GB190215691A - Improvements in or relating to Charcoal Retorts and Furnaces. - Google Patents

Abstract

15,691. Laurenius, C. E. July 14. Charcoal.-Relates to charcoal retorts and furnaces of the kind in which the combustible gases given off by the charring-material are used as fuel to heat the retort. The gases escape from the retort to the combustion space through porous or permeable material, such as asbestos, forming packing between the edges of an opening in the walls of the retort and a lid or cover. Means are provided by which the gases so escaping can be led direct to the chimney, without heating the retort when desired. Fig. 1 shows a horizontal retort Fig. 8, and two vertical retorts with a common furnace. In the arrangement shown in Fig. 1, the bottom of the retort, which is arched in cross-section, is formed with external ribs to increase the heating-surface, and with an opening closed by a cover 14. The cover has flanges taking into recesses which contain the porous or permeable packing, as shown to an enlarged scale in Figs. 3 and 4, which illustrate two different forms of cover. The packing may, however, be arranged as shown in Fig. 5. The apparatus is at first heated by a fire on the grate 5, and the steam and vapours given off from the wood or peat in the retort escape through a valve 18, which is afterwards closed by hand. The combustible gases generated during the latter stages of the process escape round the cover 14, and are ignited in the furnace chamber. By withdrawing the damper plate 6, the grate is allowed to drop, and the gases and products of combustion pass through the flue 21 direct to the chimney. A modified arrangement with a number of retorts radially disposed round a common chimney is illustrated in the Specification. The vertical retorts shown in Fig. 8 may be continuously worked, material being fed in at the top and discharged at the bottom into trucks which are pressed upwards against the discharge openings. The working is similar to that of the horizontal retorts as regard the escape and utilization of the gases.