US2631782A

US2631782A - Tobacco curing system

Info

Publication number: US2631782A
Application number: US134194A
Authority: US
Inventors: John E Thomas
Original assignee: KING ROOFING AND Manufacturing CO
Current assignee: KING ROOFING AND Manufacturing CO
Priority date: 1949-12-21
Filing date: 1949-12-21
Publication date: 1953-03-17
Anticipated expiration: 1970-03-17

Description

March 17, 1953 J. E. THOMAS TOBACCO CURING SYSTEM 2 SHEETSSHEET 1 Filed Dec. 21, 1949 4 5 5 5 .N 2 mg J.

ATTORNEY March 17, 1953 J. E. THOMAS 2,631,732

TOBACCO CURING SYSTEM Filed Dec. 21, 1949 2 SHEETSSHEET 2 25 4a 4 53 i 57% I! 57 60 37 i (9. 66

[ 44.- an 44 I 37 no 66 ;S

JOHN E. THOMAS, INVENTOR.

- ,4 a BY ATTORNEY Patented Mar. 17, 1953 TOBACCO CURING SYSTEM John E. Thomas, Goldston, N. 0., assignor of onehalf to King Roofing and Manufacturing 00., Sanford, N. 0., a firm Application December 21, 1949, Serial No. 134,194

' 1 Claim. (Cl. 237-53) This invention relates to the art of tobacco curing and more especially to an improved hot air distributing system for use in tobacco curing barns.

It is an object of this invention to provide an improved hot air distributing system for tobacco barns having a centrally located heating plant therein, such as a coal burning furnace, and comprising a plurality of radially extending pipes communicating with the heating chamberof the heating plant and extending to remote areas of the tobacco barn and the ends of all or at least a plurality of these pipes being connected to a common pipe, which, in turn, has branch pipes connected thereto and extending outwardly through the wall of the tobacco barn to thus discharge any of the products of combustion from the heating chamber to the exterior of the barn and to provide extended pipe surface areas for radiating the heat and to thus distribute the heat from the heating chamber evenly throughout the barn.

The object heretofore stated and including the means for discharging the gases of the products of combustion exteriorly of the barn are an important feature of the present invention since heretofore, many of the heating systems and particularly those systems which communicated directly with the chamber in which combustion took place, included pipes which were open at their ends remote from the combustion chamber and thus discharged the products of combustion directly into the barn. This has had a harmful effect on the tobacco being cured, especially where the heat was produced through the combustion of hard coal and the like since most tobacco is damp when it is placed in the tobacco barn and will sweat during the drying process and, in the instance of anthracite coal, one of the products of combustion is sulphur which when mixed with the moisture on the tobacco leaves created an acid condition which would burn parts of the tobacco leaves resulting in an inferior leaf.

Some of the objects of the invention havin been stated, other objects will appear as the description proceeds when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which- Figure 1 is a sectional plan view of a tobacco curing barn showing a centrally located heating plant therein and the pipes comprising the improved hot air distributing system connected thereto;

Figure 2 is an enlarged vertical section taken substantially along the line 2-2 in Figure 1 and showing a form of heating plant or furnace which may be used in conjunction with the hot air distributing system of the present invention and also showing a portion of a coal introducing stoker and parts of the hot air distributing pipes associated therewith;

Figure 3 is an enlarged elevation looking substantially along the left-hand side of Figure 1 but with parts of the near wall omitted so as to show the heating system in elevation disposed within the tobacco barn;

Figure 41 is a schematic elevation showing the furnace and two of the radially extending pipes connected thereto and is taken looking substantially along the line 4-4 in Figure 1 the remaining pipes are omitted for purposes of clarity;

Figure 5 is an elevation similar to Figure 4 and showing a portion of the tobacco barn with parts broken away and also showing the discharge pipes for the products of combustion extending through the walls of the barn and is taken looking substantially along the line 5-5 in Figure 1.

Referring more specifically to the drawings, the numeral H! broadly designates a tobacco barn having a floor H, side walls 12 and I3 and front and rear walls l4 and I5 respectively. This particular barn has a gable roof It provided with a longitudinally extending opening at the ridge thereof and having a suitable ventilating means generally designated at I! thereon. As is well known, the tobacco barn is provided. with a plurality of horizontally disposed tier poles 20, only two of which are shown in Figure 3. The structure of the barn may vary considerably from that described, the barn shown in the drawings merely being shown by way of illustration since the invention resides entirely in a hot air distributing system to be presently described.

There are many types of heating plants or furnaces wherein the products of combustion are discharged directly into the heating chamber of the furnace. Such a type of furnace is shown in Figure 2 and is indicated broadly at 25. This particular furnace 25 is a coal burning furnace having a fire pct 26 disposed therein to which coal is directed from a hopper 21 which is a part of a stoker broadly designated at 30. This stoker may be of any desired construction and includes a driven screw conveyor 3! and a blower, not shown, disposed within: a housing 32, both of which are driven through suitable gearing, not shown, which is, in turn, driven by an electric motor 34 having electric'wires 35 and 36 extending therefrom to a suitable source of electrical energy not shown.

The furnace 25 comprises a jacket 31 having a liner wall of refractory material as on the inside thereof the upper edge of which defines a heating chamber 4! the upper end of which is closed by a top 42 of the jacket 37 and this top 42 being covered with a suitable heat insulation material 43. The jacket 3! is circular, although it may be polygonal if so desired, and has a plurality of radially spaced openings 44 therein in which the inner ends of a plurality of radially extending pipes 45 to 54, inclusive, of a heat distributing system broadly designated at 56 are mounted.

Each of the pipes 45 to 49 has a down-turned pipe elbow 5? connected to the ends thereof remote from the furnace 25 and which are connected to a common pipe 5!! which extends in spaced parallel relation to the left-hand side wall l2 and also extends for substantially half the width of the barn I!) in spaced relation to the front and rear walls l4 and I5 respectively. The common pipe 69 has a pair of discharge pipes El and 82 connected thereto and spaced substantially half-way between the pipes 45 and 41 and 4'! and 48 respectively.

The radially extending pipes 50 to 54, inclusive, also have suitable down-turned pipe elbows 65 on the outer ends thereof which are connected to a common pipe 66 and this pipe 66 also has a pair of spaced discharged pipes in and H connected thereto and being spaced each side of the elbow 65 to which the pipe 5'2 is connected. The common pipes 60 and 68 may be endless and may be joined together if so desired these pipes being shown as two separate pipes in the drawings. in order to provide a space therebetween in which the hopper 21 may be disposed and to also provide a space, for access to the furnace 25 by an operator. It is evident that the

common pipes

60 and 65 are each made up of a plurality of pipe sections and suitable pipe Ts are provided for connecting these pipe sections to one another as well as to the pipes branching therefrom, however, a detailed description of the pipe sections and the pipe Ts is deemed unnecessary since this construction is Well known to the art. Each of the discharge pipes 6!, 62, 10 and H has a down-turned elbow (3 on the outer end thereof to prevent moisture and any foreign matter from falling into the ends of the discharge pipes Gi, 62, 10 and 71.

It is thus seen that I have not only provided an improved heat distributing system for tobacco barns wherein a greater surface area of the pipes is exposed so as to radiate and disribute heat. uniformly throughout the interior of the tobacco learn. but I have also provided m ans for dischar ing the g se or pr duc s of combustion from the furnace. through said pipes n th u h sui able dis har e. pipes to he exterior of. the tobacco barn, these discharge pipes being positioned so, remotely fromv the centrally located heating plant or furnace as to cause very little of the heat to be discharged exteriorly of the barn along with the products of combustion since substantially all of the heat from the heating chamber 4| will have dissipated through the walls of the radially extending pipes 45 to 54, inclusive, and the

common pipes

60 and 66 by the time the products of combustion are discharged into the atmosphere. The down-turned elbows 51 and on the ends of the radially extending pipes 45' to 54, inclusive, assist in preventing the heated air from being discharged through the discharge pipes since the air will tend to rise through radiation and convection until cooled.

In the drawings and specification there has been set forth a preferred embodiment of the invention, and although specific terms are employed, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only, and not for purposes of limitation, the scope of the invention being defined in the claim.

I claim:

A tobacco curing system for tobacco barns have ing a furnace therein provided with-a combustion chamber and a heating chamber and said furnace having a plurality of radially spaced openings therein communicating with the heating chamber, said system comprising a plurality of radially extending pipes connected at one of their ends to the furnace and communicating with the openings in the heating chamber, a down-turned pipe elbow on the outer ends of each of the radially extending pipes, a common pipe connected to the open end of each of the down-turned pipe elbows, at least one discharge pipe connected to the common pipe and extend-. ing radially therefrom relative to the furnace and through the adjacent wall of the barn to thus discharge the products of combustion from the furnace exteriorly of the barn and also to provide extended pipe surface areas for radiating and distributing heat uniformly throughout the barn.

JOHN E. THOMAS.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file f h s pa n UNITED STATES PATENTS