US1546450A

US1546450A - Furnace

Info

Publication number: US1546450A
Application number: US701982A
Authority: US
Inventors: John W Meaker
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1924-03-26
Filing date: 1924-03-26
Publication date: 1925-07-21
Anticipated expiration: 1942-07-21

Description

July 21, 1925. 1,546,450

J. w. MEAKER FURNACE Filed March 26, 1924 llllif T" 7 g5 I! l' Atacna) PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN W'.a MEAKER, 0F EVANSTON, ILLINOIS.

FUBNACE.

Application villetl Inroh', 1924. Serial No. 701,962.

To all wlwfnyz't may oom-em.' Be it vknown th t I, JOHNW. MEAKER, a

citizen of the United States, residin at Evanston, lin the county of Cook and tate of Illinois, have invented certain new and vuseful Improvements in Furnaces, of which the followin is a specification.I

My invention relates to certain improvements in hot air furnaces and is concernedmore particularly. with ,the construction of furnaces using a iuid, that is, oil or gas, as

.. a fuel.

The principal object of the invention isYV to provide an oil or gas burnin furnace, more particularly for a domestlc heating plant, which will be so constructed as to" utilize to the fullestl extent the heat developed by the burner and which -will distribute the heated air to the space or spaces to which it is destined as effectively as possirble and in 4the quantity required. These purposes are carrled out by a certain novel construction of the furnace calculated to eiiect a maximum heat exchange as between the combustion gases and the circulating air; and,`preferably, through the employment of an automatically controlled blower or fan for producing a continuous circulation of air through the furnace to the space to be heated and from such space back to the furnace.

`The invention comprises other incidental features of improvement to be hereinafter described and claimed. It is realized that some -of these improved features might'be employed in the coal burning furnace; and

that, although it is preferableto use all of the described features in Icombination, it is not essential to do so. It is, therefore, my intention to coverl the invention in its preferred embodiment as shown in the drawing appended hereto and also all modifications of such embod ent as may come with'- in the scope of the appended claims.

In the drawing- Fig. 1 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view of a furnace and a purtenances thereto constructed in accor ance with my invention.

Fig. 2 is a sectional plan on line 2-2 of Fig. 1, and

Fig. 3 is a sectional plan view, on a larger scale, on line 3-3of Fi 1.

Referring to the drawlng, the furnace is shown as consisting of an outer, upright, cylindrical casing 10 and an inner casing 11,

these casings providing an inner combustion space 12 and an-outer .air space 13.

Leading from the air space 13 are one or more flues 14'for conveying heated air to the apartment or apartments to be heated. 15

lis ajreturn air flue, the inlet end of which extends. to an opening in the iiooring `16 above thefurnace,'this opening bein provided with a gridor register 17. n the particular embodiment of the invention shown inthe drawing, which* embodiment,

however, is subject to modication lin this respect without departure from'the invention, the air lis contlnuou'sly circulated from the furnace tothe apartments to be heated through Hot 'air flues 1 4 and back to the furnace Ithrough return flue 15. The installation has no fresh air pipe from outside the house although such pipe may be pro 'vided if desired.

Preferably a blower ('by 'which I intend any means for creating air pressure) 'ispro vided for forcing lair from` the return flue through the' furnace and hot air flues. In the drawing'I have 'shown for this purpose a fan 18 located between the vertical leg 19' and the horizontal leg 20 of the return iiue 15, which fan'is driven by an electric motor 21. The blower may be operated continuously but preferably its aetlon is intermittent vand is controlled thermostatically inaccordance with the tem rature of the apartment or apartments to is, the bloweris set in operation when the room temperature falls to a certain point and is shut of when. the tem raturerises above a certain point. The controlling the operation of the blower which, of course, will be adjustable to operate at any particular temperature for which it is set, is designated 22and may be employed lalso for opening and closing the fur-- nace damper7 but as this `arrangement is common it has not been shown on the drawheated. That ermostat lfor loo ing. As the fan., when idle, with its motor,

tends to block or interfere with the flow of air through the return flue and into the fur'- nace, a by-pass 23 around the blower outfit is provided having a damper 24 which is closed when the blower is inoperation and opened when the blower is out of operation. Preferably this damperis autom-atically controlled by the thermostat 22 which controls thel operation of the blower. rI he mechanism for energizing and deenergizing fan motor 21 and opening and closing damper 24 may be as follows: 25 is a motor of any suitable type for giving oscillating movements to a lever arm 251. Motor 25 is in circuit with battery 26 and thermostat 22. 27 is a cord or chain attached to arm 25"L and extending over a -sheave 28 and attached at its lower end to of high temperature is more restricted,`

necessarily, because of the character of the fuel, than in a coal burning furnace. In order that an oil flame, for example, may be used economically the circulating a-.ir must be brought to the center ofthe coinbustioii space by ducts constructed so as to bring about as complete heat exchangeI as is possible.y This I accomplish by providing a horizontal partition 3S across the air space 13, dividing` said space into upper and

lower chambers

39, 40 and by providing a plurality of air heating ducts 41, the opposite ends Y of which open into the air space on oppositesides ofl partition 38, and which project radially toward the center of the combustion space 12. This division of the air passage through the furnace ,into a plurality of ducts necessarily increases the frictional resistance to the air flow as well as diminishing the effective cross sectional area of the air passage making very desirable the forced draft above described in order that the volume of air passed per unit of time should be sufficient for the maximum requirement. The burner 42, which may be of any preferred type, is located belowsducts 41, the inner portions of the Walls of which are preferably provided with radiating studs 48 which project into or, ifv desired, all the way across the ducts and into the vcentral space between the ducts for the purpose yof increasing the amount of heat transferred from the gases in the combustion space to the air currents passing through the air heating ducts 41. These studs may either be cast integral with the ducts or they may consist of threaded bolts, as shown in Fig. 3, which are screwed through threaded openings in the walls of the ducts. The capacity of the studs for absorbing and giving out heat is increased by their threading. This expedient for increasing heat transference is of importance inasmuch as the diminished cross sectional area, of the air passageway (aggregate cross sectional areas of ducts 41 in comparison with the cross sectional area of the air space 13) either increases the volume of air passed or, when the blower operates, involves amore rapid movement of the air. Preferably the oil or' gas supply will be regulated also by the thermostat 22. With this in view the supply pipe 44 is provided with a valve 45 the operating lever 4G of which is connected by chain 47 with arm 29. Chain 47 has a weight 48 at its lower end. Valve 45 is open at all times but is moved to a throttling position when the blower is stopped.

`There are certain other incidental features which are preferable and should be mentioned: It sometimes happens that one room of a house is more difficult to heat than another. hot air Hue leading to such room, designated 14a in the drawing, may be directly connected with one' of theair heating ducts, designated 41, by a short pipe section 49.

Under some circumstances. it may be advisable to allow acertain amount of air in chamber 40 of air space 13 to pass directly to the upper chamber 39. To makethis pos-i 'sible partition 38 is perforated, as indicated at 50, and a damper 51 provided for controlling the air flow through these perfora tions.

For the purpose of humidifying the heated air, the partition 38 may be formedvto provide a well or pocket 52 which may be supplied with water through pipe 53, the valve 54 of which may be set so as to provide a trickle of water just sufficient to take care of evaporation; or, as is preferable, the end of pipe 53 may be provided with a ball valve 55 suitably caged.

Operation: When the requirement for heat is considerable the fan 18 is in operation to draw air through register 17 and re. turn air duct 15 and force the same into the lower chamber 40 of the air space 13l of the furnace. The damper 24 in ley-pass is closed, that is, in the position shown in Fig. `1. The air being unable to pass directly from chamber 40 to chamber 39 (eX- cept as a certain amount may pass through the openings 50 dependent upon the adjustment of damper 51) the air forced from the return duct by the fan "is compelled to passl in divided streams through the air heating ducts 41 which are arranged so as to extend directly above the burner 42. For this reason the circulating air is very -effectively heated and with the greatest possible economy of fuel. The heat exchange -is facilitated by the radiating studs 43. When the temperature in the apartment to be heated rises to a certain point for which thermostat 22 is set, the thermostat closes the circuit through motor 25 and the lever 251 is rocked to the left (Fig. 1). This causes circuit breaker 33 to break the circuit through the llVhen this is the case the' ico iio

fan motor 21 and rocks damper 24 to an open position so that air in the return duct 15 may by-pass the blower outfit. At the same time, in the case of an oil or gas burning furnace, the supply of fuel tothe burner is diminished by partial closing of valve 45. In the case of a coal burning furnace the furnace damper will ordinarily be moved through operation of the thermostatic mechanism to slow down the tire. When the temperature falls below the minimum for which thermostat 22 is set to act, moto-r 25 is energized to move arm 26 to the right and weight 32 brings abo-ut the closing of damper 24; and a movement of the lever 35 of circuit breaker 33 which closes the fan motor circuit 34, whereupon the fan is set in motion and the sup-ply of fuel to the burner is increased.

I claim:

l. In a hot air furnace having an inner combustion space and an. outer air space, a fluid fuel burner in the combustionspace., a. plurality of air heating ducts opening at their opposite ends into the air space and extending through the combustion space into proximity with the burner, and means fon producing a forced draft of air through said air heating ducts.

2. In a hot air furnace having an inner combustion space and an outer air space, a Huid fuel burner in the combusti-on space, a partition extending across `said air space, a pluralityy of air heating ducts opening at their opposite ends into the air space on opposite sides of said partition and extending through the combustion space into proximity with the burner, and means for p-roducing a forced draft of air through said air heating ducts.

3. In a hot air furnace having an inner combustion space and an outer air space, a partition extending across said air space, a plurality of air heating ducts opening at their opposite ends into the air space on opposite sides of said partition and extending through the combustion space toward the center thereof, and a blower for forcing air through said chiots.

4L. In a hot air furnacehaving an inner combustion space and an outer air space, ai' fluid fuel burner in the combustion space, a plurality -of air heating ducts opening at their opposite ends into the air space and extending through the combustion space into proximity with the burner, the walls of said ducts being provided with radiating studs extending into the ducts and into the space in the combustion chamber within said ducts and means for producing a forced draft through said air ducts.

5. In a hot air furnace having an inner combustion space and an outer air space, a partition extending across said air space, a plurality of air heating ducts opening at 'their opposite ends into the air spaceon 0pmeans for producing a forced draft of air` through said air heating ducts.

6@ In a hot air furnace having an inner combustion space and an outer air space, a partition extending across said air space, air heating ducts opening at opposite ends into said air space at opposite sides `of said partition and extending convergingly into the combustion space, the walls of which ducts are formed with radiating studs extending into said ducts and into the central combustion space between the same' and means for producing a forced draft through said ducts.

7. In a hot air furnace having a combustion space and an air space, hot air fines extending from the air space to the apartments to be heated, a return flue leading to the air space, a blower in said flue, a bypass around said blower, and mechanism wherebyT the by-pass is closed when the blower is put in operation and is open when the operation of the blower ceases.

8. In a hot air furnace having a combustion space and anair space, hot air fines extending Vfrom the air space tothe apartments to be heated, a return flue leading to the air space, a blower in said flue, a bypass around said blower, and: thermostatically actuated mechanism whereby the bypass is closed when the blower is put in operation and is open when the ope-ration of the b-lower ceases.

9. In a hot air furnace having an inner combustion. space and an'outer air space, hot air fiues leading from the air space, a return flue leading to said air space, a partition extending across the air space, a plurality of air heat-ing ducts opening at opposite ends into the air heating space on opposite sides of said partition and extending toward the center ofthe combustion space, and means for forcing air from the air return flue into said air space.

10. In a hot air furnace, the combination of outer and inner vertically arranged, cylindrical casings providing an inner combustion space and an outer air space, a horizontal partition across said air space, a plurality of air heating ducts which openinto said air space at their opposite ends on opposite sides of said partition and extend radially into the co-mbustion space, a plurality of hot air fines leading from the air spacev above said partition, a return air flue leading to the air space below said partition, and a blower in said return air flue.

11. In a hot air furnace, the combination A of outer and inner vertically arranged, ey-

lindric-al casings providing an inner combustion space Vand an outer air space, a horizontal partition across said air space, a plurality of air heating ducts which open into f said air space at their opposite ends on opposite sides of said partition and extend radially into the combustion space, a plun rality of hot air fines leading from the air space above said partition, a return air flue leading to the air space below said partition, a blower in sai-d flue, a by-pass around the blower, a damper in the by-pass, and a thermostatically actuated' mechanism which operates alternately to set the blower in operation and close the damper and to stop the blower and open the damper.

12. ln a hot air furnace, the combination of outer and inner vertically arranged, cylindrical casings providing an inner combust-ion space and an outer air space, a horizontal partition across said air space, a plurality of air heating ducts which open into said air space at theiibopposite ends on opposite Sides ofv said partition and extend inmenso radially into the combustion space, a plurality of hot air lues leading from the air space above said partition, a return air flue leading to the air space below said partition, said ducts being provided With radiatfuel burner and means through which air vto be heated and products of combustion from the burner are adapted to be passed, said furnace being formed so as to provide a plurality of separate ducts for one of said gases Which extend into the space through Which the other gas is passed, and means for producing a forced draft of the air to be heated through said furnace.

JUHN W. MEAKER.