IMPROVED MEANS OF ECONOMISING FUEL, DEVELOPING HEAT, AND CON- SUMING SMOKE AND GASES IN STEAM BOILER AND OTHER FURNACES, ALSO IN APPLIANCES THEREFOR
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Theodore Griffin, of No. 77, Upper
Thames Street, in the City of London, for the Invention of
"IMPROVED MEANS OF ECONOMISING FUEL, DEVELOPING HEAT, AND CON-
SUMING SMOKE AND GASES IN STEAM BOILER AND OTHER FURNACES, ALSO
IN APPLIANCES THEREFOR."-A communication from abroad by Edgar
F. Griffin, of Chicago, State of Illinois, United States of America.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Theodore Griffin
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 25th April 1873.
I, JAMES THEODORE GRIFFIN, of No. 77, Upper Thames Street, in
the City of London, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVED MEANS OF ECONOMISING FUEL, DEVELOPING HEAT, AND CONSUMING
SMOKE AND GASES IN STEAM BOILER AND OTHER FURNACES, ALSO IN APPLIANCES
THEREFOR," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to special means of economising fuel, developing
heat, and consuming the smoke and gases within the fire-boxes or fire-

page_text: spaces of steam boiler and other furnaces. It consists in injecting a
combination of air and steam into the smoke and flame space in a sheet
or veil for the purpose of momentarily checking the passage of the
smoke and gases to the tubes or flues, and thereby supplying them with
sufficient oxygen for their perfect combustion. Within the fire-box or
flame space in lieu of allowing them to be carried away by the draught
and their heating properties lost, the sheet or veil of combined air and
steam is spread over or above the surface of the fuel at an angle from
the upper front edge of the fire-box to the rear of the furnace bars, or
from below the feed door to the rear of the bars, as found most con-
venient, or according to the construction of the furnace.
In the case of locomotive fire-boxes the air is supplied from the sides
into a shell or screen, in which perforations or holes are made corre-
sponding in number to a series of jets or nozzles of a steam pipe
enclosed within the screen, the pipe having the jets or nozzles at the
required angle. By this means the air entering at the sides becomes
heated, and issues into the flame space under the pressure due to the
steam issuing from the jets or nozzles, the two bodies, air and steam,
intermingling and forming a curtain or veil over the entire body of the
incandescent fuel.
If the steam and air is admitted to the furnace below the feed door
the front shell of the furnace is provided with apertures into which the
steam pipe nozzles are inserted for leading the steam and for drawing in
air to be mingled therewith for forming the veil or curtain. It is
proposed in this case to fit the screen upon the outside of the fire-box,
so that the air can enter at the sides freely, whilst the engine is running
in either direction.
The Invention is to be employed to all coal burning furnaces in which
a flame space is left above the fuel.
It will be understood that the appliances just referred to form the
second part of this Invention, the right to modify the arrangement being
preserved thereto as found necessary.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Theodore Griffin in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 25th October 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
THEODORE GRIFFIN, of No. 77, Upper Thames Street, in the City of
London, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of April, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the thirty-
sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said James Theodore Griffin, Her special licence,
that I, the said James Theodore Griffin, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said James Theodore Griffin,
my executors, 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
"IMPROVED MEANS OF ECONOMIZING FUEL, DEVELOPING HEAT, AND CONSUMING
SMOKE AND GASES IN STEAM BOILER AND OTHER FURNACES, ALSO IN APPLIANCES
THEREFOR," communicated to me from abroad by Edgar F. Griffin, of
Chicago, State of Illinois, United States of America, upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said James Theodore Griffin, my executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or
one of their hands and seals, 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 James Theodore Griffin, 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, reference being had to the
Drawings hereunto annexed, that is to say :-
-
This Invention relates to special means of economising fuel, developing
heat, and consuming the smoke and gases within the fire-boxes or fire-

page_text: spaces of steam boiler and other furnaces. It consists in injecting a
combination of air and steam into the smoke and flame space in a sheet
or veil for the purpose of momentarily checking the passage of the
smoke and gases to the tubes or flues, and thereby supplying them with
sufficient oxygen for their perfect combustion. Within the fire-box or
flame space in lieu of allowing them to be carried away by the draught
and their heating properties lost the sheet or veil of combined air
and steam is spread over or about the surface of the fuel at an angle
from the upper front edge of the fire-box to the rear of the furnace bars,
or from below the feed door to the rear of the bars, as found most
convenient, or according to the construction of the furnace..
In the case of locomotive fire-boxes the air is supplied from the sides
into a shell or screen, in which perforations or holes are made corre-
sponding in number to a series of jets or nozzles of a steam pipe
enclosed within the screen, the pipe having the jets or nozzles at the
required angle. By this means the air entering at the sides becomes
heated, and issues into the flame space under the pressure due to the
steam issuing from the jets or nozzles, the two bodies, air and steam,
intermingling and forming a curtain or veil over the entire body of the
incandescent fuel.
If the steam and air is admitted to the furnace below the feed door
the front shell of the furnace is provided with apertures into which the
steam pipe nozzles are inserted for leading the steam and for drawing in
air to be mingled therewith for forming the veil or curtain. It is
proposed in this case to fit the screen upon the outside of the fire-box,
so that the air can enter at the sides freely, while the engine is running
in either direction.
The Invention is to be employed to all coal burning furnaces in
which a flame space is left above the fuel.
It will be understood that the appliances just referred to form the
second part of this Invention; the right to modify the arrangement being
preserved thereto as found necessary.
The accompanying Drawings represent how the Invention is carried
into effect.
Figures 1 and 2 are sections of a portion of a locomotive boiler, in the
fire-box of which and at the upper fore part nearest the door is a casing

page_text: or screen a, into which atmospheric air is free to enter from the sides
or in
any convenient manner. 6 is a tube for conveying steam from the
upper part of the boiler proper or from the exhaust while the engine is
running to a transverse tube c, having a series of nipples or jets d, d,
rather close together, so that the jets of steam can slightly cross the
path of their neighbouring jets to form a curtain, veil, or screen over the
entire mass of fuel, the curtain, veil, or screen of steam taking a quantity
of air from the casing a to commingle with it.
The veil or curtain of combined air and steam is forced across the fuel
upon the bars e at an angle from the front to the rear, where it or they
strike against the foot of the fire-bridge f, thus checking the passage
of the gases and smoke from the fuel and causing their consumption
before they pass into the tubes g, g, of the boiler. This checking of the
passage of the products of combustion from the fire to the tubes by a veil
or curtain of combined air and steam sensibly facilitates the combustion
of the gases and other products which usually escape and are lost, and
is the main novelty of the Invention to which claim is made without
reference to the special appliances shown, but as appliances are needed
for carrying the Invention into practice, the several Figures upon the
annexed Drawings show the best manner in which it has been found
to answer.
I have referred to jets, but tubes having slits in them of convenient
lengths can be employed, as indicated in Figure 3, or when it is desired
to make the veil or curtain to cover a larger area than can be done by
the nipples or slits, one or more roses or spreaders, as in Figure 4, can be
employed.
Figure 5 shows an arrangement of apparatus by which the jets or
slitted tube enters the fire-box above the inlets for the air, the rush of
steam across the air entries being such that by a sucking action the air
is caused to rush in and commingle with the steam..
The air tube or tubes can be arranged upon the outside of the boiler,
as in Figures 6 and 7, and the air be caused to enter its tube from the
side mouths h, h, or the air can be forced in by a fan or other apparatus
upon the engine or upon some portion of the machinery in proximity.
In some cases a curved or rounded screen can be fitted inside the
ordinary door of a furnace for the air on entering to strike against, and
be thus spread into a thin film or veil, and a veil of steam can be forced

page_text: applicable to them.
I therefore claim,-
The injection of steam and air as separate currents, or steam and air
combined into furnaces of steam boilers in a curtain, veil, or screen
across the fuel upon the bars, such curtain, veil, or screen being equally
spread over the entire mass of fuel, and at an angle for the purposes
of checking the escape of the products of combustion, and thereby
economising the.consumption of fuel and preventing the deposition of
sooty particles upon the tubes or boiler skin, substantially in the manner
set forth and shown.
Secondly. I claim the means or apparatus described by which such
curtain, veil, or screen of air and steam can be spread over or above
the surface of fuel in fire-places or furnaces of boilers, as set forth and
shown.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Theodore Griffin, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of October
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three.