Improvements in and Apparatus for Supplying Fuel to Steam Boiler and other Furnaces.
Year: 1890

page_text: Date of Application, 16th July, 1890
Complete Specification Left, 16th Apr., 1891-Accepted, 16th May, 1891
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in and Apparatus for Supplying Fuel to Steam
Boiler and other Furnaces.
I JOHN WHITEHEAD of 233 Bury Road Tottington near Bury, Lancaster,
Patentee do hereby declare the nature of my invention to be as follows:-
The object of this invention is to construct an improved travelling creeper for
carrying the fuel say from the floor of the boiler house and supplying the same to a
steam or air blast apparatus applied to a furnace or simultaneously to a series of
furnaces as hereinafter described.
In performing my invention I employ a combined trough and nozzle by preference
over the furnaces and by sending a blast of hot air or of steam through this nozzle
I induce a blast of sufficient strength into the furnace to carry small fuel along
with it and whereby I am enabled to feed the furnace continuously with the
necessary fuel.
To convey the small fuel to each of the troughs before mentioned I employ a
travelling belt or creeper for lifting the fuel from off the floor and leading it on to
a second endless belt running through a main trough in front of and above the
furnaces. In the side of this main trough and opposite to the nozzles leading into
the several furnaces I arrange an opening or slot and at stated intervals I cause a
hinged gate in the vicinity of each of the said slots to close across the main trough
and thus as the creeper continues to advance I cause all the fuel lying between the
several gates to be forced simultaneously the side openings into the branch
troughs and from whence the same is blown forward into the furnace.
The effect of this method of continuous feeding of the fuel to the furnace is to
obtain improved combustion of the fuel within the furnace and proportionately to
ensure the combustion of the smoke.
It will be observed that this improved system of fuel feeding also avoids the use
of the heavy hoppers of the self feeding stokers sometimes used in front of the
furnaces.
JOHN G. WILSON,
Patent Office, 55, Market Street, Manchester, Agent for the Applicant
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in and Apparatus for Supplying Fuel to Steam
Boiler and other Furnaces.
I, JOHN WHITEHEAD, of 233 Bury Road, Tottington, near Bury, in the County
of Lancaster, Patentee, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in-what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and-ascertained in
and by the following statement :-
The object of my invention is to construct an apparatus for automatically, or
semi-automatically supplying fuel to a steam-boiler or other furnace or series of
furnaces of a less cumbersome and more effective form than those at present
in use.
To accomplish this I fit across the front of the furnaces (preferably above them)
a trough of sufficient depth to carry enough small coal or other suitable fuel to
supply the furnace or furnaces it is applied to.
Along the bottom of this trough passes a belt or creeper which passes round a

page_text: suitable belt pulley at each end of the trough, one of which is set in motion by any
convenient power shaft.
Over one end of the trough is fitted a suitable hopper in which the coal is
placed by the stoker and from which it is allowed to drop at a suitable speed,
which is regulated by means of a suitable damper, or similar contrivance, upon
the belt or creeper which carries it forward along the trough towards the furnaces.
At each furnace the trough is fitted with a suitable gate or projection extending at
a more or less acute angle across the trough above the belt or creeper in such a
manner as to guide a sufficient quantity of coal or other fuel for the furnace to a
slot or opening through which it falls by a suitable shoot or passage to the front of
the furnace into which it is blown or drawn by a suitable jet of steam or com-
pressed air.
The hopper may be either filled by hand, or by a similar belt or creeper from a
hopper placed on a lower level as may be desired.
In order that the foregoing may be better understood, I send herewith a sheet
of drawings, in which :-
―:
Fig. 1 shows a front elevation and Fig. 2 a plan of my apparatus as fitted to
supply two boiler furnaces. Figs. 3 and 4 show two views of the method of
applying the steam or compressed air jet to the supply of coal.
In these figs., a indicates the trough, along which the coal or other fuel is carried
by the belt or creeper b, which passes round the belt pulleys and is supplied
with coal from the hopper c. Half the coal is swept by the first gate or pro-
jection d into the slot or opening e falling down the shoot in front of the steam
jet supplied from the boiler by the steam pipe 92, and the remaining half is
guided by the second gate or projection d to the second furnace in a similar
manner. The belt receives its motion from the pulley h, by means of the chain
or belt from pulley k. keyed on the shaft of one of a pair of crushers (indicated
in dotted lines) and carrying on its further end a worm wheel m actuated by a
worm on shaft of power, pulley n.
The supply of coal is regulated by the damper o. The gates or projections d
may be either adjustable as shown in the drawings by screws or other suitable
means or fixed permanently in the position desired.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is :-
1st. The combined apparatus substantially as described and shown hereinbefore,
and in the accompanying drawings for the purpose set forth.
2nd. The combination of a trough with a moving belt or creeper for supplying
coal or other suitable fuel to steam-boiler or other furnaces, substantially as
described and shown hereinbefore and in the accompanying drawing.
3rd. A trough a with gates or projections deither in combination with or
without a belt or creeper, substantially as described and shown hereinbefore and
in the accompanying drawings for the purpose set forth.
4th. The combination, of the gates or projections d with the shoots, and the
blowers g substantially as described and shown hereinbefore and in the accom-
panying drawings for the purpose set forth.
Dated the 14th day of April 1891.
JOHN HENRY TOPHAM,
46, Market Street, Manchester, Agent to Applicant.