IMPROVEMENTS IN CONNECTION WITH FURNACES FOR SMELTING IRON
Year: 1872

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LETTERS PATENT to William Ferrin, of the Monkland Iron Works,
Airdrie, in the County of Lanark, North Britain, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN CONNECTION WITH FURNACES FOR SMELTING IRON."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Ferric at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
17th August 1872.
I, WILLIAM FERRIE, of the Monkland Iron Works, Airdric, in the
County of Lanark, North Britain, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN CONNECTION WITH FURNACES FOR
SMELTING IRON," to be as follows, that is to say:-
This Invention relates to iron smelting furnaces of the kind termed
"self coking," such as those described in the Specifications of Letters
Patent dated 10 June 18CS (No. 1555), and of Letters Patent dated
21 December 1869 (No. 3099), and obtained by the present applicant;
and is applicable to any iron smelting furnaces wherein raw coal or
other carbonaceous matter is coked or partially coked, and the gaseous

page_text: bye products whereof are utilised in the furnace or for heating the blast
or otherwise.
The gascous byc products referred to contain condensable matters
and when they proceed along pipes, ducts, or passages to some little
distance from the furnace they become sufficiently cooled to deposit
such condensable matters which are of a tarry or olcaginous nature.
This deposition not only causes inconvenience by choking the passages,
but constitutes a direct waste or loss of heating power, and it is the
object of the present Invention to both remove or prevent the incon-
venience and utilise the materials.
The Invention consists in keeping the gascous bye products (commonly
termed "waste gasses") in a sufficiently heated state to prevent the
deposition of condensable vapors throughout the pipes, ducts, or passages
by which they are conveyed to the blast stoves, boilers, or other
apparatus where they are ignited and utilised; and the heat required
for this purpose is by preference obtained by burning portions of the
gascous bye products themselves in spaces, passages, or flues contiguous
to, but separated from those through which the gases pass. The waste
gases may also be kept heated for a certain distance by being passed
down flucs constructed in the walls of the furnace itself, and heated
from the interior of the furnace.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Ferric in the Great Scal Patent Office
on the 15th February 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
FERRIE, of the Monkland Iron Works, Airdric, in the County of Lanark,
North Britain, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of August, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the thirty-
sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said William Ferric, Her special licence that I,
the said William Ferric, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said William Ferrie, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to

page_text: 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 CONNECTION WITH FURNACES FOR
SMELTING IRON," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
William Ferric, my executors or administrators, 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 William Ferric, 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 accompanying
Drawings, that is to say :-
6.
My said Invention relates to iron smelting furnaces of the kind termed
self-coking" such as those described in the Specifications of Letters
Patent dated 10 June 1868 (No. 1888), and of Letters Patent dated
21 December 1869 (No. 3699), and obtained by me; and is also
applicable to any iron smelting furnace wherein raw coal or other
carbonaceous matter is coked or partially coked, and the gascous bye
products whereof are utilised in the furnace or for heating the blast or
otherwise. The gascous bye products referred to, and produced either
in my improved self-coking furnace or in other furnaces supplied or
partially supplied with raw coal contain condensable matters and when
they proceed along pipes, ducts, or passages to some little distance
from the furnace they ordinarily become sufficiently cooled to deposit
such condensable matters, which are of a tarry or oleaginous nature.
This deposition not only causes inconvenience by choking the passages,
but also constitutes a direct waste or loss of heating power; and it is
the object of my present Invention to both remove or prevent the
inconvenience and utilise the materials.
My Invention consists in keeping the gaseous byc products (commonly
termed "waste gases") in a sufficiently heated state to prevent the
deposition of condensable vapors throughout the pipes, ducts, or passages
by which they are conveyed to the blast stoves, boilers, or other
apparatus where they are ignited and utilised; and I prefer to obtain

page_text: the heat required for this purpose by burning portions of the gascous
bye products themselves in spaces, passages or flues contiguous to but
separated from those through which the gases pass.
And in order that my said Invention and the manner of performing
the samo may be properly understood I hereunto append a Sheet of
explanatory Drawings to be herein-after referred to, and representing by
way of example a simple and convenient arrangement of apparatus for
maintaining the heat of the gascous bye products for the purposes
herein-before described. In these Drawings the same referenco numerals
are used for marking the same or like parts wherever they are repeated.
Figure 1 is a side elevation of a portion of the ducts or pipes for
conveying gascous byc products from an iron smelting furnace to blast
heating stoves, boilers, or other apparatus. These ducts consist of
horizontal lengths 1, 2, 3, 4, between which vertical towers 5, 6, 7, arc
interposed, and the lengths are joined to the towers, not so as to continue
in one straight line, but so that the gaseous matters are slightly deviated
upwards or downwards out of a direct course when crossing each tower,
an arrangement which favors the deposition of dust in the lower parts
of the towers.
Figures 2 and 3 are a vertical section and a horizontal section of one
of the towers 6, and show the heating arrangements. The ducts and
towers are represented as made with external sheets of wrought iron
lined with fire-clay, but may be constructed in any other convenient
way. Four short horizontal cast-iron cylinders 8, lined with fire-clay,
are inserted through the sides of the tower, and have connected to them,
inside the tower, lengths 9 of cast-iron piping which project up through
the top of the tower. Each horizontal cylinder 8 is fitted with a branch
pipe 10, by which it receives a portion of the gascous bye products
from the interior of the tower, and each branch pipe 10 is provided with
a simple valve 11 for regulating or stopping the supply as required.
Holes 12 are formed in the outer ends of the cylinders 8 for the
admission of air, and the gas being ignited in the cylinder 8, the flames
or combustion products pass up the pipes 9, and through them impart
heat to the gases passing through or across the tower.
The gascous bye products may in some cases have sufficient heat
imparted to them for preventing condensation for a certain distance of
their course, by passing them at the outset down flues constructed in
the walls of the furnace itself, such flues being heated from the interior

page_text: of the furnace. The gaseous bye products may also be heated in other
ways, and separate fuel might be used for that purpose, but in general
there will be a sufficient quantity of the gases themselves to make it
the most economical plan to obtain the heat by burning portions of
themselves.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, 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 hercin-before in part recited Letters Patent is,
the heating of the gaseous bye products of iron smelting furnaces as
and for the purposes herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Ferric, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of February, in the year
of our Lord One thousand cight hundred and seventy-three.
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,
Glasgow.
WILLIAM FERRIE. (L.S.) .