IMPROVEMENTS IN THE USE AND APPLICATION OF FUEL AND OF CHEMICAL REAGENTS TO ELIMINATE PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION IT IS
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Davenport Whelpley and Jacob Jones Storer,
both of Boston, in the County of Suffolk, and State of Massachusetts, in
the United States of America, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
USE AND APPLICATION OF FUEL AND OF CHEMICAL REAGENTS TO ELIMINATE
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Davenport Whelpley
and Jacob Jones Storer at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 26th May 1866.
We, JAMES DAVENPORT WHELPLEY and JACOB JONES STORER, both of Boston,
in the County of Suffolk, and State of Massachusetts, in the United States of
America, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE USE AND APPLICATION OF FUEL AND OF CHEMICAL REAGENTS TO
ELIMINATE ITS IMPURITIES OR THOSE OF THE SUBSTANCES IT IS TO HEAT," to be as
follows:-
This Invention relates to a novel application of fuel and of the fluxes or
reducing agents used in metallurgic processes, and consists in employing fuel
and fluxes in a finely divided state and feeding them into the air blast of a
Price 8.1.1

page_text: furnace or firo-box so that they may be floated on the blast during their
consumption, and thus generate their heat and perform their reactions at the
working point. This gives great economy, more perfect results, and better
control over the operation in which the fuel is employed. The said Invention
is equally applicable to furnaces for metallurgic operations and to fire-boxes
when the auxiliary blast is used. The fuel is supplied to the air blast by
loading a revolving brush with the powder and scattering it from the brush
into the track of the blast by means of a discharging bar, against which the
said brush strikes; or we employ a fan blower connected with a chamber
containing revolving knives and paddles to communicate the fuel when fibrous
substances are to be employed as "floated fuel."
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Davenport Whelpley and Jacob Jones Storer in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 24th November 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JAMES
DAVENPORT WHELPLEY and JACOB JONES STORER, of Boston, in the County of
Suffolk, and State of Massachusetts, in the United States of America, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the twenty-ninth year of Fler
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said James Davenport Whelpley and Jacob Jones Storer, Her special
license that they, the said James Davenport Whelpley and Jacob Jones Storer,
their executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as they, the said
James Davenport Whelpley and Jacob Jones Storer, their executors, adminis-
trators, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE USE AND APPLICATION OF FUEL
AND OF CHEMICAL REAGENTS TO ELIMINATE ITS IMPURITIES OR THOSE OF THE
SUBSTANCES IT IS TO HEAT," upon the condition (amongst others) that they,
the said James Davenport Whelpley and Jacob Jones Storer, their executors,
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under their, or one of their
hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the

page_text: 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 James Davenport Whelpley and
Jacob Jones Storer, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement:-
This Invention relates to a novel application of fuel and of the fluxes or
reducing agents used in metallurgic processes, and consists in employing fuel
and fluxes in a finely divided state and feeding them into the air blast of a
furnace or fire-box so that they may be floated on the blast during their
consumption and thus generate their heat and perform their reactions at the
working point, by this means giving great economy, more perfect results, and
better control over the oporation in which the fuel is employed. The Invention
is equally applicable to furnaces for metallurgic operations and to fire-boxes
where the auxiliary blast is used.
The reduction of metals from their ores by the "dry method" is effected by
exposing them to heat either alone or in connexion with carbon in combustion
and auxiliary chemicals called "fluxes" or " reducing agents." Various
staple chemicals are made by first obtaining a primary product and then com-
bining with it additional equivalents ortaking away superfluous equivalents by
aid of heat and auxiliary chemicals. Whenever these auxiliary chemicals are
used, or whenever incandescent fuel is used as an agent operating on other
bodies by means of the products of combustion, it is important that every
particle of the substance to be acted on should be brought into intimate
contact with the auxiliary chemicals or incandescent carbon within a heated
atmosphere. We propose to accomplish this result by blowing, fanning, or
sifting among the ores or primary chemical product while heated the carbon
and auxiliary chemicals in a finely divided state, usually charging the air blast
of a furnace with them, but sometimes driving them in by steam if that is
desirable for the required reaction, or using a separate and distinct air blast
for the purpose. The latter mode is preferable though not always absolutely
necessary. We have sometimes introduced the finely pulverized fuel and
chemicals by sifting them into the furnace through an aperture, but this
process is troublesome in large operations, and we consider it inexpedient as
sieves wear rapidly and are easily destroyed or rendered unserviceable by the
action of heat or of the chemicals on their wires, so we restrict the employment
of sieves in this process to small furnaces for chemical laboratories, or to such
metallurgic operations as do not require very intense heat. We therefore

page_text: prefer the following better mode illustrated by the Drawings, making a part
of this Specification.
We take an ordinary fan blower, and close to the central opening of the
case A, Figures 1 and 2, by which air enters into it, we affix a hopper B
having an automatic feed consisting of a revolving cylindrical brush C and
discharging bar (d), against which the bristles of the brush strike to free
themselves from the dust, which is thus scattered into the track of the air
blast into this hopper we pour the finely pulverized coal and chemicals,
which are thus regularly and sufficiently supplied to the air blast.
If con-
venience requires the feed of fuel may be into the pipe leading from the fan
blower to the head of the furnace, but it is best to have the blower between
the feed and the furnace. The fan should revolve rapidly and throw a swift
aud regular current of air which will secure perfect suspension and distribution
of the air-floated particles. Comparing the bulk and weight of hydrogen with
that of carbon we find, in passing a column of air through a flue of given
area,deducting the heat absorbed in generating the hydrogen, that with equal
velocitics of air equivalents of heat will be as 24 for hydrogen and 84 for
carbon; but by burning the fuel in a fire-box distinct from the focus of com-
bustion one-half of the heat is wasted in forming oxide of carbon, while by
our method we employ all the equivalents at the point where the heat is most
needed. Since the properties of carbonic oxide and carbonic acid are different
the one being a carbonizer and deoxidizer, the other simply an oxidizer. The
employment of carbonic oxide may not always be desired, but by our method,
of using fuel we can produce an oxidizing or reducing flame or heat at
pleasure by allowing the oxygen or the carbon of the air blast to be in excess.
It is evident that by this method of using fuel coal of the most inferior quality
charged with sulphur or other foreign matters, can be used by mingling,
their powders with powdered lime and other reagents to correct the ill effect
of their impurities, and by taking care to have an abundant supply of oxygen
to combine with these impurities, we can also utilize the waste and refuse
of mines and coal yards, which, because of its fineness, would not otherwise
be employed. By adjusting the amount of fuel to the amount of air driven
by the fan blower the complete combustion of all the carbon is effected
without difficulty. By placing in the axis of an Argand burner a blow pipe
with an apparatus feeding powdered charcoal into its air blast we construct a
lamp of great value for laboratory use or illumination. In burning massive
fuel in the usual way, in a fire-box over grate bars, a considerable per-centage
of heat is wasted by absorption into the brickwork of the fire-box. By our
method this waste is avoided. In furnaces usually called gas furnaces the

page_text: receptacles for the fuel are used merely as generators for the pro-luction of
combustible gases, and the fire-boxes may be, and in practice frequently are,
removed to a considerable distance from the working point, and thus the first
equivalent of heat developed in the creation of the combustible gases is in
great part lost. By our method of using fuel the gas itself is generated at
the working point, and the entire development of heat is utilized in the
performance of work. If we desire the complete conversion of carbon into
carbonic acid by having the supply of air slightly in excess we secure that
result, and all the heat is produced in the most desirable point; while, if we
desire to produce inflammable gases, such as oxide of carbon, it is only
necessary that the supply of floated carbon should be slightly in excess of the
supply of oxygen. When the air carrying floated fuel enters a furnace it must
be instantly heated to bring ou combustion. To effect this it must be carried
over a bed of ignited fuel in the ordinary fire-box of the furnace so that it
may mingle with the hot air, but after this process has gone on for a little
while the walls of the furnace becoming heated will radiate heat enough to
fire the particles of carbon as they enter upon the blast. The solid fuel in
the fire-box is thus subordinated and becomes a more auxiliary for the purpose
of heating the air to promote aerial combustion, and the quantity of coal
consumed in the fire-box will be proportionately small, and may be made
constantly less as the walls of the furnace attain a higher temperature. The
great metallurgic advantage of this use of fuel, with or without the auxiliary
chemicals, is that the combustion occurs and the heat is generated at the
working point, and precisely the same is true if the blast of a fire-box in.
tended simply for the generation of heat is introduced over the top of the
fire and laden with finely powdered coal. The aerial combustion takes
place and the heat is generated at precisely the point most desirable to
secure the greatest amount of work, and by thus reducing the ratio of
wasted heat we secure an important economy.
If in a reverberatory furnace intended for the reduction of ores, as shown
in Figures 1 and 2, we supply to a blast over the fire fuel in fine powder,
and any required flux or reducing agent in similar powder, the carbon of
the fuel of course becomes ignited and the required action takes place
under most favourable circumstances. If the substance to be acted on be
also finely divided the result will be better. By regulating the supply of
fine coal we can regulate the character of the flame produced and make it
an oxidizing or a reducing flame at pleasure.
By the use of metallic protoxides, particularly those of iron and copper,
as auxiliary chemicals when roasting sulphurets, complete conversion of

page_text: the sulphurous acid into sulphuric acid may be secured. Sulphur, phos-
phorous, silicon, and other foreign clements may be entirely removed from
metals by the use of alkalies, such as soda or potassa of salts of the same
or alkaline earths, such as lime, as fluxes; and in an air blast bearing coal
in aerial combustion, so contaminated, the use of such air borne fluxes in
connexion with the impure coal will render it as valuable for metallurgic
purposes as the best of coal.
It
The Drawings show a plan & elevation (Fig. 1 & 2) of a reverberatory
furnace intended for the reduction of ores. The apparatus for the introduction
of the fuel and fluxes or reducing agents is shown attached to the fan blower
of the auxiliary blast and can readily be so attached at small expense.
may be desired to use this process of feeding fuel when none but massive fuel
can be obtained, or it may be considered desirable to use fibrous substances
as "floated fuel," and in either of these cases it will be necessary to attach a
pulverizing or shredding apparatus to the fan blower. Fig. 3 is a cross section
of a machine devised for this purpose. A, A', are cylinders; B is a disc
having a central air feed, opened and closed at will by a register F'; and C is
a disc having a central opening into which enters a pipe from hopperG. This
pipe has an air-feed hole I and contains a corrugated cylinder N, nearly
closing the bottom of the hopper G. A diaphragm D having central opening,
opened or closed by a register F, operated by rod f, divides the interior of the
chamber into a cutting or powdering chamber and a fan chamber. Through
the axis of the cylinder passes shaft K, carrying disc L, and fan blower m.
Disc L is larger than the openings in the disc Cand diaphragm D, and acts
as a spreader to air passing through the machine. It carries knives O and
air-wheel paddles P arranged alternately on its opposite faces, the knives
being nearer the air and coal feed than the paddles. On feeding bits of coal
or fibrous substances into the hopper when the machine is in motion they are
regularly fed past cylinder N, are caught by the air blast from I, pass into
the cutting chamber, are drawn down past the knives and paddles, and are
there comminuted. When sufficiently fine to be floated they are drawn
forward by the air blast into the fan blower, and thence discharged by
exhaust pipe E into the fire-box or furnace.
We do not claim forcing among massive fuel in combustion by means of a
cylinder or pressure blower the finely-powdered fuel and fluxes, for that is old
and useless; but what we claim as our Invention and desire to secure by
Letters Patent is, the method of burning solid fuel in a finely divided state
while floated on an air blast, either alone or in connection with fluxes or
reducing agents to eliminate the impurities in the fuel or the substance

page_text: to be heated, and the employment of the feeding apparatus described in
connection with the fan blower or of the comminuting apparatus described
combined with a fan blower, for the purpose of furnishing to the air blast
"floated fuel" for aerial combustion.
In testimony whereof, we have hereunto set our hand & seal, this
twenty-eighth day of September, in the year of our Lord 1860.
JAMES DAVENPORT WHELPLEY. (L.S.)
JACOB JONES STORER.
(L.S.)