Abstract: A natural draft furnace has a firebox inside a water box with fire tubes containing water running through the firebox, flues from the firebox running through the water box, a front/fire door of double wall construction to preheat entering air, a damper in the fire door and a toggle-lock latching system on the fire door that provides uniform sealing pressure around the door.

Abstract: A fixed bed gasifier has an annular series of spaced pokehole units thereabout, each unit of which is an outwardly and upwardly extending tapered tube with an end closure having an eccentrically positioned hole through which a poker may be inserted to pass through the unit for poking the fire zone of the gasifier. The tapered tube opens the gasifier vessel at the reduction zone. The hole at the end closure is closed when not in use by a movable closure that is opened only when the poker is to be inserted. The movable closure is connected with an air valve that admits atmospheric air from a manifold encircling the gasifier, at a pressure slightly above the internal pressure in the gasifier, to the interior of the unit as the movable closure is operated to expose the hole at the end of the unit, forcing hot gases in the unit back into the gasifier in the reduction zone, and permitting air only to blow out the end of the unit just before the poker may be inserted and until the pokehole is again covered.

Abstract: The door handle of a heating unit is cooled by providing a duct traversing the interior of the handle from exterior of the firebox of the heating unit to the interior of the firebox. The induced flow cools the handle and provides cool air in the firebox to trap and maintain the hot gasses closer to the fire for a more complete combustion. An open, ellipsoid, spiral coil surrounds the grip of the handle.

Abstract: A heating boiler for substantially continuous controlled combustion of baled straw. The boiler includes a straw feed channel communicating with a combustion chamber having a combustion zone adjacent the rear wall of the combustion chamber, a flue gas heat exchange chamber above the combustion chamber in communication with a flue gas vent and an ash collecting pit below the combustion chamber. A horizontal floor is disposed between the combustion chamber and the ash collecting pit, the floor having a slot adjacent the rear wall of the combustion chamber for passage of ash from the combustion zone into the ash collecting pit and for intake of primary air into the combustion zone. A vertically rotatable ash stripper assembly extends from the rear wall of the combustion chamber, and serves to strip ash from the straw bale surface being combusted in the combustion zone. The ash stripper assembly can be rotated by means of a hollow shaft which also constitutes a secondary air intake.

Abstract: A device for preventing blow back through the fuel loading door in stoves or heaters in which the rate of combustion is controlled by restricting the supply of air to the combustion chamber. When the stove is burning during normal operation the fuel loading door is closed and an air inlet to the combustion chamber is blocked by a pan member of the outer cabinet door. A thermostatic damper controls the rate of combustion in the combustion chamber by restricting the quantity of air supplied via other air intakes. When the outer cabinet door is opened to gain access to the fuel loading door, the pan member on the cabinet door is moved away from the air inlet to the combustion chamber thereby allowing additional air to enter the combustion chamber via the air inlet to the combustion chamber. The additional air supplied via this air inlet increases the rate of combustion prior to the opening of the fuel loading door.

Abstract: A draft air deflecting device is mountable proximate to a window contained in a firebox and serves as a conduit which directs draft air across the inner surface of the window prior to its supporting combustion of the fuel in the firebox. In this respect, the draft air deflecting device is formed as a box which communicates with draft air holes located in the firebox and which includes a forwardly extending lip serving to define a nozzle for both increasing the velocity and directing the incoming draft air across the firebox window. The incoming draft air is thus utilized to cool and to prevent soot, creosote and other particulates from accumulating on the window.

Abstract: The improved furnace of this invention may be used to produce heat by the burning of wood or other combustible matter. The furnace has a combustion chamber with a generally vertical axis and a chamber access door for loading combustible matter into the furnace. The access door in its normally closed position lies in a plane extending upwardly and outwardly from the axis of the chamber. A smoke limiting means which is positioned above the access door extends to the plane of closure of the door. This smoke limiting means limits the escape of smoke and other combustion products when the access door is open. The smoke limiting means may have a port for visually observing the interior of the chamber and for admitting a poker therein. An air injector extending through the door directs air to the burning material within the combustion chamber. The access door may have attached to it a grate extending into the chamber for holding the combustible material as it burns.

Abstract: The wood burning heating means of the present invention utilizes a firebox having a grate adjacent the lower end and a flue opening adjacent the upper end thereof. A baffle is positioned immediately below the flue opening in such a manner as to deflect rising hot gases prior to their exit through the flue opening. A main draft opening provides communication of air below the grate to provide oxygen for the fire. A secondary draft opening is provided above the grate for introducing air in such a manner that oxygen will be provided immediately below the baffle to facilitate combustion of the gases which have accumulated adjacent the baffle.

Abstract: A sealing arrangement for a door of a coke oven chamber includes a fluid channel around the door carrying gases from a coke oven chamber. Means is provided that subdivides the channel into separate fluid channelways and means is provided for conducting the gases from each channelway into an adjacent end heating flue in the heating walls defining the coke oven chamber.

Abstract: A coking oven has an upright wall formed with an opening which is normally closed by a door past which noxious gases escape at least at times. Outwardly adjacent the opening and the wall are formed one or more upright channels having open ends located below and above the level of the opening, respectively, and being so positioned that escaping noxious gases can enter into this channel or these channels. Arranged adjacent the upper open end or ends is a suction conduit provided with apertures through which the gases can be drawn from the channel or channels to be conveyed in the conduit.