Specification of Jonathan Dickson : furnaces : machinery for giving motion to the fire-bars and supplying coal thereto : smoke condenser, &c.

  • Dickson, Jonathan.
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Specification of Jonathan Dickson : furnaces : machinery for giving motion to the fire-bars and supplying coal thereto : smoke condenser, &c. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Dicksons Improvements in Transmitting Heat and Cold, cfyc. themselves as they turn downwards into the pipe that conveys them upon the fire-place or grate, which at the same time is moving backwards and forwards, and thereby receives an uniform supply all over its surface, as the length of the roller and conveyance pipe or space for the coal is nearly equal to the width of 5 the moveable grate on which the coals fall; and I place sliding plates at the bottom of the hopper, either above or below the roller, or both, for the purpose of admitting and regulating the supply of fuel. I also make use of doors and registers, and other openings into the furnace, in the common way, for lighting and cleaning the fire and for other purposes; the furnace being thus constructed, 10 and the means of supplying it with coal, I then give motion to the whole by means of a wheel placed in the flew or chimney in the most advantageous manner, so that the current of rarefied air and smoke may act upon any con¬ venient number of vanes or wings placed in the circumference thereof; and I also make use of manual labor or any other convenient power in the common 15 way for this purpose ; and instead of wheels or rollers for this furnace or grate to move upon as aforesaid, I also place it upon a centre at a convenient distance underneath the furnace, or suspended from a centre above it, according to cir¬ cumstances and situations and the shape of the boiler to which it may be applied, and give motion to it by the same means as aforesaid; and I also apply this fur- 20 nace or grate, and the said means of supplying it with fuel, for the purpose of heating solid bodies and smelting ores and metals or for calcining and heating any substances whatsoever; and my improvements in the means of transmitting or communicating cold are by applying a vessel made of iron or other materials, so as to contain water, which vessel I call a smoke condenser, soot collector, 25 or any other name that the uses to which it is applied may suggest; this vessel or cistern I make of any size according to circumstances, and place it between the boiler or vessel and its chimney used for the purpose of heating water or other fluids, or between any furnace or stove and its chimney used for smelting or calcining any substances; the said vessel or cistern is kept about half full 30 of water, and has openings at its opposite ends nearly equal to the area of the flue to which it is applied; the height of these openings or passages is very small compared with the horizontal measurement, so that it causes the current of rarefied air and smoke to enter it in a thin horizontal sheet or stream; at the same time I cause one or more showers, streams, or sheets of water to fall per- 35 pendicularly from the top part of the cistern, or by any mechanical means pro¬ duce jets of water, so as to cool the passing current of air, &c.; consequently the current of rarefied air and smoke passes through one or more streams, showrers, sheats or jets of water, which will extinguish all the fiery sparks, and deprive it of the sooty and other noxious vapours; and when circumstances require it,