US184361A - Improvement in heating and feeding air to furnaces - Google Patents

Description

-2 Sheets-Sheet Z.

J. FERGUSoN. Y HEATING AND FEEDING AIR T0 FURNACES.

No.184,361. P nnnnn ea,Nov.14,1a7`s.

'forced or directed against the boiler.

UNITED STATES PATENT Cri-rca JOHN FERGUSON, OF PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPRovEMENT iN HEATING AND FEEDING AIR To FuRNAcEs.

Specification forming p art of Letters Patent No. 184,361, datedpNovember 14, 1876; application filed September 1, 1876. l

To all 'whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN FERGUSON, of

'-Pittsburg, in the countyof Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Furnaces; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it pertains to make and use it, reference being` had to the accompanying drawings, which form part of this speciiication, in which- Figure l is a longitudinal vertical section. Fig. 2 is a horizontal section through fines c. Fig. 3 is a horizontal section through ues c. Fig. 4 is atransverse section on line .fc a'. Fig. 5 is a transverse section on line a," zr. Fig. 6 is a detail. Fig. 7, another. Fig. 8 shows tlues c dipping vertically.

This invention relates to furnaces of that class in which the products of primary combustion are mingled with highly-heated atmospheric air, to form an inflammable gas, which is ignited by the flames and consumed; and consists in the arrangement and combination of parts, as hereinafter fully described and claimed.

In the drawings I illustrate my invention as applied to a steam-boiler, A, which in'this case is of the dome-headed construction, but may be of any other kind. B is the combustion chamber, at or about the end of the boiler. At the inner end of this chamber I erect a hollow bridge, O, having its rear wall perforated, asin Fig. 5.V Beyond this bridge, starting from the surface of the boiler, is a hanging bridge, D, whose lower edge dips below the level of the lowest perforations in bridge C. This construction causes the flames and smoke or gases to dive down and up, as indicated by the arrows in spaces t and k thence up over the solid bridge e, so as to be Then it passes along the open space a under the boiler, turns upward through a, and passes around the boiler, through fine b, to the smokestack. As this encircling-line b is no part of the present invention, I need not describe it further, or allude to it in any way.

Entering from the front of furnace or thereabout, and passing through its containingthe bridge c the flues c c diverge laterally,

asin Fig. 3, or vertically as in Fig. 8, then pass along parallel to their former direction, still toward the front, till they reach a point laterally or vertically in line with the hollow bridge C, into which they then immerge. The

specific arrangement of these fines forms the chief part of my invention. The air receives heat from the very moment of its entrance, because the flue passes along the walls of the combustion-chamber; and, throughout the length of the air-hues, air is in almost immediate contact with the flames, separated by onlyafewinches at every point. Hence, there must be a constant accession to the air of the radiated heat, and the heat increases constantly up to the very point wherethe air should be hottest-viz., whereit emerges from the hollow bridge into the space i. In fact, I have succeeded in bringing the air to such degree of heat that it sufficed to melt zinc, requiring a temperature of no less the 6000 Fahrenheit. The air, thus highly heated,

passes through'the rear of bridge C, strikes into, and is intimately mingled with,the gases of combustion in space i. The consequence is, the heated oxygen feeds the gases until they ignite and produce an intense heat, which is then carried upward to heat the boiler. The boiler is thus heated by an intenselyhot ame which produces no smoke, and therefore no carbon or soot is deposited on the boiler to form a non-conducting surface. Thus I utilize a large amount of the heat actually produced, but wasted, under ordinary circumstances; and I do away with the necessity of cleaning surfaces, while at the same time I effect complete combustion of the fuel productsand thereby add largely to the heat first developed by the initial consumption of the fuel. The result is, intense steam is formed for use in a short space of time, and the furnace consumes but little fuel.

The characteristic of myinvention is in combining simplicity of construction With such arrangement of air-fines, With relation to the tire-space, as shall effect aconstant steady increase in the temperature of the incoming air from its first entrance up to the point Where it is utilizedso that at no time in its passage shall it suffer cooling, or a stand-still in temperature.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as my invention is- The combination of the fines c and c/arranged substantially as described, with the hollow bridge C, having its rear surface perforatedfor the admission of air to the main ilue, substantially as specified.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing, I have hereunto set my hand this 29th day of August, 1876.

" JOHN FERGUSON.

Witnesses:

PHILIP ARBoGAsT, THos. J. MCTIGHE.

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