US3001521A

US3001521A - Air-heating fireplace grate

Info

Publication number: US3001521A
Application number: US713890A
Authority: US
Inventors: Arthur L Reilly
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1958-02-07
Filing date: 1958-02-07
Publication date: 1961-09-26
Anticipated expiration: 1978-09-26

Description

2 Sheets-Sheet 1 A. L. REILLY AIR-HEATING FIREPLAC'E GRATE Sept. 26, 1961 Filed Feb. 7, 1958 INVENTOR ARTHUR I .REILLY Sept. 26, 1961 A. l.. REILLY AIR-HEATING FIREPLACE GRATE 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Feb. 7, 1958 INVENTOR ARTHUR L REILLY Attorneys Unite States This invention relates to fireplace grates, and has for its general object the provision of a grate which gives to a fireplace a space-heating efiiciency considerably higher than is ordinarily obtained. The invention more particularly aims to provide a heat-exchanging fireplace grate having built-in -means by which air can be drawn from within the room, forcefully conducted about the perimeter of the grate along a given path of travel and in course thereof subjected to intense heat from a fire burning on the grate, and returned as a heated column of air to the room.

As a further particular object the invention purposes to provide a fireplace grate in which a confined column of air heated by exchange from a re burning on the grate can be delivered at will to selected areas of the room.

The invention has the yet additional particular object of providing a fireplace grate of the nature described incorporating, as an integral part of the grate, a heating pipe through which said column of air is passed.

` A still further particular object of the invention is to provide a fireplace grate of the nature described intended in normal use to employ an electric-powered blower as a means of drawing air from within the room and forcefully feeding the same through the heating pipe, but which is so engineered that the same can, if desired, depend upon natural thermal circulation to induce a substantial movement of air through the heating pipe.

With the foregoing objects and advantages in view, and additionally aiming to provide a fireplace grate of simple, inexpensive and rugged construction, and one which adapts itself to various sizes and shapes of fireplaces with no need for special construction to accommodate the one to the other, the invention consists in the novel construction and in the adaptation and combination of parts hereinafter described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a fragmentary top plan view illustrating a fireplace grate constructed in accordance with one embodiment of the invention, shown applied to a fireplace which is represented fragmentarily in horizontal section.

FIG. 2 is a transverse vertical sectional view drawn on line 2-2 of FIG. l.

FIG. 3 is a longitudinal vertical sectional view drawn to an enlarged scale on line 3 3 of FIG. 2 and incorporating a phantom illustration of a fire burning upon the grate.

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary enlarged-scale sectional view detailing the delivery nozzle which is provided for the grates heating pipe.

FIG. 5 is a longitudinal vertical sectional view portraying another embodiment of the invention; and

FIG. 6 is a transverse vertical sectional view drawn on line 6-6 of FIG. 5.

With reference to said drawings, and first describing the embodiment shown in FIGS. l through 4, inclusive, the numeral 10 represents a basic grate frame illustrated as being fabricated from five lengths of steel rod designated by 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15. Rod 11 extends transversely across the front in the manner of a Stringer and has each of its tWo ends turned downwardly to produce a respective leg 16. Each end portion of the stringer, immediately adjacent to said legs, is also bent so as to produce a stirrup-like seat, as and 21. The rod proper atent ice and the seat and leg at each end are or may be coeplanar.

The four

rods

12, 13, 14 and 15 aredisposed longitudinally, being spaced more or less uniformly at intervals of the Width of the Stringer. These longitudinal rods have their front portions shouldering upon the Stringer, and extend rearwardly therefrom as rails 2-2 to produce a floor for the grate. To the immediate front of the stringer each said longitudinal rod has an upturned end 24 serving the function of a guard paling, and at the rear of the grate two of the rods present downturned ends 23 producing back legs for the grate while the other two are upturned to form rear guard palings 25. The legs 16 are appreciably longer than the legs 23, thus causing the rails to slope downwardly from the front toward the rear. The stock employed for said several rods desirably has a diamond shape in section, placed so that a diameter projected across the points is vertically disposed and by such token exposing a sharp edge on which the: fuel, designated by F, rests.

The present grate incorporates a heater pipe having as `its function to pick up heat from burning fuel and transfer the same to a column of air moving through the pipe. Designated generally by 26, the pipe is composed by preference of black iron and has a fairly large diameter, say 11/2l I.D. Considered in top plan, the pipe has a U-shaped configuration. The cross-arm 27 of the U rests in the crotch formed between the rail and paling sections 22-25 of the

rods

13 and 14, and the side-

arms

28 and 29 of the =U lodge in the stirrups 2t) and 21. Welding is employed to secure the heating pipe and the

several rods

11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 as an. integrated unit.

The length of the two side-

arms

28 and 29 is such that the same project forwardly beyond the grate frame. Upon the front end of one of these side-arms 28 there -is fitted a nozzle tip 30 formed upon its inner end with the male component 31 of a ball universal joint. The female component 32 threads onto the pipe, permitting the nozzle to be set at selected angularities within a permitted range of movement by drawing the ball 31 against a tensioning ring 33.

The other side-arm 29 of the heating pipe 26 connects by its front end with a laterally extending pipe section 34 leading from an electric-powdered blower 35.

As shown by the arrows in FIG. l, air is drawn from within the room and fed by the blower through the heater pipe 26 to be forcefully returned to the room through the nozzle 31. Such nozzle may be set, in the manner described, to direct the discharged column of air to substantially any desired part of the room.

A fire burning upon the grate concentrates heat upon the cross-arm 27 and proximal portions of the two

sidearms

28 and 29 of the heater pipe, bringing the same to a condition of red heat evenwith a fire of only moderate intensity. The air column forced through the pipe is effectively heated so that the normally low efficiency of the fireplace, considered as a space heater, is very considerably enhanced. There is the additional advantage that blower-impelled warm air can be directed at will into selected areas of the room.

In FIGS. 5 and 6 I have illustrated an embodiment of the invention which peculiarly lends itself to use in a fireplace installation where there is provided a raised hearth 40, and having a subjacent pit 41 connecting with the interior of the room by a grilled door 42. The grate frame here employed is or may be identical with that previously described, but the U-shaped heating pipe, designated generally by 43, presents within the length of its cross-arm 45 a downturned sleeve section 46. This sleeve section finds a free slip fit upon the exposed upper end of an air-supply conduit 47 which extends through the floor of the fireplace and connects by its lower end 3 with a blower 48 installed in the pit 41. The two sidearms 50 and 51 of the heater pipe are each iitted at their front ends with air-directing heads 52 like or similar to the nozzle heads 30-31.

The arrangement of FIGS. 5 and 6 can, if desired, be used to advantage Without a blower, drawing a very con siderable volume of air from the pit and discharging the same by natural thermal circulation through both sidearms of the heater pipe. The upward slope of these s-idearms perforce contributes toi the self-circulation of air.

The invention, and the manner of its operation, should be clearly understood from the foregoing detailed description of the illustrated embodiments. Changes in the details of construction can perforce be resorted to without departing from the spirit of the invention and it is accordingly my intention that no limitations be implied and that the hereto annexed claims be given the broadest interpretation to which the employed language fairly admits.

What I claim is:

In a iireplace grate, a grate frame fabricated from rod stock, one of said rods extending as a transverse Stringer across the front of the grate and having the two ends downturned to provide footing legs, others of said rods extending longitudinally as rails in spaced paralleling relationto one another with the front portion shouldering on said Stringer and having the rear end of at least one of said rails bent downwardly to form a footing leg, said Stringer being formed to present a stirrup-shaped seat of substantial depth adjacent each of said legs, and a heatexchange pipe having a U-shape in plan configuration seating by the cross-arm of the U upon the rails at the rear ends of the latter and by the side arms of the -U upon said Stringer adjacent the side limits of the stringer, said Stringer, rails and pipe being integrally joined, means being provided for passing air through said pipe, said side arms of the heat-exchange pipe being received in said stirrup-shaped seats, at least one of said rails occurring at each of the opposite sides of the longitudinal median line of the grate having its rear end turned upwardly to produce a guard paling, the cross-arm of the pipe seating in the crotch defined between the upturned palings and the horizontal sections of the rails from which said palings stern, the upper surfaces of said longitudinally eX- tending rods occupying a plane throughout their length sloping downwardly toward -the rear so .that logs resting upon said rods as the same are being burned upon the grate will tend to gravitate toward said cross-arm of the U-shaped pipe, the plane occupied by the upper surfaces of the side arms of the U-shaped pipe being substantially above the plane of said surfaces on which the logs rest, at least in the area adjacent said cross-arm, to provide end walls resisting lateral shiftingof the logs being burned.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS D. 160,686 Bergeron Oct. 31,1950 333,382 Belding Dec. 29, 1885 2,600,753 Gilbert June 17, 1952 2,828,078 Snodgrass Mar. 25, 1958 FonErGN PATENTS 119,326 Great Britain Oct. 3, 1918 179,812 Great Britain May 18, 1922 556,543 Great Britain Oct. 8, 1943