IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH AILNS FOR DEBUKNING ANIMAL CHAKCUAL.IH KILNS REBURNING ANIMAL CHARCO
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Napier Harvie, Sugar Refiner, and
Thomas Lockerbie, Engineer, both of Greenock, in the County of
Renfrew, North Britain, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND
CONNECTED WITH AILNS FOR DEBUKNING ANIMAL
CHAKCUAL.
Sealed the 5th December 1874, and dated the 9th June 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Napier
Harvie and Thomas Lockerbie at the Office of the Commissioners
of Patents, with their Petition, on the 9th June 1874.
We, ALEXANDER NAPIER HARVIE, Sugar Refiner, and THOMAS
LOCKERBIE, Engineer, both of Greenock, in the County of Renfrew,
North Britain, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WIH KILNS FOR REBURNING ANIMAL
CHARCOAL," to be as follows :-
-
This Invention has for its object the advantageous application of
gaseous fuel in reburning animal charcoal, and is applicable to some
existing kilns as well as to new ones.

page_text: In constructing a new kiln according to one modification a number
of vertical reburning retorts are grouped, so as to present a rectangular
arrangement in plan, and a chamber of the kind known as regenerative
is constructed in brickwork at each side of a chamber containing the
group of retorts, such chambers being occupied by bricks or blocks dis-
posed so as to present a large surface to the gaseous currents. The side
chambers have in connection with them various passages provided with
valves or dampers, and some communicating with the chamber con-
taining the retorts, others with the escape flue, others with air inlets,
and others with gas inlets, by which last the gaseous fuel enters from
one or more gas producers.
The gas producers may be of any suitable kind in use for converting
coal into gaseous fuel. The dampers or valves are altered periodically,
so as to change the currents passing through the side chambers, and so
that after each alteration the air is admitted into the side chamber
through which the fire gases were just previously passing, and in which
the air takes up the heat stored in the brickwork. This heated air is
first led through the upper part of the retort chamber, which is par-
titioned off from the lower part, and it acts directly on the upper parts
of the retorts. It then passes to the other side chamber wherein it
mixes with the fresh gas, and the mixture being ignited passes on as
fire gas into the lower part of the retort chamber. After an interval the
various valves are shifted so as to change the currents, the fresh air
then passing through the recently heated side chamber, whilst the other
side chamber becomes heated again in its turn by the combustion in it
of the combined gas and hot air.
In applying the Invention to an existing arrangement of reburning
apparatus having the retorts disposed in two groups with a space between
them, which middle space has been hitherto occupied as the furnace or
combustion space, this space
has brickwork arranged in it to form a series
of passages for the various currents of gas and air. The lower part of the
said brickwork has two distinct sets of passages, the action in which is
alternated by means of valves or dampers, the gas being mixed with air
and ignited at one set at one time, and issuing at the upper end, where
a portion permeates through the upper part of the brickwork, and
thence passes into the retort chambers on each side. The other portion
of the ignited gases passes down the second set of passages of the lower
part of the brickwork and heats them, so that on the currents being

page_text: reversed the air and gas may be heated by passing through them. On
the reversal of the currents the mixed air and gas is ignited at the
second set of passages, but the portion of ignited gases which do not go
to heat the first passages pass up through the upper brickwork, as
before, to the retort chambers.
filed by the said Alexander Napier Harvie and Thomas Lockerbie
in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 9th December 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, ALEXANDER
NAPIER HARVIE, Sugar Refiner, and THOMAS LOCKERBIE, Engineer,
both of Greenock, in the County of Renfrew, North Britain, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of June, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty-
seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto us, the said Alexander Napier Harvie and Thomas
Lockerbie, Her special licence that we, the said Alexander Napier
Harvie and Thomas Lockerbie, our exccutors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as we, the said Alexander Napier Harvie and
Thomas Lockerbie, our 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH KILNS FOR RE-
BURNING ANIMAL CHARCOAL," upon the condition (amongst others) that
we, the said Alexander Napier Harvie and Thomas Lockerbie, our
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under
our 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Alexander Napier Harvie and
Thomas Lockerbie, 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 in writing,
reference being had to the accompanying Drawings, that is to say :—
Our said Invention has for its object the advantageous application of
gaseous fuel in reburning animal charcoal, and is applicable to some
existing kilns as well as to new ones.
And in order that our said Invention and the manner of performing
the same may be properly understood, we hereunto append a Sheet of
explanatory Drawings to be herein-after referred to, and representing
two modifications of our improved arrangements. In these Drawings
the same reference numerals are used to mark the same or like parts
wherever they are repeated.
Figure 1 of the Drawings is a horizontal section, and Figures 2 and 3:
are vertical sections as at right angles to each other of a new kiln as
made according to our Invention for being heated by means of gaseous
fuel. The section in Figure 1 is as at the lines A-A, in Figure 2; that
in Figure 2, as at the lines B-B, in Figure 3; and that in Figure 3, as
at the lines C-C, in Figure 2. A number of vertical reburning retorts 1
are grouped so as to present a rectangular arrangement in plan
within a main kiln chamber 2, and at the sides of such main chamber 2
there are constructed two chambers 3, 4, of the kind known as regenera-
tive chambers, and which, it must be understood are occupied with
open brickwork or with blocks or pieces of refractory materials disposed
so as to present a large surface to the gaseous currents passing through
the chambers. The side chambers 3, 4, have in connection with them
various passages provided with valves or dampers, and some communi-
cating with the main kiln chamber 2, others with the escape flue, others
with air inlets, and others with gas inlets, by which last the gaseous
fuel enters from one or more gas producers.
The gas producers may be of any suitable kind in use for converting
coal into gaseous fuel. The dampers or valves are altered periodically
so as to change the routes of the various currents, thus with one dis-
position of the valves the gaseous fuel passing up the duct 5 enters by
the valve 6 into a horizontal passage 7, whence it passes up a series of
flues 8, and by pipes 9 crossing the regenerative chamber 4 at the top to

page_text: Figures 4 and 5 are vertical sections, and Figure 6 is a horizontal
section of a charcoal reburning kiln of a common kind in general arrange-"
ment, but with our improved apparatus substituted for the usual central
furnace and ash-pit. In Figure 4 the section is as at the lines D-D,
in Figures 5, 6; in Figure 5 the section is at the lines E-E,' in
Figure 6; and in Figure 6 the section is as at the lines F-F, in Figure 5.
The gas from the gas producers is admitted from flues or ducts,

page_text: one of the sets of air passages, substantially as and for the purposes
herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Lockerbie, on behalf of the
said Alexander Napier Harvie and myself, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventh day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four.
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,
Glasgow.
THOMAS LOCKERBIE. (L.S.)