IMPROVEMENTS IN FURNACES FOR METALLURGICAL OPERATIONS, WHICH Iм- PRO MAY ALSO BE APPLIED TO STEAM BOILER AND OTHER
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Parkes, of Gravelly Hill, Erdington,
in the County of Warwick, Manufacturer, for the Invention of
'IMPROVEMENTS IN FURNACES FOR METALLURGICAL OPERATIONS, WHICH Iм-
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Parkes at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 6th March 1875.
I, ALEXANDER PARKES, of Gravelly Hill, Erdington, in the County.
of Warwick, Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN FURNACES FOR METALLURGICAL OPerations,
WHICH IMPROVEMENTS MAY ALSO BE APPLIED TO STEAM BOILER AND OTHER
FURNACES," to be as follows :—
My said Invention consists of the improvements in furnaces herein-
after described, which said improvements are especially applicable to
furnaces used in metallurgical operations, such for example as smelting

page_text: furnaces.
I will describe my Invention in its application to a furnace for
smelting copper. The chamber or generator into which the fuel is
charged, and in which gaseous fuel is produced, is provided with inclined
bars at bottom and with a covering at top, the said covering having in
it a series of short pipes of small diameter open to the atmosphere.
Through these pipes and the bars at bottom air is supplied to the
burning fuel, but in such quantity only as will suffice to maintain a low
combustion and give rise to the formation of a gascous fuel consisting
essentially of carbonic oxide. The rear side of the generator is inclined,
and the door through which the said generator is charged is at the top
and over the inclined rear side of the said generator. The gaseous fuel
produced passes from the generator at the side opposite to the inclined
rear side described. I prefer to employ two of the said generators sido
by side, their gaseous products passing over a bridge common to them
both into the reverberatory chamber. The bridge referred to is hollow
and constitutes a hot-air fluc, up which a current of hot air rises. This
hot air mixes with the gaseous fuel from the generators, thereby effecting
its combustion and producing an intense heat in the reverberatory
chamber. The walls of the generator are reticulated or honey-combed,
and the air passing up the hollow bridge is heated by passing through
the reticulations in the said walls.
In advance of the reverberatory chamber in which the smelting of
copper, the puddling of iron, or such other metallurgical process is con-
ducted as requires a reverberatory furnace, a second chamber is situated
and separated from the furnace by a bridge. The flame and heated air
from the reverberatory chamber pass into this second chamber, which
is sufficiently heated thereby for conducting the process called cementa-
tion or other metallurgical process requiring a less intense heat than
that of the first or smelting chamber. The flame and heated air passing
from the second or cementation chamber may pass to a Cornish or fluc
boiler or other boiler, and by being made to circulate in and about the
said boiler may be utilized for the production of steam.
In ondon to wonder the steam boiler indenendent of the metallurgical

page_text: described, which can be used for raising steam when the metallurgical
furnace is not at work.
The generator and hot air bridge may be applied to steam boiler and
other furnaces directly, that is, independently of a metallurgical
furnace.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Alexander Parkes in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 31st August 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXANDER
PARKES, of Gravelly Hill, Erdington, in the County of Warwick, Manu-
facturer, send grecting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Sixth day of March, in the year
of our Lord One thousand cight hundred and seventy-five, in the
thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Ier heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Alexander Parkes, Her special
license that I, the said Alexander Parkes, my executors, administra-
tors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Alexander Parkes, 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 FURNACES FOR METALLURGICAL OPERATIONS, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS MAY ALSO BE
APPLIED TO STEAM BOILER AND OTHER FURNACES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Alexander Parkes, my exccutors or adminis-
trators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of
their hands and scals, 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 Alexander Parkes, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the

page_text: same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
My said Invention consists of the improvements in furnaces herein-
after described, which said improvements are especially applicable to
furnaces used in metallurgical operations, such for example as muffles,
smelting, calcining, and puddling furnaces, but are also applicable to
steam boiler and other furnaces.
I will describe my Invention in its application to a furnace for
smelting copper. The chamber or generator into which the fuel is
charged, and in which the gaseous fuel is produced, is provided with
inclined bars at bottom, which may be tubular, and their inner ends
open into the hollow bridge or combustion chamber. Through the bars
at the bottom of the generator air is supplied to the burning fuel, but in
such quantity only as will suffice to maintain a low combustion and give
rise to the formation of a gaseous fuel, consisting essentially of carbonic
oxide. The rear side of the generator is inclined, and the door or hopper
through which the said generator is charged is at the top, and over the
inclined rear side of the said generator the gascous fuel produced passes
from the generator at the side opposite to the inclined rear side described.
I prefer to employ two or more of the said generators, side by side,
their gascous products passing over a bridge common to them both into
the reverberatory chamber. The bridge referred to is hollow and con-
stitutes a hot-air flue, up which a current of hot air rises. This hot air
mixes with the gaseous fuel from the generators, thereby effecting its
combustion and producing an intense heat in the reverberatory chamber.
The walls of the generator are reticulated or honeycombed, and the air
passing up the hollow bridge is heated by passing through the reticula-
tions in the said walls.
.
In advance of the reverberatory chamber in which the smelting of
copper, the puddling of iron, or such other metallurgical process is con-
ducted as requires a reverberatory furnace, a second chamber is situated
and separated from__ the furnace by a bridge. The flame and heated air
from the reverberatory chamber pass into this second chamber, which
is sufficiently heated thereby for conducting the process called cementa-
tion or other metallurgical process, such as the distillation of zinc
requiring a less intense heat than that of the first or smelting chamber.
The flame and heated air passing from the second or cementation

page_text: chamber may pass to a Cornish or flue boiler or other boiler, and by
being made to circulate in and about the said boiler may be utilized for
the production of steam.
In order to render the steam boiler independent of the metallurgical
furnace it may be provided with a small separate generator of the kind
described, which can be used for raising steam when the metallurgical
furnace is not at work.
The generator and hot-air reticulations and bridge may be applied to
steam boiler and other furnaces directly, that is, independently of a
metallurgical furnace.
Having explained the nature of my Invention I will proceed to describe
with reference to the accompanying Drawings the manner in which the
same is to be performed.
Figure 1 represents in end elevation, Figure 2 in horizontal section,
Figures 3, 4, and 5 transverse vertical sections, and Figures 6 and 7
|longitudinal vertical sections of a furnace to be applied to the smelting
of copper, the puddling or melting of iron or steel, and to other like
metallurgical operations, and also to the heating of steam boilers, the
said furnace being constructed according to my Invention. In the
Drawing the reverberatory or other chamber in connection with the
furnace is omitted. The section, Figure 3, is taken on the line I, I,
Figure 2; the section, Figure 4, is taken on the line B, B, Figures 2 and
6; and the section, Figure 5, is taken on the line E, E, Figure 2; tho
horizontal section, Figure 2, is taken on the line A, A, Figure 3; the
longitudinal vertical section, Figure 6, is taken on the line D, D,
Figure 3; and the longitudinal vertical section, Figure 7, is taken on
the line C, C, Figure 3. The same letters of reference indicate the same
parts in the several Figures of the Drawings.
The furnace represented is provided with two chambers or gas gene-
rators marked a, a, placed side by side, but one or more than two
generators may be employed for each furnace. Into the said genera-
tors a, a, the solid fuel is delivered in such quantity only as to fill half
the fuel space of the generator, and in the said generators the gaseous
fuel consisting mainly of carbonic oxide is produced. The fuel supplied
to the generators rests upon the inclined fire-bars bat the bottom thereof,
and fuel is supplied to the generators by the hoppers c, c, situated over

page_text: .
.
.
the arched tops of the said generators, or the fuel may be fed to tho
generators by a door at the rear side thereof in a manner similar to that
by which the fuel is fed to ordinary furnaces; d, d, are the ash-pits. A
limited quantity of air regulated by doors, slides, or dampers is supplied
from the ash-pits d; d, to the gas generators a, a, through the fire-
bars b, b, for maintaining in the generators a low combustion and the
production of gaseous fuel, as is well understood. The rear wall or side p
of each chamber or generator a is inclined, as seen in Figure 6. In the
said rear wall of-the-generators are sight holes e, e, through which the
state of the furnace may be ascertained.
'
The gaseous fuel from the generators a, a, passes over or through a
double or hollow bridge marked f, g, the space h between the double bridge
constituting a hot-air fluc, up which hot air rises, and mixing with the
gascous fuel causes its combustion. The wall f of the hot-air fluc or
combustion chamber is perforated with a series of rectangular openings
i, i, through which the gaseous fuel from the generators a, a, passes into
the hot-air fluc or combustion chamber h, the flame and heated air and
products of combustion from which chamber / pass by the perforations
at k in the other wall g into the passage 1, the mouth of which is con-
tracted, as represented, for the purpose of concentrating the heat. This
contracted passage is in communication with the reverberatory chamber
or furnace in which the copper to be smelted or the iron to be puddled
or heated is placed; or the said passage may communicate directly
with a steam boiler or other vessel to be heated. As the reverberatory
or other chamber constitutes no part of my Invention I have not repre-
sented the said chamber in connection with the furnace now being
described..
: By the combustion of the gaseous fuel in the hot-air flue or chamber h
an intense heat results, and the chamber in connection with the furnace
is highly heated.
The manner in which the air for effecting the combustion of the
gascous fuel in the hot-air flue or chamber is conveyed to the said
chamber and heated in its passage thereto is as follows:-The walls of
the generators a, a, are heated by the production of the gaseous fuel, and
these heated walls are made use of to heat the air for mixing with the

page_text: combed, and the rear wall p is also reticulated. These reticulations con-
stitute tortuous ascending channels, through which the air passes, and
is heated thereby. The hot-air channels in the side and middle
walls m, m, n, are marked q, and the shape of the said channels is best
seen in the longitudinal section, Figure 7. The channels or passages in
the rear wall p are marked r, r, and their shape is best seen in Figure 4.
Air from the ash-pits d, d, enters the ascending channels q, q, by the
horizontal passages 8, 8, opening into the ash-pits (sco Figures 3 and 6),
and similarly air enters the rear ascending channels by the horizontal
passages t, t, just above the firc-bars, as seen in Figure 6. The air
traversing the end passages », », enters by the passages & into the upper
part of the side passages q, q, and the air heated by its passage through
the reticulations q, q, ", r, enters the hot-air flue or combustion
chamber by perforations at v, v, w, in the walls of the said fluc or
chamber h. The heated air from the side passages q, q, enters the hot-
air flue at opposite ends and the heated air from the middle passages 9, 9,
enters the hot-air flue at the middle thereof, as best seen in the horizontal
section Figure 2. The direction of the currents of hot air passing
through the several ascending channels q, q, r, r, into the hot-air fluo
or combustion chamber is indicated by arrows; or when the firc-bars
of the combustion chamber are tubular their inner ends are made to
project into the combustion chamber h. The air passing through these
tubular bars is heated thereby, and enters the chamber h and mixes with
and effects the combustion of the gaseous fuel.
Instead of heating the air supplied to the hot-air fluc or combustion
chamber hair may pass directly from the outside of the generators a, a,
by the lateral passages x, x, Figure 5, into the said flue or combustion
chamber h.
Figure 8 represents in longitudinal vertical section a furnace con-
structed according to my Invention applied to a muffle; Figure 9 is a
transverse section of the same taken on the line J, J, Figure 8; and
Figure 10 is an elevation of the same taken at the muffle end.
The muffle marked y is in communication with the chimney by the
vertical flues y and horizontal flue y³. The furnace of the muffle,
Figures 8, 9, and 10, is constructed as herein-before described, and the
parts are marked with the same letters of reference.

page_text: In order to increase the heat of the air supplied to the hot-air flue or
combustion chamber when the furnace is used in connection with a
puddling chamber or other chamber where an intense heat is required,
each of the gas generators a, a, is provided with a double arch, the space
between the double arch forming a flue through which the air which has
been heated by passing through the end ascending channels "", "", is
conducted, and is thereby further heated before it enters the hot-air
fluch. A furnace with these additional air heating flues is represented
in longitudinal section in Figure 11, and transverse vertical sections in
Figures 12 and 13, the section Figure 12 being taken on the line G,
Figure 11, and the section Figure 13 being taken on the line H, Figure 11.
The arched flues between the closed tops of the generators a, a, and the
brickwork are marked 2, 2. These arched flues 2, 2, are in communication
with the channels or passages ", ", in the end walls of the generators by
the inclined passages 3, 3, and the said arched flues are in com-
munication with the hot-air fluc or combustion chamber / by the
perforations 4, 4, in the flue wall f.
Figure 14 represents in transverse section, and Figure 15 in longi-
tudinal section my improved furnace combined with a puddling or
heating chamber, and with a second or crucible chamber or cementation
chamber.
The parts of the generator and hot-air flue or combustion chamber
and passages for heating the air are the same as before described; 5 is
the puddling chamber into which the flame and heated air from the
furnace is conducted. In advance of the puddling chamber 5 and
separated therefrom by a bridge is a second chamber 6, in which melting
pots or crucibles may be heated, or other like operation performed by
the waste heat from the chamber 5. The heated air from the second.
chamber 6 escapes by the stack 7.
Figure 16 represents in horizontal section a compound furnace of the
kind last described, but the waste heat from the second chamber 6
instead of passing directly to the stack may be utilized by passing it to
the flue of a steam boiler for the purpose of heating the said boiler.
The flue by which the waste heat is conducted to the boiler is marked 8
in Figure 16. In front of the second chamber 6 a small separate
generator marked 10 of the kind before described is built. This

page_text: generator 10 may be used for raising steam in the boiler in connection
with the fluo 8 when the metallurgical furnace is not at work.
Figure 17 represents in horizontal section, and Figure 18 in vertical
transverse section a furnace constructed according to my Invention
applied directly to a steam boiler. The generator and parts thereof are
marked with the same letters as corresponding parts in the furnaces
before described. The flue into which the flame and hot air and products
of combustion from the hot-air flue or combustion chamber / pass is
marked 11. This flue 11 descends and opens into the tubular flue 12
of the Cornish boiler 13. Or the flue 11 in communication with tho
hot-air chamber may pass to boilers of other kinds for the purpose of
heating the said boilers.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that I do
not limit myself to the precise details herein described, as the same may
be varied without departing from the nature of my Invention; but I
claim as my Invention of improvements in furnaces for metallurgical
purposes for heating steam boilers and for other heating purposes,-
-
First. The arrangement or combination of the generator or generators
in which the gaseous fuel is formed, with the hot-air flue or combustion
chamber marked f, h, g, in which the air is mixed with the gaseous fuel,
and the combustion of the gaseous fuel effected substantially as and for
the purposes described and illustrated in the accompanying Drawings.
Secondly. The combinations or arrangements of the reticulated flues
or channels in the walls of the generator or generators, for heating
the air to be mixed with the gascous fuel in the hot-air flue or com-
bustion chamber, substantially as and for the purpose described and
illustrated in the accompanying Drawings.
Thirdly. The combination with the flues in the walls of the generator
or generators of arched flues above the said generator or generators for
increasing the heat of the air supplied to the hot-air flue or combustion
chamber, substantially as herein-before described and illustrated in the
accompanying Drawings.
Lastly. The combination of the gas generator or generators and hot-
› air flue or combustion chamber, with two or more chambers and with a

page_text: steam boiler, substantially as and for the purposes herein-before described
and illustrated in the accompanying Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Parkes, have herc-
unto set my hand and scal, this Seventeenth day of August, in
the year of our Lord Ono thousand eight hundred and seventy-
five.
Witness,
GEORGE SHAW.
ALEXANDER PARKES. (L.S.)