IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH STEAM BOILER AND OTHER FURNACES
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Reston Wood, of the Wishaw Iron
Works, in the County of Lanark, North Britain, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH STEAM BOILER AND OTHER
FURNACES."
Sealed the 13th April 1875, and dated the 11th February 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Reston Wood
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 11th February 1875.
I, GEORGE RESTON WOOD, of the Wishaw Iron Works, in the County
of Lanark, North Britain, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH STEAM BOILER AND
OTHER FURNACES," to be as follows, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its objects to cconomise fuel and prevent
smoke in steam boiler and other furnaces, and consists in constructing
or arranging the furnace and parts connected therewith, so that the air
for combustion is supplied by a fan, pump, or other forcing apparatus
to the lower part of a column of fuel, whilst the fire gases or gaseous

page_text: .
products of combustion can pass off from the bottom or lower part of
such column.
In carrying out the Invention in the case of a vertical dome-topped or
egg-ended steam boiler, according to one modification the boiler is made
with a vertical cylindrical tube extending from the top of the boiler
down to a fire-chamber formed at the bottom or lower part, and
projecting down a short distance into such chamber; a grate is not
required, and the chamber may have at its bottom a flat hearth. The
air for combustion is forced into the fire-chamber through a series of
pipes disposed round the fire-chamber and the fire gases pass off by one
or more flues arranged between some of the air pipes, and proceed
through flues built round the outside of the boiler to the chimney; or
the fire gases may pass through flue tubes, crossing or passing up
through the water space of the boiler.
The furnace tube, which may be several feet high, may be filled with
fuel to the top. The heat of the incandescent fuol at the bottom of the
column is partly radiated upwards into the fuel above, causing com-
bustible gases and vapors to be evolved therefrom; and these gases and
vapors having no other outlet descend through the incandescent fuel
beneath, and a suitable quantity of air being supplied, become thoroughly
consumed. The air being forced in as described no chimney draught is
required, and the supply of air can be regulated so that the fire gases
may pass off slowly and consequently impart more of their heat to
the boiler, or to any other object or material to heat which they may be
applied.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said George Reston Wood in the Great Seal Patent 30
Office on the 10th August 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
RESTON WOOD, of the Wishaw Iron Works, in the County of Lanark,
North Britain, send greeting.

page_text: 2
of
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of February, in the year
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the thirty-
eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said George Reston Wood, Her special
licence that I, the said George Reston Wood, my executors, adminis-..
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said George Reston
Wood, 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
"IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH STEAM BOILER AND OTHER FURNACES,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said George Reston
Wood, 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 George Reston Wood, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement in writing, reference being had to the accom-
panying Drawings, that is to say :-
My said Invention has for its object to economise fuel and prevent
smoke in steam boiler and other furnaces, and it consists mainly in
constructing or arranging the furnace and parts connected therewith so
that the air for combustion is supplied by a fan; pump, or other forcing
apparatus to the lower part of a column of fuel, whilst the fire gases or
gaseous products of combustion can pass off from a space forming a
combustion chamber, and in one modification encircling the bottom or
lower part of the column of fuel.
My improved arrangements are equally applicable to the furnaces of
horizontal, or marine, or other steam boilers, and to puddling, to heating,
and to other furnaces.
And in order that my said Invention and the manner of performing
the same may be properly understood, I hereunto append a Sheet of
J

page_text: explanatory Drawings to be herein-after referred to and representing
various modifications of my improved furnaces. In these Drawings the
same reference numerals are used to mark the same or like parts
wherever they are repeated.
Figures 1 to 4 of the Drawings represent one modification; Figures 1
and 2 being horizontal sections; Figure 3 a vertical section; and
Figure 4 an elevation. In this modification, my improvements are
applied in connection with a vertical dome-topped or egg-ended steam
boiler 1 which is made with a vertical cylindrical or nearly cylindrical
tube 2 extending from the top to, the bottom of the boiler. In the
lower part of the boiler there is constructed a cylindrical shell comprising
an annular cylindrical space 3 which encircles the lower part of the
central tube 2. This tube 2 might be made to project down only a
short distance below the top of the annular space 3 so as to leave a free
communication between the interior of the tube and the space 3, but I
prefer to construct the tube 2 so as to extend through to the bottom of
the space 3, as shown in Figure 3, and to form a number of parts 4
through the lower part of it into the space 3, and I construct the
part of the tube 2 in the space 3 of fire-brick. An ordinary grate
is not required, and there may be a flat hearth 5 at the bottom of
the tube 2. The air for combustion is forced into the fire-chamber or
combustion space 3 through a series of pipes 6 disposed round the fire-
chamber and supplied by main pipes 7 carried round the outside of the
structure. The fire gases or gaseous products of combustion pass off
from the combustion space 3 by one or more flues 8 arranged between
some of the air pipes 6, and enter a flue space 9 built round the outside
of the boiler, whence they escape by a chimney 10. The furnace tube 2,
which may be séveral feet high, may be filled with fuel to the top, and
may be provided with a movable cover if found necessary.
When the furnace is in full operation the fuel is maintained in an
incandescent state at and near the level of the ports 4 in the lower part
of the tube 2, such incandescent part constituting practically the bottom
of the column of fuel, the part below being the ashes or exhausted
residues of the fuel. The heat of the incandescent fuel at the bottom of
the column is partly radiated upwards into the fuel above, causing
combustible gases and vapors to be evolved therefrom, and these gases
and vapors having no other outlet descend to the incandescent fuel
beneath, and passing by the ports 4 into the combustion space 3 combine

page_text: in that space with the necessary air and become thoroughly consumed.
The air being forced. in as herein-before described, no chimney draught is
required, and the supply of air can be regulated so that the fire gases
may pass off slowly, and consequently impart as much as possible of
their heat to the boiler, or to any other object or material to heat which
they may be applied.
In order to facilitate the removal of ashes without interrupting the
operation of the furnace, I have the hearth space 5 under the boiler
cased with cast-iron plates 11, 12, in the two opposite ones 12 of which
are formed a row of holes for the introduction at each side of a set of
rods 13 fixed like the prongs of a rake on a cross bar 14 which is mounted
so that it can be moved inwards or outwards by means of a screw
spindle 15. When about to remove a quantity of ashes the two sets of
rods 13 are moved inwards into the positions in which they are shown in
Figures 2 and 3, and they support the fuel above whilst the ashes are
being got out from beneath them through a door 16. The rods 13 are
afterwards withdrawn so as to allow the column of fuel to descend to
the hearth 5.
Figure 5 is a longitudinal vertical section showing how two of my
improved furnaces may be adapted to one steam boiler, and it will be
obvious that more than two furnaces may thus be constructed in
connection with one boiler.
1
Figure 6 is a vertical section of a modification in which instead of the
fire gases proceeding through a flue 9 built round the outside of the
boiler, they pass from the combustion space 3 by two or more vertical or
partly vertical tubes 17 to an annular horizontal flue tube 18 within the
boiler, and thence away by an exit pipe 19.
Figure 7 is a longitudinal vertical section of a reverberatory or heating
furnace as constructed to be heated by means of a column of fuel
according to my Invention. In this modification the reverberatory
chamber 20 forms the space for the combustion of the fuel gases, and
replaces the annular space 3 of the other modifications. The fuel column
is contained in a chamber 2 of fire-brick cased externally with cast-iron
plates, and may be of any convenient dimensions. Thus the one shown
in Figure 7 is rectangular in horizontal section, and nearly as broad as
thereverberatory chamber 20 in a direction at right angles to the plane
of the Figure. It increases in width downwards so that the fuel may

page_text: be sure to descend as it is consumed. The air for combustion is forced
in by a pipe 7 inserted along the inner side of the chamber 2 opposite
the series of ports 4 leading to the reverberatory chamber 20, this pipe 7
being by preference formed with a water casing and the air issuing from
it by a series of jet orifices 6; I also introduce a further supply of air by
a pipe 21 with jet orifices 22 at the further end of the reverberatory
chamber 20, and I have the jet orifices 22 directed towards the middle of
the roof as shown in order to promote the circulation and intermixture
of the gases within the chambers. The fire gases leave the chamber 20
by a series of ports 23, and may be then utilised for heating a boiler or
other object.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention and the manner
of performing the same, I have to state that I do not restrict myself to
the precise details herein described or delineated, but that what I believe
to be novel and original, and claim as the Invention secured to me by
the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the system of con-
structing and working steam boilers and other furnaces wherein the air
for combustion is supplied by a fan or equivalent to the lower part of a
column of fuel, whilst the fire gases pass off from a space forming a
combustion chamber and encircling or being in direct connection with
the said lower part of the column of fuel, substantially as herein-before
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Reston Wood, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Seventh day of August, in the
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,
Glasgow.
GEO. R. WOOD. (L.S.)