Abstract: Coking chambers in a coke oven battery are disposed in an alternate relationship with heating flues. At the top of each coking chamber there is a top arch having an inner-arched surface defined by a segment of a circle whose diameter is greater than the internal width of the coking chamber. The coking chamber is bounded by two heating walls which are extended to the spring of the arch where wall portions extend in an inclined manner upwardly and outwardly to form a mushroom-shaped gas-collecting chamber above the coke oven chamber. These wall portions extend at an angle of approximately 30.degree. to 50.degree. to the horizontal. The diameter of the arched wall portions for the arch is approximately between 30% and 60% greater than the internal width of the coking chamber.

Abstract: A coal-leveling apparatus includes a leveling rod supported by a pressing machine for movement through a leveling opening into a mushroom-shaped gas-collecting space to level the coal charged in the coking chamber of a coke oven. The leveling rod includes a head element that carries two support members that can move on pivot levers between an operative position wherein the support members are extended from the head element for support by upwardly-inclined wall surfaces in the mushroom-shaped gas-collecting space. In the inoperative position, the support members are retracted toward both sides of the head element. An actuating rod extends through the leveling rod to the head element. In one embodiment, the actuating rod can be moved in opposite directions of its length. An end of each of the first pivot levers is connected to the actuating rod and the opposite ends of the first levers are connected to second pivot levers.