IMPROVEMENTS IN OR CONNECTED WITH SMELTING OR BLAST FURNACES
Year: 1878

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Ferrie, of the Monkland Iron and Steel Works
in the County of Lanark, North Britain, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN OR CONNECTED WITH SMELTING OR BLAST FURNACES."
Sealed the 22nd November 1878, and dated the 6th June 1878,
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Ferrie at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 6th June 1878.
WILLIAM FERRIE, of the Monkland Iron and Steel Works, in the County of
Lanark, North Britain. "IMPROVEMENTS IN OR CONNECTED WITH SMELTING OR
BLAST FURNACES."
This Invention relates to improved and simplified arrangements whereby the coal
employed in smelting or blast furnaces may be coked so as to utilise the furnace
gases, or a portion of them, whilst the coke, and in some cases the ore and lime-
stone, are supplied to the furnace in a heated state, and without involving any
difficulties or inconveniences in the construction, or maintenance, or repairs of the
furnace.
In carrying out the Invention, according to one modification, the top of the
smelting or blast furnace is arched over, and formed with lateral openings for the
introduction of the ores and fluxing materials, such openings being fitted with doors
or valves. Openings fitted with doors or valves are also formed through the arched
roof, and supported on iron girders or on arches a little above the roof openings
there are set four or other convenient number of vertical retorts of cast iron or of
fire-clay, or built of refractory bricks. These retorts, which are by preference of a
vertical cylindrical form, are all encased in a cylindrical or otherwise shaped
chamber of brickwork, into which at one or more lateral points the combustible
gases led by flues from the furnace below are admitted along with the air necessary
for their combustion. After acting in the chamber on the retorts, the gases pass off
by one or more outlets and chimnies placed at points opposite to the inlets, and the
space in the chamber surrounding the retorts has open brickwork arranged in it

page_text: to distribute the heated gases and to maintain the temperature as uniformly as
possible.
The coal is fed into these retorts at their upper ends, and when coked is trans-
ferred from each retort in succession into the furnace below, the bottom of each
retort being fitted with a door arranged to be opened simultaneously with the cor-
responding door in the furnace roof below.
The gas evolved in the process of coking the coal may be utilised in the main
furnace, or in any other convenient way.
A vertical flue may be formed up the central space between the retorts for the
passage upwards of a portion of the gases from the main furnace, and these gases
may be ignited to assist in the coking operation.
According to another modification the ore or limestone, or both, may be put into
the retorts as well as the coal, so as to be heated and prepared by the heat in the
chamber surrounding the retorts; and when this is done the ore and limestone are
by preference put at the lower part of each retort, with the coal above them.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said William Ferrie in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 4th December
1878.
WILLIAM FERRIE, of the Monkland Iron and Steel Works, in the County of
Lanark, North Britain. "IMPROVEMENTS IN OR CONNECTED WITH SMELTING OR
BLAST FURNACES."
My said Invention relates to improved and simplified arrangements whereby
the coal employed in smelting or blast furnaces may be coked so as to utilise the
furnace gases, or a portion of them, whilst the coke, and in some cases the ore and
limestone, are supplied to the furnace in a heated state, and without involving
any difficulties or inconveniences in the construction, or maintenance, or repairs of
the furnace.
In carrying out my Invention, according to one modification, the top of the
smelting or blast furnace is arched over, and a number of vertical retorts of cast iron
or of fire-clay, or built of refractory bricks, are erected in a circle round the top
in chambers or spaces formed in brickwork, and heated by the furnace gases which
are led through such spaces.
The retorts are charged at their upper ends, and the coke is discharged through
doors at their lower ends, and passes thence through doors in the furnace roof into
the furnace, the ore and limestone being supplied into the furnace by the same doors
or by separate doors.
The gases evolved in the process of coking the coal may be utilised in the main
furnace, or in any other convenient way.
According to another modification the ore or limestone, or both, may be put into
the retorts as well as the coal, so as to be heated and prepared by the heat in the
Hi..

page_text: chambers surrounding the retorts; and when this is done the ore and limestone are
by preference put at the lower part of each retort, with the coal above them.
And in order that my said Invention and the manner of performing the same
may be properly understood, I hereunto append a Sheet of explanatory Drawings
to be herein-after referred to, and representing a modification of my improved con-
struction and arrangements. In these Drawings the same reference numerals are
used to mark the same or like parts wherever they are repeated.
Figures 1 and 2 on the accompanying Sheet of Drawings are a vertical section
and a horizontal section of the upper part of a smelting or blast furnace as made
with my improvements.
Near the top of the interior of the furnace a number of buttresses 1 are built, and
on these there is erected an inner wall 2, in which there is formed a horizontal flue 3
running round the furnace. The combustible furnace gases pass up between the
buttresses 1 into the flue 3, and whilst the portion of them not utilised in connection
with the coking retorts, as herein-after described, passes off by a radial duct 4 and
vertical pipe 5 to be used in the blast stoves or otherwise, the other portion passes
up from the circular fiue 3 by four vertical flues 6, indicated by dotted lines in both
Figures. On the inner wall 2 a dome or arch 7 is built, and through the sides of it
eight openings 8 are formed, these openings being fitted with doors 9 formed so as
when open (in which position they are shown in full lines in Figure 1) to serve as
shutes for guiding the coke, or ore, or limestone into the furnace. The doors 9 are
shown in their closed positions in dotted lines.
At the level of the doors a gallery 10 extends round the furnace top, the outer
wall 11 being continued up outside of this, but with one or more doorways through
it to give access to the gallery 10. A number of horizontal cast-iron girders 12,
having their outer ends supported in the outer wall' 11, extend inwards therefrom
across the gallery 10, and have their inner ends supported partly by cast-iron pillars
and partly by brickwork, in which the upper parts of the flues 6 are formed. Plates
or frames are placed on the girders 12, and on these are erected brickwork walls, in
which are formed chambers or spaces 13, having eight cast-iron retorts 14 placed in
them, so as to have space all round each of them.
Each of the four vertical flues 6 branches to either side at the top, so as to com-
municate with the bottoms of the spaces 13 surrounding two retorts 14. The spaces
are divided by horizontal brick partitions formed with openings at alternate sides,
so that the combustible gases pursue a tortuous course from the bottom upwards,
these gases finally escaping by small chimneys 15 at the top.
The retorts 14 are made with hopper tops for introducing the coal, and are pro-
vided with covers 16, and they are made of a slightly increasing size towards the
bottom, so that the coke may descend easily out of them when the bottom doors 17
are opened; these bottom doors are fixed to rocking shafts and are counterweighted,
and each has a fire-clay slab fixed on its upper side to protect it from the heat.
When each retort door 17 is closed up it is kept shut by a series of cams 18, which
are on another rocking shaft, and are then turned up under it. When a retort door
17 is open it combines with the combined shute and door 9 below to guide the coke
down through the opening 8 into the main furnace.
The combustible gases which heat the retorts 14 are ignited at the tops of the
flues 6, or at any other convenient points, and the air necessary for their complete
combustion is admitted by openings made through the brickwork.
The gases and vapors driven off from the coal in the coking process pass off from
the upper parts of the retorts 14 by pipes 19, which dip down into hydraulic trap
boxes 20, and from these boxes 20 the gases and vapors pass into pipes 21, which
communicate with tar tanks 22 and with condensers 23, such as are used in gas
works, and which are at the base of the blast furnace. By means of such apparatus
the now valuable tarry products are separated and collected, and can be utilised,
according to their constituents, like the tarry products of gas works.
A chimney 25 is by preference erected on the centre of the dome or arch 7 of the

page_text: furnace, and is provided with a damper 26, by means of which the action at the top
of the furnace may be regulated to a certain extent.
Combustion may with advantage be allowed to take place at the top of the
materials in the furnace, above and within the circle of openings between the
buttresses 1, whereat the combustible gas, or a large part of it passes off, such com-
bustion facilitating the smelting operation by heating the ore and limestone at an
early stage; and if necessary this top combustion may be promoted by injecting air
at a number of points round the dome from a pipe 27, the products of combustion
passing off by the central chimney 25.
When the top combustion is not employed, the well-known conical top and cone
inlet valve may be substituted for the brickwork dome or arch 7.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention and the manner of per-
forming the same, I have to state that I do not restrict myself to the precise
details herein described or delineated, but that what I believe to be novel and original,
and claim as the Invention secured to me by and in terms of the herein-before in
part recited Letters Patent is,-
1. The constructing, arranging, or combining together of smelting or blast furnaces
and coking or heating retorts, substantially in the improved manner herein described,
and shown on the accompanying Drawings.
2. The erecting on the top of a smelting or blast furnace, or in the immediate
vicinity thereof, of vertical coking or heating retorts surrounded by spaces for the
application to them of the combustible furnace gases, and separated from the main
furnace by a space, across which the coke or heated materials are passed through
doors, all substantially as herein-before described.
3. The leading of the vapors and gases from the coking rotorts into condensing
apparatus, substantially as and for the purposes herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Ferrie, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Third day of December, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight.
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,
Glasgow.
WM. FERRIE. (L.S.)