US2686516A - Orchard heater - Google Patents

Description

c. YAWMAN, JR

ORCHARD HEATE Filed Aug. 51 19 Z! Ki ,2;

Patented Aug. 17, 1954 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ORCHARD HEATER Charles F. Yawman, Jr., Ontario, Calif. Application August 31, 1950, Serial No. 182,509

7 Claims. 1 My invention relates to a burner for liquid fuel and is intended particularly for use in orchard heaters, although capable of use for various other purposes.

One drawback of many orchard heaters which use liquid fuel consists in the fact that their fuel supply must be replenished, preferably in the daytime, but sometimes at night, as when there is a shortage of labor or of fuel. A factor that makes this work dangerous as well as disagreeable is the fact that the clothing of workers becomes soaked with oil, which is not only cold to the wearer but all too frequently becomes ignited and gives rise to dangerous burns and sometimes to fatal burns. It has been proposed to install a system of burners that are connected by pipe lines to a common source of supply, but the cost of installation and upkeep of such a system is so high as to be almost prohibitive, the pipes interfere with various necessary horticultural operations, and in general such schemes have not proved satisfactory. Even with such systems, their operation is improved by use of a burner as herein disclosed, since their operation is made more practical and effective due to the automatic regulation within the self-contained burner units.

It is an object of my invention to provide orchard heaters that can be placed sufliciently close together to protect an orchard against any ordinary freeze and, in fact, to protect most orchards even against a great freeze such as may be expected only once in about seven to ten years, but which can hold suflicient fuel to burn through even the entire night if necessary, without exhaustion of fuel.

Another object is to provide orchard heaters that are simple and inexpensive to manufacture, requiring little attention and little or no upkeep during their useful life.

Another object is to provide a liquid fuel burner that shall be self-regulating in that the supply of fuel is reduced or cut off if too large a supply of gas is being formed.

Another object is to provide a liquid fuel burner that shall be efficient in consumption of fuel, leaving very little, if any, non-consumable residue and being smokeless, or substantially so, in its operation.

Referring to the annexed drawings, which are made a part of this application, and in which similar reference characters indicate similar parts:

Fig. l is an elevation of the device of my invention, partly in section,

Fig. 2 is a section on line 2-2 of Fig. 1,

Figure 3, a section on line 3-3 of Fig. l, and

Fig. 4, a section of a float valve shown in Fig. 1.

In the drawings, reference character it indicates a tank, supported on legs H and provided, at a convenient height for refilling, with a lid l2 hinged to the tank at it. A conduit M leads down from the tank to the outer end of a tubular retort l5. Preferably the conduit It consists of two pipe sections I! and It and section I! is provided with a manually operable valve it, e. g., a needle valve or the like, for shutting off the supply of fuel. In a descending portion of the pipe there is provided a float valve (Fig. 4) between the two pipe sections ll and It, said valve comprising a casing 19 providing a chamber for a ball 28 which is preferably of durable material, such as metal of suitable size and weight, and a seat at Z! in the top of the chamber. The pressure of the gas formed in the retort will lift the ball and should keep it near the top of the valve chamber, so that the flow of liquid fuel to the retort is automatically regulated by the floating action of the ball riding on the liquid fuel.

The retort i5 is formed as a substantially annular tube extending about the interior of a frustoconical shroud 22 near the upper end of said shroud and has adjacent its outlet end an arm 23 extending radially inward approximately to the center of the shroud, said arm being connected to the spiral body of the retort by a downwardly extending portion 23'. The shroud is flared upwardly somewhat from its smaller lower end to its larger upper end to provide space for expansion of the contained hot air and gas. It is supported on a pan 24 by legs 25 which space it from the pan to permit entrance of air at the lower end of the shroud.

The retort is supplied at the inner end of arm 23 with a plug 26 for use as a clean-out device at the end of the season or at other times as needed. The pipe portions 23 and 23 serve as a trap for non-consumable residues or other foreign material.

A baffle 21 which is spiral as seen in plan is supported from the retort by means of brackets 28, 28 that engage over parts of the retort and have depending legs secured to the baffle. The baffle, which may be made of sheet metal or the like, is preferably bent so as to encircle the axis of the shroud in spaced relation to the trap 23, 23 and extending upward from the.level of the same. At its outer end the bafiie extends nearly to the outlet port of a nozzle 29 in such residual liquid fuel issuing from port 29 by mixing flame back into flame and maintaining a high temperature for complete gasification at this point. Air enters the lower end of the heater at the space between pan 2'3 and the lower margin of the shroud, and hot air passes upward out of the shroud in obvious manner. The depending parts 23 and 23' provide space for collection of any residues, and keep them out of the way of the gas passing to the outlet of nozzle 29, so as to prevent interference with the feed to said port.

It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that many changes may be made in the device herein disclosed, all without departing from the spirit of the invention; and, therefore, I do not limit myself to what is shown in the drawings and described in the specification, but only as indicated in the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is:

1. An orchard heater comprising a shroud having a circular wall about an upright axis, a tubular retort within said wall and parallel thereto, means for supplying liquid fuel to said retort, an outlet nozzle connected with said retort, and a bafiie having its leading edge positioned to split a jet issuing from said nozzle, said baffle being substantially concentric with said shroud to provide therewith concentric whirling currents of flame within the shroud.

2. A device as in claim 1, including a downward terminal extension on the retort for collection of non-consumable residues, a drainage port on said extension, and a plug for the port.

3. An orchard heater comprising a liquid fuel burner having an outer shroud formed as an inverted frustuin of a cone mounted on a vertical axis, an annular tubular retort in said shroud and substantially concentric therewith, means for supplying liquid fuel to said retort, an outlet nozzle for said retort, and a baffle substantially concentric with said shroud, said bafile having a leading edge positioned to split the jet of gasified fuel issuing from said nozzle into vortical inner and outer currents.

4. An orchard heater comprising an upright shroud having a circular wall, a conduit for liquid fuel, said conduit having a body portion spaced inwardly from said wall and approximately concentric therewith and forming a retort for gasifying the fuel, a sheet metal baflie below the retort, said bailie having a portion approximately coaxial with the retort, an outlet nozzle for said retort, said nozzle being so positioned with reference to the leading edge of the baflle as tosplit the jet of gasified fuel issuing from the nozzle into inner and outer whirling currents, substantially as set forth.

5. A device as in claim 4, including a pan fixed to the shroud in spaced relation to the lower end of the same, so as to admit air to the burner.

6. A device as in claim 4, wherein the conduit includes a downwardly extending terminal portion, an end portion extending from said depending portion to the axis of the shroud for collecting non-consumable residues and a drainage ping in said last-named conduit portion.

7. A device as in claim 6, and a pan spaced from the shroud and fixed thereto for receiving the unconsumed drainage from the retort.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 597,028 Serpollet Jan. 11, 1898 688,765 White Dec. 10, 1901 765,985 McLeod July 26, 1904 40 976,898 McQuerry et al. Nov. 29, 1910 1,269,192 Kahn June 11, 1918 1,558,148 Demyanovich Oct. 20, 1925 2,016,002 Fugit Oct. 1, 1935 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 14,164 Great Britain 1908 233,906 Great Britain May 21, 1925 444,632 Great Britain Mar. 17, 1936

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