Abstract: The amount of soot and slag formed during the combustion of carbonaceous waste material is appreciably reduced by combusting said waste material in the presence of at least 0.0001%, by weight, of sodium bentonite, based on the weight of carbonaceous material being combusted. The sodium bentonite may be added directly to the waste material before entering the furnace or the sodium bentonite may be added directly to the furnace.

Abstract: Air is blown into a combustion furnace via an inlet disposed in the upper section of the furnace and the incoming air is made to flow in a fixed spirally descending path along the inner wall of the furnace proper. Material subjected to combustion is carried by the flow of air to the layer of burning material at the bottom of the furance by previously deposited combustible material, there to be burnt. By virtue of the action of the current of air, the combustion gas from the combustion is vigorously whirled upwardly in the same rotational direction as that of the air current in the annular region defined by the fixed path of the spirally descending air current. This ascending current of air is enclosed within the annular region defined by the descending current.

Abstract: The invention adds liquid solar heating to conventional house construction without altering the plans. Sections of moulded polyester resin embedding pipes connect together to provide a continuous liquid pathway which is hidden from view, or conduits may be moulded in the polyester resin thereby eliminating the pipes. The sections are artistically styled, obviating the unsightly appearance of present day solar equipped homes. The arrangement is very inexpensive, yet durable, and not subject to glass panels and its attendant breakage or the use of expensive copper tubing. The entire roof is a collector and different parts of the roof are exposed to the direct sunlight at all times of the day. Longitudinal seams accommodating thermal expansion are provided between adjacent sections by a trough terminating one section and a trough covering extrusion terminating the adjacent section. Rain and snow water run down the trough and off of the roof.

Abstract: An improved boiler for liquid and/or gaseous fuels, comprising a combustion chamber and a heat exchanger, wherein said heat exchanger comprises at least one element or body provided with finned conduit of a coil pattern, the axis of which lies in a plane substantially at right angles to the path of the combustion products or fumes and associated fins.

Abstract: A water heater capable of utilizing as one of its heat sources hot exhaust gases emitted from at least one other heat source such as a furnace fueled by a natural resource fuel such as gas or oil, and capable of utilizing as another of its heat sources heat emitted from a fluid heated by solar energy. The water heater comprises a central flue having a heat conductive wall, one end of the said flue having a thimble member secureable to an exhaust pipe carrying hot exhaust gases from a heat source fueled by a natural resource fuel, and the other end of said flue secureable to a chimney leading to the atmosphere. Disposed within the flue is a turbulator means which disperses entering hot exhaust gases along the surface of the flue wall.

Abstract: A boiler comprises a water-carrying housing of sheet steel and a thin-walled cast iron casing arranged within the housing and having regions connected by condensate which are not machined. The casing includes a plurality of radial webs cast on the casing and supporting a sleeve defining a combustion chamber for the combustion of fuel. A guide chamber and a collecting chamber are defined by the casing adjacent opposite ends of the sleeve, the guide chamber being arranged to receive the combustion gases from the combustion chamber and the webs defining therebetween flow ducts connecting the guide and collecting chambers for conducting the combustion gases to the collecting chamber. The casing extends beyond the two end walls of the housing and the end walls form a liquid-tight connection with the casing. The webs extend into the guide and collecting chambers, the height of the web portions in the guide and collecting chambers not exceeding that of the web portions supporting the sleeve.

Abstract: A vertical steam or hot water boiler includes a convection part enclosed in a drum, and has a final combustion chamber attached thereto. The convection part includes at least two groups of smoke tubes. An annular box structure encloses either, or both, of said groups, at the ends of the tubes adjacent to the final combustion chamber, and the box structure being provided with an inlet and an outlet for a boiler fluid. This fluid may be feed water or steam to be superheated.

Abstract: A water heater including a watertight tank having a plurality of flue tubes extending between the tank bottom and the tank top and having a burner means mounted beneath the tank and a hot water outlet mounted in the top portion of the tank. An agitator assembly is mounted in the bottom portion of the tank and includes a ring-shaped tubular member and a secondary tubular member connected to the ring-shaped tube. The ring-shaped and secondary tubular members are provided with a plurality of openings in the sides thereof. The agitator assembly is connected to a source of water so that when hot water is periodically withdrawn from the top of the tank water will flow into the tank through the openings in the agitator assembly. Such openings are positioned so that water flowing from inside the tubular members into the tank will flow in a number of different horizontal directions to thereby produce a substantially uniform stirring action in the bottom portion of the tank.

Abstract: A solar heat collector uses elongated, tubular, outer casings, in a fixed position with respect to the solar orbit, surrounding inner tubular sections, carrying heat-conductive fluid. The outer casings are highly transparent and the walls of the outer casings are of substantial thickness and of a high refractive index to admit solar heat energy and to focus it on or towards the inner tubular sections or tubes that are of highly conductive material and have dark, heat-absorbing surfaces.One of the sides of the outer casings faces toward the sun. The other of the sides of the outer casings are coated with a highly reflective material to reflect any solar heat energy that by-passes the tubes, back to the inner tubes.Each of the casings is mounted in a substantially vertical plane, and the solar heat collector would normally consist of a plurality of such casings, or units, mounted side by side in a fixed plane approximately normal to the noonday, winter sun, or perpendicular to the sun's orbit.

Abstract: A superheater-separator of steam coming from a high-pressure expansion turbine, before its admission into an expansion turbine at a lower pressure. The superheater-separator is divided into several vertical sectors comprising (from a central zone outwards) a zone for separating the water entrained by the steam and a superheating zone, at least one vertical section comprising only a zone for separating the water entrained by the steam for bleeding off a fraction of the dried steam before it is superheated.

Abstract: A fluid heating unit is provided which includes upper and lower drums, a plurality of riser tubes connected between the drum and defining an enclosure, and means defining a cell within the enclosure for maintaining a fluidized bed of particulate material. The heating unit is of the natural circulation type thereby eliminating the need for forced recirculation pumps.

Abstract: A cooler for a shaft furnace comprises a metal plate for protecting the furnace walls from the heat effect arranged in the way of heat flow and a means for cooling said plate. The plate is made in the form of metal pipes filled with a coolant and sealed at the ends thereof. The coolant-filled ends of the pipes are rigidly fixed to the plate, and the coolant-free ends of said pipes are mounted within a cooling chamber with the coolant circulating therethrough. The cooling chamber is arranged exteriorly of the furnace wall. The coolant-free ends of the pipes are disposed slightly above those filled with the coolant. The plate is formed of two layers, namely, a high-heat-conducting layer and a low-heat-conducting one, the former facing the furnace working space and the latter being presented to the furnace wall. The interfacial plane of the layers is parallel to the longitudinal axis of the pipes.The present invention can be advantageously used for the protection of blast-furnace shells.

Abstract: A solar collector comprised of a frame and a plurality of tubular collector elements. Each collector element is comprised of an outer transparent tube, a metallic absorber tube, and an intermediate transparent tube which encloses the absorber tube. The absorber tube is coated with an absorptive coating and the outer tube is coated over a significant portion of its circumference with a reflective coating to reflect solar radiation onto the absorber tube. The intermediate tube serves to reduce convective and conductive heat losses, provides a structural support for the absorber tube, and chemically isolates the coated absorber tube from the reflective coating on the outer tube.

Abstract: A vertical watertube boiler in which a bank of vertically oriented uniformly spaced watertubes, located in an upright cylindrical shell that has enlarged diameter upper and lower end portions, connect paired headers mounted on and protruding into diametrically opposite sides of the enlarged diameter end portions of the shell, the end portions of the tubes being bent laterally outward and joined to wall portions common to the headers and the gas pass formed by the shell; the headers associated with the upper enlarged diameter end portion of the shell being connected by risers with a steam drum and the headers at the lower enlarged end portion of the shell being connected with the steam drum by downcomers.

Abstract: Apparatus for heating and maintaining the temperature of water in a hot water tank of a solar hot water system and method of making same are provided wherein such apparatus comprises a thermally insulating container disposed around and in spaced relation from the tank with the container having a bottom portion defining a sump for a heat transfer liquid employed in the system and a device for maintaining the level of such liquid in the sump beneath the tank during normal system operation to thereby assure maintenance of an air space substantially completely around the tank with the air space cooperating with the insulating container to assure the temperature of water in the tank is maintained with minimum loss; and, the apparatus may also employ a pressure sensitive shut-off device in the cold water supply to the tank which cooperates with the air space to assure operation of the system with substantially no likelihood of contamination of the cold water supply.

Abstract: A solar energy collector includes a housing having a back reflective wall and a transparent forward wall. The chamber between the walls is sealed against air-interchange with the surrounding air. A number of parallel blackened pipes are interconnected to define a fluid path from an inlet to an outlet, and the pipes are spaced so that there exists a plurality of unhindered light paths through the area of pipes from the transparent wall to the reflective surface, so that a substantial portion of any light passing along the unhindered paths and reflecting from the reflective surface will strike the exteriors of the pipes.

Abstract: A jet pump is provided in the downcomer of a natural circulation fossil fuel burning vapor generator to enhance circulation in the vaporizer circuits of the vapor generator. A driving fluid pump is adapted to introduce liquid taken from the drum as driving fluid for the jet pump, and the liquid passing through the downcomer acts as driven fluid for the jet pump.

Abstract: Solar energy reflecting and collection structure for effecting improved energy recovery in solar collection systems. The reflecting structure includes cavities or depressions of parabolic character and, for ease of construction, are cast of aggregate and bonding agent materials. Such casting materials include extremely light-weight materials such as perlite, vermiculite, pumice, expanded shale and any volcanic aggregate. The casting technique utilized precludes the necessity for metal spinning or metal fabrication which is so expensive. The heat transfer tube utilized includes generally self-contained transparent or translucent cylindrical enclosures which have lens functions for concentrating, in dots, lines, or a combination of both, recovered solar energy, this to improve the temperature gradient on opposite sides of the heat exchanger tube wall so as to provide for a rapid and maximum recovery in utilization of heat, relative to the fluid carried by the heat exchanger tube.

Abstract: A device is described for concentrating solar radiation upon the surface of a helicoidal tube assembly containing a circulating heat transfer medium whereby the energy of said radiation may be collected and utilized. The device consists of a rectangular container wherein is supported a longitudinal plurality of aligned curved reflectors for gathering and concentrating incident solar radiation, multiple vertical reflectors to gather low-angle radiation, a convex radiation concentrating reflector beneath said helicoidal tube and a means for damping excess solar radiation. A method is given for the utilization of said solar radiation collector whereby the heated circulating medium provides the means for heating and cooling buildings.

Abstract: A vertical firetube boiler in which the upper tube sheet has a dished formation to coact with an annular baffle spaced down from the peripheral portion of the upper tube sheet, to cause the circulating steam-water mixture in the boiler to flow radially outward along the underside of the upper tube sheet to a circular row or belt of holes that open to an annular steam collecting chamber.