US1297669A - Method for preventing the loss of fuel in starting furnace-fires. - Google Patents

Description

J. P EVANS.

METHOD FOR PREVENTING THE LOSS OF FUEL IN STARTING FURNACE FIRES.

APPLICATION FILED APR.23. .9l8.

Patented Mar. 18, 1919.

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ASSIGNMENTS, T0 EVANS FUEL SAVING COMPANY,

OF BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA, ASSIGNOR, BY DIRECT AND MESNE A CORPORATION OF ALABAMA.

METHOD FOR PREVENTING THE LOSS OF FUEL IN STARTING FURNACE-FIRES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 18, 1919.

Application filed April 23, 1918. Serial No. 230,208.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, J osnPH PRIESTLEY EVANS, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Birmingham, in the county of Jefferson and State of Alabama, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods for Preventing the Loss of Fuel in Starting Furnace-Fires, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to a method and apparatus for the prevention of loss of fuel when fires are started in locomotive and staifoionary boilers which have a top draft fire According to the present practice, before starting a fire in a boiler fire box, the grate is cleaned so that it can be inspected and, in all top draft fire boxes, the fire is then started by spreading a layer of coal five or six inches deep on the grate, laying kindling on top of the coal, opening the top drafts, and igniting the kindling, Where small sized coal is used, I have observed that a substantial percentage of the coal falls through the grate into the ash pit and is lost while this initial bed of coal is being spread on the cleaned grate. With run-of-mine bituminous coal there is an average loss of about 250 pounds of coal in the starting of each fire on a locomotive grat'e that is in perfect condition, but where fingers of the grate are broken off or portions of the table segments are missing, the wastage of coal will be as high as a ton in starting each fire.

The object of my present invention is to prevent this loss of fuel by a simple and inexpensive expedient which consists in layin g over the grate surface a sheet or mat of paper. woven fiber or grass, or any combustible material which is comparatively cheap and which will prevent the fine coal falling through its meshes and wasting through the grate. This sheet or mat becomes ignited and is consumed as soon. as the initial bed of coal commences to burn freely, and when this takes place this coal becomes sufiiciently coked to hold together and prevent loss of fuel while the fire is going.

As illustrative of my invention, I show in the drawings a perspective view, broken away, of a locomotive boiler fire box with my invention in service.

As illustrated, the fire box 1 is typical of any top draft fire box having a fuel door 2 with top draft inlet ports 3 therein, a grate 4 of any standard type, and an ash pit 5.

In carrying my invention into effect, we will assume that the grate has been cleaned, as is customary, and is ready for a new fire to be started thereon. I first place in the fire box and spread over the surface of the grate 4 a sheet or mat 6 of some cheap and inexpensive combustible material, such as coarse paper, mats woven of grass or like material. This sheet will substantially cover the grate surface and will be supported thereby. The coal 7 is then introduced and spread on top of the sheet 6 to the desired thickness, kindling is laid on the coal, the top draft ports 3 are opened, and the kindling is ignited. As it burns, it ignites the coal on top and as the latter burns it cokes into a fire bed, the heat of which ignites and consumes the sheet 6. The sheet 6, therefore, will not interfere with the normal updraft through the grate which is called into play as the fire is built up.

I do not desire to be limited to any particular material for the grate covering sheet, as it may be of any substance which is cheap, which will hold the slack coal in place on the grate until it can coke, and which will be consumed when the fire is well started. My covering sheet can be readily applied at a cost of a few cents per fire started thereover, whereas the present wastage of fuel, per fire started, will run from twenty-five cents to three and four dollars, depending on the cost of the fuel and the type and condition of the grates. Moreover, my invention will save much expense in grate repairs hereto fore necessary before a fire could be started on a defective grate, and I avoid the danger of the waste coal becoming ignited in the ash pit, which invariably results in burning up the grate or seriously damaging it.

Having thus described my invention, what prevent the fine coal falling therethrough, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letlaying the initial bed of coal on this sheet 10 ters Patent, is and causing the bed of coal to burn from the The hereindescribed method of preventtop downwardly toward said sheet.

5 ing the lossv of fuel in starting fires on boiler In 6651311110113 whereof I fi y gn grates having a top draft, whichconsists in JOSEPH P. EVANS. substantially covering the grate surface with Witness: a sheet of combustible material adapted to R. D. JOHNSTON, Jr.

Copies of this patent may he obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

' Washington, I). G.

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