US290037A - Apparatus for charging blast-furnaces - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

. F. W. GORDON.

APPARATUS FOR GHARGING BLAST FURNACES.

No. 290,037. v Patented Dec. 11, 1883.

A TTORNEY (No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

I. W. GORDON; j

APPARATUS FOR CHARGING BLAST FURNACES.

No. 290.037. Patented Dec. 11, 1883 Many Y 7 7 W] T NESSES [NI EN TOR UNITED STATES PATE T ()FFICEQ Y FRED. WV. GORDON, OF PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA.

APPARATUS FOR CHARGING BLAST-FURNACES;

SPECIFICATION-forming part of Letters Fatent No. 290,037, dated December 11, 1883.

' Application filed September 27, 1883. (No model.) A

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRED. W. GORDON, of Pittsburg, Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, B have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Charging Arrangements for Blast- Furnaces, of which the following is a specification.

In blast-furnaces having their throats fitted with bell and hopper an annular channel is IO formed by the bell and hopper for receiving the charge from buggies or barrows dumped from the platform or charging-plate. These barrows, being two-wheeled arrangements of small capacity, are taken up by the lift, and

I 5 then wheeled from the lift-house to the platform, and then dumped.

Good intentions and honest labor might insure that the dumping would take place uniformly around in the hopper; but it is the experience of most furnacemen that the men engaged as fillers, being entirely beyond the reach of supervision, are prone to dump their buggies at that point in the hopper nearest to the lift-house, so as to avoid labor.

This present invention relates to an arrangement of buggies and guiding-tracks for the same, arranged in such manner that the charging is effected at four points in the hopper, which is practically an equal distribution of the charge.

The invention will be understood from the following description,taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a vertical section of the top of a 3 5 blast-furnace fitted with my improved charging arrangement, and Fig. 2 a plan of the same;

In the accompanying drawings, A represents the throat of a blast-furnace; B, the platform or charging plate; B, the extension of the same toward the lift-house, as usual; 0, the hopper; D, the bell; E, the rod sustaining the bell; F, two parallel tracks on the platform across the top of the furnace, one on each side of the center of the throat; F, extensions of 4 5 said tracks toward the lift-house; G, a fourwheeled buggy having a capacity of two or more of the usual barrows; H, the two discharge-openings of the buggy, arranged angularly at the two ends and bottom, as shown; I,

the bottom of the buggy, arranged in the form of a double incline, so as to distribute the contents of the buggy fairly between the two dis- [charge-openings; J, hinged doors for closing the discharge-openings; K, chains from the lower edge of the doors to a reel attached to the buggy-truck; L, a ratchet on the chainreel; M, a pawl for said ratchet, and N stiffening-bars on the sides of the buggy.

The buggies run upon the track. The tracks are of such distance apart and the two dis- 6o charge-openings in a buggy are of such distance from each other that when two buggies are run upon the tracks and stopped midway over the throat of the furnaceas by a stopblock properly located upon the track, for instancethe four discharges from the two cars will take place at points equidistant around the hopper. By these means a uniformity of distribution of charge is effected not possible by any other means of simple buggy-charging. There are only four charging points, and these points are fixed beyond the control of the men engaged as fillers.

The buggy may, as mentioned, be stopped by means of a stop-block, or the track may be provided with a broad bridge or diaphragm at a point just below the truck, so that the buggy will not discharge its load into the furnace at all unless the buggy be properly located before the doors are dropped.

The two tracks may leadseparately to sepa rate lifts or to separate standing tracks upon a large lift-platform; or they may converge to a single track-leading to a single lift. In case the lift is arranged double, or with double track, the buggies are bound to be discharged inthe order in which they are placed upon the lift below-that is, a full buggy put in the right-hand side of the lift when below can only be discharged into the right-hand side of the furnace-throat. In the case of the diverging track the buggies, as they come up, may of course all be run over the furnace on one of the tracks, and the charge therefore be unevenly distributed; but as this method would result in no saving of labor to the filler it is not liable tobe followed.

I consider the method of charging in large buggy-loads as conducive to economy of labor and a more thorough admixture of charges, independent of the evenness of distribution effected by the track system specified.

The winding up of the reel upon the buggy draws the doors shut by means of the chains, and

IOO

the pawl locks the doors. Vhen the pawl is disengaged, the doors fly open to the full extent permitted by the length of the chain and assume positions as deflecting-plates, to govern the direction, to some extent, of the discharges. In the absence of the doors, when open, the loads would be projected lengthwise the car to a greater or less extent, dependent upon the slope of the bottom of the car and on the character of the material being charged. Each furnace would in such case need to be provided with buggies especiallyadapted to some trifling peculiarity of size and to peculiarity of material.

By the arrangement of the doors as deflectors, as specified, the buggies can be adapted, within reasonable limits, to almost any size of furnace and to any character of material. The length of the chain needs only to be made such as to secure, at their full extension, the proper deflecting-angle for the open doors.

It is a common practice in the construction of doors for different situations to provide the doors with a stop to limit the distance which they may open, and also to provide them with various contrivances for latching them when shut. I therefore do not confine my invention to a reeled chain as a means for closing and locking the doors, nor to afiXed length of chain as ameans for limiting their degree of opening.

I claim as my invention In a blast-furnace-charging arrangement, the combination of the bell and hopper,traeks built over the hopper, as described, and a dumpingcar having two discharge-openings adapted to discharge, substantially as set forth.

FRED. XV. GORDON.

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F. E. FIoKEs, THOMAS DEEGAN.

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