CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF UTILIZING FUEL
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Fredrick Hahn Danchell, of Horwith, near
Bolton, in the County of Lancashire, Civil Engineer, for the Inven-
tion of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF UTILIZING FUEL."
Sealed the 22nd January 1869, and dated the 24th July 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Fredrick Hahn Danchell.
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 24th July 1868.
I, FREDRICK HAHN DANCHELL, of Horwith, near Bolton, in the
County of Lancashire, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF UTILIZING
FUEL," to be as follows:-
I introduce coal, coke, peat, wood, charcoal, or other combustible
matter into furnaces in a state or condition of powder or dust instead
of solid lumps or blocks, as is generally the practice. I introduce this
said carbon dust or powder by means of a blast, either of air or steam,
or both combined, and produced by a fan, a bellows, or blowing engine,
or by means of a steam jet direct from a steam boiler. The air and steam

page_text: employed in connection with this carbon dust or powder I heat or
superheat by one of the means generally employed for the purpose and
well understood.
*SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Fredrick Hahn Danchell in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 23rd January 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FREDERICK
HAHN DANCHELL, of Horwith, near Bolton, in the County of Lancashire,
Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
of
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of July, in the year
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-
second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Frederick Hahn Danchell, Her special licence
that I, the said Frederick Hahn Danchell, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Frederick Hahn Danchell, 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 IM-
PROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF UTILIZING FUEL," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Frederick Hahn Danchell, 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 Frederick Hahn Danchell, 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:-
The object of my Invention being certain improvements in the mode
of utilizing fuel, I propose, in order that it may be better understood,

page_text: first, to point out the defects in the present mode of utilizing fuel, and
then to explain the means employed by me to effect the said improve-
ments. It should be well understood that the said improvements in
utilizing fuel have only reference to closed fire-places, such as boiler
furnaces and others where smelting, puddling, and other manufacturing
processes are carried on, and not to open household fire-grates.
The present mode of applying fuel in furnaces is almost universal
that of supplying it at longer or shorter intervals in a bulk of more or
less broken up lumps or pieces, and leaving it to be consumed as the
oxygen of the atmosphere with more or less facility gets into contact
with it through the fire-bars or otherwise.
The mode which I adopt is that of supplying the fuel in a finely
divided state, and to introduce it simultaneously with the oxygen of the
atmospheric air and in a continuous stream. The effect of this is an
intimate contact of each particle of carbonaceous matter with the oxygen,
and consequently a perfect combustion without waste of fuel or pro-
duction of smoke.
The mechanical means employed to introduce the constituents of
combustion into the furnace are now to be explained.
A represents a common steam boiler furnace; B, a hopper containing
the fuel in a more or less finely divided state; C is a tube connecting
the said hopper B with the fire-place or furnace A; D is a steam tube
connected with the steam boiler E, and projecting inside the tube C and
in a direction towards the said furnace, so as to be able to blow a jet
of steam along the said tube C, and thereby causing a draught which
will send the air through the opening F and the carbonaceous matter
proceeding from the hopper B into the fire-place. To insure an unin-
terrupted supply of the carbonaceous substance a drum or cylinder G,
with projections on its circumference, is placed at the bottom of the
hopper B, and by being made to revolve will carry the substance
contained in the hopper round and drop it into the tube C, from whence,
as already pointed out, it is projected into the fire-place A by means of
the draught caused by means of the jet of steam from D. The quantity
of carbonaceous matter to be supplied to the fire-place may be regulated
by means of the slide H, and the quantity of air to be supplied may be
regulated by means of a slide at the opening F. To insure a sufficient
high degree of heat in the furnace A for the ready ignition of the car-
bonaceous matter I cover the fire-bars with a layer of fuel in the usual

page_text: way, and leave the door to the ash-pit open until the heat in the furnace
shall have obtained its required height. The exact size of the different
parts of the apparatus, that is to say, of the diameter of the tube C, the
steam jet D, and the opening F, depends upon the size of the fire-place
and the amount of heat required, as also upon the nature of the car-
bonaceous matter; but in all cases I have found it advisable to make
the parts fully large, as I have it in my power to regulate the supply of
both the carbon and the oxygen by means of the amount of draught I
produce with the steam jet. In cases where the waste steam from a
steam engine is made to cause a draught in the chimney it may be
advantageously employed to produce the same effect as with the steam
jet, and may therefore be employed instead or in conjunction with the
steam jet. Any other draught strong enough to produce the same effect
as the steam jet will naturally have the same result.
What I claim as my Invention is, the introduction into the furnace of
the more or less finely divided carbonaceous matter simultaneously with
the atmospheric air by means of the draught caused by a jet of steam
or air.
In witness whereof, I, the said Frederick Hahn Danchell, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of January,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-
ninc.
FREDERICK HAHN DANCHELL. (L.S.)