IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF FURNACES
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Kennedy, of Liverpool, in the County of
Lancaster, Civil Engineer, and Charles Wigg, of Liverpool, afore-
said, Alkali Manufacturer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE CONSTRUCTION OF FURNACES."
Scaled the 19th March 1875, and dated the 27th January 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Kennedy and
Charles Wigg at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 27th January 1875.
We, JAMES KENNEDY, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Civil
Engineer, and CHARLES WIGG, of Liverpool, aforesaid, Alkali Manu-
facturer, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF FURNACES," to be as follows:-
Our Invention relates to an improved construction of furnace to be
employed more particularly for effecting the reduction of iron ores or
products, such for example as the oxide of iron, in conjunction with a

page_text: reducing agent or agents, such for example as carbon, and it consists
in arranging a furnace or heating chamber containing retorts or tubes
(placed vertically or otherwise), into which the mixture of oxide of iron
and the reducing agent or agents is to be introduced, in combination
with a puddling furnace or furnaces or with other furnaces, in such a
manner as to more completely utilize the gases or waste heat from the
latter for effecting the reduction of the ores or products before
mentioned.
In carrying out our Invention we construct on vertical pillars or
otherwise above the puddling furnace or above two or more of such
furnaces, arranged either side by side or in any convenient manner, a
furnace or heating chamber of a circular, rectangular, or other suitable
form, into which the gases from the puddling furnaces are conducted
through an aperture or apertures situate at the lower part, and by pre-
ference near the side of such furnace or heating chamber. In this
furnace or heating chamber there are placed the before-mentioned
retorts or tubes for containing the oxide of iron and the reducing agent
or agents, around which retorts or tubes the gases from the puddling
furnaces are caused to circulate and to undergo combustion, such
gaseous products thence passing through apertures formed either at the
upper part or at both the upper and lower parts of the furnace or
heating chamber, down a vertical flue situate in the centre or at the end,
or at any other suitable part thereof to the chimney. The area of the
apertures for the passage of the gases is so arranged that those on the
inlet side of the furnace or heating chamber are smaller than the others.
The retorts or tubes, which may be made of an oval, circular, or other
suitable form in cross section, have formed in their sides a series of
perforations for admitting of the escape of any gases which may be
produced by the heating of the ore with the reducing agents; these
perforations are by preference made at an angle pointing upwards from
the inside, in order to prevent the ore from escaping through them into
the body of the furnace or heating chambers when filling the retorts or
tubes.
The retorts or tubes are closed at their lower ends (when placed
vortically) by slides or damners and shoots are provided each common

page_text: opening the same the ore may be discharged into the puddling
furnaces.
Pipes or tubes are provided communicating with the furnace or
heating chamber at one end of the puddling furnace, for the purpose of
drawing the heat to the opposite side of the inlet from the puddling
furnace.
Apertures (fitted with valves or stoppers) may also be formed in the
furnace or heating chamber for the admission of air if required. Flues
for the admission of the gases from the puddling furnaces are placed at
the back end of such furnaces.
When the gases or waste heat from other furnaces than puddling
furnaces are employed, they may be conducted by suitable culverts or
flues to the reducing furnaces.
The retorts or tubes before mentioned may be constructed either of
fire-clay, fire-brick, or other fire resisting material.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Kennedy and Charles Wigg in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 27th July 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wc, JAMES
KENNEDY, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Alkali Manu-
facturer, and CHARLES WIGG, of Liverpool, aforesaid, Civil Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of January, 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 us, the said James Kennedy and Charles
Wigg, Her special license that we, the said James Kennedy and Charles
Wigg, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the
said James Kennedy and Charles Wigg, our executors, administrators,
or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time

page_text: -
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 THE CONSTRUCTION OF
FURNACES," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said James
Kennedy and Charles Wigg, our executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under our hands and seals, or under the hand and
scal of one of us, 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 we, the said James Kennedy and Charles
Wigg, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement, reference being had to
the accompanying Drawings, and to the letters and figures marked
thereon, that is to say :-
Our said Invention relates to an improved construction of furnace to
be employed more particularly for effecting the reduction of iron ores or
products, such for example as the oxide of iron, in conjunction with a
reducing agent or agents, such for example as carbon, and it consists in
arranging a furnace or heating chamber containing retorts or tubes,
placed vertically or otherwise, into which the mixture of oxide of iron
and the reducing agent or agents is to be introduced, in combination
with a puddling furnace or furnaces or with other furnaces, in such a
manner as to more completely utilize the gases or waste heat from
the latter, for effecting the reduction of the ores or products before
mentioned.
The furnace or heating chamber may be constructed of a circular, a
rectangular, or other suitable form, and may be employed in com-
bination with a single puddling or other furnace from which the waste
gases are to be utilized, or with two or more of such furnaces which may
be arranged either side by side or in any convenient manner.
And in order that our said Invention may be fully understood we shall
now proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose

page_text: small refer to the several Figures on the annexed Sheets of Drawings,
the same letters of reference indicating corresponding parts in all the
Figures.
Figure 1, Sheet 1, of our Drawings represents a vertical section of the
furnace or heating chamber, constructed of a circular form and arranged
above two puddling furnaces; Figure 2 is a sectional plan taken along
the line 1, 2, Figure 1; Figure 3 is a sectional elevation taken along
the line 3, 4 (Figure 2); Figure 4 is a sectional elevation taken along
the line 5, 6 (Figure 2)."
Figure 5, Sheet 2, is a sectional plan similar to Figure 2, but shewing
a modified form of retorts or tubes.
Figure 6 is a vertical section of a rectangular furnace or heating
chamber arranged above two puddling furnaces, and Figure 7 is a
sectional plan corresponding to Figure 6.
A, A, represent two puddling furnaces above which there is con-
structed upon vertical pillars a, a, as shewn in Figures 1, 2, and 4, or
otherwise a furnace or heating chamber B into which the gases from the
puddling furnaces A, A, are conducted through passages A' terminating
in apertures b; b, and situate at the lower part, and by preference near
the side of such furnace or heating chaniber. In the furnace or heating
chamber B there are placed the retorts or tubes C, C, for containing the
oxide of iron and the reducing agent or agents, around which retorts or
tubes the gases from the puddling furnaces A, A, are caused to circulato
and to undergo combustion, such gaseous products thence passing
through apertures c, c, formed either at the upper part of the furnace or
heating chamber B, as shewn in Figure 1, or at both the upper and
lower parts of such furnace or heating chamber, as shewn in Figure 6,
down a vertical flue D situate either in the centre, as shewn in Figures
1, 2, and 5, or at the end, as shewn in Figures 6 and 7, or at any other
suitable part of the furnace or heating chamber B to the chimney. The
apertures b, b, for the passage of the gases into the furnace or heating
chamber Bare made of smaller area than those c, c, intended for the outlet
of such gases from the furnace or heating chamber. The retorts or tubes
c, c, which may be made either of an elongated form in cross section, as
shewn in Figures 2 and 7, or of a circular form, as shewn in Figure 5,
or of any other suitable shape, have formed in their sides a series of

page_text: perforations d, d, for admitting of the escape of any gases which may be
produced by the heating of the ore with the reducing agents; these
perforations are by preference made at an angle pointing upwards from
the inside, as shewn, in order to prevent the ore from escaping through
them into the body of the furnace or heating chamber B when filling
the retorts or tubes C, C.
The retorts or tubes C, C, are closed at their lower ends when placed
vertically by slides or dampers e, e, operated by levers f, f, pivotted to
the bed of the furnace or heating chamber at 9, 9, and shoots E, E, are
provided, each common to a series of the retorts or tubes, and communi-
cating with one of the puddling furnaces A, A, such shoots being also
fitted with slides or dampers h, h, so that by opening the same the ore
may be discharged into the puddling furnaces A, A.
F (Figures 2 and 4) is a vertical pipe or tube communicating by short
horizontal branch pipes i, i, arranged one at the top, and the other at
the bottom, with the furnace or heating chamber B, which pipe when
employed is intended for the purpose of drawing the heat to the opposite
side to that at which the inlets b, b, from the puddling furnace are
situate, and effecting a better distribution of the heat throughout the
furnace, the gases proceeding from the pipes i, i, and pipe F being
carried downwards, and allowed to escape with the gases escaping from
the flue D. Apertures fitted with valves or stoppers may also be
formed in the furnace or heating chamber for the admission of air, if
required, for the purpose of further inflaming any inflammable gases
which might otherwise escape.
When the gases or waste heat from other furnaces than puddling
furnaces are employed, they may be conducted by suitable culverts or
flues to the reducing furnaces.
The retorts or tubes may be constructed either of fire-clay, fire-brick,
or other fire resisting material.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of our
said Invention and the manner in which the same is or may be used or
carried into effect, we would observe in conclusion that what we consider
to be novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to
us by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the combination
with puddling or other furnaces of the furnace or heating chamber con-

page_text: taining retorts or tubes, arranged substantially in the manner and for the
purposes herein-before described and as illustrated by our Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Wigg, on behalf of James
Kennedy and myself, have to this our Specification set my hand
and seal, the Twentieth day of July One thousand eight hundred
and seventy-five.