IMPROVEMENTS IN GLASS FURNACES, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO OTHER FURNACES
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Ellis at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 23rd November 1878.
JOHN ELLIS, of Hoyle Mill, Barnsley, in the County of York, Glass and Metal
Refiner. "IMPROVEMENTS IN GLASS FURNACES, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE ALSO
APPLICABLE TO OTHER FURNACES."
My Invention relates chiefly to bottle and flint glass furnaces, but it is also
applicable to furnaces for the heating and melting of iron, brass, gold, silver, and
other metals wherein similar conditions are required to be fulfilled, and it consists
of improvements in such furnaces whereby a more perfect combustion of fuel is
obtained, producing increased heating power for a given expenditure of fuel, the
emission of smoke is prevented, the liability of loss or waste of metal in the event
of a fracture or leakage of one of the pots, crucibles, or receptacles is obviated,
whilst at the same time considerable efficiency and facility in the conduct of the
operations are secured.
In carrying out my Invention as applied for example to a bottle glass furnace of
a D shape I make the front portion of the D the front of the furnace, and at or
about the centre of the D I construct a fire grate, which may be of any ordinary
description, but is so arranged that no air shall be admitted to the furnace at this
part, except in the manner hereinafter mentioned. Around and at a greater
elevation than the fire grate I form a siege for the reception of four or any other
suitable number of pots, the same being thus situate beneath the roof of the furnace,
which I make of an arched, vaulted, or reverberatory form, terminating at the
boundary wall of the furnace at a short distance above the edge of the pots where
the charging and collecting apertures are formed.
The air for supporting combustion is admitted under pressure by preference at
the ordinary atmospheric temperature, both vertically beneath and through the
fire bars, and horizontally above the fire bars, the admission apertures above the
fire bars being arranged either at the front, sides, or back of the grate, or at any
two or more of these places, and at such angles as to cause the currents of air
injected to converge towards the centre of the fire. By these means a highly

page_text: elevated temperature is obtained, and by the arrangement of the pots relatively to
the fire grate and the vaulted or reverberatory roof the flame from the fire is
caused to dip into the pots and impinge and play directly upon the materials to be
fused, or in course of fusion therein..
An inclined trough or gutter is provided for the reception of the metal in the
event of a failure of one of the pots or crucibles, such trough or gutter communi-
cating with a water tank or tanks, into which the said metal may be conducted.
The gutter and the sides of the fire grate, and any other parts of the furnace
exposed to an elevated temperature, may be protected by water boshies.
In order to protect the men working at the charging and collecting apertures I
provide flues in the brick work or masonry, the inlets to which are situate in close
proximity to the said apertures, whereby the heated gases are conducted away,"
and prevented from issuing at the said apertures to such an extent as to cause in-
convenience or injury to the attendants. The flues communicate with a chimney
or stack situate at any convenient distance from the furnace, and provided with a
damper or dampers for the facility of regulating the draft.
The furnace may be constructed of any other convenient form than that of a D,
as, for example, of a square, oval, or V shape, the vertex of the V in the latter
case forming the front of the furnace.
Flues may be provided for conveying away the waste heat to be utilized for
any required purpose.
The Invention is equally applicable to flint glass furnaces in which covered pots
are used; also to glass furnaces in which a tank is substituted for pots.
When large quantities of metal are. required to be produced it is preferred to
employ a double furnace so arranged that the fuzed products are conducted from
the two furnaces, of which the double furnace is composed, into a common tank or
receptacle, where they are collected.