IMPROVEMENTS IN OVENS AND FURNACES
Year: 1848

page_text: DEELEY'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
DEELEY, of Newport, in the County of Monmouth, Engineer and Iron Founder,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Sixteenth day of
December, One thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, in the twelfth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Joseph Deeley, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, Her especial licence, full.
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Joseph Deeley, my exors,
adiñors, and assigns, and such others as I, the said Joseph Deeley, my exors,
adñiors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to
time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the
Town of Berwick upon Tweed, in the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney,
Sark, and Man, and also in all Her said Majesty's Colonies and Plantations
abroad, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN OVENS AND FURNACES;" in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said Joseph Deeley, should
cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, by an instru-
ment in writing under my hand and seal, to be enrolled in Her Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference
being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Joseph Deeley, do hereby declare that the-nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, are fully described and ascertained in
and by the present Specification thereof, reference being had to the Drawings
hereunto annexed, that is to say:--
My said Invention has reference to the ovens and furnaces employed in the
smelting of iron ore and in the melting of iron, and has for its object to dis-
pense with the use of blowing machines and to facilitate and reduce the cost of
the said operations. And the manner by which the same is performed is
shewn in the said Drawings hereunto aunexed and in the following description
thereof
Figure 1 is a longitudinal section of a furnace for smelting iron ore, con-
structed according to my Invention; Figure 2, a vertical section on the line a, b,
(looking from the back of the furnace); Figure 3, a front elevation exclusive of
the chimney, and with the doors of the air. passages E, E, afterwards mentioned
removed;
and Figure 4, a top plan of the part from c to d. A, F, is the
furnace proper or part appropriated to the fuel and iron ore. It consists interiorly
of but one open space from top to bottom, but may be considered, with reference
to the series of lateral air passages E, E, and the longitudinal smoke and vapour
passages B, B, which two sets of passages are exactly opposite to one another,
as divided transversely into five stories or compartments of gradually diminishing
elevation from the bottom upwards, as indicated by the dotted lines 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
Both sets of passages (E, E, and B, B,) have doors or dampers attached to
them, (with the exception of the lowest of the series E, which is always left
open,) and each damper is provided with a weighted chain passing over a pulley,
by means of which it may be closed or opened at pleasure to any extent required.
(One series only of these chains and pulleys is shewn in the Drawings, namely,
those attached to the doors of B, B, and which are marked D, D.) G is the
feed mouth, which is made of larger diameter at top than at bottom in order to
encrease the gravitating tendency of the materials towards the interior of the
furnace (A,F). H is a barrel hopper, which is enclosed within two semicircular
guards or casings I, and covers lengthwise the top of the feed mouth G, so as
to leave as little room as may be for the entrance of air between them. This
hopper is suspended from two end axes or pivots f. f, (see Figure 4,) on which
it is free to turn; and it is made of such a form in its cross section that the
space above the axial line is of larger contents than that below it. On the side,
which by this arrangement of the axial line must always be thrown uppermost
when the hopper is empty, it is left open, and through this open side the fuel
and ore are dropped in. As soon as the hopper is filled or the quantity of materials

page_text: in the upper portion preponderates over that in the lower, the hopper turns over
of its own gravity, and empties itself into the feed mouth G, whereupon the
hopper immediately returns to its original position and is ready to receive
another charge. The hearth or bottom of the furnace part (A, F,) is provided
with a dam-fall and tapping hole K, in the same way as the common blast
furnace for drawing off the clear metal.
From the preceding description, it will be seen that by means of the front
air holes E, E, and the smoke and vapour passages (B, B,) at the back, and the
provision made for opening and closing these passages, all or any of them, and
to any extent desired, the heat may be regulated to any degree of intensity and
for any length of time requisite, not only within the entire furnace, but at any
particular division or compartment of it. For example, supposing the furnace
part to be fully charged, and that it is required, in the first instance, to diffuse
a considerable degree of heat throughout the entire mass, all the front air
passages E, E, are thrown wide open, while the lowest of the doors or dampers
of the smoke and vapor passages D, D, is quite closed, and each of those above
it is only partially opened. But afterwards, in order to encrease the intensity
of the heat towards the bottom where the ultimate fusion of the metal takes
place, the upper doors D, D, are successively closed or nearly so, and the
underinost one D, which was previously quite closed, is thrown wide open.
The smoke and vapours escape from the passages B, B, through the
valves D, D, and are conducted by a curved descending passage L, L, into the
upright chimney C. Figure 5 is an external side or end elevation of a pair of
furnaces for melting iron for foundry purposes; Figure 6, a transverse sectional
elevation of it on the line a, b, of Figure 5; and Figure 7, a plan on the line c, d,
of Figure 6.
A, A, are the two furnaces, one on each side of the common chimney C.
The furnaces are precisely alike, so that a description of one will suffice for both.
F is an upright hearth of about four feet in height, three feet in width, and
four feet in depth from front to back. On this hearth the fuel is laid. B, B,
are air passages which are made in the sides of the hearth and provided with
one-way taps or cocks c¹, c¹, by which they may be opened or closed as required.
D is an aperture at the bottom, which is stopped with sand or clay; and E, a
tapping hole formed therein, through which the hearth is cleared, in the same
way as the ordinary cupola furnace. G is an inclined plane or ledge on which
the iron to be melted is laid, and over which the heated vapours ascending from
the hearth pass in their way to the chimney. H is an arch which subtends in
its space both the. hearth F and the inclined plane G, and forms the space
between G and H into a sort of oven for heating the metal. The fuel and

page_text: metal are supplied from a mouth pièce (L) and barrel hopper (M), of the same
description precisely as those employed-in-the furnace first herein-before de-
scribed, that is to say, cach charge of the hopper L consists partly of coke or
other fuel, which is placed at the end which comes immediately over the hearth,
and partly of metal, which is placed at the other end, which comes immediately
over the inclined plane or ledge G. M³ is a door through which the metal, as
it becomes heated upon the ledge G, is pushed over, by a rake or other suitable
tool, into the midst of the burning fuel on the hearth. N is a roadway under
the chimney, by which access is obtained to the doors M', M', on either side.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that the improvements which I
claim as constituting my said Invention are as follows:-
First, I claim the construction of iron ore smelting furnaces with air and
smoke and vapour passages placed and arranged, and provided with doors.
(except as before excepted) for closing or opening the same, each independently
of the other, and with air-tight or nearly tight supply hoppers, all as before
described, but without confining myself to the number of air and smoke and
vapour passages represented in the Drawings, or to the precise cross sectional
forms given to these passages.
Second, I claim the construction of iron melting furnaces of the oven-like
form before described; that is to say, in so far as regards the construction of
the parts F, G, H, and M, in the manner shewn.
Third, I claim the application of the said oven-like form of construction to
all ovens and furnaces to which the same may be applied.
And, fourth, I claim the employment in ovens and furnaces of barrel hoppers
constructed, applied, and worked in the manner herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Deeley, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Fifteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and forty-nine.
JOSEPH (L.S.) DEELEY.
Enrolled the Sixteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-nine.