IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE MEANS OF EFFECTING THE COMBUSTION OF FUEL, AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Astley Paston Price, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields,
in the County of Middlesex, Chemist, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MEANS OF EFFECTING THE COMBUSTION OF FUEL, AND IN
APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN.”—A communication from abroad by Jakob
Bührer and Carl Hamel, both of Munich, in the Kingdom of Bavaria..
Sealed the 9th November 1866, and dated the 12th May 1866..
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Astley Paston Price at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
12th May 1866.
I, ASTLEY PASTON PRICE, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of
Middlesex, Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF EFFECTING THE COMBUSTION OF FUEL, AND IN
APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN," a communication to me from abroad by
Jakob Bührer and Carl Hamel, both of Munich, in the Kingdom of Bavaria,
to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to certain improvements in the Invention for which
Provisional Protection was granted to Francis Wise, on or about the 4th
of April 1866, No. 956, and consists in combining with the system of com-
bustion described in the said Provisional Specification the use of an exhaust

page_text: or blowing fan, or other suitable exhaust or blowing apparatus, and in feeding
the finely reduced fuel therein described to the furnace or combustion chamber
by any convenient self-acting mechanical contrivances driven or actuated by
preference by the same mechanism that works the fan blower or exhauster, so
that the force of the draught or current of air and the amount of fuel supplied
shall always have the same relation to each other, For example, when the
machinery is driven at a high velocity there will not only be more fuel
supplied, but at the same time a proportionate increase of the amount of air
passing through the furnace or combustion chamber, and vice versa. Although
it is preferred to work the fuel feeding apparatus and the apparatus which
creates the draught or supplies the air for combustion from one and the same
prime mover, it is obvious that they may if desired be driven independently,
but in this case there will be greater difficulty in obtaining the proper propor-
ționate supply of fuel and of air.
One form of apparatus which I employ for supplying the fuel consists of
one or more feeding hoppers situate above the furnace or combustion
chamber, such hoppers being provided with a conical plug or stopper and a
wire gauze cage attached to the upper end of such stoppers and contained
within the hopper. A vertical spindle is attached to the conical plug and
passes through a collar bearing on the mouth of the hopper, an adjustable
collar on the spindle serving to regulate the height of the plug, and conse-
quently the size of the feed orifice into the furnace or combustion chamber.
A horizontal lever arm is attached to the upper end of the spindle, and to this
arm is connected a reciprocating rod which derives its motion by means of a
crank, cam, eccentric, or other equivalent mechanical contrivance from the
prime mover. By coupling a number of these lever arms in the manner
described it is obvious that a reciprocating motion may be imparted to them
simultaneously, and the consequent partial rotation of the several feeding
plugs will allow of more or less of the powdered or finely divided fuel to be
discharged into the furnaces or combustion chambers according to the speed
of working of the apparatus. Other self-acting contrivances for allowing a
regulated quantity of fuel to be discharged from the hoppers may be employed,
such for example as rotatory cocks, valves, or regulators, or reciprocating
slides, but in all cases they should be made to work in concert with the
apparatus which is the means for supplying the air for supporting combus-
tion. It may be mentioned that the air is, by preference, employed in a
heated condition, and such heating may be effected by utilizing for that pur-
pose the waste heat from the combustion chamber, or from the furnace or
flues. When applying this system of combustion to the burning of bricks,

page_text: lime, cement, pottery, and similar goods the materials to be burnt may be
50 disposed as to form in themselves the combustion chamber for the finely
divided fuel.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Astley Paston Price in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 12th November 1866.
.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ASTLEY
PASTON PRICE, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of Middlesex,
Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the twenty-ninth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Astley Paston Price, Her special license, that I, the said Astley Paston
Price, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Astley Paston Price; my executors, administrators, or 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF EFFECTING THE COMBUSTION OF FUEL, AND
IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN," a communicating to me from abroad by
Jakob Bührer and Carl Hamel, both of Munich, in the Kingdom of Bavaria,
upon the condition (amongst others) that I; the said Astley Paston Price;
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my
hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of
the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be perforined,
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 Astley Paston Price, 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, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings, and
to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say:-
The said Invention relates to certain improvements in the Invention for

page_text: which Letters Patent were granted to Francis Wise, bearing date the Fourth
of April One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, No. 956, and consists of
combining with the system of combustion described in the Specification of the
said Patent the use of an exhaust or blowing fan or other suitable exhaust or
blowing apparatus, and in feeding the finely reduced fuel therein described to
the furnace or combustion chamber by any convenient self-acting mechanical
contrivances driven or actuated by preference by the same mechanism that
works the fan blower or exhauster, so that the force of the draught or current
of air and the amount of fuel supplied shall have the same relation to each
other. For example, when the feeding machinery is driven at a high velocity
there will not only be more fuel supplied, but at the same time there will
be a proportionate increase in the amount of air passing through the furnace
or combustion chamber, and vice versa. Although it is preferred to work the
fuel feeding apparatus and the apparatus which creates the draught.or sup-
plies the air for combustion from one and the same prime mover, it is obvious
that they may if desired be driven independently, but in this case there will
be greater difficulty in obtaining the proper proportionate supply of fuel and
of air.
. One form of apparatus which I employ for supplying the fuel consists of
one or more feeding hoppers situate above the furnace or combustion chamber,
such hoppers being provided with with a conical plug or stopper and an open
cage attached to the upper end of such stoppers and contained within the hopper.
A vertical spindle is attached to the conical plug, and passes through a collar
bearing on the mouth of the hopper, an adjustable collar on the spindle
serving to regulate the height of the plug, and consequently the size of the
feed orifice into the furnace or combustion chamber. A horizontal lever arm
is attached to the upper end of the spindle, and to this arm is connected a
reciprocating rod which derives its motion by means of a crank, cam,
eccentric, or other equivalent mechanical contrivance from the prime mover.
By coupling a number of these lever arms in the manner described it is
obvious that a reciprocating motion may be imparted to them simultaneously,
and the consequent partial rotation of the several feeding plugs will allow of
more or less of the powdered or finely divided fuel to be discharged into the
furnaces or combustion chambers according to the speed of working of the
apparatus. Other self-acting contrivances for allowing a regulated quantity
of fuel to be discharged from the hoppers may be employed, such, for example,
as rotatory cocks, valves, or regulators, or reciprocating slides, but in all cases
they should be made to work in concert with the apparatus which is the
means for supplying the air for supporting combustion. It may be mentioned

page_text: that the air is by preference employed in a heated condition, and such heating
may be effected by utilizing for that purpose the waste heat from the combus-
tion chamber or from the furnace or flues. When applying this system of
combustion to the burning of bricks, lime, cement, pottery, and similar goods
the materials to be burnt may be so disposed as to form in themselves the
combustion chamber for the finely divided fuel.
And in order that the said. Invention may be fully understood, I shall
now proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose
shall refer to the several Figures on the annexed Sheet of Drawings, the
same letters of reference indicating corresponding parts in all the corre-
sponding Figures.
Figure 1 of the annexed Sheet of Drawings represents a vertical sectioni
of a mechanical self-acting feeder constructed according to this Invention;
for supplying finely, divided fuel to a combustion chamber. The rest of the
Figures illustrate various applications of this feeder.
:
a is a conical hopper supported vertically by means of the stays b, b, over
the mouth or aperture c, leading into the combustion chamber in which the
fuel is to be burnt. From the lower end of this hopper a pipe d passes into
the aperture c, the mouth of the aperture surrounding the pipe d being
sealed by a sand joint e, as shown, so as to prevent any exit of flame or
products of combustion at that part from the combustion chamber. fis a
conical plug fitting the contracted end of the hopper, which plug when down
on its seat serves as a stopper to prevent the exit of the finely divided fuel.
On the top of this plug there is formed an open cage g, for the purpose
herein-after described, and the plug and cage are. both connected. to the
lower end by the vertical spindle h; this spindle presses through a cross
bar i on the mouth of the hopper, and is provided with an adjustable collar k
resting upon the cross bar, and secured to the spindle at any desired eleva-.
tion by a pinching screw or otherwise. By suitably adjusting this collar. k
along the spindle h, the conical plug f may be maintained at any desired
elévation, so as to leave a larger or smaller orifice in the bottom of the
hopper for the escape of the finely divided, fuel, according to the quantity
to be fed into the combustion chamber. In order to keep the fuel perfectly
loose in the hopper, and to insure its free passage through the more or less
contracted orifice, a circular reciprocating motion is imparted to the plug.
and cage, the latter serving as a stirrer or loosener of the mass of finely
divided fuel. This motion is obtained by means of the lever arm 7 fitted
on to the upper end of the spindle h, and connected with a longitudinal
reciprocating rod m, actuated in any convenient manner from a prime mover.

page_text: Figure 2 represents à sectional elevation of a pottery kiln heated from a
combustion chamber which is supplied in a self-acting manner with finely
divided fuel' according to this Invention.
A is the combustion chamber communicating by the aperture B with the
interior of the kiln C, the finely divided fuel being continuously supplied to
the combustion chamber from the self-acting feeding hopper a, constructed
and arranged as herein-before described in reference to Figure 1. D is a
hot-air flue for supplying hot air through the perforations E, E, to the
combustion chamber A.
Figures 3 and 4 represent respectively a transverse vertical section and a
sectional plan of a portion of a brick, lime, or cement kiln in which the firing
is maintained in a continuous manner by means of the said self-acting feeding
mechanism.
B.is the body of the kiln in which the bricks, lime, of cement A are so
stacked or disposed of as. to leave interstices for the descent of the finely
divided fuel amongst the bricks or other substances in the kiln, several of
these feeding hoppers are disposed along the top of the kiln, as shown in
Figure 4, the plugs fin such hoppers being all actuated simultaneously by
means of the longitudinal reciprocating rod m, to which the several lever
arms are connected by suitable joints or pins which will admit of any one
or more of the lever arms being disconnected from the rod m when the
feeding of the fuel from the corresponding hoppers is to be arrested. I find
that a pin or projection on the upper surface of the rod m, and situate on
each side of that portion of the lever arm which rests on the rod m answers
the
e purpose satisfactorily, it being simply necessary when disconnecting the
lever arms to lift them over the pins and turn them out of the way of the
rod m.
In this way any number of small streams of the finely divided fuel
may be caused to descend continuously into and amongst the bricks or
other materials contained in the kiln, such fuel being ignited during its
descent.
Figure 5 is a transverse vertical section shewing the application of the
self-acting mechanical feeders for the supplying fuel in a finely divided state
to a combustion chamber employed in the generation of steam. Figure 6 is
a longitudinal vertical section of the same, and Figure 7 is a corresponding
plan thereof.
A is the steam generator, the lower portion of which is contained in the
combustion chamber B, which communicates by the vertical passages C, C,
with the lower combustion chamber D. c, c, are inclined passages leading
from the self-acting feeding hoppers a, a, to the lower portions of the vertical

page_text: passages C and thence to the lower combustion chamber D. E, E, are
lateral flues branching off from each side of the upper part of the combustion
chamber B, and opening into the longitudinal flues F, F. From the bottoms
of these flues other perpendicular flues fif (shown in dotted lines in
Figures 5 and 6), descend to the passages or flues G, G, which after uniting
in one flue may if desired communicate with a pair of what are generally
known as Siemen's regenerators. The plugs of the several feeding hoppers
a derive their motion from the longitudinal reciprocating rod or bar m, which
moves to and fro along antifriction rollers on the top of the boiler setting.
n is a crank on the end of the driving shaft o, connected by a connecting rod p
with one end of the longitudinal rod m, to which the crank imparts a rectilinear
reciprocating motion; the shaft o is rotated by a belt r and driving pulley
from a steam engine or other prime mover, and a second belt s on the samé
pulley gives motion to a fan blower or exhauster for providing a draught of
air through the combustion chambers, such blower or exhauster dispensing
with the necessity for tall chimneys hitherto generally employed in connection
with steam boiler and other furnaces, The lever arms of the several feeders
are all connected as herein-before described and illustrated Figure 7 with
the reciprocating rod m, so that the motion of this rod actuates the whole of
the feeders. It is essential that the fan or exhauster which produces the
draught be always driven in the same ratio with the self-acting fuel feeders,
and this I insure by driving it as shewn from the same shaft that gives
motion to the several feeders. By this means I am enabled to regulate the
draught in accordance with the feed of fuel, so that the greater the supply of
fuel the greater will be the draught or supply of air, and vice versa. In
working a furnace on this system the several hoppers a are kept charged
with finely divided fuel, either by manual labour or by self-acting elevators
worked by the steam engine or other prime mover. A fire or fires having
been lighted in the lower combustion chamber D, in order to elevate the
temperature to a sufficient degree to ignite the finely divided fuel as it
descends, the feeders or plugs in the hoppers are started and with them the
fan. The finely divided fuel now commences to flow down the several inclined
passages c, c, into the lower part of the vertical passages C, C, whence it
passes into the combustion chamber D, where it becomes ignited an | con-
sumed in its descent. The flame and heated gases arising from the com-
bustion are carried by the draught up the passages C, C, into the upper
combustion chamber B, where they impinge against the bottom of the boiler
A. The hot air and products of combustion pass off through the flues E, F,
and f to the passages G, G, which conduct them either to regenerators for

page_text: the purpose of heating the supply of air to the lower combustion chamber,
such air entering therein by doors or passages at t, t, or the hot air and
products of combustion may pass direct to the exhaust fan or to the chimney.
It will thus be seen that so long as the feeders are kept in operation a
constant supply of powdered fuel will be fed into the combustion chamber D,
and a continuous flame will be emitted therefrom. The fine ash or debris
which collects in the chamber D may be removed at intervals through closed
apertures provided for that purpose.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of the said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried
into effect, I would observe in conclusion that what I consider to be novel
and original and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the
herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,―.
First, the application of self-acting mechanical feeders for supplying fuel
in a finely divided state to combustion chambers or to the interior of kilns,
substantially as herein-before described.
Second, the peculiar construction, arrangement, and mode of operating
self-acting mechanical feeders, substantially as and for the purpose herein-
before described.
Third, the combination of a blower or exhauster with self-acting mechanical
feeders for supplying finely divided fuel to combustion chambers, and the
working of such blower or exhauster in concert with the feeders, substantially
as and for the purpose herein-before specified.
In witness whereof, I, the said Astley Paston Price, have to this
Specification hereunto set my hand and seal, this Ninth day of
November, One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.
DLOGAN DDIAN
ASTLEY PASTON PRICE. (L.B.)