MENTS IN EFFECTING THE OPERATIONS OF DRYING, HEATING, AND VENTILATING
Year: 1856

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Colin Hunter at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 6th November
1856.
I, COLIN HUNTER, of Islandreagh, in the County of Antrim, Ireland,
Bleacher, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN EFFECTING THE OPERATIONS OF DRYING, HEATING, AND VENTILATING," to
be as follows, that is to say: -
This Invention relates to various arrangements of apparatus and means to
be employed for effecting heating, drying, and ventilating operations under
various circumstances and for various purposes.
As carried out for the purpose of heating drying chambers for cloth or
yarns, the apparatus consists of a furnace erected exteriorly to the drying
apartment as the source whence the heating power is to be derived, the heated
current from such furnace being passed through a heating chamber containing
a series of horizontal pipes, so as to heat these pipes externally. After acting
upon these pipes, which are of small diameter, the heated current passes
off to an ordinary chimney stalk. These heating pipes are disposed trans-
versely as regards the line of the furnace current, and they all terminate
at one end in a reception chamber, which has a duct opening out into the
external atmosphere, and at the other end in a discharging chamber, whence
a duct passes upwards, and communicates with a long horizontal duct or
thoroughfare disposed inside the apartment to be heated, and near the ceiling
or top thereof. This horizontal duct, which is placed against the face of the

page_text: wall of the apartment at the side nearest to the heating furnace, has a series
of discharge openings along its upper side of the discharge of the heated air
into the upper part of the apartment. By these means the cold atmospheric
air passing through the numerous pipes in the heating chamber is discharged
into the upper part of the apartment in a highly heated condition.
At the opposite side of the drying apartment, and on a level with the floor,
there is a horizontal discharging duct, having lateral openings in it for tho
entry therein of the air, which is to be discharged after having accomplished
its duty in drying the cloth or yarns suspended in the body of the apartment,
and at each end of this duct there is a vertical pipe passing upwards and
opening out into the atmosphere at a considerable elevation. The effect of
this is, that a constant supply of heated air is directed from the heating chamber
into the upper part of the drying apartment, and as this air is lowered in
temperature, by reason of the performance of its drying duty, it gradually
falls towards the level of the floor, and at last passes off from the drying
apartment by the bottom duct and vertical pipes before mentioned. In this
way no direct current is established between the inlet and outlet passages
of the drying apartment, but the heated air is applied to the goods in the
most complete and eflicient manner, and it only escapes at the far off bottom
level of the floor when it has yielded up all or most of its drying power, a
circuitous current of air being kept up through the drying apartment, so
long as the furnace is kept heated, and the beating chamber supplied
with air.
The pipes in the heating chamber may be of iron or other metal, and where
it is necessary to secure the interior of the pipes from direct contact with the
air passing through them, they may be lined with porcelain, or enamelled, or
otherwise protected with some screening coating; and instead of metallic
heating tubes, pipes of fire clay, stoneware, or other material may be used
when the presence of metal is objectionable; and if a superior intensity of
heat is required, a fan or other forcing apparatus is adopted for forcing cold
air into the heater, and thence into the drying apartment.
When applied for drying grain, malt, or other loose matters laid on a floor,
the heated current is forced by a fan or other impelling apparatus into a duct
near the upper part of the drying chamber or kiln, and the air thence passes
down through the layer of grain or malt, and escapes by bottom horizontal
ducts beneath.
When timber in scantling is to be dried, the heated air is similarly directed
into the drying chamber at the upper part. In all these applications the cooled
air withdrawn from the drying apartments may be conducted into the furnace

page_text: amongst the fuel to aid in the combustion thereof, and still further contribute
to the keeping up of the supply of heated air in the drying apartment.
The same procedure and general arrangement of apparatus is also applicable
for warming and ventilating rooms, the heated air being always supplied to
the upper part of the rooms, and the cooled and vitiated air taken away near
the floor.
Where apartments are to be cooled, a cooling chamber, such as a well or an
ice house, or other reservoir of cold atmospheric air, may be employed, instead
of the heating furnace herein-before referred to, the cold air being supplied
at the bottom, and the heated and vitiated air taken away at the top of
the room. The general plans are also applicable for hot-house purposes and
other uses.