US464187A - Furnace - Google Patents

Description

(No Modem j J. N; RUEBHAUSBN.

v FURNAUE.

No. 464,187. Patented Dec. l, 1891 .i n n-n w.. :gummi ulumlmnllllunl IIIII 'Illlllllllllljlllllllld Y V TN: News persas co.. FHufwumoTwAsHmewn. n4 c.

UNITED STATES PATENT OEEICE.-

JOHN N. RUEBHAUSEN, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

FU RNACE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent lNo. 464,187, dated December 1,'1891.

iippliooiioo iiloa Novoootor 29,1890. soriol No. 373,017. (No model.)

To ttZZ whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN N. RUEBHAUSEN, a citizen of the United States, residing at the city of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in `Furnaces, of which the following` is a full and complete specification.

This invention relates to improvements in furnaces provided with means for directly supplying the products of combustion in the fire-chamber immediately above the burning fuel with a supply of heated air for promoting perfect combustion, andwhile hereinafter particularly shown and described in its application to steam-boiler furnaces my invention is equally applicable to the lire-cham` bers of railroad engines, metallurgie fur- .,naces, the., wherein the perfect combustion kmay be promoted by combining air with the burning products of combustion.

One object of this invention is to utilize the greatest possible heat area and, as nearly as practicable, the hottest portionof the firechamber for heating a supply of air prior to its discharge into the burning products of combustion.

Another object is to not only utilize the greatest possible area and hottest portion of a irechamber for raising the temperature of the air discharged into the burning products, but at the same time to substantially protect that portion of the furnace immediately over the fire-chamber from the destructive effect of the intense heat thereunder, and to do all this by simple and effective devices, which by their construction, operation, and arrangelnent may successfully resist the destructive influences, although located nearer the surface of the burning fuel than is a boiler. The most important object of my invention, however, is the successful accumulation of lthe ignited products of combustion before their escape from the fire-chamber, and while at the highest degree of temperature that it is possible to accumulate them, and then combining said u'nignited gases with oxygen, also heated to a maximum degree, and discharging the gases and air so combined into the fire-chamber immediately over the burning fuel'.y

More specificallyT stated, the prime object of lny invention is to accumulate unignited gases, combine them withra continuous supply of fresh air, and discharge said gases im-l mediately over the burning fuel in the tire-v chamber before said gases have escaped fromv the bridge-Wall or combustion-chamber of the furnace, whereby the combined unignited gases and oxygen, while attlieir highest possible temperature, may be discharged audig-l nited in the fire-chamber, and, finally, to provide certain details of construction, promote the efliciency, durability, and cost of the devices for attaining these objects, all as hereinafter described and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which-4 v Figure l represents in perspective, with parts broken away, a steam-boiler furnace embodying my invention; Fig. 2, a perspec` tive view of the accumulator and air-supply devices as they appear from an`under view when detached from the furnace, and Fig. v3 a sectional top plan view of the same.

Similar letters of reference indicate the same parts in the several figures of the drawings.

Referring by letter to the accompanying drawings, A indicates a steam-boiler furnace; B, the bridge-Wall thereof; C, the grate-bars, over whicll is located the fire-chamber, and D a boiler, all of the ordinary-construction and provided with one or more lire-chamber doors E and ash-pit door F, usually employed.

Immediately above the grate-bars and at such a distance as not to interfere with the ignition of the products of combustion and the draft of the furnace is1 a box G, which may be of any suitable material, such as sheet or boiler iron or vitriied clay, suitably divided to form therein a gas-accumulating chamber H and air-chambers I I, the gas-ac cumulating chamber, as shown, occupying a central position between the air-chambers I I; but it is proper to remark that my invention is not confined to the particular arrangement of these chambers relative to each other or to the form of the chambers themselves, as shown in the drawings, for any other form of arrangement would obviously be within the spirit of my invention, whenever by their operation the air is heated and the accumuloo4 lated gas is combined therewith prior to its discharge into the lire-chamber, as hereinafter described.

The bottom of the gas-accumulator, whatever may be its form or arrangement relative to the other devices embodying my invention, is provided with a series of perforations h upon its under side, through which the unignited gases in the fire-chamber may pass into the accumulator, and to this end said perforations may be of any form securing that result.

Opening into the forward ends of each of the air-chambers, which may be one or more in number, are pipes J J, the other ends'of which are open and communicate with the open air, so that said pipes in effect form airsupply passages to the air-chambers. As shown, these pipes extend downwardly thro-ugh the fire-chamber 'into the ash-pit, andihence downwardly from the furnace, thereby 'serving as a means for supporting one end of the gas-accumulating and `air chambers; but it would be no departure from v my invention to support the box G by brackets or other equivalent means, or have the airsupply pipes J projecting downwardly of the furnace in a horizontal or other line f rom the-accumulator. y

At the opposite and rear end of the airchambers and communicating therewith a-re discharge-pipes K K, extending downwardly in the fire-chamber and provided at their lower ends with nozzles L L, so arranged that their discharge shall be in or -substantiallyin a horizontal plane with reference to and above the bed of burning fuel, and, as shown, preferably' converging on lines centering at or about the middle of the fire-chamber, where under ordinary circumstances there is the most perfect combustion and therefore highest degree of heat; but my invention is not limited to the relative angles of discharge of these nozzles so long as their discharge is not a horizontal or practically 'horizontal plane or a line parallel with the bed of burning fuel. These nozzles are preferably flattened, so that their discharge shall be in a sheet-like form over the burning fuel; but my invention in this respect is not confined to any particular form of nozzle.

Communicating with the discharge-pipes K K -at a point removed from the nozzles are pipes M M, which open in or toward the rear end `of the gas-accumulator and serve as a passage for the gas from the accumulator to the discharge-pipes, whereby the gas iu the accumulator is combined with the heated air in the discharge-pipes and injected through the nozzles into the fire-chamber,

ln operation the heating ofV the air in the ai r-chambers produces a strong draft through this `chamber and the supply and discharge pipes, which air-draft in turn produces a draft through the gas-accumulator and dischargepipes M M thereof, and as a result vthe unigber.

nited gases rising from the burning fuel are drawn fro'm the fire-chamber into the accumulator, and thence, after being combined with the heated air, discharged with sufficient force to spread them out over substantially the entire surface of the burning fuel, or in any event over the surface of so much of it as is required to thoroughly unite the combin ed gas and air and cause them to perfectly ignite. The forcible discharge of the combined air from the nozzles toward the front of the furnace and the upward draft causing the unignited ,gases torascend into the accumulator-does not retard, but, on thecontrary, results in a promotion of, the regular and forward draft of the furnace, for whatever resistance to that draft the ascending and discharge current may have is m-ore than compensa-ted for by the increased combustion and draft produced thereby from the combustion of these before-un-g-nited gases. The unignited gases ascending into the accu rnlatorare those which without the accumulator would be waste products of `cornbustion--that is to say, which would otherwise escape over the bridge-wall unignited and afterward become visible to some extent -in the form of smoke. A large portion of these lunignited gases will not ignite without first Vbeing combined with air, and ther-e isstill Aanother yportion that even when combined with air will not ignite unl-ess at a very high temperature, when it will thoroughly combine with air at a very high temperature, and while man y structures have been devised in efforts to supply furnaces with sufficient oxygen at a tempera-ture designed to cause the ignition of these Waste products of 4combustion they vhave been su stantially unsuccessful, because the air so sup-plied could not be dist ribu'tedto combined with these gases in sufficient volume to cause their ignition. In othervwords, efforts to produce perfect combustion in t'h'e iirechamber of furnaces have heretofore been confined to the direct discharge of that air, heated or otherwise, indiscriminately among all of the products of combustion rising from the burning fuel, and the rcsult'is that much of that air is expended o-n gases not requiring it, so that itis not sufficient to supply the gases not ignited without it. VV'hen cold air is injected, the gases that are unigniti'ble withouta substantial supply of air a-re reduced to al temperature below which they will ignite wh en combined with air, and they therefore become waste products of combustion, whereas when IOO IIO

hot airis introduced the ai-r is expanded to such an extent that it does not contain sufficient oxygen to cause the combustion of these unignited gases at the highest temperature they are subjected to while in the fire-cham- ,By my invention, however, the unignited gases are first separated from t-he ignitible gases, then thoroughly combinedwith sufficient oxygen at a temperature which in? sures' their ignition when discharged into the re-chamber, and the result is that perfect combustion is materially and substantially promoted in the fire-chamber.

In actual practice it has been found that in the use of my device in an ordinary fur-nace there are no perceptible Waste products of combustion after firing from the moment the' doors are closed long enough to permit the natural draft of the furnace to assert itselfthat is, to come into full operation--for although there may be a large amount of unignited fuel and the gases rising above that fuel be chilled much below a temperature they will ever ignite the suction produced in f the fire-chamber by and the force of the current of air through the air-discharge pipe causes practically all of said gases to rise into the accumulator and in'consequence prevent their escape from the bridge-Wall.

' From the foregoing it will be understood that my invention broadly includes a device of any suitable construction by which unignited gases are extracted from the fire-chamber before they can escape into the combustion-chamber and afterward combined with sufficient oxygen to produce their ignition at a temperature and in a volume suicient to produce the combustion of these gases When they are again discharged over the burning fuel in the fire-chamber; and to this end the form ofthe gas-accumulating chamber and the device supplying the air for combiningy with accumulated gas and the arrangement of these devices relative to each other and to the fire-chamber or the fuel thereof are immaterial so long as the accumulation of the gas, its combination with the air, and its discharge into the nre-chamber at a point where it will ignite is successfully accomplished.

My invention is broadly distinguished from the devices heretofore'employed whereby the Waste products of combustion are taken from the breeching or combustion chamber of the furnace, for in both instances the unignited gases escape into the combustion-chamber before they are combined with air, and as a result are so reduced in temperature that a large portion of them will not ignite when combined with air prior to their discharge into the nre-chamber, because depending upon the temperature of the air to raise them to the point at which they will ignite and an air# temperature so high that it cannot supply sufficient oxygen to cause` them to ignite, whereas in my devices the unignited gases are never exposed to the combustion-cham ber and are combined with the requisite volume of oxygen and at a temperature insuring their perfect combustion.

In conclusion, it may be observed that for steam-boiler furnaces it is of advantage to have the gasaccumulator or the box combining a gas-accumulator and air-heating chambers extend substantially or entirely across the fireachamber, because by so extendingthese devices the unignited gases, whichtend to corrode the boiler, and the direct heat of the tire-chamber, which is very destructive to the boiler-sheets, are both isolated therefrom, the result being that the durability and safety of the boiler are promoted, While at the same time it is sn fliciently hot for all practical purposes.

Having described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The herein-described method for pro meting perfect combustion, the same consisting in conducting from a fire-chamber the unignited gases through openings directly i above the bed of burning fuel and in the path of travel of said gases rising therefrom, then combining said gases with oxygen, and finally discharging the gases and air thus combined in the fire-chamberin the proportions and at a temperature insuring their perfect combustion, substantially as described. Y 2. The combination, With the nre-chamber of the furnace, of a gas-accumulator having receiving-openings immediately over the bed of burning fuel, adischarge-passage from said gas-accumulator into the fire-chamber, and an air-supply passage communicating with said vdischarge-passage at a point next removed from the discharge-orifice thereof, substantially as described.

3. In a furnace, the combination of the firechamber, a gas-accumulator arranged above the same, an air-supply passage terminating in a discharge-passage opening into the tirechamber, and an accumulator-discharge-pipe passage adjacent toand opening into said airdischarge passage at a point next removed from the discharge-orifice thereof, substantially as described.

4. In a furnace, the combination, with the fire-chamber, of a gas-accumulator arranged above the bed of burning fuel and having a series of openings or inlets on its under sidel only, an air-supply passage terminating in av nozzle opening into the lire-chamber, 'and a discharge-passage for said accumulator, communicating with said'air-supply passage at a point removed from said nozzle, substantially as described. v 5. In a steam-boiler furnace, the combination of the tire-chamber, a gas-accu`mulator, and an air-*supply opening into ythe lire-chamber and communicating with the gas-accumu lator, said accumulator being provided'on its under side with a series of inlets and arranged between the bed of burning fuel 'and the boiler, whereby the boiler is protected from the intense heat in the fire-chamber and isolated from Contact with the unignited gases, substantially Aas described.

Jol-1N N.' RUEBHAUSEN. j Witnesses: i

F. SCHINDLER, R. C. OMoHuNDRo.'

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