IMPROVEMENTS IN FURNACES, FIRE GRATES, AND STOVES
Year: 1858

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles Atherton at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 23rd March
1858.
I, CHARLES ATHERTON, of Her Majesty's Dockyard, Woolwich, in the
County of Kent, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN FURNACES, FIRE GRATES, AND STOVES," to be as
follows:-
This Invention relates to an improved arrangement or construction of the
parts of furnaces, fire grates, and stoves, by which the supply of the fuel to
the grate bars may be continuous and more uniform than heretofore attained
by hand stoking, hence an improved combustion of the fuel is obtained, and
the nuisance arising from the emission of dense smoke from chinnies and
funnels is abated, and the process of stoking becomes a matter of ordinary
labour, the consequent result being a saving in the cost of fuel and labour, and
a more uniform generation of heat; and this I effect by placing a feeding
chamber or chambers, extending the whole length of the fire grate as a
receptacle or receptacles for the fuel, above the level of the grate bars, from
which chamber or chambers the fuel descends to the furnace spontaneously
through an opening or openings extending the whole length of the furnace.
The fuel in the feeding chamber does not attain such a temperature as to
produce destructive distillation, but such gases as may be evolved from the
green or raw fuel at the point where it leaves the feeding chamber will make
their way into the furnace and become ignited in passing over the fire. To

page_text: facilitate and insure the continuous feeding, the grate bars (which may be
placed with their length either longitudinally or transversely in the furnace)
are so arranged that the grate forms an angular. or curved surface inclining
across the furnace from the feeding chamber to the ash-pit at such angle or
curve that the fuel may descend spontaneously, whereby the fuel as it is con-
sumed is succeeded by fresh fuel, which slides down the inclined surface of the
grate and thus dispenses with the necessity for opening the furnace doors and
spreading it over the grate bars by hand, except it. should cake and not
descend freely by its own gravity, which may occasionally occur, in which case
the pricker may be used and clinkers removed as usual.
The feeding chamber (which should not be allowed to become empty) is
supplied by hand through an opening in the front of the boiler, which opening
is to be closed by a door when the chamber is filled.
The grate bars admit of being cleared in the usual way, by pricking from
the under side or ash-pit, and by removing clinkers from the top through the
furnace doors. In some cases I employ grate bars of a circular section in the
solid or hollow, which admit of being turned round by hand, and are thus made
to aid the descent of the fuel, and to present (when desired) new surfaces to
the fire to replace those which may have become worn; when the bars are
hollow they may be so fitted as to have a flow of water through them. This
improved and simple mode of supplying fuel to furnaces, fire grates and stoves,
is applicable to all purposes for which the combustion of fuel is required.
The accompanying Diagram shews the transverse section of a furnace as an
illustration of the Invention, of which the applications are various.
A is a furnace which is supplied from feeding chambers B, B, the surface
of the grates C, C, being inclined or forming a curve across the furnace, as
shewn respectively in each half of the section. The fuel descends through the
openings D, D; doors are provided for the feeding chambers, furnace, and ash-
pits, as well as suitable means for the discharge of the products of combustion
into the flues or tube chamber (as the case may be), according to the con-
struction of the boiler.