IMPROVEMENTS IN FURNACES AND THE FIRE-BARS AND OTHER Parts Thereof.
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Taylor, of 19, Salisbury Street, Strand,
London; 3, York Buildings, Dale Street, Liverpool; and Birkenhead,
Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN FURNACES AND THE
FIRE-BARS AND OTHER Parts Thereof.
Sealed the 13th August 1875, and dated the 19th February 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Taylor at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
19th February 1875.
I, JAMES TAYLOR, of 19, Salisbury Street, Strand, London; 3, York
Buildings, Dale Street, Liverpool; and Birkenhead, Engineer, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN FURNACES
AND THE FIRE-BARS AND OTHER PARTS THEREOF," to be as follows:-
Instead of arranging and combining together a series of hollow cored
or tubular furnace bars or fire-bars in a furnace on the same. plane or
transversely level, terminating at their front ends in or resting upon a
hollow bearer common to both, having a vertical web or division therein,
and to which they are respectively connected by jointing, I employ

page_text: hollow cored or tubular bars arranged alternately at dfferent levels, so
that, say, the 1st, 3rd, and 5th bars would be at the lower level, whilsthe
the 2nd, 4th, and 6th would be at a higher level than the former, when
viewed transversely or across the breadth of the furnace. These bars
may be connected at their back ends to a common bearer suitably cored
so as to receive a connecting tube or jointing piece; or the back end of
each bar may be secured in a suitably formed recess and be connected
with the angular or inclined passage, cored or otherwise formed between
each row in the back bearer, whilst the front ends of the two rows of
bars are connected to and with either a hollow duplex passage bearer,
in which the feather web or division is horizontal along its length, and
thus leaves one common passage for each row of bars, or there may be
two separate and distinct hollow cored bearers, each forming a connec-
tion with and means of connected the front ends of the hollow bars of
each row in a common channel or way, for the particular row of bars
relating to and connected with the same horizontal line, row, or level.
Thus by the latter mode the front ends of each row of bars (and their
common and hollow connector) are free to expand and contract irrespec-
tive of the other row of bars and their hollow connector, and such
horizontal hollow or tubular connectors may slide one upon the other
directly, or have an intermediate strip or strips interposed, by which air
passages are left between them.
By the arrangement of tubular or hollow water circulating bars in
two vertical series or rows, but connected and combined together as
described, a much more perfect combustion of the fuel upon the grate
bars is effected, and anthracite coal may be readily consumed in furnaces
so constructed, whilst the life of the furnace is greatly prolonged by
the peculiar arrangement and disposition of hollow water circulating
bars as described.
The water employed for producing rapid circulation within the bars,
and the abstraction of heat from the metal of the bars becomes gradually
heated by entering the lower bars, or those in less direct contact with
the more intensely incandescent fuel, and from thence is returned
upward and is caused to pass back through the upper row of bars to
the front.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the, conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Taylor in the Great Seal Patent Office on,
the 19th August 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
TAYLOR, of 19, Salisbury Street, Strand, London; 3, York Buildings,
Dale Street, Liverpool; and Birkenhead, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of February, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in
the thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said James Taylor Her special
licence that I, the said James Taylor, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said James Taylor, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for " IMPROVEMENTS IN
FURNACES AND THE FIRE-BARS AND OTHER PARTS THEREOF," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said James Taylor, my executors or admi-
nistrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of
their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be
performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent
Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Taylor, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement and accompanying Sheet of Drawings.
Instead of arranging and combining together a series of hollow cored
or tubular furnace bars or fire bars in a furnace on the same plane
(or transversely level), terminating at their front ends in or resting upon a
hollow bearer common to both, and having a vertical web or division
therein, and to which they are respectively connected by jointing. I

page_text: employ hollow cored or tubular bars arranged alternately at different
levels, so that, say, the 1st, 3rd, and 5th bars would be at the lower level,
whilst the 2nd, 4th, and 6th would be at a higher level than the
former when viewed transversely or across the breadth of the furnace.
These bars may be connected at their back ends or by or to a common
bearing piece suitably cored so as to receive a connecting tube, elbow, or
jointing piece; or the back end of each bar may be secured in a suitably
formed recess, and be connected with the angular or inclined passage,
cored or otherwise formed, between each row in the back bearer, whilst
the front ends of the two rows of bars are connected to and with either
a hollow duplex passage bearer or dead plate in which the feather web
or division is in every case disposed horizontally along its length, and thus
leaves one common passage devoted to and for each row of bars, or there
may be two separate and distinct hollow cored bearers, each forming a
connection with and means of connecting the front ends of the hollow
bars of each row in a common channel or way, for the particular row of
bars relating to and connected with the same horizontal line or level.
Thus by the latter mode the front ends of each row of bars (and their
common and hollow connector) are free to expand and contract irre-
spective of the other row of bars and their hollow connector, and the
upper of such horizontal hollow or tubular connectors may slide upon
the other or lower one directly, or they may have an intermediate strip
or strips interposed between them by which air passages are left between
them. Where there are two separately cast or fitted horizontal channels
forming the common connection pieces, to the front ends of such
tubular fire-bars the upper face of the uppermost one may form the
"dead plate," and the front ends of the fire-bars (of whatever com-
posite or other form or arrangement they may consist) are secured
thereto, whilst the back ends of the fire-bars are quite free to expand
and contract.
By the arrangement of tubular or hollow water circulating bars in
two vertical series or rows, but connected and combined together in
either of the manners as herein described, a much more perfect com-
bustion of the fuel upon the grate bars or fuel bars of the furnace is
effected, and in this way anthracite coal may be readily consumed in
furnaces so constructed, whilst the life of the furnace is greatly pro-
longed by the peculiar arrangement and disposition of hollow water
circulating bars, as herein described and set forth.

page_text: The water employed for producing rapid circulation within the bars
(and the abstraction of heat from the metal of the bars) becomes
gradually heated by entering the lower bars (or those in less direct
contact with the more intensely incandescent fuel), and from thence
the water is returned upward, and is caused to pass back through the
upper row of bars to the front of the furnace, during which return
passage the temperature of the water is greatly increased, and as it is
caused to enter the boiler in this highly heated state considerable
economy in fuel is thereby effected.
In all cases I connect the front ends of the tubular water-circulating
bars (whether they be of the single, double, or compound form and
arrangement herein described) to and with what may be described as the
front bearer, or what may form the "dead plate" within the furnace
door or doors, and which front bearer or "dead plate" when cast in one
piece (in the depth thereof) is in every case hollow, and has therein or
within it two horizontal and separate or distinct passages or chambers
running along it divided by either a straight or a corrugated division,
and having closed ends thereto. These water passages or chambers are
divided into two parts in their height, either as I have stated by a
straight and horizontal division, or by a corrugated division, by which
when the water-circulating bars have each only one pipe or tube therein,
and they are both on the same level, and the two front ends of these
two portions of the same tube, or of the openings to the front ends of the
two portions of a composite or double (or treble) fire-bar enter or are
connected to or with the hollow dead plate or hollow bearer, the latter
may be conveniently made higher than the tops of the fire-bars, so
that the openings or pipe ends may enter alternately above and below
the corresponding line of corrugations of the longitudinal corrugated
division.
Each of these longitudinal passages or chambers has a lateral opening
or connection with the water passage corresponding therewith to enable
thic front end of each fire-bar to be so connected and secured thereto as
to enable the cold feed water "in" to pass to one passage and to its
proper tube in the bar, or to the hollow bar at the proper level, so that
independent circulation is kept up in or within each bar of whatever
form or arrangement of parts such bars may consist.
For the better illustration of my improvements in furnaces and the
fire-bars and other parts thereof I have selected some of the most con-

page_text: venient modes of putting my Invention into practical use, but I have
not in the accompanying Sheet of Drawings illustrated some of the
modifications herein mentioned or described, such for instance as the
corrugated longitudinal and horizontal division within the front bearer
or dead plate, as such and like modifications are so easily understood as
not to require illustration. Neither have I considered it necessary to
distinguish the several parts or portions of the several views by the use
or employment of letters of reference thereupon, as the several parts and
their correspondence with the respective and corresponding parts in
other views must be quite clear to every person versed in such matters
or acquainted therewith.
In the accompanying Sheet of Drawings Figure 1 is a transverse
sectional view of 7 compound or double fire-bars. In this view the bars
are sectionally cut upon the same line across the furnace, and each
compound bar shows one of the upper and one of the lower series com-
bined, each bar having a metal tube running along the centre of its
body, or longitudinally fore and aft the furnace. The back ends of the
bars are combined together in the same casting, as are also the front
ends thereof (not shown), and the mode of bolting each set of bars to
the double chambered bearer is indicated thereon.
Figure 2 is a front elevational view of part of the chambered “dead
plate" showing the mode of bolting the bars thereto, and it also shows
the pipe connection between the feed pump and the lower chamber, into
which the water is forced.
Figure 3 is a longitudinal sectional view of the dead plate showing
the two water spaces, the upper and lower parts with sections of the
bolts, which are shown passing through the middle web or the division
between the upper and lower chamber or passage common to the lower
and upper series of tubes connected with the said fire-bars.
Figure 4 is a front view of the opposite end of the dead plate to that
which is shewn in Figure 2, and it also shows the pipe connection between
the upper chamber or passage way in which the hotter water after it has
passed through the upper series of tubes within the upper series of bars,
and which said pipe connector is connected to or with the boiler, either
directly through a "shut-off valve," cock, or other contrivance.
In Figure 1 the end connections between the upper and lower tubes
within the upper and lower fire-bars is shown dotted in.

page_text: Figure 5 is a sectional view showing the water spaces and division
within the dead plate or front bearer, and is taken through a top fire-bar
on the line C, D, of Figure 3.
Figure 6 is a similar section to Figure 5, but taken on the line A, B,
of Figure 3.
Figure 7 is a corresponding sectional view of the back end of the
compound bars shown in Figure 1, and it shows the curved end passage
way or bend angularly connecting the upper with the lower line of pipes
or tubes contained within the fire-bars of each set, the section being
taken on the line E, F.
Figure 8 is a plan of the upper and lower fire-bar of each set, and it
shows the arrangement and disposition thereof in connection with the
front dead plate or bearer to which they are connected, as herein-before
described and as shown by the bolts, &c.
Figure 9 shows a modification in the arrangement and disposition of
the bars as well as in their shape. In this view the upper series of bars
have each two lengths of tube cast within them; at the further and free
moving end of each which bars a “bend” or curved connection is made
vertically between the upper and the lower tube or pipe cast therein. The
lower series of bars are here shown without tubes and they may be made
detachable or removable from their seating or bedding pieces which may
be cast on the inner face of each end piece, and into which they may be
dropped or placed after the front joints of the tubular bars have been
made with the bearer or dead plate. In this case the upper tube of each
bar is connected to and with the upper portion or chamber of the hollow
bearer or dead plate.
Figure 10 is a view of a compound bar containing in the same.
casting two upper bars, each with a single tube within the upper fire-
bar, whilst the lower (and middle) bar has not a tube and is merely
lowered into its seating, as shown.
Figure 11 is a section of a modification in the mode of connecting
each alternate tube with a dead plate or front bearer, the front end of
one tube being bent down or caused to dip so as to enter the lower
chamber or passage way.
Figure 12 shows a section of two of the upper fire-bars each with two
cored ways and tubes therein, and which have an independent connection

page_text: with the chambered front bearer or dead plate, whilst the lower bars of
which two are shown in connection with the two upper ones in one
casting, and they may be cast as part of the double cored upper bar
(but without any tube in such lower bar), although of course such lower
bar may be similar to the upper bar, and have either one or two tubes or
passage ways cast or formed therein.
The metallic tubes or pipes shown in the several sectional views as
being cast in or within the fire-bars may be of wrought iron or copper or
bronze, or of any other suitable metal or metallic compound, but I do
not intend to make any claim in respect of the use of any particular
description of material for such pipes or tubes, nor for the use of metallic
tubes or pipes within cast-iron fire-bars or furnace bars.
I wish it to be understood that I do not intend herein or hereby to
claim generally (and irrespective of or howsoever they may be constructed,
arranged, and disposed) the use or employment of furnace bars (or fire- :
bars) for effecting the circulation of water within or through them, as
such has been done heretofore in various ways, and such methods have
been patented and described.
I am also aware that furnace bars or fire-bars for furnaces have
heretofore been formed of horizontal coils or by horizontal series of
wrought-iron tubes or pipes, into and through which the water is pumped
or forced at one end and discharged at or from the other end, after
traversing continually back and forth from one side of the furnace to
the other and along its length several times, the fuel resting directly upon
such tubes; and also that (in like manner) a continuous series of or
lines of wrought-iron tubes or pipes has been employed, having con-
necting elbows alternately at the front and back ends of the furnace,
projecting beyond the ends of double or compound furnace bars under
the hollow tops of which or within the heads of which the straight
portions of such pipes are contained and protected from the direct action
of the fire, whilst each separate fire-bar or each couple of single or each
couple of compound fire-bars are connected together or jointed up in the
width of the furnace by an elbow, or by bends or by curved joint pieces
of tube.

page_text: round vertically at the back end of the fire-bar so that one part or
portion is above the other, and the two ends are brought to the front,
one over and beyond the other, and each of the two ends of such bent
pipe is turned down and pointed towards a corresponding longitudinal
chamber in a longitudinally and vertically divided double chambered
bearer upon which the front of the fire-bar proper rests and overlies,
and down to which vertically divided double chambered bearer it is
bolted; the top joint and covering of which vertically divided bearer is
formed by the under face of each front end or palm of each of such fire-
bars, all of which are laid thereon.
I am also aware that a doubled wrought-iron tube has been employed
similar to that just described, without being cast within a cast-iron
furnace bar, and that whilst the fire acts directly on and the fuel is
borne by and upon the top portion or length of such bent pipe or tube,
the front ends thereof being connected directly with the two chambers
and at and through the top thereof, the longitudinal vertical division
running along the hollow bearer (which is also cored through vertically
for the holding down bolts or studs to pass through), the cold water in
such case is forced through the inner longitudinal chamber and into and
through the lower portion of the pipe, whilst on its return the water
passes back along the upper portion of the pipe and down into the front
or more forward of the two longitudinal chambers, and from thence it is
caused to pass into the boiler in a highly-heated condition. Neither do
I intend herein and hereby to claim the arranging and disposing of
ordinary or solid (non-tubular) fire-bars, alternately in two horizontal
lines one above the other; nor the arrangement and use of fuel-bars,
alternately one above the other, forming an upper and a lower series of
bars, as such has been previously described, and has also been used
or employed in steam boiler and other furnaces; but what I do intend
to confine myself to is, the use or employment of a hollow dead plate
or front bearer with two separate and distinct chambers or passage ways
along the same and having the division between them therein either
horizontal and straight or horizontal and corrugated from end to end
thereof, as herein described, in combination and in connection with
tubular and water-circulating furnace bars, arranged and disposed as
herein set forth, and as illustrated in the accompanying Sheet of
Drawings, and also in combination or in connection with the use of
compound bars arranged and disposed as herein set forth, in each case

page_text: bearer or dead plate, into which it enters horizontally at a right angle
thereto and direct.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Taylor, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of August 1875.
Witness by me,
JOHN MUND,
Hotel Keeper,
Aberdeen,
The 17 Aug. 1875.
JAMES TAYLOR. (L.S.)