division K forms
a descending flue, which is continued from the lower end of the funnel or
chimney, over the top of or through the steam chest, to the front of the con-
suming furnace over or in front of part of the flue ft, where the smoke is
entering into the consuming furnace, at the end of which descending flue, over
or fronting the flue f 4, is placed a plate of iron, perforated with numerous holes,
and down and through which descending flue and perforated plate a stream of
air, divided by such perforated plate into numerous jets or streams, will be con-
stantly flowing, and mixing with the smoke on its entrance to the consuming
furnace, and will have acquired a very considerable degree of heat in its passage
through such descending flue; and by placing a damper across such flue in any
part of the same where most convenient I have the power of shutting off such
stream of air whenever desired. The other mode of admitting a supply of air to
mix with the smoke on its entering the consuming furnaces I effect by the
removal of the dead plate which is usually placed in front of the furnace bars,
and by placing in its stead a number of narrow plates of iron D, D, Figure 5,
placed on edge, but obliquely leaning inward, with a narrow space of about a
quarter of an inch between each plate, after the manner of a lattice or venetian
blind, through which spaces the air will rush in narrow streams upwards, just
so as to meet and mix with the smoke in its passage downwards into the
furnace, to which smoke these streams of air will also give the proper direction
over the fire; and all the air admitted through this lattice work coming from
the ash pit, where there is always a considerable degree of heat, it will have
acquired a considerable warmth before entering the furnace; and as these plates
may hang on a pivot or axle at each end by means of a slide at one end, I can
diminish or close the apertures so as to diminish or increase the supply of these
streams of air at will; and in order to the obtaining the greatest quantity of
generating surface in the smallest space, I form and construct the flues f¹ at

page_text: the back of the furnace bars C, through which the smoke from the foul fres
passes, and leading to the back flues f 2, either in the form of upright narrow
conical chambers, or of square tubes, placed angularly, as described in the plan
of the same in Figure 3 of the said Drawing, and in the elevation or end views
Figures 5, 7, 8, and 13, and in the section of the same in Figure 9; by
the latter of which forms, namely, the square tubes, the greatest possible gene-
rating surface it obtained, being about one-fifth more than can be obtained by
using the circular tubes in the same space, and a consequent saving of about a
fifth in room, with a corresponding saving in the expence, weight, and room
of fuel; and which square tubes are made without any difficulty, and at the
same or nearly the same expence as circular tubes, by merely passing circular
tubes while hot through rollers with square grooves, which will sufficiently
compress the sides, as in Figure 13, without having a sharp corner or angle
to the square tubles, which it is desirable to avoid; and as all these flues,
whether the chambers or the tubes, are open at both ends, they are easily
cleaned through, and by knocking off the collars can without difficulty be
removed and replaced by new, when required.
And I have further constructed and invented a hot-air cistern or iron casing
or cylinder G, Figures 4, 6, and 11, into which the last flue or funnel, with the
water jacket H round the same, for supplying a hot feed to the boilers, is to be
fixed or stepped down to the water line inside the boilers, so as to meet and
rest the funnel upon the extreme end of the last flue, passing through the
water in the boiler, in order to obviate the necessity of having the intervening
or connecting flues between the furnaces and the funnel, on which the funnel
rests, or the take-ups, as they are called, and which passing through the steam
chest, and being of dry iron, are rapidly destroyed or burnt out by the flame
which passes through them, and are, moreover, constantly destroying and
wasting and decomposing a quantity of the steam, to generate which much fuel
is therefore consumed in vain.
The mode of describing in what manner my Invention is to be used and
applied for land purposes must depend very much on the object of the manu-
factory, and the number and relative position of the furnaces and flues already
existing in the manufactory; but if merely steam work is required, the nearer
the boilers can be made on the plan of marine boilers, as in Drawing 1, the
better; and in the case of a new manufactory for other purposes, I would
recommend the same to be built and arranged somewhat in the manner
described in the annexed Drawing No 2, that is, with a regular and consecutive
range of coppers or boilers placed consecutively, side by side, with a single
chimney at the further end, into which all the flues from the several furnaces

page_text: could be carried by one single conduit flue and with the furnaces so arranged;
I apply my
Invention by turning the flues through which the hot smoke and
unconsumed combustible matter is passing, so as to carry such smoke and
unconsumed combustible matter from the first of the range of furnaces, after
passing round the copper or boiler or other object, over the second furnace of
the range, and so on, after passing round the second copper or boiler or other
object as aforesaid, over the third and other furnaces consecutively. Finally,
however, or alternately, or at the intervals of two or three furnaces, according
to the number or size of the furnaces and the quantity of fuel used, the accu-
mulated smoke and unconsumed combustible matter is to be passed over a clear
coke or cinder or charcoal or other clear fire, when the whole of such smoke
and hitherto unconsumed combustible matter will be consumed, and the flame
or product of combustion arising therefrom is to be carried under and round
the next copper or boiler, and so on, as before directed; the last furnace used,
however, must have a clear fire, and whether any of the other fires before the
last shall also be the same must depend entirely upon the number of furnaces
required for the manufactory; but after this last fire, or each clear fire, if more
than one, the flame or product of combustion arising from the ignition of the
smoke or gases should be made available by closing up the front of the furnace
next after and immediately following such clear fire, if the furnaces are
sufficiently close for that purpose, when the flame arising from such ignition
should be carried on under and round the next copper or boiler, as before
directed, and will be sufficient, if such copper or boiler should be situated near
enough, to answer the purposes of a fire in the furnace under such following
boiler for generating steam, or for other purposes, and thus the entire expense
of the fuel consumed in one furnace after each of the clear fires will be saved.
If the object should be to heat any other body except a fluid, the flame or
product of combustion from the unconsumed smoke or gases may be easily
passed through the flues on or towards such other body, and either be allowed to
completely surround such other body, or be directed on it in a concentrated
form through a tuyere, and may, if necessary, be assisted by a blowing machine.
Having had occasion, in above describing the mode in which I carry out and
adapt my Invention both to marine and to land purposes, to make use of many
common terms, and to name things well known and in common use, I now
declare that I do not intend to claim any of the parts of such description that
are already in use, except as the same are particularly and originally applied
by me for carrying out my Invention; but whereas I do claim, first, the
turning or leading of the flues at the back of or from the furnaces in which
the foul fires are burning, and through which flues the smoke and other

page_text: combustible matters pass off from the same so and in such manner as to convey
and pass or return such smoke and other combustible matters to and through
a distinct and separate centre or other furnace, and over a coke or cinder or
charcoal or other clear fire in such centro or other distinct and separate
furnace, for the purpose of consuming the smoke in such last-mentioned
furnace, whether the flues so turned and led, with such object shall be of the
shape and figure and turned and led as specified in the Drawings hereunto
annexed and before referred to, or of any other shape and figure, and turned
and led in any other manner with the same object.
And I claim, secondly, the construction of the funnel or chimney, with
a division in the same, so as to form a descending flue for supplying hot air
down the funnel, either to the front of the centre or smoke consuming
furnace, through a perforated plate, or in any other manner, or to the furnaces
generally.
And I claim, thirdly, the conical shape of the upright flues or chambers,
and also the square flues or tubes in the annexed Drawing 1, shewn as leading
from the back of the furnace bars, and through which the flame and smoke
and heated air, &c. pass from the foul fires in the furnaces into a back flue,
and which are open at each end, whereby a greatly increased generating surface
is obtained.
And I claim, lastly, the construction of the hot air cistern or casing or iron
cylinder for fixing or stepping the funnel, with the water jacket round the
same, down to the water line inside the boiler, so as to meet the end of the
last heated flue, passing through the water for the purpose of avoiding the con-
necting or intervening flues or take-ups passing through the steam chest. And
such my Invention being, to the best of my knowledge and belief, entirely new,
and never before used with in that part of Her said Majesty's United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her said Dominion of Wales, or
Town of Berwick upon Tweed, or the Island of Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney,
Sark, and Man, or Her Majesty's Colonies or Plantations abroad; and I do
hereby declare this to be my Specification of the same, and that I do verily
believe this my said Specification doth comply in all respects fully and without
reserve or disguise with the proviso in the said herein-before in part recited
Letters Patent contained. Wherefore I do hereby claim to maintain exclusive
right and privilege to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Elisha Haydon Collier, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of March, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-four.
E. H. (L.B.) COLLIER.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-eighth day of March,
in the year of our Lord 1844, the aforesaid Elisha Haydon Collier came
before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the
Specification aforesaid, and all and everything therein contained and specified,
in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped
according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Twenty-eighth day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-four.