Improvements in Furnaces for Melting or Melting and Treating Pig Iron, and in Feeding or Charging the same.
Year: 1886

page_text: Date of Application, 11th Mar., 1886.
Complete Left, 9th Dec., 1886.
Complete Accepted, 14th Jan., 1887.
Improvements in Furnaces for Melting or Melting and Treating Pig
Iron, and in Feeding or Charging the same.
I, WILLIAM DANIEL ALLEN, of the Bessemer Steel Works, Sheffield, in the County
of York, Steel Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be
as follows:
The objects of my invention are to feed or charge furnaces used for melting or
melting and treating pig iron with a continuous and regular supply of hot pigs to
utilize that which is ordinarily waste heat of the furnace for heating the pigs and to
maintain a regular and continuous foeding or charging of the furnace by methods and
arrangements hereinafter described.
In carrying out my invention the furnace is constructed or provided with an
elongated neck that constitutes a sort of long flue or chamber down or through which
the waste heat and gas of the furnace are caused to pass on their way to the chimney,
and up or through this flue or chamber in the opposite direction that is to say from the
chimney or cooler end to the furnace or hotter end the pigs of iron are moved or made
to travel slowly along arranged as far as practicable in a regular and systematic order
and so exposed to the heat and gases that by the time the foremost pigs reach the
furnace end of the said flue or chamber and are charged or fed into the furnace they
will have acquired a very considerable degree of heat.
Iron or steel pipes through which water is passed in order to keep them cool may be
arranged inside the flue or chamber so as to form supports or guides for the pigs in
transit.
The power required to raise or force the pigs up or through the flue or chamber may
be applied by any convenient mechanical arrangement; a hydraulic cylinder and ram
will be found to answer well.
WILLIAM DL. ALLEN.
W. Lloyd Wise,
46, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C.,
Agent for the Applicant.

page_text: Iron, and in Feeding or Charging the same.
I, WILLIAM DANIEL ALLEN, of the Bessemer Steel Works, Sheffield, in the County
of York, Steel Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement:-
The objects of my invention are to feed or charge furnaces used for melting or
melting and treating pig iron with a continuous and regular supply of hot pigs, to
utilize that which is ordinarily waste heat of the furnace for heating the pigs, and to
maintain a regular and continuous feeding or charging of the furnace by. methods and
arrangements hereinafter described.
In carrying out my invention the furnace is constructed or provided with an
elongated neck that constitutes a sort of long flue or chamber down or through which
the waste heat and gas of the furnace are caused to pass on their way to the chimney,
and up or through this flue or chamber in the opposite direction, that is to say from the
chimney or cooler end to the furnace or hotter end the pigs of iron are moved or made
to travel slowly along arranged as far as practicable in a regular and systematic order
and so exposed to the heat and gases that by the time the foremost pigs reach the
furnace end of the said flue or chamber and are charged or fed into the furnace they
will have acquired a very considerable degree of heat.
Iron or steel pipes through which water is passed in order to keep them cool may be
arranged inside the flue or chamber so as to form supports or guides for the pigs in
transit.
.
The power required to raise or force the pigs up or through the flue or chamber may
be applied by any convenient mechanical arrangement; a hydraulic cylinder and ram
will be found to answer well.
Referring to the accompanying drawings,
Fig. 1 is a sectional elevation,
Fig. 2 is a cross section through the heating flue or chamber, and
Fig. 3 is a sectional plan, representing a furnace with means for charging or feeding
pig iron thereto through a flue or chamber in connection therewith, the said pig iron
being moved or made to travel along from the chimney or cooler end of the flue or
chamber to the furnace or hot end of the said flue or chamber and being heated during
such travel on the same principle as that employed in heating ingots, blooms, and
billets of iron and steel, according to the specification of a former Patent granted to
me dated June 19th 1879 No. 2452.
A is the body of the furnace, B the bath of molten metal therein, C the heating flue
or chamber, D the chimney, E a charging door, and F a hydraulic cylinder and ram;
along the flue or chamber extending from the chimney to the furnace are two parallel
fire brick walls or ridges G and embedded in or on the upper part of these walls and
projecting slightly above their upper surface are fixed two iron or steel pipes H through
which water is caused to pass for the purpose of preventing them from acquiring too

page_text: high a temperature and becoming injured thereby; upon these pipes the pig iron 1 is
placed, the bottom layer of pigs being placed crossways of the pipes side by side, other
pigs may then be laid on the top of them in the best manner to allow of the heat
getting to them; if the walls or ridges and the pipes incline or fall towards the
furnace the pig iron will with a moderate amount of pushing or thrusting slide easily
upon the pipes, or if sufficient inclination or fall is given to the walls or ridges and
the pipes, the pigs will slide down upon the pipes by gravitation. In practice,
however, I believe that such an inclination of the pipes as will render a moderate
amount of pushing or thrusting necessary will usually be found most advantageous.
In charging or feeding the furnace represented in Figs. 1, 2, and 3, some pigs are
placed in position in front of the charging door and are pushed forward by the ram ;
the ram!recedes and more pigs are placed in position and moved forward by the ram,
the additional pigs thrusting forward those preceding them; this operation is repeated,
and the foremost pigs ultimately arriving at the end of the pipes fall off into the body
of the furnace and are there melted.
The pushing along may be done by hand or other power by a rack or lever or
some such means, but a hydraulic cylinder and ram will generally be found most
convenient.
The walls or ridges elevate the pipes from the bed of the flue or chamber and allow
of the heat passing under the pig iron and acting upon the under sides as well as on
the upper sides of the pigs.
The pipes need only be used in the hotter portions of the flue or chamber, ordinary
railway or other bars may be used where the heat is not sufficient to injure them.
It frequently happens that furnaces for melting or melting and treating pig iron are
erected at a higher level than the pig yard or the place where the pig iron is received
or stacked. In such cases it may be found convenient to make the flue or chambor
and the pipes incline upwards or rise towards the furnace, or they may even be
arranged vertically as in the modification of furnace shown in Figs. 4, 5, and 6, but in
such an arrangement more power will of course be necessary to raise or force the
pigs along.
In this arrangement the waste heat of the furnace on its way to the chimney
descends through the flue or chamber and the pig iron ascends stacked in the form of
a vertical column guided and kept in its perpendicular position by the pipes. The
feeding or charging is done at the bottom, and the entire column of pigs is raised a
short distance at each stroke of the ram, and the pigs are retained in the raised
position and prevented from descending with the descent of the ram by the insertion
of a supporting bar, which bar can be withdrawn as soon as the ram in its ascent with
an additional supply of pigs has again taken the weight of the column. This is
repeated until the top pigs attain a sufficient altitude to admit of their being pushed
off the top of the stack into the furnace wherein they are melted.
Referring to the drawings of this arrangement,
Fig. 4 is a sectional elevation showing the interior of the flue or chamber and of the
chimney.
Fig. 5 is a sectional elevation in the reverse direction showing the column of pigs
and the interior of the furnace, and
Fig. 6 is a plan of the flue or chamber showing a way in which the pigs may be
stacked round the pipes. K is the body of the furnace, L the bath of molten iron,
M the flue or chamber, N the chimney, O the stack or column of pigs, P, P, guiding
pipes through which water is caused to circulate, Q the bydraulic cylinder and ram,
S the supporting bar; R, R, are two ribs or raised parts on the head of the ram across
which the pigs are laid in order that the supporting bar may be inserted below them.
In feeding or charging with this arrangement the ram is lowered and a layer of pigs
is placed across the ribs on the head of the ram adjusted so as just to touch the guide
pipes, as many pigs as may be found convenient may then be stacked in layers, those
of each layer being arranged crosswise of those immediately below. The pigs
constituting the top layer of the pile about to be charged should however lie in the
same direction as the bottom ones, and a sufficient space should be left between them

page_text: to clear the supporting bar on the ascent. A sheet iron door at the bottom of the flue
or chamber is then opened, and the ram raised, and as soon as the supporting bar is
relieved of the superincumbent weight of the column of pigs, it is withdrawn, the ram
then continues its ascent, and the entire column of pigs is gradually lifted, the
topmost ones being pushed off into the furnace as soon as they arrive at a sufficient
height to admit of this being done. When the ram has proceeded far enough to allow
of it, the supporting bar is again inserted between the ribs R and the ram lowered, the
supporting bar again receiving the superincumbent weight of the column and retaining
the same the sheet iron door is then closed, and the operations are repeated.
The furnacos shown in the drawings are for heating and melting by gas, but the
mode of charging and feeding the pig iron and the flue or chamber are of course
equally applicable to the ordinary reverberatory furnace where solid fuel is used, or to
furnaces where liquid or powdered fuel is used. The mode of charging or feeding and
the flue or chamber may also be readily applied to the feeding or charging of pig iron
into the open hearth or Siemens Martin steel furnaces, in which case it would however
be necessary in order to heat the pigs that a portion of the waste heat of the furnace
should pass down or through the flue or chamber instead of the whole going into
the regenerators as at present.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said invention,
and in what manner it is to be performed, I declare that what I claim.is :-
1. Feeding or charging pig iron into a melting furnace wherein it is to be melted
or melted and treated in the manner hereinabove described.
2. Feeding or charging pig iron into a melting furnace wherein it is to be melted or
melted and treated up or through a flue or chamber wherein it is caused to meet the
waste heat of the furnace and to become hot prior to entering the body of the furnace
substantially as described.
3. Supporting or guiding pig iron in transit through or up a flue or chamber-or
elongated neck in connection with a melting furnace wherein such pig iron is to be
melted or melted and treated by means of pipes that are protected from the destructive
action of the heat by the circulation of water within them substantially as described.
4. The arrangements of melting furnaces with flues or chambers through or up
which pig iron can be charged or fed, and wherein the same can be heated by waste
heat from the furnace to which such pig iron is being fed as described with reference
respectively to and illustrated in Figs. 1 to 3 inclusive and Figs. 4 to 6 inclusive of
the accompanying drawings.
WILLIAM DL. ALLEN.
W. Lloyd Wise,
46, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C.,
Agent for the Applicant.