IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR HEATING AIR AND GASES
Year: 1876

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Whitwell, of the Thornaby Ironworks, South Stock-
ton, in the County of York, Ironmaster, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN APPARATUS FOR HEATING AIR AND GASES."
Sealed the 25th July 1876, and dated the 16th May 1876.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Whitwell at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 16th May 1876.
THOMAS WHITWELL, of the Thornaby Ironworks, South Stockton, in the County
of York, Ironmaster. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR HEATING AIR AND
GASES."
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for heating air
and gases. Patents for Inventions having a similar object have been granted to
me, dated respectively 10th November 1865, No. 2897, and 19th January 1872,
No. 171.
According to my present Invention I form the furnace, oven, or chainber and the
iron case which encloses it of a cylindrical, elliptical, or oval form, and make use of
the cleaning doors at the top, the bottom, the sides, or any convenient position
for the purpose of cleansing the same as may be required.
In the before-mentioned Specifications I showed the gas and air passing abovo
and below the vertical transverse partitions or walls alternately, these being
properly supported with longitudinal walls to increase the strength and durability
of the same.
In my present Invention I pass the air or gas in the same direction up one, two,
three, or four walls, and in like manner I pass the air or gas over and down one,
two, three, or four walls placed and arranged so as to be cleaned by the cleaning
doors at the top, bottom, sides, or other convenient part of the stove as set forth
in my two previous Specifications.
I also support my transverse walls by longitudinal walls placed where needful
for the proper support of the same, the whole to be commanded by the cleaning
doors, as before set forth, for the efficient cleansing of the whole structure.
I make the top or roof of the furnace, oven, or chamber either flat or arched.
I also in another form construct the furnace, oven, or chamber with an arrange-
ment of my transverse and longitudinal walls as herein set forth at one end or
side, and I place at the other end or side one or more rows of cast-iron or other
[Price Sd.]

page_text: pipes of any convenient section with proper valves for working the same for the
purpose of increasing the heating power of the furnance, oven, or chamber in such-
wise that the burning gases having been actively ignited in the brickwork part of
the structure are conducted over and among the cast-iron pipes for the purpose
of absorbing the heat of the said ignited gases, and the said gases finally pass off
at a low temperature.
While the gases are heating the said pipes in Number 1 furnace, oven, or chamber,
the air to be heated is made to pass through the above-mentioned cast-iron pipes
and thence into another similar furnace, oven, or chamber, denominated Number 2,
already heated in the manner herein described, where the air passes first among
the cast-iron pipes on the outside of the same and next traverses the brickwork
constructed with one, two, three, or four passages in the same direction as herein
set forth, and thence to the blast or other furnace or to any place where it may
be required.
After a proper interval of time, that is to say, before the airs to be heated in
Number 2 furnace, oven, or heating chamber cease to be sufficiently heated, they
are shut off from the Number 2 furnace, oven, or heating chamber and made to
pass through Number 1 furnace, oven, or chamber (previously heated) for a
sufficient length of time, by which means a considerable economy results in space
and room occupied by the heating apparatus, and a constant current of heated
airs or gases is maintained, whilst at the same time the cast-iron pipes are protected
from the destructive action of the ignition of the heating gases by this taking
place in the firebrick part of the furnace, oven, or heating chamber.
I also so arrange that the furnace, oven, or heating chamber may be heated by
means of coal should such be required.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by the
said Thomas Whitwell in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 16th November
1876.
THOMAS WHITWELL, of the Thornaby Ironworks, South Stockton, in the County
of York, Ironmaster. IMPROVEMENTS, IN APPARATUS FOR HEATING AIR AND
GASES."
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for heating air and
gases. Patents for Inventions having a similar object have been granted to me,
dated respectively 10th November 1865, No. 2897, and 19th January 1872,
No. 171.
According to my present Invention I form the furnace, oven, or chamber, and the
iron case which encloses it, of a cylindrical, elliptical, or oval form, and make use of
the cleaning doors at the top, the bottom, the sides, or any convenient position for
the purpose of cleansing the same as may be required.
In the before-mentioned Specifications I showed the gas and air passing above
and below the vertical transverse partitions or walls alternately, these being pro-
perly supported with longitudinal walls to increase the strength and durability of
the same.
In my present Invention I pass the air or gas in the same direction up one, or
two, or three, or four walls, and in like manner I pass the air or gas over and down
one, or two, or three, or four walls placed and arranged so as to be cleaned by the
cleaning doors at the top, bottom, sides, or other convenient part of the stove as
set forth in my two previous Specifications.
I also support my transverse walls by longitudinal walls placed where needful
for the proper support of the same, the whole to be commanded by the cleaning
doors, as before set forth, for the efficient cleansing of the whole structure.
I make the top or roof of the furnace, oven, or chamber either flat or arched.

page_text: Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4, Sheet 1, are vertical sections of a furnace, oven, or heating
chamber with different numbers of transverse walls and air passages. In each of
these Figures the same letters of reference are used to indicate the same parts.
The furnace, oven, or heating chamber consists of an air-tight shell of iron,
enclosing a circular, elliptical, or oval wall constructed of firebrick or other material
suitable to the temperature it will have to bear. The furnace, oven, or heating
chamber is divided by several transverse walls at varying distances from each other,
which are crossed at right angles by longitudinal walls for the more perfect support
of the same, the whole being properly bonded together. The transverse walls are
open at top or bottom where required, so that the air or gases to be heated entering
at the chimney end of the furnace, oven, or chamber are by the construction of the
walls caused to ascend and descend till the heated air or gases leave the furnace, oven,
or heating chamber at the opposite end to that at which they entered.
In each of these furnaces the distance which the gas has to traverse and the
number of turns it has to make is diminised by causing the currents to divido and
pass in the same direction along two or moro adjacent walls or partitions, in place
of, as described in my former Specifications, passing alternately over and under the
vertical transverse walls or partitions.
At the top of each furnace, oven, or heating chamber aro iron doors K, K, which
are protected by fire-plugs or lumps L, L, which fit the openings in the top of the
furnace or heating chamber. These openings on the top of the furnace, oven, or
heating chamber are by preference formed over the walls which do not come to the
top of the furnace, oven, or heating chamber by which means the surfaces of the
walls below the openings can be cleansed with facility. These openings, when the air
or gases are passing through the furnace, oven, or heating chamber, aro kept closed.
The height of the walls as well as the number of the same may be varied to
suit the extent of surface over which it is desired that the air or gases to be heated
shall pass.
Two or more furnaces, ovens, or heating chambers are used in combination in order
to maintain a regular stream of heated air or gases.
Gas from any suitable source is supplied to one furnace, oven, or heating chamber
whilst the air or gases to be heated are passing through another furnace, oven, or
heating chamber, and the arrangement of the valves and passages in connection
with the furnaces, ovens, or heating chambers is such that the air or gases to bo
heated pass through the furnace, oven, or heating chamber in the opposite direction
and over the identical surfaces of the brick walls previously traversed by the
burning gases on heating the furnace, oven, or heating chamber. By these means
the air or gases to be heated absorb heat from the walls in ascending or descending
the walls and thus become of the same or nearly the same heat as the walls of the
furnace, oven, or heating chamber prior to leaving the same.
The dust carried by the burning gas employed in heating the furnace, oven, or
heating chamber accumulates on the walls and requires to be scraped or removed
from time to time. The scraping or removal from the walls is performed by proper
tools introduced through the top openings K, K, as above described, and the dust
is removed from the bottom of each chamber or oven throgul the openings closed

page_text: by the doors D, D, by means of convenient tools, or by openings in the bottom, as
in my Patent of 1872.
I will now describe the process of the heating of the furnace, oven, or heating
chamber. The gas from any suitable source is made to enter through the gas inlet
valve near B, whence it is conducted to the furnace, oven, or heating chamber by
the pipe C. The hot outlet E is closed, and also the cold inlet F, whilst the chimney
valve near is opened, as also the air inlet valves H, H, (Figure 2, Sheet 3) for
assisting in the combustion of the burning gas, by this means the walls of the fur-
furnace, oven, or heating chamber are made red hot to a proper proportion of the whole
furnace, oven, or heating chamber, during which time the air or gases to be heated
have been traversing other furnaces, ovens, or heating chambers heated previously
in a similar manner. The nir admitted at H, H, for assisting in the combustion
of the burning gas is conducted to and fro by long air passages M, N, formed in
the thickness of the vertical walls in such way that the air becomes red hot before
it meets the burning gas, and hence the combustion is made more intense.
I will now describe the heating of the air or gases.
The furnace, oven, or heating chamber being made red hot, as above described, the
burning gas inlet near B is closed, as also the air inlets H, H. The chimney valve
near G is also closed. The hot outlet E which is lined with refractory material, is
now opened, also the cold inlet F, by which means the air or gases to be heated are
made to enter the furnace, oven, or chamber at the coldest end, and by the con-
struction of the furnace, oven, or heating chamber the air or gases to be heated
ascend one, or two, or three, or four walls and then descend one, or two, or three, or
four walls as may be till they attain the required temperature and issue from the
furnace, oven, or heating chamber by means of the hot outlet E. After a proper
interval of time, that is to say, before the air or gases to be heated cease to be
sufliciently heated, they are shut off from the furnace, oven, or heating chamber and
made to pass through another similar furnace, oven, or chamber previously heated, by
which means a constant current of heated air or gases is maintained.
Sheet 1, Figure 1, shews the heating gas entering at B mounting to the top of
the furnace, oven, or heating chamber, then descending at once three passages
in the same direction, then rising up one passage and descending four others at
once.
Figure 2. The heating gas ascends then descends in single passages, then ascends
two passages and descends three passages in the same direction.
Figures 3. The heating gas rises up one passage, descends by two passages,
ascends one and descends two in the same direction, and thus consecutively.
Figure 4. The heating gas passes up and down on the former system through
half the furnace, oven, or heating chamber, and then descends three passages in its
course to the chimney.
The whole of the above forms of furnace, oven, or heating chamber are cleansed
by means of tools introduced at openings at top K, at bottom sides, &c., as may be
most convenient.
Figure 1, Sheet 2, is a vertical section, and Figure 2, Sheet 2, is a sectional plan
of two furnaces, ovens, or heating chambers differing from that shewn on Sheet 1,
in that they are provided with iron pipes P of any convenient section placed at the
cold end of the furnace, oven, or heating chamber and inside the same provided with
proper valves for working the same for the purpose of increasing the heating power
of the furnace, oven, or heating chamber, and in suchwise that the air or gases to
be heated are caused to pass first through the inside of the pipes in that furnace,
oven, or heating chamber through which the burning gases are passing, and the air
or gas to be heated is then conducted through the connection pipes Sinto that
furnace, oven, or heating chamber previously heated where it passes first among the
cast-iron pipes P on the outside of the same, after which it ascends and descends
the walls travelling to the hot end of the furnace, oven, or chamber, and passes out
through the hot outlet E.

page_text: In Figure 2 this form of furnace, oven, or heating chamber is shown oval, but it
may be oblong, elliptical, circular, or any other shape if preferred.
Figure 3, Sheet 2, is a vertical section, and Figuro 4, Sheet 2, is a sectional plan
of a furnace, oven, or heating chamber where the heating gases proceed up one
passage then down two, then up two and down two, and so on through the furnace,
oven, or heating chamber. Tho wall surfaces being cleansed by tools introduced
through the doors K by removing the lumps of firebrick L, tho dust being removed
at the bottom of the furnace, oven, or heating chamber as may be most convenient.
By means of all theso descriptions of furnaces, ovens, or heating chambers the
friction on the air and gases interposed by many bends is obviated, and better
results are obtained.
Figure 1, Shect 3, is a vertical section, and Figure 2, Sheet 3, is a sectional plan
of a furnace, oven, or heating chamber, either circular, elliptical, oval, or any other
shape in which the heating gas proceeds up one passage then down one passage,
then ascends and descends two passages alternately till it comes to the cold end of
furnace, oven, or heating chamber, where it passes down one passago and out through
chimney valve near G.
The same letters of reference are used in Sheets 2 and 3 as in Sheet 1 to indicate
the same parts.
Although the tops of all these descriptions of furnaces, ovens, or heating chambers
are shewn flat, yet they may be flat or arched as may be most convenient or suit-
able, provided with cleaning doors and openings for the purpose of giving access to
every part of the passages and walls so as to cleanse them from dust deposited by
the burning gases, &c.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner of per-
forming the same, I would have it understood that I claim the construction of
apparatus for heating air and gases, substantially as described, with vertical walls
or partitions so arranged as to divide the current and cause it to pass in the same
direction along two or more adjacent walls or partitions in place of alternately over
and under thein as heretofore.
I also claim the combination with apparatus for heating air and gases, in which
two structures are alternately heated and caused to impart their heat to the air or
gas, of metal pipes through which the air or gas is caused to pass whilst the appa-
ratus is heating, such air or gas being then discharged into a second apparatus
previously heated, in which a further amount of heat is imparted to it, substantially
as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Whitwell, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-six.
THOMAS WHITWELL (L.S.)