CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN FURNACES AND FIRE-PLACES
Year: 1848

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
ADCOCK, of Moorgate Street, in the City of London, Civil Engineer, 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 Third day of June, One
thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, in the eleventh year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Henry
Adcock, my exors, adññiors, and assigns, Her especial licence, full power, sole
privilege and authority, that I, the said Henry Adcock, my exors, adñiors, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Henry Adcock, my exors, admors, 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, and in the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man,
and in all Her said Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention
of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN FURNACES AND FIRE-PLACES;" in which Letters
Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said Henry Adcock, shall cause a
particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and

page_text: seal, to be inrolled in Her said 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Henry Adcock, 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.
The nature of my said Invention consists, firstly, in preventing as much as
possible the access of cold air to the furnaces and fire-places.
Secondly, the maintaining a reservoir of heat in such furnaces and fire-
places.
And, thirdly, in adapting a conical shaped damper to the flues of chimnies to
prevent the usual rapid evolution of heat.
In furnaces and fire-places as usually constructed, there are a series of fire
bars on which the coal is laid, and there is generally a considerable space from
such coal to the upper part of the furnace, so that a stream of cold air entering
through the fire doors is constantly flowing into the furnace, and by commixing
with the heat reduces the temperature. The interstices of the fire bars also,
when not properly covered with fuel, admit cold atmospheric air into the
furnace to a similar prejudicial extent. The quantity of heat thus abstracted
from a furnace, and carried off through the flue of a chimney, is enormously
great. In a flue of a steam engine boiler chimney 4 feet square the area is
20 feet, and taking the draught at 12 feet per second, the quantity of heated
air thus evolved is 243 cubic feet per second, or 14,580 cubic feet per minute,
874,800 cubic feet per hour. And it is not unusual to see flame escape from
the top of chimnies, both stationary and belonging to steam boats.. Now I
propose to have no fire bars, but to put the coal or coke as fuel into a hopper
to ignite the same, and to keep, the upper part of that hopper well supplied
with what is usually called "green coal," that is, coal in an unignited state.
By such arrangement the atmospheric air can only get into the furnace by
passing through the interstices of the " green coal," and thence through the
heated mass, and the rapidity of its passage will be, regulated by the conical
damper aforesaid. Furnaces of somewhat similar construction as regards the
downward draught of the air have been used before; but in consequence, of
their not having a proper regulating damper the heat has been so intense as
rapidly to destroy the furnace and steam engine boilers exposed to its action.

page_text: And further, with a view to the economisation of fuel, I purpose, in all kinds of
reverberatory and air furnaces, to have a double crown or arch to the top of
the furnace, with a stratum of air confined between them, by which means
much of the heat which is now evolved from the top of the furnace will
be economized, and the furnace most probably will be of longer duration.
In furnaces of glass works I propose to take the heat and flame from a
hopper, as aforesaid, on to the top of the pots or crucibles which hold the glass
to be melted, thence to conduct such heat and flame and heated air through
longitudinal apertures on both sides of such pots and erucibles into flues below
the furnace, and thence into a chimney having a regulating damper, as before
described.
My Invention therefore consists, first, in preventing the ingress of cold air
into the body of a furnace.
Second, in maintaining by means of a conical or other correspondingly
shaped damper a reservoir of heat.
And third, in preventing by means of a double arched top a wasteful evolu-
tion of heat into the atmosphere.
In the Drawings hereunto annexed I have given several exemplifications of
furnaces and fire-places constructed on these principles. Figure 1 is a longi-
tudinal section; and Figure 2 is a plan of a reverberatory furnace embodying
these improvements. Figure 3 is a longitudinal section of an air furnace; and
Figure 4 is a plan of the same. Figure 5 is a longitudinal section of another
kind of air furnace; and Figure 6, a plan of the same. Figure 7 is a
longitudinal section of a heating or melting furnace; and Figure 8, a plan of
the same. The draught from the furnace towards the chimney is in this case
divided into two portions, as shown by the arrows, one of which passes direct
into the chimney, and the other goes to that end of the furnace farthest from
the chimney, whence it descends into a flue below the level of the bottom of the
furnace, and passes thence into the chimney. Figure 9 is a longitudinal
section of another kind of heating or melting furnace. Figure 10 is a plan of
the same; and Figure 11, an end section on the lines y, .
The peculiarity
of this furnace consists in the interior being of a parallelogrammic form, and
on the draught descending by three apertures a, b, c, into a flue, and passing
thence in a divided state to the chimney, as in the apparatus represented in
Figures 7 and 8. Figure 12 is a longitudinal section; Figure 13, a plan;
and Figure 14, an end section of another heating or melting furnace. The
difference between this furnace and that last described consists in having a
flue descending from the bridge nearest to the hopper under the bottom or

page_text: heating part of the furnace towards an under flue d, e, f, which leads, as before
described, to the chimney. By this arrangement the draught from the hopper
is divided into two portions, one of which passes along the reverberatory arch to
the chimney, and the other through the hollow bridge under the heating part
of the furnace, and thence to the chimney. Figure 15 is a longitudinal sec-
tion of a locomotive steam engine. The improvement here consists in dividing
the fire-box transversely from the top to near the bottom by a hollow metallic
partition (P) or hopper filled with water, by means of which a downward draft
is produced, and coal may be used in the engine without evolving smoke.
Figure 16 is a longitudinal section of a steam-engine boiler, of a waggon shape;
and Figure 17, a longitudinal section in part of a steam-engine boiler of a
cylindrical form.
In each of the preceding set of Drawings, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, represents
the hopper, and H the portion of the crown which dips into the hopper at the
top, and divides it into two compartments. In Figure 18, which is a view of a
chimney adapted to general purposes, I have shewn the conical damper proper
to be used in all the sets of apparatuses before described. It is to be raised or
lowered according to the intensity of heat required in the furnace. Figure 19
is a view of a domestic fire-place in which the usual aperture to the chimney
is closed, and an opening made at the lower part of the grate into the
chimney. The green coal is put on the top of the grate in the usual manner,
and the downward draught passing through the ignited coal causes the smoke
and carbonaceous matters usually evolved through the chimney to be con-
sumed. The surplus heat not required for domestic purposes is such that it
will heat the whole of the upper rooms of a house of any ordinary dimensions.
One plan of distributing this surplus heat is represented in the Drawing. I
have not in any of the preceding exemplifications represented the double
crown or archi, as the additions necessary to be made for that purpose can be
readily understood by any competent workman. I need only observe, that I
prefer in all cases leaving an air space from four to six inches between the top
of the furnace and the additional crown.
And having now described the nature of the 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 constructing of furnaces and fire-places with a feed
hopper divided for a short way from the top into two compartments, through
the outer of which alone the atmospheric air necessary to combustion can
obtain access, and in the conical or correspondingly shaped damper, by which a

page_text: too rapid draft through the chimney is prevented, and a constant reservoir of
heat is maintained in the interior, all as exemplified in the Drawings hereunto
annexed and before described.
Second, I claim the employment in furnaces and fire-places of a double
crown or arch with a stratum of air confined between them, as before
described.
And, third, I claim the dividing of the fire-box in locomotive steam engines
transversely into two parts by a hollow metallic partition or hopper filled with
water, as before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Adcock, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Second day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-eight.
HENRY (L.S.) ADCOCK.
Enrolled the Second day of December, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-eight.