IMPROVEMENTS IN REVER- BERATORY AND OTHER FURNACES
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henri de Simencourt, of Corbyn's Hall, near Dudley,
in the County of Worcester, Manager of Iron Works, and John Kenyon
Blackwell, of No. 78, Gloucester Terrace, Hyde Park, in the County of
Middlesex, Iron Master, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN REVER-
BERATORY AND OTHER FURNACES."
Sealed the 19th September 1861, and dated the 7th June 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henri de Simencourt
and John Kenyon Blackwell at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 7th June 1861.
We, HENRI DE SIMENCOURT, of Corbyn's Hall, near Dudley, in the County
of Worcester, Manager of Iron Works, and JOHN KENYON BLACKWELL, of
No. 73, Gloucester Terrace, Hyde Park, in the County of Middlesex, Iron
Mastèr, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN REVERBERATORY AND OTHER FURNACES," to be as follows:-
Our Invention consists of the improvements herein-after described in rever-
beratory and other furnaces, by which improvements the said furnaces may be
worked more economically than furnaces of the ordinary construction.
Our Invention is especially applicable to puddling, heating, and air furnaces,
but is also applicable to furnaces of other constructions. In place of the
flat bars usually employed, we make the grate with bars which are deep and

page_text: narrow in vertical section, and which bars are placed sufficiently far apart
throughout their length to allow a number of small jets of blast to pass ver-
tically at short and nearly equal intervals through each of the
spaces between
the grate bars, and throughout the entire length of the openings between the
bars into the fuel lying upon the grate. The blast pipes from which these
vertical jets of blast pass upwards between the bars consist of a number of
longitudinal branch pipes connected in the form of a gridiron with a main
pipe, the branch pipes corresponding in number and direction with the openings
between the grate bars, and being situated under these openings. The said
branch pipes are pierced on their upper surfaces with blast holes, through
which the vertical jets of blast pass, and the said jets being closely under and
between the grate bars, they pass upwards into the fuel without impeding the
descent of the ashes from the grate into the ash-pit. Above the grate bars,
at a short distance above the upper surface of the grate, there are inserted in
the side walls, or in the back and side wall of the grate, a number of small
tuyeres or tuyere apertures communicating with main blast pipes, which are
carried along the sides, or around the grate of the furnace, and in addition to
the dispersed streams or jets of blast which pass vertically between the grate
bars into the fuel. Other numerous jets of blast from the tuyeres are con-
ducted in a horizontal direction at right angles to the axis of the furnace, or
at right angles, aud also in a direction towards the bridge into the fuel, or
into the fuel and inflammable gases arising from it above the level of the
grate.
At the tail or ash-pit end of the furnace openings are left immediately above
the level of the grate, which openings may be closed by doors or otherwise for
the purpose of removing clinkers from the grate and from the side walls of
the grate. The necessity for removing grate bars to clinker the furnace, or to
admit the blast into the fuel is thus avoided. Our improvements may be
applied to existing furnaces at a small expense, and without altering their
general form.
The essence of our Invention consists in the application of blast to reverbera-
tory and other furnaces constructed with open ash-pits without necessarily closing
the ash-pit, the blast being distributed and applied in the manner described, by
which means more complete, effectual, and economical results may be obtained
from the combustion of the fuel than in the furnaces now used. Any kind of
fuel can be used in furnaces constructed according to our Invention, and fuel
of an inferior quality can be advantageously employed therein.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Henri de Simencourt and John Kenyon Blackwell in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 5th December 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, HENRI
DE SIMENCOURT, of Corbyn's Hall, near Dudley, in the County of Worcester,
Manager of Iron Works, and JOHN KENTON BLACKWELL, of No. 73, Gloucester
Terrace, Hyde Park, in the County of Middlesex, Iron Master, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fourth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said Henri de Simencourt and John Kenyon Blackwell, Her special licence
that we, the said Henri de Simencourt and John Kenyon Blackwell, our
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Henri
de Simencourt and John Kenyon Blackwell, our 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
"IMPROVEMENTS IN REVERBERATORY AND OTHER FURNACES," upon the condition
(amongst others) that we, the said Henri de Simencourt and John Kenyon
Blackwell, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under
our or their hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us, or them,
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 Henri de Simencourt, on behalf of
myself and the said John Kenyon Blackwell, 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, that is to say:-
Our Invention consists of the improvements herein-after described, and
illustrated in the accompanying Drawings, in reverberatory furnaces, and other
furnaces usually constructed with open ash-pits, and dependent for the supply
of air for combustion on the draft produced by a chimney, by which improve-

page_text: ments the said furnaces may be worked more economically than furnaces of
the ordinary construction. Our Invention is especially applicable to puddling,
heating, and air furnaces, but is also applicable to furnaces of other con-
structions.
In place of the flat bars ordinarily employed, we usually make the grate
with bars which are deep and narrow in vertical section, and which bars are
placed sufficiently far apart throughout their length to allow a number of
small jets of blast to pass vertically at short and nearly equal intervals through
each of the spaces between the grate bars, and throughout the entire length
of the openings between the bars into the fuel lying upon the grate.. The
blast pipes from which these vertical jets of blast pass upwards between the
bars consist of a number of longitudinal branch pipes connected in the form
of a gridiron with a main pipe or pipes, the branch pipes corresponding in
number and direction with the openings between the grate bars, and being
situated under these openings. The said branch pipes are pierced on their
upper surfaces with blast holes through which the vertical jets of blast pass,
and the said jets being closely under and between the grate bars, they pass
upwards into the fuel without impeding the descent of the ashes from the grate
into the ash-pit. Above the grate bars, at a short distance above the upper
surface of the grate, there are inserted a number of small tuyeres or tuyere
apertures communicating with main blast pipes which are carried along the
sides or around the grate of the furnace, and thus, in addition to the dispersed
streams or jets of blast which pass vertically between the grate bars into the
fuel, other numerous jets of blast from the tuyeres are conducted in a hori-
zontal direction at right angles to the axis of the furnace, or at right angles
and also in a direction towards the bridge into the fuel, or into the fuel and
inflammable gases arising from it above the level of the grate. At the tail or
ash-pit end of the furnace openings are left immediately above the level of the
grate, which openings may be closed by doors or otherwise, the said openings
being for the purpose of removing clinkers from the grate and from the side
walls of the grate. The necessity for removing grate bars to clinker the
furnace or to admit the blast into the fuel is thus avoided. Our improvements
may be applied to existing furnaces at a small expense, and without altering
their general form.
The essence of our Invention consists in the application of blast to reverbe-
ratory and other furnaces with open ash-pits, without necessarily closing the
ash-pit, the blast being distributed and applied in the manner herein described
and illustrated in the Drawings, by which means more complete, effectual,

page_text: and economical results may be obtained from the combustion of the fuel than
in the furnaces now used. Any kind of fuel can be used in furnaces con-
structed according to our Invention, and fuel of an inferior quality can be
advantageously employed therein.
We will now describe our Invention with reference to the accompanying
Drawings.
Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 represent a reverberatory furnace for puddling
iron, the said furnace containing our improvements; the said Figures also
shew the details of our Invention which are applicable to other kinds of
furnaces. Figure 1 represents a side elevation, and Figure 2 an end elevation
of the said furnace; Figure 3 is a longitudinal vertical section of the same
taken on the dotted line A, B; Figure 4 is a cross section of the same taken
on the line C, D; Figure 5 is a plan taken on the line of section E, F ;
Figure 6 is a plan of one half of the blast pipes forming the gridiron below
the grate on the line of section G, II. Furnaces of this description being
usually erected in pairs, the Figures represented relate to one of a pair of
furnaces. The same letters of reference indicate the same parts in the several
Figures of the Drawings.
The blast pipes conveying the blast to the furnace from the main culvert a
are marked b in Figures 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6, in which they are shewn. The
blast may be introduced downwards from pipes above the furnace instead of
upwards from an underground culvert, as shewn in the accompanying Drawings.
The blast which in practice we have found most advantageous to use has been
that produced by a fan at the pressure of about half a pound per square inch,
but we do not confine ourselves to this species or pressure of blast. From the
blast pipes b, b, the blast is conveyed into the front horizontal hollow bearer c
(see Figures 3 and 6), from which it passes into the series of parallel blast pipes
d, d, d, d, (see Figures 3, 4, 5, and 6), one longitudinal branch of which is
fixed vertically under and corresponds in direction with each longitudinal
space between the grate bars. In the furnace represented in the Drawings
the said parallel blast pipes d, d, d, d, are twenty-four in number, seven-
eighths of an inch in diameter, pierced in their upper sides with holes five-
sixteenths of an inch in diameter, at equal distances of three inches apart
longitudinally. The said parallel blast pipes d, d, d, d, as will be seen in
Figure 4, are arranged in the furnace at greater and less distances alternately
below the grate bars to allow more space for the passage of the ashes falling from
the grate. The front horizontal hollow bearer c and the similar back bearer e,
(see Figures 3 and 6) in addition to acting as blast pipes, support the grate

page_text: bars ffff (see Figures 3 and 4), thus forming at a short distance below
the said bars ff. f, a gridiron of blast pipes, from which 336 vertical jets of
blast ths of an inch in diameter, 3 inches apart longitudinally, and two
inches transversely pass into the fuel lying on the grate, but we do not confine
ourselves to these precise details. The back hollow bearer e is provided with a
slide or shutter g (see Figure 3) through which any ashes which in falling from
the grate may have entered the longitudinal blast pipes d, d, d, d, through the
blast holes with which they are pierced can be removed into the front hollow
bearer c, and thence blown or raked out of the plug-hole h (see Figures 1, 3,
and 6), of which one is left in each hollow bearer. The blast pipes marked i,.
shewn in Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, convey the blast to the horizontal tuyeres
marked j, placed in the side walls of the furnace. The said tuyeres j are
shewn in Figures 3, 4, and 5. In the furnace represented in the Drawings
the said tuyeres j are 12 in number, 6 on each side, ths of an inch in diameter,
6 inches above the grate, and 10 inches below the charging hole of the furnace,
but we do not confine ourselves to these precise details. The grate bars we
use in furnaces of the construction represented are deep and narrow in their
vertical section. The grate bars marked f, f, ff, in Figures 3 and 4, are
7 inches deep and ths of an inch wide at their upper, and ths of an inch at
their lower edge, but we do not confine ourselves to grate bars of this
description. The side and end doors of the grate marked k, k, in Figures 1
and 2, are used for the purpose of removing from the grate and side walls of the
furnace any clinkers which may form, thus obviating the necessity for removing
the grate bars while the furnace is in work. The fixed grate bars shewn in
the Drawings may be replaced by the ordinary constructions of moveable or
rocking bars, which can be displaced by an excentric or other means without
removing the said bars from the furnace to prevent an accumulation of clinker
on the grate; or the ordinary wrought-iron bars may be used and drawn
out as usual at the tail end of the furnace when the grate becomes choked
with clinker.
Having now described the nature of our Invention and the manner in which
the same is to be performed, we wish it to be understood that we do not limit
ourselves to the precise details. herein-before described and illustrated in the
accompanying Drawings, as the same may be varied without departing from the
nature of our Invention; but we claim as our Invention the improvements in
reverberatory and other furnaces herein-before described and illustrated in the
accompanying Drawings, that is to say, constructing reverberatory and other
furnaces essentially in the manner herein-before described and illustrated,

page_text: whereby blast is applied to the said furnaces and more complete, effectual, and
economical results obtained from the combustion of the fuel than are
obtained in ordinary furnaces, as well as the advantage of being able to use
inferior fuel.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henri de Simencourt, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of November, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
Witness,
RICHARD SKERRETT,
Clerk to George Shaw.
HENRI DE SIMENCOURT. (L.B.)