IMPROVE- MENTS IN STEAM BOILER AND OTHER FURNACES, AND IN THE PREVENTION OF PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Andrew Robertson, of Neilston, in the County o
Renfrew, Bleacher, and Alexander Ritchie, of Glasgow, in the County
of Lanark, North Britain, Accountant, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN STEAM BOILER AND OTHER FURNACES, AND IN THE PREVENTION OF
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Andrew Robertson and
Alexander Ritchie at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 17th May 1860.
We, ANDREW ROBERTSON, of Neilston, in the County of Renfrew, Bleacher,
and ALEXANDER RITCHIE, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, Accountant,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
STEAM BOILER AND OTHER FURNACES, AND IN THE PREVENTION OF SMOKE," to be as
follows, that is to say :-
This Invention relates to improved means for preventing smoke, and for
increasing the calorific effect in furnaces of various kinds, and to improved
arrangements in connection with steam boilers for the better application
thereto of the heat evolved.
The Invention consists, in the first place, in systematically and constantly
admitting air from the ash-pit through and between the fire-bars, by preference
at their front ends, the extent of aperture being regulated, according to one
plan, by simply arranging the fuel so as to uncover the front ends of the fire

page_text: bars more or less. Special contrivances may be adopted in connection with
this plan, and to assist in carrying it out, but without such it is capable of
more or less complete application to almost all ordinary furnaces.
The second part of the Invention consists in admitting into the inside of
hollow furnace bars, or equivalent tubular passages, streams of water or
steam, which will escape from apertures of a regulated size immediately in
front of the fire or at other points, the intention being to effect the decom-
position of the water or steam, so that its component gases may contribute to
the effect of the fire.
According to the third part of the Invention, which refers to the application
to a steam boiler of the heat obtained in the furnace, the fire grate is situated
apart from the boiler, and the fire gases are admitted into the upper part of a
chamber or of spaces wherein the heat is to be applied to the boiler.
According to one modification the chamber constitutes a kind of oven,
surrounding the boiler up to within a few inches of the water line, and is made
of sufficient size, as compared with the outlet passage, for the fire gases, to
insure these gases being kept for a considerable time in contact with the boiler
surface, and to cause, as it were, an accumulation of heat in the chamber.
The outlet from the chamber for the fire gases is situated at the lowest part
of the chamber, and at the point most distant from the furnace, so that the
gases which issue at it shall be what have become partly cooled from having
communicated heat to the boiler. The boiler may be of various forms, and
the heating space or spaces may be wholly external, partly external and partly
internal, or wholly internal, and within the outer shell of the boiler, provided
the final outlet is arranged to take away the coolest or most exhausted portions
of the gases, and is of so small an area, as compared with the heating chamber
or spaces, as to insure the gases being in contact with the boiler surface a
considerable time as compared with what occurs with ordinary steam boiler
furnaces.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Andrew Robertson and Alexander Ritchie in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 17th November 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, ANDREW
ROBERTSON, of Neilston, in the County of Renfrew, Bleacher, and ALEXANDER
RITCHIE, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain, Accountant,
send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-third year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said Andrew Robertson and Alexander Ritchie, Her special licence that we,
the said Andrew Robertson and Alexander Ritchie, our executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Andrew Robertson and
Alexander Ritchie, our 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
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN STEAM BOILER AND OTHER FURNACES, AND IN THE PREVENTION OF SMOKE,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Andrew Robertson and
Alexander Ritchie, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under our, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Andrew Robertson and Alexander
Ritchie, do hereby declare the nature of our 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 and to the letters and figures marked
thereon, that is to say:-
Our said Invention relates to improved means for preventing smoke, and
for increasing the calorific effect in furnaces of various kinds, and to improved
arrangements in connection with steam boilers, for the better application
thereto of the heat evolved.
And in order that our said Invention may be properly understood and
carried into effect, we have hereunto appended a Sheet of explanatory
Drawings, to which we shall refer in particularly describing the application
of our improvements.
The present Invention has partly for object the combining of sundry
additional improvements, developments, or extended applications relating to
the obtainment and application of heat, with a certain system or proceedure
for proventing smoke, already protected by Letters Patent for Great Britain.

page_text: granted to Andrew Robertson, one of the present latentees, on or about the
11th May 1860 (No. 1166).
The said system, the application of which to ordinary furnaces is more fully
detailed in the Specification of the Letters Patent referred to, may here be
briefly stated to consist in admitting air from below through the front ends of
the fire bars kept uncovered to the requisite extent. In some cases a defining
bar A is used to limit or determine the amount of opening, as shown in
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawings, which is a longitudinal vertical
section of a steam boiler furnace, embodying a modification of our several
improvements.
Figure 2 is a longitudinal vertical section, showing another modification of
our improved arrangements, and Figure 3 is a transverse vertical section
through the boiler and external heating space or chamber corresponding to
both Figures 1 and 2. In other cases a separate grating or set of smaller
bars B is fitted in front and continuation of the main fire bars C, as shown in
Figure 2, the air passing through this grating B, which is provided with a
valve or slide D for regulating or adjusting the quantity admitted. In com-
bination with such admission of air, we, by the present Invention, admit into
the inside of hollow furnace bars, or equivalent tubular passages, streams of
water or steam, which will escape from apertures of a regulated size in front
or at other parts of the fire, the intention being to effect the decomposition of
the water or steam, so that its component gases may contribute to the effect
of the fire.
In Figure 2 of the accompanying. Drawings we show one convenient
modification of arrangements for practically carrying out this part of our
Invention. Instead of altering the ordinary fire bars C, we in this instance
introduce the water or steam into the bearers E thereof, made hollow for the
purpose. Between these hollow bearers E, and communicating with them, a
series of small tubes F are placed, so as to lie between the fire bars C, and it
is these tubes F which are perforated for the escape of the water or steam,
for the purpose herein-before pointed out.
According to another portion of the present Invention, which refers to the
application to a steam boiler of the heat obtained in the furnace, the fire
grate or chamber G, for combustion or the obtainment of heat, is situated
apart from the boiler II, in order that a too early taking up of heat by the
boiler may not check the thorough combustion or heat-yielding combination of
the matters in the furnace, that is to say, of the constituents of the fuel, water,
and air. This system may be practically carried out according to its simplest

page_text: modification by means of the arrangements shown in Figure 1 of the accom-
panying Drawings. Here the evolution and combustion chamber G is sepa-
rated from what may be termed the application chamber I, by a bridge or
partition J, and the fire gases are admitted into the application chamber I
by an opening K, by preference at the upper part of the partition. The
chamber I constitutes a kind of oven surrounding the boiler H up to within
a few inches of the water line. In this instance the boiler EI is a plain
cylindrical one, with hemispherical ends built into its place, and supported by
stools La short distance above the bottom of the chamber I. This chamber I
is made of a large size as compared with the inlet K and outlet M, for the
fire gases, to insure these being kept for a considerable time in contact with.
the boiler surface, and to cause, as it were, an accumulation of heat in the
chamber. The outlet M for the fire gases is situated at the lowest part of
the chamber I, and at the point most distant from the inlet K from the:
furnace or evolution and combustion chamber G, so that the gases which
issue at this outlet shall be what have become partly cooled from having
communicated heat to the boiler. The boiler may be of various forms, and
the space or spaces for the application thereto of the heat may be either
external or internal, or both, provided the heat is obtained in a furnace or
chamber apart, and provided the outlet is arranged distinct from the inlet,
and so as to take away the coolest or most exhausted portions of the gases,
and is of so small an area, as compared with the heating or application chamber
or spaces, as to insure the gases being in contact with the boiler surface a
considerable time, as compared with what occurs with ordinary steam boiler
furnaces. To further insure the thorough development of heat obtainable
from the combustible gases prior to its application to the boiler, we in some
cases employ a separate evolution chamber G', with a combustion chamber G³,
as shown in Figure 2, instead of the single furnace G (Figure 1). The
chambers G', G, are separated by a partition or bridge N, the upper parts
of which consists of bricks arranged with numerous interstices for the passage
across of the gases in separate streams, so as to induce a thorough comingling
in the combustion chamber G. With this arrangement the gases evolved in
or introduced into the chamber G', and only partially ignited therein, will in
the chamber G³ become more completely ignited, and the combustion in this
second chamber may be assisted and the calorific effect further increased by
the admission into it of steam, and in some cases air also. In Figure 2 the
ash-pit O is shown closed, provision being made for introducing the air by a
passage P, opening just beneath the inner end of the fire bars C, in con-
sequence of which the air entering at B will take up and utilise heat radiated

page_text: into the ash-pit O. The air entering by the passage P may also be otherwise
heated, and it may be forced in by a fan or otherwise. For the purpose of
supplying air, if found advantageous, to the gases in the combustion chamber
G³, the air passage P is formed with a branch Q, communicating with that
chamber by a perforated tile, which causes it to enter in numerous small
streams, and at the same part a branch water or steam pipe R is also intro-
duced. Valves may, of course, be applied to regulate the quantity of air,
water, or steam thus admitted. Finally, in case the gases should not be
completely ignited on leaving the combustion chamber G³, a pipe S is provided
for introducing a small regulated quantity of air into the front end of the
application chamber I.
Having thus particularly described our said Invention, and the manner in
which the same is or may be used or carried into effect, we have to state
that we do not restrict ourselves to the precise details herein described or
delineated, but that what we consider to be novel and original, and claim as
the Invention secured to us by the bercin-before in part recited Letters
Patent, is, generally the combined system of obtaining and applying heat and
preventing smoke in connection with steam boiler and other furnaces, sub-
stantially as herein-before described, and the employing, in connection with
steam boilers, of external or internal heat-application spaces or chambers
distinct from the heat-obtainment furnace chamber or chambers, and with an
outlet situated so as to take away the coolest or most exhausted portions of
the fire gases, substantially as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, we, the said Andrew Robertson and Alexander
Ritchie, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Fifteenth day
of November, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and sixty.
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT, Patent Agent,
28, St. Enoch Square,
Glasgow.
ANDREW ROBERTSON. (L.s.)
ALEX. RITCHIE.
(L.S.)