IMPROVEMENTS IN BLAST FURNACES, AND IN MACHINERY OR APPA- RATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Alexander Morton at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 1st March 1878.
ALEXANDER MORTON, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain,
Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN BLAST FURNACES, AND IN MACHINERY OR APPA-
RATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH."
This Invention consists, firstly, in making a new communication or communica-
tions with the interior of blast furnaces for smelting iron ore, so that the more non-
combustible gases or other products of combustion may either escape directly into
the atmosphere or be withdrawn from the furnace at some distance between the
ordinary tuyers and the upper portion or space above the charge or "burden,"
whilst at the same time the purer and more combustible gases generated in the
upper portion of the charge above the aforesaid communications may collect at the
top, and be conducted to the receiver, heaters, and steam boilers, as is usual in iron
works at present.
In one modification I prefer to construct the furnace or furnaces with a sur-
rounding circular passage or passages at about (or above) half way between the
ordinary tuyers and the top of the charge. This circular passage communicates
with the interior of the furnace by a series of slots or holes through the brickwork
or other casing of the furnace, and the more non-combustible gases or other products
of combustion enter the surrounding passage through said slots or holes, and escape
through a short upright chimney directly into the atmosphere, or are conducted by
pipes to an ordinary chimney, and through it into the atmosphere..
The upper space above the charge may be in direct communication with the
receiver, heaters, and steam boilers, as at present; or those gases generated in the
upper portion of the charge being rendered purer and more combustible (in conse-
quence of the greater portion of the products of combustion from the incandescent
portion of the charge having escaped or been withdrawn as aforesaid may be with-
drawn from the upper gaseous space, and returned into the lower incandescent
materials of the same or a similar furnace by an ordinary blowing engine or other

page_text: blowing machine now used for producing an air blast; or the air blast itself may
be used to withdraw the gas from the top of the furnace, and inject it by "lateral
action" into the lower incandescent materials of the same or a similar furnace for
smelting ore.
The second part of this Invention consists in the application of the well-known
system of "steam blast" (as is used in locomotive engines for increasing the
draught) to high-pressure non-condensing blowing engines for increasing the draught
or the velocity of the gases from the upper portion of blast furnaces through the
several steam boilers and heaters, and from these into the atmosphere.
The exhaust steam pipe from the blowing engine or engines may be led through
an exhaust steam pipe ending in an upright nozzle, and surrounded by a short
upright chimney of the form generally known for increasing the lateral action of
fluids. The said short chimney converges quickly towards a throat, and then
diverges slowly through à distance of ten or more times the diameter of said
throat.
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The flues leading from the several steam boilers, heaters, ovens, or other appli-
ances may communicate with the lower converging end of the said chimney, and
the escape gases may be delivered through the diverging end into the atmosphere
by the lateral action" of the steam blast; or the new communication or commu-
nications before described, and forming the first part of this Invention, may be
directly connected with the lower converging end of this compound chimney, and
the products of combustion or escape gases from the blast furnace or furnaces may
either pass through it alone or together with the escape gases from the steam boilers
and heaters.
I am aware that the exhaust steam from non-condensing engines has often been
led into the flues from steam boilers and heaters, as also into the bottom of a high
ordinary chimney, but this second part of my Invention only relates to the appli-
cation and use of an upright chimney, very short compared with its diameter, and
otherwise constructed internally as herein described, so as to ensure an increase of
draught by the "lateral action" of the steam blast.
Another modification of this second part of my Invention consists in the applica-
tion of a large fan blower (somewhat similar to those used for ventilating pits and
mines) acting in the main or other flues, so as to increase the draught and thereby
induce the gases from the top of the blast furnace or furnaces through the several
boilers and heaters with greater velocity.
The third part of this Invention consists in the construction and use of a gauge
or indicator placed for registering the velocity of the draught in the flues, or the
velocity of the air blast through the heaters, which gauges may take the form of
any liquid or other well-known gauge, the chief novelty of this last part of my
Invention being the construction and use of an induction apparatus somewhat
similar to an "ejector" or other well-known apparatus for increasing "the lateral
action of fluids."
A simple form of this apparatus consists of two nozzles within an envelope or
casing the first through which the acting fluid passes is a conoidal converging
nozzle, which delivers into the throat of a second diverging nozzlo or trumpet-
mouthed tube.
The space between the two nozzles is connected by a tube with the suction side
of the gauge, and at the entering end of the casing another tube communicates with
the pressure side of the gauge, so that the velocity of the fluid through the afore-
said induction apparatus prodúces a partial vacuum on the one side, and a partial
pressure on the other, causing motion in the liquid or other movable part forming
the gauge, thus indicating the velocity of the actuating fluid.
The gauges may have the two passages governed by cocks or valves, so that
either the pressure or the vacuum may be indicated separately or both together, from
which indication the quantity passing through the flues or tubes may readily be
deduced.

page_text: Instead of connecting the two passages of these gauges or indicators with an
induction apparatus, as just described, they may each communicate with two
separate compartments, and thus indicate the pressure (not the velocity) in each;
or the difference of pressure between the two and these latter gauges or indicators
may be formed similarly to the steam engine indicators generally.