US557924A - Regenerative furnace - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.) I I 3 sheets-shet 1. S. T. WELLMAN. REGENERATIVE FURNAGE.

I I I I I l l I I fIIIIIIIIIIIIJI I Patented Apu?, 1896I ANDREW BIGHAHAM, FNUTOMTNUWASHINGTDN. D C.

. I I .NDNI L rII 3 sheets-sheet 2,

(No Model.)

y s. T. WBLLMA'N. REGENERATIVE FURNAGE.

Patented A 117, 1896.

vllll Invent-orf: Y 560m ZT PVeZZr/zan,

Witnesses:

(No MOaeL-y 3 sheets-sheet 34 Y S. T. WELLMAN.

REGENBRATIVE PURNAGE.

No. 557,924..4 Patented Apr. 7,1896.

FIG 3.

l UNirnn STATES PATENT OFFICE.

SAMUEL T. VVELLMAN, OF UPLAND, PENNSYLVANIA.

REG EN ERATIVE FU RNACE.v

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 557,924, dated April 7, 1896.

Application filed January 3 l, 1 8 9 5.

To a/ZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that LSAMUEL T. WELLMAN, a citizen of theUnited States, and a resident of Upland, Delaware county, Pennsylvania, have invented certain Improvements in Regenerative Furnaces, of which the following is a specification.

The object of my invention is to improve the efficiency of regenerative gas-furnaces, an object which I attain by heating the volumes of air employed before the latter enter the regenerators, employing for the purpose of such heating the products of combustion which have previously been passed through said regenerators. Y

In the accompanying drawings, Figure lis a view, partly in section andv partly in top or plan, of an ordinary form of regenerative gasfurnace to which my improvements have been applied. Fig. 2 is a sectional view of the same on the line 2 2, Fig. l. Fig. 3 is a transverse section on the line 3 3, Fig. 2.

A represents an ordinary open-hearth regenerative gas-furnace of the Siemens type, said furnace having at one end the gas-inlet ports a and air-inlet ports b, and at the opposite end corresponding gas-inlet ports d and air-inlet ports f, the gas-inlet ports a and d communicating respectively with gas-regenerators a and d' and the air-inlet ports b and f communicating respectively with air-regenerators b and f.

The gas regenerator a communicates through a iiue a2 either with an outlet-fine g or with a gas-inlet flue a3, communication with either of these ,flues being controlled by means of valves c4. In like manner the gasregenerator d communicates through a flue d2 either with an outlet-flue g' or with a gasinlet flue d3, communication with either of these fines being controlled by means of valves d4. The air-regenerator b communicates through a flue b2 either with the outletflue g or with an air-inlet flue h3, communication with either of these fines being controlled by valves b4, and the air-regenerator f communicates through a flue f2 either with the outlet-flue g or with an air-inlet iiue f3, communication with either of these iiues being controlled by valves f4. This is the ordinary construction of a regenerative gas-furnace, the furnace being worked iirst in one Serial No. 536,861. (No model.)

direction and then in the opposite direction-- that is to say, the gas and air being iirst forced in through the regenerators a b while the products of combustion are escaping through the regenerators d f', and these conditions being then reversed by suitable manipulation of the valves a4 b4 d4 f4, so that the gas and air introduced through the regenerators d f and the products of combustion escape through the regenerators a b. Normally, however, the air is not heatedprior to entering its regenerator, and as the gas coming from the producer is usually at a high temperature the result is that the air entering the furnace is not raised to as high a temperature as the gas, and the air-regenerator cools more rapidly than the gas-regenerator and cannot be as rapidly reheated as the latter. It will be evident, therefore, that the efficiency of the furnace will be materially increased if the conditions under which both the gas and air regenerators act not only in absorbing but also in discharging heat are the same, and with the object of attaining such conditions I provide for heating the supply of air before it enters its regenerator, so that when vit enters the same it will be at substantially the same temperature as the gas entering the gas-regenerator, it being understood that the products of combustion leaving the latter are generally at a higher temperature than that of the gas-supply.

Across the discharge-flue h, with which both of the outlet-fines g g communicate at the bottom through a flue g2, I place a series of sets of tubes c', which serve to provide a communication between chambers m, m', m2, m3, and m4, formed in the front and rear walls of the base or foundation of the stack h', a blower n or other blast apparatus communieating with the chamber m, while the chamber m4 communicates with the air-inlet iiues b3 and f3.

The air from the blower passes from the chamber m through the top set of fiues into the chamber m', from the latter through the next set of flues 7l into the chamber m2, from the latter through the third set of iiues c' into the chamber 'm3, and from the latter through the bottom set of flues c' into the chamber m4, receiving a constant accession of heat as it descends, owing to the fact that the products IOO of combustion are hottest at the base of the ue h, and gradually decrease in temperature as they rise, owing to the absorption of heat therefrom.

The chambers m to m4 gradually increase in size and the fines i in the different sets increase in number or area from the upper to the lower set, so as to provide increased area for the flow of the air as the latter becomes expanded by heating. Vhile, therefore, the regenerators b f act alternately as absorbers and distributers of heat, the tubes i act as a continuous regenerator-that is to say, they continuously absorb heat from the products of combustion in the discharge-flue 7L and continuously distribute the heat .to the air passing through them..

Having thus described my invention, I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patenty l. The n lode herein described of operating a regenerative gas-furnace, said mode consisting in raising the temperature of the air before it enters its heat-distributing regenerator to a high degree of heat approximating that of the gas entering its heat-distributing regenerator, and employing for the pnr pose of thus heating the air the products of combustion escaping from the heat-absorbing Vregenerators, substantially as specified.

2. The combination of a regenerative gasfurnace having two pairs of gas and air regenerators constructed for use alternately as absorbers and distributers of heat, and a single regenerator acting as a continuous absorber of heat directly from the products of combustion on their way to the chimney, and a continuous distributer of a high degree of heat to the air supply on its way to the regenerator, approximating that of the gas entering its heat-distributing regenerator, substantially as specified.

In testimony whereof l have signed my nameto this speciiication in the presence of two subscribing Witnesses.

SAMUEL T. WELLMAN. Vi-tnesses:

- WILL A. BARR,

JOSEPH H, KLEIN.

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