642

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

March 30, 1917.

ABSTRACTS OF PATENT SPECIFICATIONS
RECENTLY ACCEPTED.

103965. Improvements in Furnace Firebars. G. H.
Timmis, of Lye; and W. D. Jones, of River Stour Works,
Lye, Stourbridge.—Relates to firebars which are rotatably
mounted in the furnace, and have longitudinal grooves along
their sides or outer surfaces, and are cooled by water con-
veyed therealong. Rig. 1 is a side elevational view of a
firebar and its supporting bars (the latter in section); and
fig. 2 is a sectional end view, on the line 2—2 (fig. 1), of a
set of the bars as arranged in the furnace, a indicates the
firebar, which is preferably of a rectangular shape in cross
section. The bar a is longitudinally fluted, as at a1, on
each of its sides, and is arranged to slope downwards from
front to back of the furnace, so that the water supplied for
cooling and other purposes shall flow from end to end of
the bar. b b b are bearers for the bars a, and are spaced to
suit requirements. By means of a tee-handled key fitted on

the end of the bars, the latter may be given a quarter or
half turn, and thereby change the fluted surface presented
to the fuel as and when required. (One claim.)

103979. Improvements in Furnace Fronts for Liquid Fuel
Furnaces. John I. Thornycroft and Company Limited, of
Caxton House, Westminster, and Woolston Works, Wools-
ton, Hants; and T. Donaldson and R. Mackie, of the same
address.—Has reference to furnace fronts for liquid fuel fur-
naces supplied with forced draught, and provides an
improved construction of air supply chamber, air controlling
valves,. furnace door, means for inter-locking the furnace
door and air controlling valves, and for facilitating the com-
plete combustion of the liquid fuel supplied to the furnace.
The drawing is a side view of a boiler and furnace front, a
is an air trunk extending across the front of the boiler b, and
secured thereto through a rear wall a1, the trunk being open
at the left-hand end, which is enlarged, and closed at the
other end. The rear wall a1 of the air trunk is formed at a

part thereof opposite each of the furnace flues c c1, with a
circular opening d, around which and between the front and
rear walls of the air trunk is fixed a-rectangular casing e
arranged to form an air supply box, the sides of which are
formed with rectangular air inlet openings f. These open-
ings are controlled by air valves g, each in the form of a
plate mounted to turn about a horizontal axis at g1 and
balance weighted at one end so that while it will close auto-
matically when acted upon by a back draught in the furnace
it will be turned automatic-

ally. into the open position
when acted upon externally
by the forced draught in the
trunk a. Arranged opposite
each air box e is a furnace
door i hinged at j so as to
open outwardly about a ver-
tical a-xis. k are catches, in
form of fingers, carried by
horizontal spindles m
adapted to hold the furnace
door tightly closed, and to
release the door and permit
it to be opened. The
spindle m of each catch k
is carried by a bearing n,
secured to the air trunk a,

and is provided with a

handle o arranged to work between stops p and q on the
bearing n. To ensure the air valves g shall be positively
closed before the furnace door is opened, the catch spindles
m are each provided . at its inner end with a finger r
arranged in such manner that when the spindle is turned
to move the corresponding catch k into the inoperative posi-
tion, the finger r thereon will move the corresponding air
valve g into the closed position, and hold it closed. ‘In this
way the inter-locking of the door and air valves can be
effected in a very simple manner, the unlocking of the door
acting to close the air valves. The catch k at the hinge
side of each door is adapted to press against the back of
the adjacent hinge lug on the door. The furnace door i is
dished or recessed, as shown at 5, and provided with a seat
at t, upon which a liquid fuel sprayer u can be secured, so
that the sprayer will be moved with the door, and is sur-
rounded and protected by the dished portion so as to facili-
tate the flow of air. Arranged co-axially with the liquid
fuel sprayer u, and within the air box e, is an air cone
comprising cylindrical members v of different diameters suit-
ably connected together and to the rear wall of the air trunk
and spaced apart longitudinally, so as to form circumferen-
tial air inlet openings at w. The front member v of the
air cone is independent of and spaced some distance away
from the dished portion of the furnace door i so that air can
freely enter its front open end. The members v may be
perforated to supply additional air for admixture with and
for burning the fuel spray proceeding from the sprayer u. 1
is a door hinged at the top to the front wall of the trunk a,
and normally closing a manhole 2 in such front wall. (Six
claims.)

104065. Improvements in the Distillation of Shale and
the like. G. E. Heyl, of King’s House, Kingsway, London,
W.C.—Relates to a process and apparatus for distilling shale
or other substance lending .itself to destructive distillation,
of the kind in which the material in a state of sub-division is
fed by an extrusion apparatus continuously or intermit-
tently in the condition of a rod into and through a chamber
or series of chambers maintained at a temperature at which
some or all of the contained oils become vaporised, the

chamber being provided with means for withdrawing the
vapours at the stages where generated. Fig. 1 is a vertical
section ; and fig. 2 is a fragmentary elevation showing the
nozzle of the extrusion apparatus and a heating arc. a is
a crushing apparatus, the hopper of which is supplied with

^Z

shale, and in which the shale is crushed to fall into the
hopper of an extrusion apparatus b, which intermittently
feeds the shale from its nozzle in the form of a thin ribbon
into a closed chamber c. A temperature suitable for
vaporising the lighter constituents of the shale is main-
tained by an arc d in proximity to the ribbon of shale in
the chamber c. The unvolatilised portion of the shale is
thrust by the intermittent feed into a second chamber e, in
which a higher temperature is maintained by an arc d in
proximity to the shale. The shale still unvaporised in the
second chamber is thrust into a third chamber f, in which a
yet higher temperature is maintained by an arc d in proxi-
mity to the shale. Any unvaporised residue is thrust out of
an aperture at the end of the third chamber f. The cham-
bers are isolated from one another by shutters g, which are
intermittently raised to permit the passage of the shale from
chamber to chamber, whilst the extrusion apparatus b feeds
the shale into the first chamber. The aperture at the end
of the last chamber f is closed by a shutter h, which is raised
at intervals to permit the evacuation of the residue. (Two
claims.)

104066. Improvements in Distilling Goal. G. E. Heyl,
of King’s House, Kingsway, London, W.C.—The specifica-
tion and drawings are practically ..identical with those of
Patent 104065, except that “ coal ” is substituted for

shale.” (Two claims.)

104121. Improvements in Goal Washing Mechanism. E.
G. Burks, of 2001, Alois-avenue, Birmingham; and N.
Hayes, of 327, Third-street, Pratt City, Birmingham, Ala-
bama, U.S.A.—Relates to coal washing mechanism designed
to reduce to a minimum the loss of fine coal in reciprocable
jig types of washers, and an object is to separate and enrich
bone coal so as to convert it into fuel commercially valuable
as boiler coal. The drawing is a sectional view. A recipro-
cable jig 1 having a screen bottom is divided by partition 2
into a forward compartment 3 for separating slate from the
coal and bone coal, and a rear compartment 4 for separating
the bone coal from the coal. Suitable gates 5 are provided
for each jig section, and are adjustable to control the dis-
charge of slate into the slate jig tank 6, and bone coal into
the bone coal jig tank 7. A partition 8 separates the tanks
6 and 7, and is lapped at its upper end by a slide plate 9,
movable with the jig, and forming a continuation of the
partition. The sloping bottom of the jig tank 6 converges
towards the slate outlet port 12 near one corner of the com-
pound jib box, while the bottom of tank 7 converges towards
the outlet port 13 for bone coal near the diagonally opposite
corner of the jig box. The slate elevator tank 10 and the
cone coal elevator tank 11 preferably extend the full length
of the jig on opposite sides thereof, and are connected there-
with only by the ports 12 and 13 respectively. Elevators 14
and 15 work in these tanks with their lower ends in pockets
16 and 17 respectively, opposite the ports 12 and 13. The
elevators preferably work crosswise of the tanks so as to
cause a minimum disturbance of water therein. Water
enters the jig tank 6 from tank 10 through a flap valve 18,
and from tank 11 water enters the jig tank 7 through a
flap valve 19, which valves open inwardly responsive to the
suction of the jig to draw in a supply of water. As the jig
is reciprocated through driving connections 20, the water
forced up through its screened bottom from the tank 6 will
wash'the coal and bone coal over the partition 2, and the
action of the water forced up from the tank 7 will carry the
clean coal into chute 21, and over its screened bottom 22,



Kot

which is disposed over the fine coal settling tank 23. The
chute continues with a solid bottom.24, and delivers the lump
coal into the filtering compartment of the settling tank 25.
An endless conveyor 26, driven by a shaft 27, will move the
coal along the chute. The settling tanks are deep, and pro-
vided with hopper bottoms, the walls of which converge
towards elevator wells 28 and 29 respectively, which form
boots for the elevators 30 and 31. A trough 33 overhangs
in settling tank 23, passing under chute 21, and out through
the tank sides, thence along both sides of tanks 23 and 25,
and through the walls of the latter to a chute 34 overhung
to discharge over the central portion of tank 25. Tank 23
has overflow lips 34a along its side edges to direct water
into trough 33, and a cross trough 35 between tanks 23 and
25 opens at each end in the side troughs 33. The troughs
33 and 35 thus receive a uniform overflow from about the
entire upper edge of tank 23. Side bars 36 extend over the
tanks, and support the coal chute. (Six claims.)

104127. Improvement in Goke Ovens. L. Wilputte, of
New Rochelle, New York, U.S.A.—Relates to oven struc-
tures, such as retort coke ovens, and its object is to improve

the heating provisions of such ovens. Fig. 1 is a partial
sectional elevation of a retort coke oven along the line 1—1
of fig. 2; fig. 2 is a-partial section on the line 2—2 of fig. 1;
fig. 3 is a view similar to fig. 2, but on a larger scale and
with one of the flow restricting devices removed; fig. 4 is a
partial sectional plan on the line 4—4 of fig. 1; and fig. 5
is a perspective view of one of the movable flue restricting
devices. A represents the masonry coke oven structure,
and A1 the parallel coke oven retorts. In the heating wall
between each adjacent pair of retorts A1 are a plurality of
vertical heating flues B, which communicate at their upper
ends through passages or necks B1 with a horizontal collect-
ing and distributing passage C. Communicating with the
lower ends of the flues B are air supply passages B2 and gas
supply passages B3, which communicate at their lower ends
with the gas supply canal B4. Mounted in each passage B?
is a flow regulating nozzle D. Vertical passages F are
formed in the upper portion of the oven structure leading
from the horizontal passages C to the upper side of the oven
structure. These passages are normally closed as by remov-
able closures F1, and are in axial alignment with the vertical
heating flues B, to make it possible to inspect, adjust, remove
or replace the nozzles D or analogous devices when the
closures F1 are removed. A pair of similar flow restricting
parts E are provided at the upper end of each flue. Each
part comprises a flat rectangular body portion with trunnion
extension E4.at one side edge. The two members E lie
edge to edge in the same plane, and in a recessed seat C1 in

3

K-

the bottom wall of the passage C, and extend across the
passage B1. Each seat C1 has an opposing pair of exten-
sions C2, which receive and form open bearings for the trun-
nion portions E1. The two plate like members E mounted
in .each seat C1 are each formed with a notch E2 in its free
edge which registers with the corresponding notch in the
co-operating member E to provide a port or passage of the
proper size between the corresponding flue B and passage C.
(Six claims.)

104132. Improvements in Apparatus for Washing Goal
and other Minerals. P. Habets, of Montegnee, Belgium;
and A. France, of Rue de 1’Esperance 233, Liege, Belgium.
—Relates to improvements in and connected with apparatus

G

7iy.2.

F

for washing or sorting coal and other minerals as described
and claimed in the Specification to Letters Patent No.
22655 of 1912, and more particularly to apparatus in which
a number of washers are arranged in series. Fig. 1 is a
diagrammatic side elevation of a trough fitted with a number
of washers in series; figs. 2 to 5 are diagrammatic cross sec-
tions of the trough at various stages, the sections being
taken at A—B, C—D, E—F, G—H respectively. The
trough 1 is inclined, and the inclination in the direction of
the arrow 2 decreases in stages, which produces a diminu-
tion in the velocity of the entraining stream or current, the
arrangement being such that the inclination remains con-
stant down to the washer 3, then from this point becomes
less, but again remains constant to the next washer 4, where
it is again decreased, but remains constant to the next
washer, and so on; the velocity of the entraining current
remaining approximately the same in spite of the successive
addition of the streams or currents from the washers 3, 4, 5.
The section of the trough goes on decreasing at the lower
part, but remains constant between every two successive
washers. For example, the section a, b, c, d (fig. 2) repre-
sents the cross section of the stream or current which carries
the coal or other mineral in front of the first washer. Then,
between the washers 3 and 4, that is to say, in the following
stage of the trough, filling pieces 6 are inserted, so that the
width al, bl (fig. 3) may be less than a, b (fig. 2), and that,
on the contrary, the section al, bl, /, e, of the stream may
be greater than a, b, d, c, to allow for the stream from the
washer 3, which is added to the main current at that stage.
Filling pieces 7 are inserted in the stage or part of the
trough between the washers 4 and 5, so that all, bll (fig. 4)
may be less than al, bl, and similarly all, ell, less than
al, cl, but, on the other hand, the section of the stream
all, bll, /I, el, may be greater than al, bl, f, e, to allow for
the addition of the delivery from the washer 4. Similarly,
the dimensions alll, bill, and am, clll (fig. 5) are less than
the corresponding dimensions all, bll, and all, ell, and the