Specification of John Wakefield : furnaces for boilers.

  • Wakefield, John.
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Specification of John Wakefield : furnaces for boilers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Wakefield's Improvements in the Construction of Furnaces for Boilers, Qc. part of the cokes which were lying on the bars that are thus raked, and deposits them at the further end of the fire bars, before I proceed to feed or renew the fire ; and I manage the feeding in the following manner. Having, as I have just described, pushed back the fire that was on the parallel side bars to the further end of the said bars, the next step is to spread the fire 5 that is on the middle of the grate to the sides and towards the breast, after which fresh fuel is introduced on the middle of the grate, and by this means I maintain flame at the sides of the grate rising under the said curves (d, d, d,) sweeping over and heating and inflaming the smoke, which always rises most abundantly on the introduction of fresh fuel. The said grate rake is made to 10 run in and out on a roller, in the same manner as the common pricker which has been long in use for opening the fire bars to let air into the fire; but sometimes, when the size of the furnace is such as to make the use of mecha¬ nical means desireable, I then suspend the pivots of the said roller in vertical grooves, so that the roller may be raised or lowered by means of a lever; and 15 on one end of the roller I place a toothed wheel, to be driven by a pinion worked by hand by a winch, or by a power borrowed from any convenient machinery on the premises ; or I use any of the well-known mechanical means employed for raising and lowering axles. In this case, the back of what I call the handle of the rake is toothed as a rack, and works in a toothed wheel upon 20 the roller, (or on an axle substituted for the roller,) so that when the roller is made to revolve, the rake is carried with it. The reason for having the rake made to rise and fall, is for the purpose of introducing the teeth of the rake through the bars, and of withdrawing or lowering them again after they have carried back the fire that was on the said parellel side bars; or instead of 25 using a rack on the back of the handle of the rake, I employ any of the other mechanical means in common use for giving a close reciprocating motion to apparatus requiring a similar movement; my said improvements referring only to the said grate rake, and not to the means employed to raise and lower it, or move it backward and forward, which may be effected in many ways well SO known to mechanicians. When the furnaee is large, I sometimes use two cross bars with teeth upon the same handle, parellel to each other, and six or seven inches or more apart; and sometimes when the furnace is large, I have ' a rake for each side of the fire grate. Fifth, the mode of feeding the fire, and which has been so fully described to illustrate the use of the grate rake, that but 35 little needs to be added here. It is known to every person acquainted with the management of boiler furnaces, that in the common method of beating down M the fire, that is, preparing for a new charge of fuel, it is usual to spread the fire M pretty equally over the bars; but unless this method be departed from, and M