IMPROVEMENTS IN STOKING SHOVELS, AND IN THE FURNACES WITH WHICH SUCH SHOVELS ARE TO BE EMPLOYED
Year: 1864

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Henry Johnson at the Office:
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 5th April
1864. A communication from abroad by Lars Albert Léonard
Soderström, of Paris, in the Empire of France, Draughtsman.
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I, JOHN HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of
Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN STOKING SHOVELS, AND IN THE FURNACES WITH WHICH SUCH
SHOVELS ARE TO BE EMPLOYED," a communication to me from abroad by Lars
Albert Leonard Soderström, of Paris, in the Empire of France, Draughtsman,
to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a peculiar construction and arrangement of shovel
for supplying fuel to furnaces and fire-places, and also to certain improve-
ments in the furnaces or fire-places with which such improved shovels are
to be-employed, the object being to deposit the fresh fuel directly upon the
grate surface underneath the incandescent fuel, in place of on the top of the
same, and consequently the gases which are emitted from the fresh fuel must
necessarily traverse the incandescent above, and become thereby perfectly
consumed before reaching the chimney, thus preventing the formation of
smoke.
According to this Invention it is proposed to employ a stoking shovel having
a lid or cover hinged thereto at the rear end, both the base of the shovel and
the lid or cover being further provided with vertical sides or edges gradually.
diminishing in depth towards the farther end or point of the shovel, so that
when the lid is closed down the whole will present the form of a wedge when
viewed laterally, the thinnest end of the wedge being the front end of the

page_text: shovel. The vertical sides or edges of the lid are made to pass outside the
sides of the base of the shovel when closed, and the rear end of the base is
also provided with a transverse end piece rivetted or otherwise secured thereto.
A projecting tail or handle is fitted to or formed on the rear end of the lid for
the facility of opening or raising the same when filling the shovel. A hollow
handle is secured to the transverse end piece of the shovel, and through it
passes a rod, which is connected to a moveable partition or piston fitting the
interior of the shovel. Two stops or lugs are formed on the rod, or correspond-
ing slots or openings are made in the transverse end piece, so that when the
rod is turned on its axis (it being free to turn in the piston) in such a position
that the stops coincide with the solid portion of the transverse piece, the shovel
and piston will be locked together, and the whole being already charged may
be pushed into the furnace or fire-place along the surface of the fire or grate
bars. For this purpose suitable openings provided with lifting bars, doors, or
slides are made in the front of the furnace or fire-place, the bottoms of such
doors being inclined inwards slightly, so that on introducing the end of the lid
which projects slightly beyond the end of the base of the shovel underneath the
sliding door, and pushing the shovel forward, the wedge-form of the shovel will
lift the door by the mere act of pushing the shovel into the furnace, or will
allow the door to close again as the shovel is withdrawn. Having thus
inserted the charged shovel, the piston rod is to be turned slightly until its lugs
or stops are arrested by other stops on the boss of the piston, in which position
the lugs will be opposite to the stops or openings in the transverse end piece
of the shovel, and the latter is then free to be withdrawn whilst the piston is
held stationary, and consequently the piston causes the entire contents of the
shovel to be left behind deposited upon the grate bars. In order to facilitate
the introduction and withdrawal of the shovel, an inclined plate is fitted to the
front of the furnace outside thereof, which serves as a support and guide to the
front end of the shovel. The openings through which the shovel is introduced
either be the full width of the furnace, when the latter is not too large,
or there may be two or more of such openings side by side if the furnace be
too wide for a single shovel, and they may be either made in a special door
capable of opening upon a hinge or otherwise, to facilitate the cleaning of the
furnace, or made as fixtures in the front of the furnace underneath the
ordinary fire-door, which may be used as occasion may require.
may