US1302061A - Smoke-consuming furnace. - Google Patents

Description

9.. Lox. SMOKE CONSUMING FURNACE.

ARRLlC/TION FILED OCT.28,1914.

LSOKQL Patented Apr. 29,1919.

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OSCAR LOX, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 20, 191.0.

Application led October 28, 1914. Serial No. 869,003.

To all whom t may concern Be it known that 1, Oscar Lox, a citizen ofthe United States, and a resident of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and use-v ful Improvements in Smoke-Consuming` Furnaces, of which the following is a speci- Y fic ation.

My invention relates to smoke consuming devices and has particular reference to injectors of air. The objects of the invention are to improve the operation and at the same time simplify the construction of air conduits for the purpose of attaining results that have been sought but not attained by prior constructions and to provide a Workable construction and arrangement of the suction siphoning` or vacuum-producing device.

I am aivare that numerous devices have heretofore been designed for the purpose of injecting air and steam into a furnace, as eX- emplified by Patents Nos. 100,947, 260,824, 320,906, 505,461, 654,175, 661,760, 596,024, 807,976, 586,477, 609,225, 317,775, 740,743 and others using steam jets, steam and cold air, steam and liot air, etc. The prior efforts in this direction have had the common object of getting air into the furnace above the bed of fuel in their various Ways as though steam and air were fuel and the main consideration Were to get these elements into the furnace by other routes than through the grate-bars- These prior inventions shoW arrangements of more or less nu lmerous steam and air jets directed in all directions above the bed of fuel With little, if consideration of the usual operation of i With hollouT grate-bars, draftarrangements from ash-pit to bridge Wall or smoke-stack, etc.,` hence in many instances the alleged smoke consuming devices have included means for retarding the draft, which could more simply beI accomplished by closing the usual draft doors than by providing retarding bridge-Walls and the like. While steam-jets and cold or hot air `injections above the fuel have in many cases diminished smoking they have generally been rejected because they have also lowered the temperature of the furnace, interfered With the draft and made it harder for the fireman to produce thenecessary amount of steam pressure. However these devices are in use 'to some extent Where lsmoke must be prevented at 'whatever costd r1l`he presentinvention contemplates a simple construction and arrangement which will inject `heated air above the bed of fuel without disturbing the usual operation of a furnace', which includes an uninterrupted draft from the ash-pit to the smoke stack. ln fact the present construction and arrangement is designed to not only leave undis turbed the old functions or operations but to aid them While with the aid of heated air and dry steam for siphoning purposes effecting` the consumption of smoke Without arresting' the latter in its usual travel for that purpose. ther contemplates the use of fresh heated air and not a partly choking combination of air, gases of combustion and smoke drawn from the combustion chamber and returned by means of an injector, experience having` taught that such jet-s or currents as are drawn fromV the combustion chamber Will not. accomplish the object sought in an aeceptable manner if at all.

My invention consists in the novel construction, combination and arrangement of parts` all as hereinafter described in det-ail. illustrated in the accompanyingdrawing and incorporated in the appended claims.

1n the drawing- Figure 1 is a perspective vieiv of an arrangement embodying; my invention, the usual and Well knoivn furnace construction for a boiler being indicated by dotted lines to make the present. invention more plain.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged section taken substantially on line of Fig` 1, this section representing' one side the other side being substantially identical.

In the several views 2, S, 4 and 5 represent sections which form substantially a continuous pipe having a mouth 6 opening into the ash-pit and thence continuing through the side-Wall, the bridge wall, the opposite side Wall and the front Wall in which Walls the pipe is embedded to cause a `gradual and suificiently high heating of the air passing through the pipe. The side Walls, which are usually brick Work, are indicated as 8 and 9 and the front Walljas 10. The circle 1.1 represents the boiler or boiler opening. 12

. and 13 are the fire doors and 14 and 15 the The present invention furi The nozzle are embedded in like manner in the side, bridge and front walls. The pipe 2 to 5 discharges through a pair of nozzles 22 and 23, the former being on a T 25 on the end of the section 5 and the latterbeing on a cross interposed in the section 5 which consist of two pieces of piping connected by the cross. Into the branch of the cross 26 alined with the nozzle 23 is threaded a hollow plug 27 through which passes a steam pipe 28 made steam tight with the usual stuffing boX 29. 22 is similarly equipped with a The general idea of inserting end of a steam pipe in or near the discharge end of an airpipe is not claimed as new. Vhat is claimed is the par ticular arrangement which effects the object sought and which many others have failed to obtain, namely, to produce a jet of air with the necessary power or force to accomplish the consumption of smoke without fillsteam pipe. the discharge mg the combustion chamber with saturated steam and thus retarding the consumption of fuel, or reducing the number of heat units. i

The air-pipe 1S to 21 terminates in nozzles 3l and 32 the details of which are substantially shown in Fig. 2 reversed. The steam pipes 28 and 30 are supplied with steam from a pipe 33, which, in turn receives steam from a pipe 34c leading to the steam dome, as illustrated in several of the patents mentioned, it being essential that substantially dry steam or steam under the usual high pressure near its source be supplied to the discharge ends of the steam pipes 28 and 30. Any suitable means in the matter of the injector arrangement has been found by experience to be inadequate for this purpose, nor does this purpose appear to be understood in any of the arrange ments where the chief concern has been to inject quantities rather than qualities of air and steam mixtures and in any direction regardless of the direction of the usual draft currents. The general idea in all the smoke con sumers referred to has been to inject a liberal quantity of air or steam or both into the body of the carbon or gases of combus tion rising from the burning fuel thus stirring these elements together. This theory has proved ineffectual in practice. In the present invention a blanket of highly heated air, as it were, constantly moving in the direction of draft, is kept over the combustion space or bed of fuel. This blanket of intensely hot air being arranged substantially on a level with the top of the bridgewall, I therefore arrange the inject-ors to discharge over and close to the top of the bridge-Wall as shown in Fig. 1. The present invention therefore does notdo what prior inventions purported to do, namely, burn smoke with heated air or steam, but it prevents the formation of smoke or unconsumed carbon by eliminating the comparatively cool area in which smoke is formed, or, in other words, covering it with a hot blanket formed by the jets of heated air and dry steam sufficient to provide the required movement of this blanket in aid of the draft. After the black smoke or unconsumed carbon has been formed above the bed of fuel it cannot be consumed by anything short of the equivalent of an intense flame, cokcd bed of coals through which it would pass, or air heated into a blue flame. This is why the many alleged smoke consuming devices have failed to consume smoke. A bed of live coals resting on the bridge Wall and on my injector nozzles would accomplish what my invention accomplishes if it could do it without interfering with the draft. My substantially endless and rapidly moving canopy of heated air not only supplies enough heat from above to permit the furnace itself to burn the smoke but aids the draft instead of interfering with it. Interference with the draft obviously lowers the normal efficiency of the furnace and where smoke is to some extent more or less accidentally prevented by devices operating on the old theory, these devices require a larger furnace and more consumption of fuel in order to produce the required number of heat units. lVhere, as in the present opera tion, the normal draft functions are aided by the heated cover, there will be a large saving instead of waste of fuel.

As shown in Fig. l each of the air pipes traverses through all of the four Walls beginning at the forward end of the ash pit. From the ash pit each pipe extends to a level above the grate bars, thence to the bridge wall, diagonally through the latter, thence through the opposite side wall above the lgrate bars, and. finally, through the front wall to the injectors. The pipe in each instance is embedded in the Wall about two inches from its inner side which heats it with suflicient intensity without burning it up, as has been thoroughly demonstrated for a considerable period with an experimental device. The movement of heated air through the pipe is aided by its arrangement whereby the path through the bridge wall is upwardly inclined and by the length of piping successively rising to a higher .level from intake to outlet which gives momentum to the flow. Extending the pipe along all of the four walls of the furnace also gives ample time for gradually intensifying the heat of the air without burning up the pipe which serves as its conduit. As shown in Fig. 2 the nozzles are embedded in the wall which protects them against being burned up and leaves the interior of the furnace free from obstructions.

TheJ discharge eri-ds' of the Steam pipes are represented as 35 and 36 in Fig. 2. I have found that in order to produce the necessary suction power it is not sufficient that these ends enter theair pipes near their discharge ends, but they must extend some distance beyond the crossing or the pat-h through the pipe section 5 or 21. Where the discharge end of the steam pipe barely crosses the opening through the pipe 5 the suction force will be inadequate and I there fore extend the discharge ends of the steam pipes' several inches beyond the pipe 5 and let the nozzles extend several inches beyond the ends of the steam pipes. The short sections 5 and 21 will therefore be embedded a little deeper in the front wall than the sections in the side and bridge walls, which, as stated, are preferably embedded about two inches from the inner wall surfaces.

lith the pipes for conducting air extended and arranged as shown l am able-to produce jets of air from nozzles to bridge of sufficient force with the aid of a small jet of live steam, say, one-eighth inch open` ing through each of the pipes 28 and 30 for an air pipe two inches in diameter. The proportion of steam is therefore small, and whether the jets or blanket of superheated air and steam converts unconsumed carbon into carbonic acid or colorless vapor by consuming the carbon or preventing its formation, the construction and arrangement herein shown has been fully demonstrated as an actual smoke preventative. Dense clouds of very black smoke have been almost instantaneously converted into colorless vapor when the device has been put into operation. After the bed of coal has been coked or become incandescent of course it is not necessary to operate the device except for the purpose 0f intensifying the heat of an incandescent mass of coal, bv aiding the draft, etc. The stratum of superheated steam and air provides, as it were, a cover or additional hot side which also serves as an endless conveyer or apron carrying @if the gases of combustion promptly andv clearing the burning area of coking gases.

While the simple construction is shown in the drawing as successfully operating in the ordinary form of stationary boiler furnace, the invention is not in its embodiment restricted to that form. Steamboat and locomotive furnaces have different forms as to the arrangement of bridge-wall. Fur naces which have no bridge wall have, however, the equivalent for the purpose of this invention so far as concerns a place where the gases of combustion leave the furnace to enter the smoke stack. The absence of a bridge wall would necessitate a rearrange ment of .air-pipes toobtain the same results herein shown and described and involving sufficiently heated air as pure as it is found in the ash-pit as distinguished from. air" taken from the furnace above the grate bars, sufficient prolongation of the pipe to get the air heated withoutburning up the pipe, a conduit arranged to give the necessary momentum and force to the air currents so that they will do more than merely flow into the fire-place in larger or smaller quantities, the proper direction of the air currents in order to obtain the result herein disclosed as distinguished from the universal theory of merely supplying air to the furnace by other routes than the gratebars, the avoidance of saturation by steam or cooling by air which offsets in the way of additional fuel consumption any advantages that may be gained in the way of smoke prevention or consumption, the proper mounting of the steam-jet with relation to the air-pipe and steam-j et nozzle etc. None of these elements may be neglected as in the prior art in making the present invention operative. If the steam or air jet, for instance, is directed to the base of the bridgewall the latter will be damaged by intensely localized heat, or clinkers will be produced, or both, and smoke will not be prevented over more than a part of the burning area, if at all.

Having thus described my invention, 1 claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent 1. The combination with the vertical walls of a furnace, including a rear wall over which the gases of combustion pass, of an air pipe extending along and embedded in said walls, said air pipe having its inlet near the forward end of the furnace and its outlet. in the forward end, and means in said forward end for discharging al jet of air over and close to the top of said rear wall.

'2. The combination with the front, side and rear walls of a furnace, said rear wall arranged to provide a passage thereover for the gases of combustion, of a pair of airheating pipes embedded in all of said four walls and crossing each other in said rear wall. said pipes arranged to open from the ash pit and to discharge from the front wall in the direction of the top of the rear wall.

3. The combination with the four walls of a. furnace, of an uninterrupted conduit for conveying air from the ash-pit to the front wall of said furnace, said conduit arranged to be heated by all of said four walls, and means for discharging said air from said front wall into the interior of'said furnace.

il. The combination with the four vertical walls of a furnace, of a pair of con tinuous or uninterrupted conduits opening, respectively, from opposite sides of the ashpit of said furnace and Idischarging into the interior of the furnace from out of the front walls of said furnace, said conduits paralleling every one of said four Walls, and ineans for discharging jets of air from the front across the top of the rear Wall of Said furnace.

5. The combination with the four Walls of a furnace, of an air pipe having an inlet end and a discharge end, said pipe paralleling` all of said four walls to be heated 10 thereby7 and means for forcing jets of air from said discharge end over the rear Wall of said furnace.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of two subscribing Witnesses.

OSCAR LUX. Witnesses CEAS. R. Lox, LYDIA S. Lox.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for ve cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C.

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