AN IMPROVED METHOD OF CON- SUMING SMOKE IN FURNACES AND OTHER PLACES WHERE FIRE IS USED, AND FOR CON- SUMING FUEL, AND ALSO FOR APPLYING AIR, HEATED OR COLD, TO BLASTING OR SMELTING FURNACES
Year: 1838

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MICHAEL
WHEELWRIGHT IVISON, Silk Spinner, in Hailes Street, Edinburgh, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria did, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twenty-fourth day of February, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight, give and grant unto me, the said
Michael Wheelwright Ivison, my executors, administrators, and assigns, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Michael Wheelwright
Ivison, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should and lawfully might
use, exercise, and vend, my Invention of "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF CON-
SUMING SMOKE IN FURNACES AND OTHER PLACES WHERE FIRE IS USED, AND FOR CON-
SUMING FUEL, AND ALSO FOR APPLYING AIR, HEATED OR COLD, TO BLASTING OR SMELTING
FURNACES," within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick upon Tweed,
and also in all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, for the term of
fourteen years next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited
Letters Patent, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear; in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said
Michael Wheelwright Ivison, should, within six calendar months next and im-
mediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, under my hand and seal,

page_text: cause to be enrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery a particular
description of my said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be
performed.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Michael Wheelwright Ivison, do hereby declare that the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully
described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference
being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters
marked thereon, that is to say:
My Invention relates, first, to a mode of consuming smoke evolved from
coal in furnaces and other such places where coal fire is used by the applica-
tion of steam above the ignited fuel, whereby not only the smoke will be
consumed, but fuel saved, as a given quantity of coal will produce a much
greater effect; and, secondly, my Invention relates to a mode of applying air,
heated or cold, in combination with steam, to blasting or smelting furnaces;
and in order to give the best information in my power as to the nature of my
Invention, and the manner of performing the same, I will proceed to describe the
Drawing annexed, which represents the section of a steam boiler and furnace,
which, together with the description hereafter given, will be sufficient to enable
a workman readily to carry out my Invention generally to various furnaces
and other places where coal is burned for producing fire. "a"are the ordinary
fire bars, and 6 the ash pit; "c," being an ordinary high pressure steam boiler.
"d" is a tube, passing from the steam boiler into the furnace, or from the
steam cylinder to conduct the steam, which has performed on the piston,
or the steam may be obtained from any convenient source, there being a
steam cock e by which the person attending the boiler can regulate the
flow of steam into the furnace in order to obtain the desired effects, and
on the one hand prevent too much steam passing into the furnace, and on
the other hand to allow of just sufficient to produce complete combustion,
which will readily be judged of by observing the effects produced. At the
end of the steam pipe d, which is spread out into a fan shape, there are a
number of small holes perforated in order that the steam may flow in minute
jets in a direction downwards, by which means the smoke will be consumed
and fuel economized, and it is the introduction of steam on to the coal which
constitutes the first part of my Invention. At the same time I would remark
that altho I prefer that the steam pipe should introduce the steam in a direc-
tion downwards from the front towards the back of the fire bars, as is shewn,
yet I do not confine myself thereto, as the steam may be introduced over the
coal on the fire bars in other directions without departing from my Invention,

page_text: the object being to inject streams of steam amongst the smoke or products of
combustion as evolved, and by mixing therewith, aided by the heat of the fuel
and a sufficient supply of atmospheric air, the whole are consumed and a more
perfect combustion obtained. I would remark that I am aware steam has
before been applied into the ash pits and thro' the bars of furnaces to improve
combustion, and into the chimney or flue to encrease the draft. I do not thero-
fore claim the application of steam generally to furnaces, but only when applied
according to the mode herein described, and further, there are various well-
known modes of applying heated air to furnaces, both above and below the fuel,
and there are various means of obtaining such heated air to furnaces where
coal is burned for evaporating fluids and for other purposes, such heated air
being applied for the purpose of saving heat and of improving the combustion
of coal in furnaces, and to aid in consuming smoke evolved by the coal in the
act of combustion. I mention these because my Invention is equally applicable
to furnaces suitably constructed for having heated air applied to them, as to
furnaces supplied with air direct from the atmosphere without previous heating,
care being observed that whatever be the furnace or place where fire is used,
and having my Invention applied thereto, that there is a free supply of atmo-
spheric air. I will now proceed to describe the second part of my Invention,
which relates to a mode of applying air, heated or cold, in combination with
steam, and for heating such air, to blasting or smelting furnaces. It is well
known that according to the present manufacture of iron, heated air is now
becoming very generally employed, and the cold air of the atmosphere is either
drawn thro' iron surfaces heated directly by a fire, such heated air being then
supplied or forced into the furnace by suitable means or blowing machines, but
the most general mode of obtaining what is called hot blast is by tubes heated
on the external surfaces by the direct action of a fire, and the cold air is
applied by means of blowing machines forcing cold air thro' the heated tubes,
whereby the air becomes highly heated by the time it comes into the furnace;
but according to all the plans practised there is such heating to the metal
surface against which the air impinges as materially to alter the moisture and
character of the air heated by them, and it is well known that the atmospheric
air employed in blasting differs in the result produced at different seasons of
the year. Now the object of the second part of my Invention is the application
of air, whether heated or cold, in combination for steam, and for heating air for
blasting and smelting purposes, by the intermediate aid of hot water or steam or
other suitable fluid, whereby three advantages are derived :-First, the licat of
the metal, tho' it heats the air to the degree required, will not prejudicially
change the same; second, by this means the heat of the air applied may be

page_text: regulated to the degree of temperature required; third, the pipes or metal
surfaces will not be so quickly destroyed. In order to carry out this part of
my Invention I employ a vessel or steam boiler. I prefer it to be of a cylin-
drical form, with hemispherical ends, similar to ordinary high pressure steam
engine boilers, fixed with suitable furnace; thro' this steam boiler I insert a
coil of tubes or other suitable metal surfaces, and apply suitable means for
keeping a constant supply of water in the boiler; and further, there is to be a
safety valve, by which, as it is well understood, the pressure and consequent
degree of heat in the boiler may be maintained to a degree slightly above the
degree of temperature to which the air is required to be heated; but it will be
evident that other arrangements of apparatus to use steam or hot water or other
fluid for heating suitable surfaces may be resorted to, which would in fact be
only a variation of what is herein described. I do not therefore confine myself
to the precise form of the apparatus used, provided steam or hot water or other
fluid be employed to heat suitable surfaces against which air is caused to pass
in order to be heated for blasting or smelting purposes; and in order to apply
such apparatus for heating air for blasting furnaces, I use it in one of two ways,
either by placing such heating apparatus in a suitable position in respect to a
pump or other blowing machine, that atmospheric air may in the working of the
blowing machine pass thro' the heating apparatus, and thus enter into the
blowing machine in a heated state, and be applied or driven into the furnace
thereby, or otherwise I place the heating apparatus between the blowing machine,
of whatever kind employed, and the furnace to be blasted, whereby the cold air
is applied by the blowing machine, thro' the heating apparatus, and thus obtain
a hot blast to the furnace. In using steam for improving the quality of the
heated or cold air, and for economizing fuel used in blast or smelting furnaces,
the same is to be introduced into the twyre with the blast of air, or by a
separate tube or tubes, and I have found that in using steam that the quantity
of water in the form of steam may be beneficially used by employing a quantity
of steam equal to about one part by weight of water in the form of steam to
one part by weight of suitable fuel used, and the steam I have employed has
been from eight pounds to thirty-five pounds pressure to the square inch; and
so far as I am enabled to test the result, I believe it desirable to use steam
of moderate pressure in preference to high pressures, but I do not confine
myself to any particular pressure of steam, nor to the relative quantities of
steam and fuel here stated.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner in which
the same is to be performed, I would wish it to be understood that what I claim
as my improved method of consuming smoke and economising fuel in furnaces

page_text: where coal is burned, is the mode of applying steam, whether in conjunction
with hot air or otherwise, as above described; and, secondly, I claim the mode
of applying air, whether hot or cold, in combination with steam, and heating
air for blasting or smelting furnaces, as herein described.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, at Edinburgh,
the Eighteenth day of August, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and thirty-eight
Robert Bent, of Paternoster Row, in the City of London, Bookseller and
Publisher, maketh oath and saith, that he has for several years last past been
in the habit secing the writing of Adam Black, Esquire, of Edinburgh, and is
well acquainted with his manner and character of handwriting; that he, this
deponent, has looked at the signature of the said Adam Black subscribed at
the foot of the acknowledgment above written, and hc, this deponent, verily
believes the words or signature "Ad. Black, Justice of the Peace for the City
of Edinburgh," to be tho handwriting of the said Adam Black; and this
deponent further saith that he has heard and verily believes the same to be true,
that the said Adam Black has been for some time past, and was at the time of
the taking the said acknowledgement, a Justice of the Peace for the said City
Sworn at the Public Office, Southampton Buildings,
Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, this
22nd day of August, One thousand eight hundred
thirty-eight, before me,

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the affidavit of the said Robert
Bent, the instrument aforesaid was inrolled word for word as above written.
And also the instrument aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the
Statute made in the fifty-fifth year of the reign of His late Majesty King
George the Third.