A NEW METHOD OF APPLYING SUCTION AND BLAST, AND THE APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Archibald Brooman, of 166, Fleet Street,
in the City of London, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "A NEW
METHOD OF APPLYING SUCTION AND BLAST, AND THE APPARATUS EMPLOYED
THEREIN." A communication from abroad by Felix Alexandre Testud de
Beauregard, of Paris, France.
Sealed the 11th August 1865, and dated the 11th April 1865.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Ricbard Archibald Brooman
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
11th April 1865.
I, RICHARD ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of
London, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"A NEW METHOD OF APPLYING SUCTION AND BLAST, AND THE APPARATUS EMPLOYED
THEREIN," to be as follows:-
Every body in motion in a medium imparts to that medium a motion in the
same direction, whether the body be solid, liquid, or gaseous. Thus a jet of
steam projected into the atmosphere imparts to the air a movement in the
same direction, which on one side is attraction or suction, and on the other
side repulsion; thus, also, the vanes of a fan driving the air by one of their
surfaces suck or draw it by the other surface in the same proportion. It is
the same in a blowing. machine, if the air is repelled on one side it is propor-
tionately sucked or drawn in on the other. Now hitherto only the repelling

page_text: or blowing side of these machines has been utilized, the sucking or drawing
side having been left inactive; in a few instances this idea has been made
use of, but its application has been limited to one or two purposes. I will
mention the most important, for this has, so to speak, completely solved the
problem. A jet of steam projected into the pipe of a locomotive produces a
draught .or suction which gives to the fire the intensity necessary for the
production of the steam expended in locomotives of great speed. Giffard's
injector utilizes in the most rational manner these two forces of a body in
motion. This Invention is therefore based on the industrial application of
suction acting by inversion from top to bottom in contradistinction to machines
bitherto employed, which act by impulsion from bottom to top. I find its
principal application is to metallurgical furnaces.
Description and practical working.-Steam is the best agent to employ in this
case, steam is therefore directed to the top of the furnace and escapes by orifices
in the centre of nozzles, the size of which is in proportion to the speed of suction
which it is desired to impart to the air. The number of these jets and nozzles
is in direct ratio to the maximum consumption of air in the apparatus. Now
the sucking power by vacuum is in conjunction with, first, the manometric
tension of the steam; second, its thermometric tension, placing it in a state of
complete desaturation; third, the height of its point of exit at the centre of
the nozzle; fourth, the angle formed by the cone of the nozzle; thus the
apparatus is surmounted with as many nozzles as are necessary. The steam
is projected from these nozzles, driving the air before it and producing a
suction or vacuum behind. This vacuum becomes active in the body of the
apparatus; the ambient air enters from the exterior to the interior with a
power in proportion to the inlet orifice, which may be regulated at will, and
assimilated to fans or blowing machines of great power. This method dis-
penses with all mechanical apparatus for introducing air. The steam does
not act by transmission, it acts only directly. The operation is entirely inverse
in its theory and completely identical in its results. The gaseous products of
combustion pass by the nozzles and are projected into the atmosphere with all
the power of steam. They may be collected and utilized, and their purity
will be so much the greater as the mixture with the steam has been more
intimate. With this mode of blowing, as there is no necessity for tuyeres
traversing the incandescent fuel, the air may be projected with as much
diffusion as is deemed necessary, whereby the present formulæ of combustion
will be changed. The combustion will be partial or general, at will, the hot
air may be also as easily, applied as in former methods, it will suffice to form a
communication between the air inlet and the superheating apparatus.

page_text: The annexed Drawing represents a melting apparatus surrounded by a
double metallic jacket which may be made to contain water and perform the
office of a steam boiler. The radiating caloric is utilized for vaporizing the
water, the outer surface being heated by the gaseous products of combustion
of the apparatus. The steam produced employed for the working of the
apparatus, as before explained, is superheated in the pipe B passing to the
centre of the flues C, which receive the products of combustion. The same
apparatus can produce identical effects hydraulically, and the pressure of the
liquid may be produced either by the caloric disengaged from the apparatus,
or naturally or artificially, by weight. A; A, are cones the small section of.
which is regulated according to the speed of the air to be obtained; B is the
inlet for the desaturated or superheated steam passing to the centre of the
flues C to meet the blowers S; D is the body of the melting apparatus;
E, air inlets; G, boiler; S, blower or apparatus projecting gases, vapors, or
liquids to the centre of the cone A in order to communicate to the air a part
of the speed which they possess.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Richard Archibald Brooman in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 11th October 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent
Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-eighth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Richard Archibald Brooman, Her special licence that I, the said Richard
Archibald Brooman, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, my executors, adininistrators, and
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and.
at all times thereafter 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
"A NEW METHOD OF APPLYING SUCTION AND BLAST, AND THE APPARATUS EMPLOYED
THEREIN," (communicated to me from abroad by Felix Alexandre Testud de
Beauregard, of Paris, France,) upon the condition (amongst others) that

page_text: I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, my executors or administrators, by
an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their bands and seals,
should particularly 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
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto
annexed, that is to say:
This Invention consists in a method of applying suction and blast chiefly
for metallurgical furnaces. The apparatus is based on the employment of
suction or vacuum acting by inversion from top to bottom in contradistinction
to apparatuses hitherto employed, which act by impulsion from bottom to top.
I employ steam by preference as the sucking agent. The apparatus is sur
mounted with as many nozzles as are necessary; the steam is directed to the
top of the furnace and escapes by orifices in the centre of the nozzles, the size
of which is in proportion to the speed of suction which it is desired to impart
to the air. The number of these jets and nozzles is in direct ratio to the
maximum consumption of air in the apparatus. The steam is projected from
these nozzle, driving the air before it, and producing a suction or vacuum
behind. This vacuum becomes active in the body of the apparatus; the air
enters from the exterior to the interior with a power in proportion to the inlet
orifices, which may be regulated at will, and assimilated to fans or blowing
machines of great power. This method dispenses with all mechanical appa-
ratus for introducing air. The steam does not act by transmission, it acts
only directly. The gaseous products of combustion. pass by the nozzles and
are projected into the atmosphere with all the power of steam. They may be
collected and utilized, and their purity will be so much the greater as the
mixture with the steam has been more intimate. It will be understood that
in its course the steam will be or may be condensed. With this mode of
blowing, as there is no necessity for tuyeres traversing the incandescent fuel,
the air may be as much diffused as is deemed necessary, and the combustion
may be partial or general. Hot air may be also as easily applied as in former
methods; it will suffice to form a communication between the air inlet and an
air-heating apparatus.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawings represents, as an example, a
vertical section of a melting furnace constructed according to this method of

page_text: applying suction and blast; Figure 2 is a plan, and Figure 3 a horizontal
section. Figures 4 and 5 represent in vertical section and plan a melting
furnace furnished with its steam generator.
This apparatus is surrounded by a double metallic jacket a supplied with
water so as to perform the oflice of a steam boiler. The interior is intended
to receive the fuel and the material to be melted. The products of combustion
escape by flues c. The melted metal is received in spouts d. Air enters
through passages f, the number of which may be varied at will. Metallic
nozzles or cones g are arranged at the upper part of the apparatus; their
section at the top is regulated according to the speed of the air to be obtained.
A blower or similar apparatus projects the gases, vapors, or liquids to the
centre of the nozzle g in order to communicate to the air a part of the speed
which they possess. The radiating caloric is utilized for vaporizing the water
in the steam generator. The steam produced employed for the working of the
apparatus, as before explained, is superheated in the pipe i passing to the
centre of the flues c which receive the products of combustion. The same
apparatus is capable of producing like effects bydraulically, and the pressure
of
the liquid may be effected either by the caloric disengaged from the apparatus,
or naturally or artificially, by weight.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim, applying suction
and blast in metallurgical furnaces in manner and by apparatus based upon
the employment of suction or vacuum acting by inversion from top to bottom,
as herein-before described, in contradistinction to apparatuses which act by
impulsion from bottom to top.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, hath here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Ninth day of October, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
R. A. BROOMAN. (L.S.)