IMPROVEMENTS IN DRYING PEAT AND OTHER MATERIALS
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Barry Ritchie, of Mount Pottinger, Belfast,
and Jacob Geoghegan Willans, of St. Stephen's Crescent, in the County
of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN DRYING PEAT AND
OTHER MATERIALS."
Sealed the 12th November 1867, and dated the 29th May 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Barry Ritchie
and Jacob Geoghegan Willans at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 29th May 1867.
We, WILLIAM BARRY RITCHIE, of Mount Pottinger, Belfast, and JACOB
GEOGHEGAN WILLANS, of St. Stephen's Crescent, in the County of Middlesex,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
DRYING PEAT AND OTHER MATERIALS," to be as follows:-
Our Invention consists in improvements in drying peat and other materials.
For this purpose we employ two or more chambers in which the peat either
alone or intermixed with other substances is placed with sufficient interstices.
to allow the passage of vertical (up or down) currents of air which are passed.
through one chamber, then laterally and made to enter another, and so on, in.
case there be more than two chambers used at same time. We control.
and direct the air currents by means of doors or valves which connect with
the air passages under and above the drying chambers, also with the flues or
passages leading to or from the apparatus for creating or discharging the air
currents. We prefer to fill the chambers successively and to apply air heated

page_text: to above 90° first to that chamber which has been longest charged and exposed
to the drying process and to discharge the air out of the chamber last filled,
or from some other chamber in case the air whilst passing through had
become saturated with moisture. Moulded moist clay and other materials
containing water may be dried in the same way.
Our Invention further consists in utilizing the gas or waste heat of furnaces
in which iron ore is being smelted for heating the air to dry peat either alone.
or intermixed with other substances in such a manner that no sparks or
moisture from the furnace can be carried into the drying chamber. This we
do by heating water or other liquid thereby and conveying the said liquid or
its vapours elsewhere and exposing it or them (whilst enclosed in pipes or in
other convenient manner), to such contact with the air currents as will admit
of their abstracting heat therefrom. We also utilize for drying peat, either
alone or intermixed with other substances, the gases or waste heat from
furnaces in which iron is being puddled, reheated, or manufactured in the
When ore or granulated metal is intermixed with peat and
the mixture moulded into bricks or blocks, as is described in the Specification
of a former Patent granted to one of us, viz., the aforesaid Jacob Geoghegan
Willans, and dated the 4th day of May 1859, No. 1120, we facilitate the
drying of the bricks or blocks by heating the ore or metal before the mixture
is made and the bricks or blocks are moulded.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filel
by the said William Barry Ritchie and Jacob Geoghegan Willans in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 29th November 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
BARRY RITCHIE, of Mount Pottinger, Belfast, and JACOB GEOGHEGAN WILLANS,
of Saint Stephen's Crescent, in the County of Middlesex, send greeting..
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirtieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said William Barry Ritchie and Jacob Geoghegan Willans, Her special licence
that we, the said William Barry Ritchie and Jacob Geoghegan Willans, our
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said William
Barry Ritchie and Jacob Geoghegan Willans, our executors, administrators,
and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time

page_text: 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 DRYING PEAT AND OTHER MATERIALS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that we, the said William Barry Ritchie and Jacob Geoghegan
Willans, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under
our or their hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one us of them,
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 we, the said William Barry Ritchie and Jacobi
Geoghegan Willans, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say:
The object of this Invention is to facilitate the drying of peat with greater
rapidity than in the open air, and irrespective of the season of the year,
thereby promoting its use in manufactures. The means we employ are also
applicable for the drying of other materials independently of the weather.
We employ two or more drying chambers, in which the peat either alone or
intermixed with other substances is placed, with sufficient interstices to allow
the passage of vertical (up or down) currents of air, which are passed through
one chamber, then laterally, and made to enter another, and so on in case
there be more than two chambers used at same time: We control and direct
the air currents by means of doors or valves which connect with the air
passages under and above the drying chambers, also with the flues or passages
leading to or from the apparatus for creating the air currents.
We prefer to
fill the chambers successively, and to apply air heated to above 80° first to
that chamber which has been longest charged and exposed to the drying
process, and to discharge the air out of the chamber last filled; or from some
other chamber in case the air whilst passing through had become saturated
with moisture; thus we operate by means of currents of air passed vertically
through successive chambers. By employing vertical currents we avoid the
irregularity in the drying which is found to occur when horizontal currents
are used, in consequence of the warmer portions of the currents or those
least charged with moisture ascending to the top of the chamber, and further
by employing the same air currents in successive chambers the air currents
can be retained until their drying powers are practically exhausted; and
further the means are provided of working the drying chambers in rotation:

page_text: The air may be applied at its natural temperature, or may be heated in any
convenient manner, such, for example, as that used for heating the blast in
iron blast furnaces, but to a lesser degree, or by a coil, as hereafter described.
Moulded moist clay, wood, and other materials containing moisture may be
dried in the same way.
Our Invention includes the using of the gas or waste heat of furnaces in
which iron ore is being smelted, with the use of peat for heating the air to
dry peat, either alone or intermixed with other substances, in such a manner
that no sparks or moisture from the furnace can be carried into the drying
chamber. This we do by heating water or other liquid thereby and conveying
the said liquid or its vapours elsewhere, and exposing it or them (whilst
enclosed in pipes or in other convenient manner) to such contact with
the air currents as will admit of their abstracting heat therefrom. We also
utilize for drying peat, either alone or intermixed with other substances, the
gases or waste heat from furnaces in which iron is being puddled, reheated, or
manufactured in the same manner.
The manner in which we prefer to construct the drying chambers is as
follows: We construct six chambers or houses in two rows of three each,
and the rows are placed back to back with a space of, say, 8 feet between
them. Each chamber or house may be eight feet wide, 25 feet from front to
back, and eight feet high, independently of the air passages over and under them,
which may be each four feet high. The space between the two rows of chambers
or houses is divided into two by a horizontal partition about the middle of the
height; the one part (usually the upper) is the inlet air flue or passage, the
other is the outlet. The inlet air flue or passage is in connection with the air-
heating apparatus herein-after further described, and the outlet flue or passage
is in connection with an exhausting fan of sufficient power to draw the air
current through the interstices of the material in the chambers or houses at a
speed of about four feet per second, or other means may be taken to maintain
the current through the chambers or houses. Portions of the space between
the two rows of chambers or houses are boxed off out of the air flues or
passages to form communications between the terminal chambers or houses in
each row; the lower air passage of each terminal chamber or house is con-
nected with the lower air passage of the end chamber or house in the opposite
row, and similarly the upper air passage of each of these chambers or houses
is connected with the upper air passage of the opposite chamber or house.
The upper and lower air passages of the houses in each row are also connected
each with the air passages of the adjacent house or houses, and the passages
or communications from house to house are fitted with three or four equidistant

page_text: doors, which may be opened or closed as desired. The area of these doorways
leading from one chamber or house to the next at the top or bottom should be,
say, thirty square feet. There are also similar communications and doorway
of the same area from the top and bottom air passages of each chamber or
house into the inlet and outlet air flues or passages respectively. In the case
of the chambers or houses at the end of each row these doorways are formed
in the connecting passages which pass through the air flues. The air passages
at the top and bottom of each house or chamber have wood latticework
between them and the material to be dried, the interstices through which we
prefer to be of less total area than the area of the doorways, so that the
currents of air may be more uniformly distributed over the entire chamber.
The house is fitted with supports for openwork shelving; the latter is move-
able, and may be laden with peat outside the house, and afterwards placed in
position. When at work with up-and-down currents the drying current will
generally be passed through five chambers or houses, whilst the remaining one
will be out of work to be emptied and refilled. The circulation of the air
down one chamber or house, up the next, and so on to the fifth, from the
bottom of which it is usually allowed to escape into the outlet air flue is
regulated by opening and closing the doors as required. The chambers or
houses are filled in regular succession, and the incoming air is directed to the
chamber or house which contains the material of which the drying is most
nearly complete.
The annexed Drawings represent the series of drying chambers or houses
above described.
Figure 1 is a longitudinal and vertical section; Figure 2 is a transverse
vertical section taken at the line 1, 1, Figure 1; and Figure 3 is a similar
section taken at the line 2, 2, Figure 1. The section Figure 1 is taken at
the line 3, 3, Figure 3.
a, a, a, are the chambers or houses; a¹, a¹, a³, a², are the air passages or
spaces at the top and bottom thereof respectively; a*, a*, are doorways
between these passages or spaces; a³ are the connecting passages of the
terminal chambers or houses; b is the inlet air passage, and 6*, 6*, are
doorways opening into it; c is the outlet air passage, and c*, c*, are doorways
opening into it; d is a portion of the shelving. It is not essential that
the currents should go up and down in alternate chambers or houses, although
this is a very convenient arrangement; nevertheless the currents may in the
successive chambers or houses be either all upwards or all downwards, flues
being provided to conduct the air from the top of one chamber or house to the
bottom of the adjacent chamber, or vice versa.

page_text: In order to warm the incoming current of air by the gas or waste heat
from iron furnaces we by preference mount a cylindrical steam boiler
horizontally in the blaze at the top of a blast furnace in which the iron ore
is being smelted with the use of peat; leaving sufficient space underneath it
for the furnace to be freely charged: The boiler is as large as the blaze will
efficiently envelope, and from it a pipe leads the steam, or it may be the hot
water, but by preference the steam; to a heating coil or apparatus exposing a
large amount of surface which is arranged in the current of air going into
the inlet flue of the drying houses or chambers; the heating coil as we prefer
it consists of a series of twelve spiral coils of lead pipe two inches in diameter;
the coils are arranged one under the other about one foot apart, and in each
coil there are twelve convolutions, and the convolutions are six inches apart
from centre to centre, so that each coil is twelve feet in diameter. The steam
is led in at the outer convolution of the top coil; it passes to the inside, and
then descends to the outside of the second coil, and so on: Sufficient
inclination is given in the convolutions of each coil to cause the condensed
water to run freely off; it is collected at the bottom and pumped back into the
boiler. The heating coils are supported on open framework and surrounded
by a cylindrical wall supported on arches all round at the bottom that the
air may enter freely; at the top it is connected with the inlet air flue or
passage of the drying chambers or houses:
When the waste heat of puddling, reheating, and other reverbatory
furnaces is employed in this manner we employ a cylindrical boiler with an
internal flue; it is set up on end so as to form a portion of the chimney or flue
of the furnace. In such cases more than one boiler may be applied to supply
the heating coil. A heating coil combined with drying chambers or houses as
above described may conveniently be used for drying bricks, blocks, and other
articles of moist clay, glue, wood, &c., in some cases however little or no
artificial heat will be required.
When ore or granulated metal is intermixed with peat, and the mixture
moulded into bricks or blocks, as is described in the Specification of a former
Patent granted to one of us, viz., the aforesaid Jacob Geoghegan Willans,
and dated the Fourth day of May, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-
nine, No 1120, we facilitate the drying of the bricks or blocks by beating
the ore or metal before the mixture is made and the bricks or blocks are
moulded.
We prefer to heat the pulverised ore or granulated metal in retorts or in
reverberatory furnaces by any convenient fuel, the heat should not be so high
as to cause it to fuse or agglutinate, by preference we use a low red heat, and

page_text: at this heat the ore or metal is passed into a mixing mill, and the mixture is
moulded in any convenient manner, one part of ore or metal can conveniently
be thus mixed with four parts by weight of wet peat. The blocks or bricks as
they are moulded go at once into the drying chambers or houses.
Having thus described the nature of our said Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, we would have it understood that we do not confine
ourselves to the exact details described; but what we claim is drying peat
either alone or mixed with other materials (before its removal for combustion
elsewhere) in drying chambers through two or more of which vertical currents
of air are successively passed.
We also claim drying peat, either alone or mixed with other materials, by
means of the waste heat of furnaces in which iron ore is being smelted and
peat is being used, water enclosed in a boiler or vessel being exposed to this
heat, and then it or its vapour being conveyed away to pipes or apparatus,
exposing a surface with which air passes in contact before it enters the drying
chamber or chambers in which the peat is placed.
We also claim the drying peat in a similar manner by means of the waste
heat from a furnace in which peat is used and in which iron is being puddled,
reheated, or manufactured.
We also dry clay and other materials by means of vertical currents of air
passed successively through drying chambers preparatory to their removal
in a dried and unburnt state, the chambers being so arranged that the
incoming current of air may be directed to either of them at pleasure.
We also claim the heating iron ore or granulated metal, then mixing
it with peat and moulding the mixture, the heating of the ore or metal
assisting in drying the moulded blocks, as already explained.
In witness whereof, we, the said William Barry Ritchie and Jacob
Geoghegan Willans, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this
Twenty-eighth day of November, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and sixty-seven.
WILLIAM B. RITCHIE. (L.S.)
J. G. WILLANS.
(L.S.)