IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUSES TO BE APPLIED TO FIRE-PLACES FOR OBTAINING A MORE COMPLETE COMBUSTION OF THE FUEL EMPLOYED THEREIN
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Ferdinand Pierre Jean Van-den-Ouwelant, of Paris,
France, Gentleman, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUSES
TO BE APPLIED TO FIRE-PLACES FOR OBTAINING A MORE COMPLETE COMBUSTION
OF THE FUEL EMPLOYED THEREIN."
Sealed the 12th August 1859, and dated the 19th February 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Ferdinand Pierre Jean
Van-den-Ouwelant at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
his Petition, on the 19th February 1859.
I, FERDINAND PIERRE JEAN VAN-DEN-OUWELANT, of Paris, France, Gentleman,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUSES TO BE APPLIED TO FIRE-PLACES FOR OBTAINING A MORE COMPLETE
COMBUSTION OF THE FUEL EMPLOYED THEREIN," to be as follows:-
These improvements relate to apparatuses to be applied to fire-places in
order to obtain thereby a better combustion of fuel. They are more par-
ticularly applicable to furnaces for steam engines, or other large fire-places of
the same description, and they consist of various arrangements for suitably
heating and distributing over the fuel air or steam properly heated, by passing
through the said apparatuses, which latter consist of, 1ly, a series of chambers
in communication with each other, situated along the sides in the interior of

page_text: the furnace, and through which chambers pass the air or the steam to be
injected; or, 2ly, a sort of hollow corrugated screen with a number of slits,
through which the air or steam is projected; 3ly, of a tube filled with stones,
pieces of coke, or other suitable material, through the interstices of which the
air or steam is caused to pass for being properly heated; 4ly, of a series of
chambers in communication with each other, and fixed against the inside of
the furnace door, and through which chambers the air or steam passes to be
projected on the fuel.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Ferdinand Pierre Jean Van-den-Ouwelant in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 19th August 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FERDINAND
PIERRE JEAN VAN-DEN-OUWELANT, of Paris, France, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS. Her most Excellent. Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-second year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
I, the said Ferdinand Pierre Jean Van-den-Ouwelant, Her special licence
that I, the said Ferdinand Pierre Jean Ouwelant, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Ferdinand Pierre Jean
Van-den-Ouwelant, my 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 United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN APPARATUSES TO BE APPLIED TO FIRE-PLACES FOR OBTAINING A MORE
COMPLETE COMBUSTION OF THE FUEL EMPLOYED THEREIN," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Ferdinand Pierre Jean Van-den-Ouwelant,.
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or
their, or one of their hands 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. Ferdinand Pierre: Jean. Van-den-
Ouwelant, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what

page_text: imanner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement :-
These improvements relate to apparatuses to be applied to fire-places or
furnaces of any description, in order to obtain by means of them a better and
more complete combustion of the fuel. The same consist in providing the
said fire-places with one or more apparatuses, through which either steam or
air, or both, is caused to pass, and afterwards injected by means of a sort of
screen on the fuel, in order to obtain thereby a better combustion of the gases
evolved from this latter.
In the annexed Drawings various views of the apparatuses I make use
of are shown, corresponding parts being indicated by the same letters of
reference in all the Figures.
.
Fig. 1 shows a longitudinal elevation view of a fire-place for an ordinary
steam boiler, which fire-place is provided with my apparatuses, the latter
consisting of, Fly, a heater for the steam or air; and 2ly, a screen for pro-
jecting the heated steam with or without the addition of heated air on the
fuel. Fig. 2 shows a vertical sectional view of the fire-box of a locomotive
provided with my apparatuses. The remainder of the Figures show various
arrangements of steam heaters and projecting screens, of which I will now
give a full description, and also of their mode of acting. The heater forms an
apparatus placed in such position in the fire-place, that the steam taken from
a steam boiler in passing through this heater becomes sufficiently dry, heated,
and expanded, so that on being projected on the fuel the same produces the
desired effect of actuating the combustion of the fuel. This heater consists of
a tube of cast or wrought iron, fire-clay, or any other suitable fire-resisting
material of any suitable form or size, but to which I prefer giving the tubular
form shown in A, Fig. 8; in the interior of this tube A another tube B is
inserted, an open space C being left between the two tubes, while on the outer
surface of the inner tube B a series of washers a are fixed at suitable distances
apart, for dividing the said space C in a series of chambers b, b, b, com-
municating together. A tube D serves for conducting air or the steam from
a steam boiler in the outer tube A, from where the same passing through the
series of chambers is conducted by a tube B to a projecting screen, the form-
of which latter resembles that of a shell, provided in the interior with furrows
for properly projecting the steam on the fuel. Figs.. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, show
various forms of screens; Fig. 6; for instance, being one intended for
locomotives. The heater is to be applied either in the brickwork. of the
fire-place, or in any other suitable part thereof, but in such manner that it
may become sufficiently heated for drying and expanding the steam caused to

page_text: pass through it. For. fire-places of ordinary steam engines the screen is
situated in the interior of the furnace immediately above the fire-door, so as
to project the steam or heated air over the entire fire in the direction towards
the fire-bridge. For metallurgical or other furnaces or fire-places I also place
the heater and the screen in the interior of the furnace, and in such manner
that the due working of the apparatuses may take place without interfering
with the work to be performed in the interior of the furnace. For locomotives
I place the heater in a vertical position in one of the corners of the fire-place,
with the screen situated immediately above the heater, as shown in Fig. 2.
Instead of having the heater and the screen form two separate parts, I
sometimes prefer uniting them in one body, such, for instance, as shown by
Fig. 12 in front elevation view, by Figs. 13 & 14 in top view, in view from
underneath, and by Fig: 15. in cross sectional view over the line X, Y, of
Figs. 13 & 14. In this arrangement 'the screen is fixed on a cross beam E of
cast or wrought iron, fire-clay, or other suitable fire-resisting material placed
in the inside of the fire-place against the front wall thereof immediately above
the fire-door; the under side of this beam is provided with furrows e, in which
the heating tubes G are inserted, whereas the screen is fixed with its hinder
part in a suitable cavity H formed in the top of the beam E; and in order to,
cause a constant supply of steam to the screen, a plate I of iron, steel, or other
suitable material is fixed over a depression K formed in the cavity H, and by
this means whatever may be the position of the screen, the quantity of steam
issuing from under the plate I will depend on the distance left between this
plate and the front edge of the depressed part of the beam; this plate may
further be fixed in the depression brackets by 'means of screws, or other
suitable modes.
I will now describe more fully the various Figures of the annexed Drawings.
Fig. 1 shows a longitudinal sectional view of a fire-place provided with my
heating apparatus and the distributing screen; the steam coming from the
boiler L is conducted by a pipe M to the heater A, in which it enters in the
outer tube, from where it circulates between this outer and the inner tube, and
finally enters into the distributing screen N, and is projected on the fuel. In
order to regulate the admission of the steam, and, if required, to cause air to:
enter, simultaneously with the steam into the heater, the tube M is provided.
with a small apparatus for this purpose, which apparatus is shown separately
in Fig. 18; the same consist of a sort of metal bottle O, connected on both
ends with the tube M; in this bottle is an opening p, provided either with a
.moveable lid q, or with a cock r, for allowing air to enter and thus to mix
with the steam. Instead of this apparatus, that represented in Fig. 19 may

page_text: be made use of, in which the air enters by the lower.pȧrt of the bottle O, the
lid P of which may be lowered more or less. I must add here, that the above
described apparatuses may either serve for heating and injecting steam on the
fuel, or for air to be acted upon in the same manner; or even this injection of
heated air may take place simultaneously with that of: the heated steam.
Thus, for instance, Fig. 16 shows the inside of a double fire-door, through
which either steam or air, or both, simultaneously may be caused to enter, the
steam by the pipes, and the air by the pipe u, and circulate further through
the chambers t, t', t, by means of the connecting pipes v, v', and are finally
injected in the fire-place through small slits or apertures w; Fig. 17 shows
the inner or double side of this fire-door. As has already been said, Fig. 2
shows a cross sectional view of the fire-place of a locomotive engine, the
injecting screen N (to which I prefer in this case to give the form of Fig. 6,)
is fixed on the top of the heater A, which latter is enclosed in a jacket A' of
fire-clay or other suitable material, and placed in a vertical position in one of
the corners of the fire-place near the door. The Figs. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, show the
under side of various models of screens; Fig. 8 shows a longitudinal sectional
view of a heater; Fig. 9 shows a similar view of one provided with a jacket
A', and with the injecting screen N placed on the top of the heater; Fig. 10
represents a similar view of a double heater; Fig. 11 represents a heater pro-
vided in the interior with pieces of flint, pummicestone, or other fire-resisting
material, through which the steam or air is caused to pass for becoming
sufficiently heated; Fig. 14 is a view of the under side of a cross beam E
provided with furrows e, in which pipes G may be inserted for heating the
steam or the air; Fig. 13 is a top view, and Fig. 15 a sectional view of the
same, provided with the heating pipes G, and with the plate I for regulating
the escape of the heated steam or air; in Fig. 13 this plate I is partly cut off,
in order to show the depression K in the cavity H underneath; Fig. 12 is a
front view of a beam provided with a screen formed of an upper jaw J pro-
vided with teeth or projections j, which enter into corresponding furrows j¹
formed in the lower jaw J', so as to allow of regulating the escape of heated
steam or air by lowering more or less the upper jaw J on the lower one J'.
Having thus described and particularly ascertained the nature of my.
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be put into
operation, I would observe, in conclusion, that I do not confine or restrict
myself to the precise details or arrangements which I have had occasion
to describe, as many variations may be made therefrom without deviating
from the principles or main features of the said Invention; but what I
consider to be novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured

page_text: to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, consist of the
application to fire-places of any description of the above described arrange-
ments by which steam, air, or a combination of them is caused to pass through
a series of heating chambers or pipes, and afterwards projected by means of a
proper screen over the surface of the fuel, for increasing the combustion of
this latter, and doing away in great part with the smoke.
In witness whereof, I, the said Ferdinand Pierre Jean Van-den-Ouwelant,
have bereunto set my hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of August,
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
Witness,
J. SOUTH.
F. VAN-DEN-OUWELANT. (L.S.)