CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS FURNACES OR FIRE-PLACES
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT
to Thomas Wrigley, of Todmorden, in the County of
Lancaster. Manager. for the Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS
FURNACES OR FIRE-PLACES."
IN
Seated the 3rd September 1867, and dated the 26th March 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Wrigley at the
Olice of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
26th March 1867.
1. THOMAS WRIGLEY, of Todmorden, in the County of Lancaster, Manager,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVE.
MENTS IN FURNACES OR FIRE-PLACES," to be as follows:-
The Invention relates to that part of furnaces or fire-places called the
fire-bars, and is designed for the purpose of preventing smoke and properly
consuming the fuel and gases arising therefrom.
The Invention consists in the employment and use of fire-bars arranged
transversely or across the fire-place or flue, such bars being supported in
grooved plates extending from back to front of the furnace, in which grooves
the bars are caused to slide or move, the upper set on which the fire is placed
Price &1.1

page_text: moving forward from the door towards the end of the furnace in one pair of
grooves, and the lower set moving underneath them in a reverse direction in
a lower pair of grooves, the two sets of grooves communicating with each
other by means of a vertical channel at each end, so that the bars may he
passed one by one from the upper to the lower level, and vice versa. The
apparatus for effecting the constant passage or progression of the bars consists
of a driving shaft situated beneath the furnace. on which an eccentric and a
peculiar shaped cam are fixed; to one clip of the eccentric a rod is attached,
having its end turned so as to act as a plunger, which extends beneath the
lower bars to the end of the fire-place behind at the bottom of the
vertical channel, and to the other clip a bell-crank lever is attached, which
has a plunger which operates on the bars on the upper groove and in front of
the furnace, and the cam is employed to lift the bars from the lower to the
higher level by means of a bell-crank lever and bowls attached which moves
in the front vertical channel, the action of the parts being as follows:-As
the driving shaft rotates one half revolution of the eccentric causes the
plunger at the front of the furnace to push the front fire-bar towards the back
of the furnace, which action necessarily pushes one bar at the back out of the
groove, and it passes down the vertical channel to the lower level, when the
other half revolution causes the back plunger to act and to force the bar
which has just fallen towards the front again. which pushes the front bar on
the lower level into the front channel, and the cam in its revolution acts upon
the bowl on the lifting lever working in the channel, and the front bottom
bar becomes lifted up the channel and held opposite to the upper grooves;
then the front plunger acts upon it and pushes it into the grooves, and so it
passes along the upper grooves with the upper series of bars. By this means
the bars are always moving, are kept separate, and the fresh fuel is constantly
being carried into the hot fire.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Wrigley in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
23rd September 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, 1. THOMAS
WRIGLEY, of Todmorden, in the County of Lancaster, Manager, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of March, in the year of our Lord

page_text: One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto I, the
said Thomas Wrigley, Her special license that I, the said Thomas Wrigley, my
exccutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas
Wrigley, 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 "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN
FURNACES OR FIRE-PLACES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Thomas Wrigley, my executors or administrators, 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 Thomas Wrigley, do hereby declare the
nature of the 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 Drawings (that is to say):
The Invention relates to that part of furnaces or fire-places called the fire-
bars, and is designed for the purpose of preventing smoke and properly consuming
the fuel and gasses arising therefrom.
The improvements, consist in the employment and use of fire-bars arranged
transversely or across the flue, such bars being supported in grooved plates
extending from back to front of the furnace, in which grooves the bars are
caused to slide or move, the upper set on which the fire is placed moving
forward from the door towards the end of the furnace in one pair of grooves,
and the lower set moving underneath them in a reverse direction in a lower
pair of grooves, the two sets of grooves communicating with each other by
means of a vertical channel at each end, so that the bars may be passed froin
the upper to the lower level, and vice versa. The apparatus effecting the
constant passage or progression of the bars consists of a driving shaft
situated beneath the furnace, on which an eccentric and a peculiar, shaped
cam are fixed; to one clip of the eccentric a rod is attached, having its
end turned so as to act as a plunger, which extends beneath the lower bars to
the end of the fire-place behind and at the bottom of the vertical channel,
and to the upper clip a bell-crank lever is attached, which has a plunger which

page_text: operates on the bars on the upper groove and in front of the furnace, and the
cam is employed to lift the bars from the lower to the higher level by means
of a bell-crank lever and bowls attached which move in the front vertical
channel, the action of the parts being as follows: As the driving shaft rotates
one half revolution of the excentric causes the plunger at the front of the
furnace to push the front fire-bars towards the back of the furnace, which
action necessarily pushes a bar or bars at the back out of the groove, and it
passes down the vertical channel to the lower. level, when the other half
revolution causes the back plunger to act and to force the bar which has just
fallen towards the front again, which pushes the front bar on the lower level
into the front channel, and the cam in its revolution acts upon the bowl
on the lifting lever working in the channel, and the front bottom bar
becomes lifted up the channel and held opposite to the upper grooves; then
the front plunger acts upon it and pushes it into the grooves, and so it passes
along the upper grooves with the upper series of bars. By this means the
bars are always moving, are kept separate, and the fresh fuel is constantly being
carried into the hot fire.
In order that the Invention may be better understood and explained in
detail I have hereunto attached a Sheet of Drawings illustrative of the same.
Fig. represents a longitudinal section of that part of a boiler flue to which
my improvements are applied, shewing the upper and lower level of fire-bars
and the apparatus for actuating the same; Fig. 2 is an end view of the same,
and Figs. 3, 4, 5, and 6 are diagrams shewing how the bars may be connected
with ordinary chains so as to be moved in the upper and lower grooves by
passing the chain over pulleys at each end of the furnace, and which may be
applied as a modification of the propelling apparatus shewn in Fig. 1. In
Fig. 2 part of the apparatus is removed from the left side of the flue in order
to exhibit the slide and catch by which the bars are lifted from the lower to
the higher level.
In Figs. 1 and 2 a is a rotating shaft which moves the eccentric b, on
which the clip is secured, which actuates the rod and plunger e so as to
cause it to push the bars in the lower grooves forward towards the front of
the furnace, and as each bar is propelled the cam d acting upon the bowl e ou
the bell-crank lever causes the slide g and catch to ascend, and the catch
having passed in its descent beneath the bar, such bar is lifted to the higher
level as the cam d rotates, and by the combined action of the eccentrics and
levers ', . the plunger i acts upon such lifted bar and pushes it forward into
the upper grooves i, and as one is pushed on in front one falls down the

page_text: groove to the lower level, by which means the constant progression or passage
of the bars from front to back in the upper grooves and from back to front in
the lower is effected.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, together with the
method of carrying the same into practical effect, I wish it to be distinctly
understood that I claim the employment and use of transverse fire-bars con-
nected together as an endless chain in furnaces, or in combination with the
apparatus for effecting their progression. as herein-before described, set forth,
and fully illustrated in the Drawings attached.
In witness whereof, I. the said Thomas Wrigley, have hereunto set my hand
and seal. this Twentieth day of September. in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven.
Witnessed by
JOHN L. DAVIES, C.E...
Office for Patents,
Manchester.
THOMAS WRIGLEY. (L.S.)