CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN FURNACES FOR GENERATING STEAM OR FOR OTHER PURPOSES, AND APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH
Year: 1873

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Henry Wise at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 25th March 1873.
I, WILLIAM HENRY WISE, the younger, of West Hartlepool, in the
County of Durham, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention
for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN FURNACES FOR GENERATING STEAM OR FOR OTHER
PURPOSES, AND APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH," to be as follows :—
The Invention is designed for the purpose of feeding furnaces with
fuel automatically by an arrangement of mechanism that will uniformly
distribute the same in the form of small coal over the whole surface of
the fire-bars at a rate and in such a manner that the combustion of the
gases evolved therefrom will maintain the fire of the furnaces so fed at a
given and desired temperature according to the heat required.
In order that the Invention may be clearly understood I will now
proceed to describe, as an example, one modification of the same as
applied to an ordinary cylindrical steam boiler or generator.
The mouth or entrance of the furnace is provided with a projecting
closed chamber or receptacle in lieu of the ordinary fire-door, in which

page_text: thoroughfares or passages are constructed for the admission and expulsion
of fuel, the interior or intermediate space between the two being
enlarged so as to admit of a fan or an arrangement of revolving blades
or beaters radiating from a central axis or shaft freely to revolve therein.
The entrance thoroughfare to this receptacle is provided with a "hopper,"
its position by preferance being at right angles to the exit thoroughfare
through which the coal or other fuel is discharged into the furnace.
Below the "hopper" and above the revolving beaters; and at one side
thereof, a slowly revolving spaced wheel (i. e. a wheel on which a
number of recesses or cavities are formed), is placed, the revolution of
the same being effected through the medium of a friction ratchet or
other equivalent receiving motion from the fan or beater shaft.
"
The exit orifice or thoroughfare is provided with movable guide plates
actuated by a crank disc or other equivalent on the friction ratchet shaft
through the medium of a connecting rod and levers which transmit to
such plates a slow vibratory motion that gives to the fuel passing between
the same a varying direction when being thrown by the revolving
beaters on to the fire. Thus it will be seen that when the self-feeding
apparatus is at work, the fuel (small coal) when placed in the "hopper
will be gradually withdrawn therefrom by the intermittantly revolving
spaced wheel before mentioned, from which it drops on to the blades or
beaters of the rapidly revolving fan, which can be driven by strap and
pulley or in any other convenient manner, the speed of which can be
varied. The fuel immediately it is received into this intermediate chamber
becomes at once expelled therefrom through the exit orifice by the
beaters of the fan, during which and by reason of the guide plates before
referred to it becomes distributed over the whole surface of the furnace
in a manner that effects a combustion of the gases evolved from the fuel
that will allow only a minimum amount of smoke to escape into the
chimney. The Invention is also applicable for drying malt and other like
structures.