Improvements in Annealing Furnaces for Sheet Metal Wire and the like.
Year: 1893

page_text: COMEDIE DI MULTICATION.
Improvements in Annealing Furnaces for Sheet Metal Wire
and the like.
A communication from CONRAD HEUCKEN, of Aix-la-Chapelle, in the Empire
of Germany.
I, ALFRED JULIUS BOULT of 323 High Holborn in the County of Middlesex,
Chartered Patent Agent do hereby declare the nature of this 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 this improved furnace is to enable thin sheets and wire of steel,
brass and other readily oxidizable metals to be protected from oxidation by
annealing them in a chamber or retort from which the air is entirely excluded.
The annealing of sheet metal and the like has hitherto been performed in
expensive cast iron receptacles or "annealing boxes," which under the oxidizing
action of the fire, in a very short time became unfit for further use. According to
this invention, it is proposed to substitute for such boxes or receptacles of cast iron
a retort R, made of fire-proof material in which the metal to be annealed is placed,
and when it is full, its orifice or mouth is closed up with masonry or brickwork, the
joints being well closed or luted with clay or the like whereupon the retort is
subjected to the intense heat of the furnace.
In the accompanying drawings,-
Figure 1 is a transverse vertical section on the line A B of Fig. 5 of an annealing
furnace constructed according to this invention.
Figure 2 is a longitudinal vertical section on line C D of Figure 1.
Figure 3 is a longitudinal vertical section on line E F of Figure 1.
Figure 4 is a transverse vertical section on line G H of Figure 5.
Figure 5 is a horizontal section on line J K of Figure 1.
Figure 6 is a horizontal section on line L M of Figures 1 and 2.
Figure 7 is a horizontal section on line NO of Figures 1 and 2, and
Figure 8 is a horizontal section on line P Q of Figure 4.
The operation of the furnace is as follows;-Air is admitted through the
openings a (Fig. 8) between the arches and c; it then passes through the
openings e into the channels f (Figs. 3 and 6) in passing through which it is first
heated to a somewhat high temperature, and from which it is discharged into the
furnace at g (Figs. 1, 2 and 5) where it meets the gases coming from the gas-
conduit K and escaping through the openings q, and is burned. The combustion
gases surround the retort R filled with the metal to be annealed, on all sides, and
then escape through the channels or ports y and x into the chimney.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion, as communicated to me by my foreign correspondent, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is,―
1. A gas furnace for annealing sheet metal wire and the like in which the air is
heated in a chamber above the furnace and in vertical return channels leading from
the sides of the furnace and delivered from these channels into the furnace where it
meets the gas which rises from a channel underneath the metal-containing retort
within the furnace the mixture of gas and air thus produced surrounding and
freely passing over the sides and top surface of the retort in an intensely heated
condition.

page_text: 2. The combined furnace and retort substantially as described and illustrated in
the accompanying drawing.
Dated this 23rd day of February 1893.
W. P. THOMPSON & BOULT,
Agents for the Applicant.