IMPROVEMENTS IN FURNACES USED WITH STEAM BOILERS FOR THE PURPOSE OF CONSUMING SMOKE AND ECONOMISING FUEL
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Gordon, of Heaton Norris, in the
County of Lancaster, Millwright and Engineer, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN FURNACES USED WITH STEAM BOILERS FOR THE
PURPOSE OF CONSUMING SMOKE AND ECONOMISING FUEL."
Sealed the 14th January 1854, and dated the 15th July 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Gordon at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 15th July 1853.
J, ROBERT GORDON, of Heaton Norris, in the County of Lancaster,
Millwright and Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said In-
vention for "MY IMPROVEMENTS IN FURNACES USED WITH STEAM BOILERS
FOR THE PURPOSE OF CONSUMING SMOKE AND ECONOMISING FUEL" to be as
follows:-
The adoption of a series of rollers instead of ordinary grate bars,
which rollers receive, at the end nearest the entrance to the furnace, th
coals or fuel given by means of the "hopper," or other convenient
apparatus, by means of a self-acting motion, and causing the rollers to
revolve on their axis in such manner as to carry forward the coal or
fuel to the opposite end of the furnace, and there to deposit the spent

page_text: fuel or ashes, except such as may have escaped through the crevices in
the range of rollers as the fuel passed over the same, which process
will consume the smoke arising from the burning of the fuel, and so
economise the consumption of the latter.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Robert Gordon in the Great Seal Patent Office,
on the 14th January 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
ROBERT GORDON, of Heaton Norris, in the County of Lancaster, Mill-
wright and Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of July, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the seven-
teenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and succes-
sors, give and grant unto me, the said Robert Gordon, Her special
licence that I, the said Robert Gordon, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Robert Gordon, my exccutors,
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 "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN FURNACES USED WITH STEAM BOILERS FOR THE PURPOSE OF
CONSUMING SMOKE AND ECONOMISING FUEL," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Robert Gordon, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Robert Gordon, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to

page_text: be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement (that is to say):
•
It consists in the adaptation and arrangement of a certain apparatus
by which the fuel supplied to the furnaces used with steam boilers is
kept in a continuous motion from the point at which it is supplied to
that at which it is expended or burnt out, and the manner in which the
same is to be performed or carried into effect will be seen by reference
to the annexed Drawing and the following description thereof, in which
the same figures and letters of reference indicate the same parts
throughout..
•
Figure 1, is a longitudinal sectional elevation of a portion of a boiler
to which my improvements are applied, and Figure 2, is a front eleva-
tion of the same. In these Figures A, represents part of a multitubular
steam boiler, provided with the usual furnace C, which is supplied by
coal or other fuel from the hopper B. Thus far the arrangement is
similar to that in ordinary use, but instead of using the ordinary grate
bars I substitute a series of cylinders as represented at D. These
cylinders are constructed of a series of disks or circular castings placed
on hollow shafts a, parallel with each other, as best seen at Figure 2.
Grate E, Figure 2, represents a worm wheel placed on the hollow
shaft a, nearest to the mouth of the furnace G, which receives a slow
rotation from the worm small e, also imparted to the whole series of
cylinders by means of the chain and chain wheel F, as seen at Figure 2.
The whole series of cylinders D, will then revolve in the direction
indicated by the small arrows in Figure 1. Supposing, therefore, tho
fuel to be deposited from the hopper grate B, at the furnace mouth
grate G, it will be slowly conveyed forward during its combustion on
the upper surface of the cylinders D, until it is expended and deposited
in the state of ash at the point H, just before it arrives at the bridge
grate I, see Figure 1. The amount of air required for the complete
combustion of the fuel is supplied through the hollow shafts a, and tho
openings in the several disks seen at Figure 2;
he cylinders D, revolve is adjusted so as to
bustion of the fuel to take place during its
and the speed at which
allow the complete com-
transit from the furnace
nouth grate G, until its arrival near the bridge grate I, and is finally

page_text: deposited in the form of ash at the point grate H, as already described,
see Figure 1.
By these improvements the fuel near the bridge I, will be in a state
of complete combustion, while that deposited at G, from the hopper B,
will be coking and giving off smoke which is necessarily consumed in
its passage over the bright fire near to the bridge I, while the regular
supply of fuel from hopper B, effects the economising of fuel.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, together with the
manner in which the same may be performed and carrical into effect, I
hereby declare that I do not claim any of the separate or well known
parts of the mechanical arrangement herein-before described; but I do
claim the arrangement and adaptation of the series of cylinders revolving
slowly in the same direction for the purpose of carrying the fuel under
steam boilers as herein described, by which the smoke is consumed and
the fuel economised.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Gordon, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of January, One thousand
eight hundred and fifty-four.
Witness to the signing, sealing,
and delivery hereof by the
said Robert Gordon,
ROBERT GORDON. (L.S.)
CHA³ COOPER,
Sol, Manchester.