IN APPARATUS FOR HEATING DRYING-CLOSETS, OVENS, AND OTHER SIMILAR CHAMBERS AND FOR HEATING AND VENTILATING BUILDINGS."
Year: 1880

page_text: "
LETTERS PATENT to Robert Mitchell Ritchie, of the City and County of
IMPROVEMENTS
Edinburgh, North-Britain, Engineer, for an Invention of
IN APPARATUS FOR HEATING DRYING-CLOSETS, OVENS, AND OTHER SIMILAR
CHAMBERS AND FOR HEATING AND VENTILATING BUILDINGS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Mitchell Ritchio at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 22nd September 1880.
ROBERT MITCHELL RITCHIE, of the City and County of Edinburgh, North-
Britain, Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR HEATING DRYING-CLOSETS,
OVENS, AND OTHER SIMILAR CHAMBERS, AND FOR HEATING AND VENTILATING
BUILDINGS."
This Invention relates to certain improvements in apparatus for heating drying-
closets, ovens, and other similar drying 'chambers, which is also applicable for
heating and ventilating buildings, and which is designed to be more efficient in
action and less liable to derangement than such apparatus heretofore in use.
The Invention consists essentially in employing a series of iron, steel, or other
metallic tubes ranged round the inner walls, floors, or casings of the drying
chambers, which tubes are formed preferably in pairs connected together by welding,
brazing, or otherwise joining at the ends. These tubes are partially filled with
water or other liquid, and afterwards hermetically sealed, and they are placed
vertically or inclined with their lower ends resting or suspended in a furnace or
hot flue leading therefrom, and so that the portions of the tubes subjected to heat
shall be filled with the liquid.
The tubes may be made in parallel pairs, or in any number, or in rings, or of
any form to suit the contour of the drying chamber, and ranged in a series in such
chamber; and several tubes may be connected together at the ends with the lower
part of each in the fire place or flue. The action of the heat on the tubes is to
cause the water or liquid in the lower portion to rise as steam or vapour, and be
condensed in parting with its heat to the upper parts of the tubes, whence the
condensed vapour returns to the lower part of the tubes, and a continuous circu-
lation and condensation is maintained, the heat being given off to the air of the
drying chamber or oven. The air of the drying chamber heated in this way may
be conducted through the apartments of buildings for heating and ventilating
purposes.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Robert Mitchell Ritchie in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
10th March 1881.
ROBERT MITCHELL RITCHIE, of the City and County of Edinburgh, North-
Britain, Engincor. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR HEATING DRYING CLOSETS,
OVENS, AND OTHER SIMILAR CHAMBERS, AND FOR HEATING AND VENTILATING
BUILDINGS."
My said Invention relates to certain improvements in apparatus for heating
drying-closets, ovens, and other similar drying chambers, which is also applicable
for heating and ventilating buildings, and which is designed to be more efficient in
action and less liable to derangement than such apparatus heretofore in use.
And in order that my said Invention and the manner of performing the same
may be properly understood I have hereunto appended for that purpose a Sheet
of explanatory Drawings, to be hereinafter referred to, representing a modification
of my improved heating tubes or apparatus applied to the heating of a drying
_chamber, and showing also different modes of constructing and arranging the
heating tubes. In these Drawings-the-same-reference-letters_are_used to indicato
the like parts where-repeated.-
Figure 1 of the Drawings is a vertical section of an ordinary drying chamber-B-
showing only the lower part with my improved heating tubes A fitted under the
floor, and also showing a heating furnace and flue C¹ in section outside; Figure 2
is a horizontal section of the same chamber showing the arrangement of the heating
tubes or pipes A; Figure 3 shows a slightly modified construction of the furnace B
for heating the ends of the tubes A, in which the hot products of combustion are
carried through between the tubes in passing to the flue C'; Figure 4 is a plan s
partly in section showing one of the endless heating tubes A partially filled with
water and closed ready for use; Figure 5 is a plan also partly in section of a
modified construction of the heating tubes; Figure 6 is a plan of a form of tube
adapted for heating circular chambers or ovens, and Figure 7 is a section of a
tube A showing one mode of coupling the end of the tubes.
Referring to these Drawings the Invention consists essentially in employing a
series of iron, steel, or other inetallic tubes A (such as strong hydraulic tubes)
ranged round the inner walls or on the floor or casings of the drying chambers B,
preferably at or under the floor B³, which may be an iron grating, as shown in
Figure 1, with the tubes passing out through the wall of the chamber B into the
furnaco Ć, and the tubes are formed in pairs connected together by welding, brazing,
coupling, or otherwise joining at the ends or mid parts. These tubes A are partially
filled with water or other liquid, as indicated in Figures 4 and 5, and are afterwards
hermetically sealed. They are placed either vertically or inclined, as shown, with
their end parts A' forming the grate bars of a furnace C with their lower ends A¹
resting or suspended in the furnace, or in a hot flue leading therefrom, or the
extreme ends A¹ may be heated in the furnace C, and the adjacent end parts of the
tubes A may be heated by the products of combustion passing into the flue C³, the
gases being directed through between tho tubes by means of a bridge C³, but they
are always placed so that the portions A' of the tubes A subjected to heat shall be 4
filled with the liquid.
The tubes are mado either in parallel pairs, as in Figure 4, or in numbers welded
or coupled together as in Figure 5, or in rings, as shown in Figure 6, or of any
form to suit the contour of the drying chamber or of the floor. Several tubes A, A,
or series of tubes may be connected together at the ends or laid in parallel or
concentric rows, as shown in Figure 2, with the lower part A¹ of each in the fire-
place or flue. The tubes A are welded together and sealed after being filled to the

page_text: desired extent with water, or they are joined together by couplings a with the
water within them, the couplings being screwed up hard, preferably with a V knife
edge, at the end of one tube, biting into the metal of a square end formed on the
other tube, or with knife edges at the ends of both sides indented into an iron or
copper washer placed between them within the couplings.
The action of the heat of the furnace C on the tubes A is to cause the water or
liquids in the lower portion A' to rise as steam or vapour, and be condensed in
parting with its heat to the upper parts of the tubes A, whence the condensed
vapour returns to the lower part A' of the tubes, and a continuous circulation and
condensation is maintained, the heat of the condensing steam radiating or being
given off to the air of the drying chamber or oven B. The air of the drying
chamber heated in this way may be conducted through the apartments of buildings
for heating and ventilating purposes.
Having thus particularly described the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner of performing the same, I have to state that I do not confine myself to
the precise details herein described or delineated; but what I consider novel and
original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by tho hereinbefore
in part recited Letters Patent is,-
The arrangement, application, and use for heating drying closets, ovens, and
other similar chambers or buildings, of a single tube joined in pairs, or a series of
tubes joined or coupled together at both ends to form a continuous tube or
tubular vessel partially filled with water, sealed and placed below or within such
chambers, and heated at the lower ends by furnace heat outside, substantially as
and for the purposes herein described in reference to the accompanying Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Mitchell Ritchie, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighth day of March, in the year of our Lord One
'thousand eight hundred and eighty-one.