IMPROVEMENTS IN FURNACES FOR HEATING AND MELTING METALS.
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Stanhope Perkins, of Fairfield, in the County of
Lancaster, Engineer, and William Smellic, of Gorton, in the said
County, Forge Manager, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
FURNACES FOR HEATING AND MELTING METALS.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Stanhope Perkins and
William Smellie at the Office, of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 20th January 1875.
We, STANHOPE PERKINS, of Fairfield, in the County of Lancaster,
Engineer, and WILLIAM SMELLIE, of Gorton, in the said County, Forge
Manager, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN FURNACES FOR HEATING AND MELTING METALS," to be as
follows:-
Our Invention relates to a construction of reverberatory or other such.
furnace and to the means of transmitting heat thereto, whereby we are
enabled to economize fuel and to employ a furnace of greater length

page_text: than those now in use for the purposes of our Invention. For these
objects we construct a chamber beneath the bed of the furnace through
which air is blown by a steam injector, a fan, or similar mechanical
means, and the said air being thus heated is conducted up the side of
the furnace, and is discharged from the upper (or it might be the lower)
part thereof to meet the products of combustion.
The steam injector or its equivalent may be on one side of the furnace
or at more situations, and we propose to form the aforesaid chamber
beneath the furnace in divided channels, the solid parts thereof also
answering as supports for the furnace bottom.
We also propose to use a steam injector of air beneath the fire bars,
and to place the pipe or pipes which convey the air to this or to the first
mentioned injector through the flue of the boiler which provides the
steam. Along the furnace we form doors as usual for introducing and
removing the articles to be heated or the melted product, but the said
operations may be performed at the end or other part thereof.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Stanhope Perkins and William Smellie in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 20th July 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, STANHOPE
PERKINS, of Fairfield, in the County of Lancaster, Engineer, and
WILLIAM SMELLIE, of Gorton, in the said County; Forge Manager, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the thirty-eighth
year of Her reign, did for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto us, the said Stanhope Perkins and William Smellie, Her
special license that we, the said Stanhope Perkins and William Smellie,
our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said
Stanhope Perkins and William Smellic, our executors, administrators,
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

page_text: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands,
and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN FURNACES FOR HEATING
AND MELTING METALS," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the
said Stanhope Perkins and William Smellie, by an instrument in writing
under our hands and seals (or under the hand and seal of one of
us), 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 Scal Patent Office within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
) Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Stanhope Perkins and William
Smellic, do hereby declare the nature of our said 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, that is to say :---
Our Invention relates to the construction of a reverberatory or other
such furnace and to the means of transmitting heat thereto, whereby we
are enabled to economize fuel and to employ a furnace of greater length
than those now in use for the purposes of our Invention.
In the accompanying Drawings Fig. 1 represents our Invention in
longitudinal section as applied to a heating furnace, such as is used in
forges for heating blooms, ingots, or other metal articles; Fig. 2 is a
plan view, one half thereof being shewn in section and the other half
representing the top; Fig. 3 is a cross section, the right-hand side of
the figure being taken through the fire-place and ash-pit, and the left-
hand side through the heating part of the furnace, and Fig. 4 is an
exterior end view.
At 1 is the bed of the furnace built upon two metal plates extending
across the furnace, and one of which is shown at 2 on the left-hand side
of Fig. 3. These plates 2 rest upon a longitudinal central girder 3,
which is formed as a trough to receive the bent ends of the plates, their
outward ends being supported by the masonry as at 4. The girder 3
rests upon transverse beams 5 which extend across the furnace, and are
supported at the middle by a row of pillars 6, and at their outward ends
by the masonry, and thus a chamber 7 is formed beneath the bed of the
furnace extending throughout its length and across its width; at 8 is the
masonry of an upright steam boiler 9 of any ordinary construction, and

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around the flue 10 thereof is a pipe 11, the outward ends 12 of
which pass through the masonry of the furnace and communicate with
the aforesaid chamber 7. The pipe 11 has a branch which bends
upward, and at its open end 13 is a jet 14 to which steam is applied
in any suitable manner. Passing through the end 15 of the furnace
are two pipes 16 which communicate with two upright pipes 17,
open at their upper ends to branches 18 which communicate by means.
of channels 19, with a chamber 20 formed above the crown 21 of the
furnace and fire-place by means of a casing 22. The fire-place is at 23
which is closed during the working of the furnace by doors 24 air being.
supplied to the ash-pit by means of two pipes 25 to which steam jets
may be adapted, but that does not constitute a part of our Invention.
In the crown 21 of the furnace and above the fire-place are per-
forations 24, and beyond these are other perforations 25* also extending
through the crown. At 26 is one of the two apertures through which
the fuel is supplied, and at 27 are the doors of ordinary construction
through which the metal blooms or other such articles to be heated are
introduced and withdrawn.
During the operation of the furnace a jet of steam is caused to enter
at 4 into the pipo 11, and this by carrying air with it forces it into the
chamber 7, and from thence through the pipes 16, 17, 18, and channels
19, into the chamber 20 above the crown of the furnace, and from thence
it passes through the perforations 24 to meet the products of combustion
arising from the fire-place, and also through the series of perforations
25* to impinge throughout the length of the furnace upon gases which
would otherwise remain unconsumed. The air so supplied being heated
before it is delivered by passing beneath the bed of the furnace, but
according to the arrangement shewn it is also heated in the flue 10. By
these means a continuance of comparatively complete combustion is
kept up, which economises fuel and enables us to use a furnace of
greater length than those now usually employed.
Instead of the arrangement above described a communication might
be established between the chamber 7, and perforations formed through
the sides of the furnace as at 30, for then the same effect of continuing a
supply of air to the gases would be obtained.
We have above stated that the air is carried through the pipe 11 by a
steam jet, but it might be forced into the chamber 7 by means of a fan:

page_text: or other ordinary apparatus, and when not convenient the pipes 11 may
be used without proceeding from the flue of a boiler, and may each be
provided with a steam jet or other blowing apparatus.
We have above described our Invention as applied to a furnace for
heating blooms or other such articles, but it is also applicable to other
furnaces for heating or melting metals, such for instance as the puddling
furnace.
Having thus described and ascertained the nature of our said
Invention and the manner in which the same is to be performed, we
desire it to be understood that we claim as secured to us under the
above in part recited Letters Patent, and for the purposes above set
forth,―
Firstly. Forming a chamber beneath the bed of the furnace for
heating air to be supplied thereto.
And, Secondly. Causing air to be delivered through apertures formod
in the crown or sides of the furnace.
In witness whereof, we, the said Stanhope Perkins and William
Smellie, have hereunto set our hands and scals, this Nineteenth
day of July, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and seventy-five.