Improvements in and connected with the Method of and in Apparatus for Drying Peat, Manure, and similar matters.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 4th Apr., 1892
Complete Specification Left, 11th Nov., 1892-Accepted, 17th Dec., 1892
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in and connected with the Method of and in Apparatus
for Drying Peat, Manure, and similar matters.
We WILLIAM BOWLER of Alton House, Hamilton Road, Manchester, in the
County of Lancaster, Dairyman, and JOHN BRADBURY of 72 Stockton Street,
Moss Side, Manchester, aforesaid, Chemical Engineer, do hereby declare the
nature of this invention to be as follows:-
or
An invention for which Letters Patent number 2168 of the year 1891 have
been granted to one of us that is to say to the said William Bowler had for its
object to utilise excreta or certain towns refuse in the preparation of manure
fertilising compounds. In carrying out the said former invention I added peat
dust or dry disintegrated peat treated with acid to excreta.
The object of our invention is principally to provide means whereby the peat
may be dried and also whereby the fertilising preparation may when desirable be
dried so as to render it more suitable for being conveyed a distance from the
manufactory. After the peat has been disintegrated we feed it into a drying
stove which is formed with metal floors which can be heated. The peat is kept in
motion upon the said floors by means of travelling rakes or scrapers which are
attached to endless travelling chains. On reaching the delivery end of an upper
floor the peat falls upon a lower floor and from the delivery end of the lowest floor
the peat passes through a shute or discharge valve or opening. The peat may be
both passed into and out of the stove by means of revolving valves. The floors
may be hollow and be heated by the products of combustion from a furnace or by
hot air or may be heated by passing hot air or gases below the floor or both below
and above. We propose to build the stove in connection with a destructor furnace
and to utilise the heat generated to dry the peat. We pass the gases and products.
of combustion from the destructor through flues and passages which heat the walls
of air heating flues and it may be through flues which will heat the floors or walls
Air drawn or forced through the air
or portions of the walls of the drying stove.
The air may be drawn through
heating passages flows into and through the stove.
the stove and passages by means of an exhauster or of a chimney draught as for
example by the draught created by the destructor and we may pass the air from
the stove into the destructor furnace especially when drying manure or offensive
matters. We may heat the air by means of re-generative chambers or of pipes
heated by the destructor furnace. Two or more sets of drying floors inay be
combined with one destructor or with two or more destructors. We may use any
other suitable heating furnace. After the peat and excreta have been mixed we
5 may dry the mixture as in the case of the peat or we may use the apparatus in the
drying of other matter or substances and in the preparation of manure from blood
and peat.
Dated this 2nd day of Arru 1892.
1892.
E. K. DUTTON & CO.,
5, John Dalton Street, Manchester, Agents.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in and connected with the Method of and in Apparatus
for Drying Peat, Manure, and similar matters.
We WILLIAM BOWLER of Alton House, Hamilton Road, Manchester, in the
County of Lancaster, Dairyman, and JOHN BRADBURY 72 Stockton Street,
Moss Side, Manchester, aforesaid, Chemical Engineer, do hereby declare the
nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement and
accompanying drawings :-
An invention for which Letters Patent number 2168 of the year 1891 have been
granted to one of us that is to say to the said William Bowler had for its object
to utilise excreta or certain towns refuse in the preparation of manure or fertilising
compounds. In carrying out the said former invention peat dust or dry disinte-
grated peat treated with acid was added to excreta.
The object of our invention is principally to provide means whereby the peat
may be dried and also whereby the fertilising preparation may when desirable be
dried so as to render it more suitable for being conveyed a distance from the manu-
factory. After the peat has been disintegrated we feed it into a drying stove
which is formed with metal floors which can be heated. The peat is kept in
motion upon the said floors by means of travelling rakes or scrapers which are
attached to endless travelling chains. On reaching the delivery end of an upper
floor the peat falls upon a lower floor and from the delivery end of the lowest floor
the peat passes through a shute or discharge valve or opening. The peat may be
both passed into and out of the stove by means of revolving valves. The floors
may be hollow and be heated by the products of combustion from a furnace or by
hot air or may be heated by passing hot air or gases below the floors or both below
and above. After the peat and excreta have been mixed we may dry the mixture
as in the case of the peat or we may use the apparatus in the drying of other
matter or substances and in the preparation of manure from blood and peat.
To render our invention thoroughly understood we will now proceed more
particularly to describe the same with reference to the accompanying two sheets of
drawings and to the letters and figures marked thereon.
Fig. 1, Sheet 1 is a vertical section at the line A. B. Fig. 3 Sheet 2, of our
improved drying stove showing the drying floors, scrapers and air and smoke ports
and flues.
Fig. 2 is a vertical section at the line C. D. Fig. 4 Sheet 2.
Fig. 3, Sheet 2 is a vertical section at the line E F Fig. 4.
Fig. 4 is a horizontal section showing the general plan of the apparatus.
The stove proper consists of a brick casing a provided with removable doors or
covers a through which access is had to the interior. The drying floors consist of
cast metal or other plates b supported on cross bearers b'. At each end of the
floors we arrange revolving chain wheels c carrying pitch chains d to which we
attach scrapers e which rest upon the floor plates b.
In the example illustrated there are four floors one above another and these
floors are so arranged that the matter scraped along the floor falls through an
aperture at the end of each floor upon the floor beneath, over which it is conveyed
by the next set of scrapers and so on from floor to floor until it reaches the last
floor of all from which it is delivered to a shute leading to a revolving valve g by
which it is discharged. The valve g discharges the matter without permitting
access of cold air. The peat or compound to be dried is fed to the first floor
through the hopper h and valve i. The floors may be heated in different ways
but the arrangement shown in the drawings will be found to answer excellently.
For example referring to Fig. 4 k is the heating furnace the smoke and products
of combustion of which pass through the port and down through the chequer

page_text: brickwork m to the foot of the chamber n. The heated products then pass into the
chamber o and through the flues p on each side of the air warming passages t
as plainly appears in Fig. 3. The smoke and heated products are then diverted
into the flues beneath the drying chambers and thence to the smoke stack or
other exit. The course of the smoke and heated products can be easily traced
by following the arrows on the drawings. To assist the drying of the matter
on the floors we cause currents of heated air to pass over the drying floors and
over the material being treated. The air is admitted through any suitable
opening to the passages. It then flows along the passage t into the chamber
and from the chamber u is directed through the ports to the nearest drying floors
and through the passage w to the floors furthest off. The hot air circulates
beneath and over the respective drying floors as shown by the arrows carrying off
moisture and effluvia, the different currents of air becoming re-united in the
chamber from which it may either be discharged into the atmosphere or if desired
through a side port into the furnace as indicated by the dotted arrow marked y.
Fig. 3. The air currents might be created in any suitable manner by air forcing
or drawing apparatus or by natural draft. The furnace might be the furnace of
a destructor or it might be a furnace specially provided to heat the air and the
drying stove. In fact although we have shown a useful and practicable mode of
creating and circulating heat as an adjunct to our drying stove it will be evident to
practical men that the indicated arrangement might be greatly varied without
departing from the spirit of our invention.
The material treated in the stove might be either the peat for mixing with the
excreta in accordance with Mr. Bowler's Patent already referred to or it might be
the said mixture of peat and excreta or other matter or material.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what we
claim is :-
-
1. The general arrangement construction and combination of parts comprising
our improved apparatus for drying peat, manure and similar matter and compounds
substantially as described and shown.
2. The improved apparatus for drying peat, manure and other similar matters
and compounds the said apparatus cousisting of an arrangement of drying floors
traversed by scrapers carried on endless chains the material being fed to and
discharged from the floors by hoppers and revolving valves and subjected to the
action of drying currents of heated air while it is being traversed over the floors
substantially as described and shown.
Dated this 10th day of November 1892.
E. K. DUTTON & Co.,
5, John Dalton Street, Manchester, Agents.