IMPROVEMENTS IN ENGINE BOILER FURNACES AND OTHER FURNACES.
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Simon O'Regan, of Liverpool, in the County Palatine
of Lancaster, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN ENGINE
BOILER FURNACES AND OTHER FURNACES.
Sealed the 22nd September 1854, and dated the 6th April 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Simon O'Regan at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
6th April 1854.
I, SIMON O'REGAN, of Liverpool, in the County Palatine of Lancaster,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN ENGINE BOILER FURNACES AND OTHER FURNACES" to be as follows:-
My said Invention relates to peculiar mechanical arrangements for ad-
mitting air to furnaces in a divided and regulated form, in the shape and
arrangement of fire bars, and in constructing the brickwork and other materials
suitably for my improved apparatus.
My furnace improvements are capable of being used wholly or in part; I
will therefore describe the entire arrangements together. I first construct two.
chambers behind the bridge, each the full width of the ash-pit or thereabouts,
and not rising higher than the flame bed, or about the level of the grate, on
the opposite side of the bridge. I then enclose, from the top of the bridge
backwards to the top of the chamber partition, with a perforated plate at any

page_text: convenient angle, and the top of the farthest chamber I cover with a perforated
horizontal iron plate, having pivots on each end, supplied with joggles and iron
rods. In the lower part of the fire bridge, opening to the ash pit, is an oblong
air valve, admitting air to the first chamber, and in the partition wall of the
chambers is another oblong opening, admitting air to the back or second
chamber. I also provide that the dead plate in front of the furnace shall
have a number of narrow slots, likewise a clinker plate at the end next the
bridge, which I slide backwards and forwards by suitable iron rods; I have also
longitudinal slots along the top of the fire bridge. The furnace door I construct
with a channel or casing, admitting air to it from the outside by a long slot,
and discharging it through a similar slot on the inside at the top of the door
casing, thus heating the air and cooling the door.
I construct my fire bars waved at top longitudinally, and with a centre
groove or channel and joggle, the bars by a spiral or series of spirals, and a
cross bar operated by a handle moving each bar from side to side, or up and
down, as required.
Sometimes it may be necessary to omit the farthest or second air chamber
for want of convenience; but the principle of my Invention is applicable for
furnaces applied to other uses than for heating steam engine boilers..
I would observe, that the novelty of my Invention consists in the combination
of the parts described for effecting the more perfect combustion of coal in
furnaces for manufacturing and other purposes without the production of
smoke, & I do not limit myself to the precise number, situation, or dimensions
of the several parts, as these may be varied without deviating from the principle
of my improvements.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Simon O'Regan in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
6th October 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SIMON
O'REGAN, of Liverpool, in the County Palatine of Lancaster, Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the seventeenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Simon O'Regan, Her special licence that I, the said Simon O'Regan,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said

page_text: Simon O'Regan, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ire-
land, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN ENGINE BOILER FURNACES AND OTHER FURNACES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Simon O'Regan, by an instrument in writing under my
hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of tho
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 Simon O'Regan, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
My said Invention relates to peculiar mechanical arrangements for admitting
air to furnaces in a divided and regulated form, in the shape of the fire bars,
and in constructing the brickwork and other materials suitably for my improved
apparatus.
My furnace improvements are capable of being used wholly or in part; 1
will therefore describe the entire arrangement together. I first construct one
or more chambers behind a hollow furnace bridge, each chamber being the
full width of the ash-pit, or thereabouts, and not rising higher than the flame
bed, or to about the level of the grate, which is on the opposite side of the
bridge. I then enclose from the top of the brick bridge downwards and
backwards to the top of the chamber partition with a perforated plate, placed
at any convenient angle, thus forming a hollow bridge; and the top of
the next chamber I cover with a perforated horizontal iron plate, having
pivots on each end, supplied with joggles and suitable iron rods to move
or joggle the same. In the lower part of the usual fire bridge, on the side
facing or opening to the ash-pit, is an oblong air valve, admitting air to the
hollow bridge and air chambers when opened by the valve rod, and in the
partition wall of the chambers is another oblong opening for admitting air to
the back chambers. The dead plate in front of the furnace is perforated with
holes or slots, as is also the clinker plate or slide at the end of the grate,
placed a little below the level of the fire bars next the brick facing of my
chambered or hollow bridge; this clinker plate is arranged to slide backwards
and forwards by means of suitable iron rods. The bridge is an iron casing,
faced in front with brickwork, and perforated at back with small holes and

page_text: slots, for the escape of the air admitted by an air value below opening to the
ash-pit; and I sometimes fix on the top of the iron air casing of the bridge a
valve with slots or holes therein, the valve having gudgeons on each end, fitted
in bearings, and with suitable regulating rods and handles; and to answer the
peculiar construction of boilers, the top of chambered or hollow bridge is
sometimes open.
My furnace doors I construct with a channel or casing at the back, admitting
air to such casing or box through a long horizontal slot or slots at front of the
door near the bottom, which is discharged on the inside through similar slots,
ports, and smaller holes, near the top part of the door casing, thus heating the
air and cooling the door.
My improved fire bars I make either flat or grooved, and waved at the top-
surface longitudinally, and place them so that a waved surface bar shall
alternate with a flat or grooved bar. These fire bars are joggled by means of
a joggle shaft placed underneath near the dead plate, operated by a handle,
thereby moving each bar from side to side or up and down, in any way required,
by the aid of a worm cast on the bracket that receives the end of the joggle
shaft, fixed in a pedestal, having a recess in the opposite end of the joggle
shaft, and the handle giving motion thereto moves the grooved or flat fire
bars transversely, while moving the waved bars longitudinally fore and aft.
The fire bars are thus moved on fixed bearers, one at each end, underneath
the grate, the back bearer likewise carrying the perforated slide or clinker
plate.
Sometimes it may be necessary to omit the farthest or second air chamber
for want of convenient space. The principle of my Invention is applicable to
furnaces generally; and when adopted for domestic stoves or grates, a casing
or air chamber is to be made behind and at the sides of the grate, with suitable
valves or registers wherever most convenient for admitting air. The back plate
in the grate is perforated, and the upper part of the casing over which the
gases and flame pass to the chimney. When thus applied, the top of the
grate may have a hinged metal hood to rise and fall, to aid the draught and
.carry the gases over the back air chamber, or may be removed when not
required. I would here observe, that in casting furnace fire bars I recommend
their being cast face downwards, so that about one inch of their depth may be
cast on a suitable iron chill plate, thereby rendering the top of such fire bars
considerably harder than bars cast wholly in sand.
The novelty of my said Invention consists in the combination of the parts
described for effecting the more perfect combustion of coal in furnaces for
manufacturing and other purposes without the production of smoke; and I do

page_text: not limit myself to the precise number, situation, or dimensions of the several
parts, as these may be varied without deviating from the principle of my
improvements; and I do declare that what I claim as my Invention is,
namely,
The peculiar construction of furnaces or fire-places, and apparatus connected
therewith, for effecting the more perfect combustion of coal and the prevention
of smoke, as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Simon O'Regan, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord
1854.
SIMON O'REGAN,
(L.S.)