Abstract: A water heater. The water heater includes a water tank adapted to contain water to be heated, a combustion chamber positioned proximate the water tank, a combustor positioned in the combustion chamber and operable to create products of combustion, a passage extending upwardly from the combustion chamber and through the water tank, the passage having an upper portion comprising an inner tube and an outer tube and a lower portion comprising an inner tube and an outer tube, and a transition element positioned in the passage and configured to direct supply air from the outer tube of the upper portion to the inner tube of the lower portion and deliver hot products of combustion from the outer tube of the lower portion to the inner tube of the upper portion, the transition element maintaining separation of the supply air and the products of combustion.

Abstract: A high efficiency water heater comprising a generally cone shaped tank; an surrounding and spaced from the tank defining a passageway for flue gases between an inner surface of the enclosure and the outer surface of the tank, said enclosure having an outlet for flue gases; a burner communicating with the interior of said enclosure, and means for providing combustion air to said burner. The preferred embodiment includes baffle means attached to the outer surface of the tank for increasing heat transfer. One embodiment has a conduit passing vertically through the tank, and wherein the burner is disposed in an upper region and communicating with the conduit, and includes a fan for directing flue gases downward through the conduit and subsequently into and through said passageway between the inner surface of the enclosure and the outer surface of the tank.

Abstract: Apparatus for improving the efficiency of a water heater includes a combination damper assembly and heat transfer baffle. The damper assembly includes a plurality of movable damper with each damper leaning outwardly from one another when the dampers are in a closed position. The baffle depends from the damper assembly and includes a truncated conical shape in this position within the flue of a water heater for directing combustion gases from the burner against a flue wall.

Abstract: A water heater comprising a closed tank having a water inlet for connection with a water supply, and a hot water outlet connected to the tank interior; a flue pipe extending vertically through the tank and having an upper portion for connection with a vent pipe; a cylinder having a lower end and upper open end with means for opening disposed within the flue pipe, and spaced from inner walls of the flue pipe, and extending substantially the length of the flue pipe; a burner disposed in a lower region of the cylinder and above the lower end thereof, such that combustion products from the burner rise through the cylinder; and a water conducing coil disposed within the cylinder connected with the interior of the tank.

Abstract: A fluid heater or boiler is disclosed which has a fire tube or combustion chamber surrounded by a reservoir containing a fluid to be heated. The combustion chamber is defined by an inner shell and the reservoir is defined by an outer shell. The inner and outer shells are joined by one or more flue tubes which are thermally expandable along the axes connecting their points of attachments to the inner and outer shells. The heater is constructed so that the inner shell is deflected relative to the outer shell, when the flue tubes or inner shell expand or contract, thus accommodating the thermal expansion. The flue tubes may optionally be adapted to flex perpendicularly to their axes, as well as deflecting the inner shell, to accommodate thermal expansion. The inner shell may also be suspended within the outer shell by the flue tubes connecting the inner and outer shells.

Abstract: A process for cyclonic combustion of fuel in a combustor comprising mixing the fuel and oxidant forming a fuel/oxidant mixture prior to injection into said combustor, tangentially injecting the fuel/oxidant mixture into a first combustor chamber, igniting the fuel/oxidant mixture producing combustion products, exhausting the combustion products at a downstream end of a second combustor chamber in fluid communication with the first combustor chamber, and cooling a wall of the second combustor chamber, and an apparatus for carrying out this process.

Abstract: A combination gas combustor and heat pipe evaporator comprised of elongated cylindrical tubes which overfit one another to create a number of longitudinal gas flow passages. A burner disposed at one end of the device creates hot flue gases which travel initially through an annular passage where heat is conducted to the working fluid of a heat pipe evaporator chamber. The flue gas flow is then reversed in direction to heat the radially outer surface of the tubes making up the heat pipe evaporator, and thereafter flow through passages to warm inlet air to increase combustion efficiency. For both described embodiments, a bellows is provided to accommodate differences in thermal expansion between the tubes making up the heat pipe evaporator. In accordance with a first embodiment, the primary flue gas transport channel has a decreasing annular width with distance from the combuster which results in a lowering Reynolds number for flow which provides a more uniform heat flux along the length of the device.

Abstract: A heat exchanger which includes a casing having an outer tube and an inner tube fixed therein. Holes are formed in the inner tubes and face a heat transfer surface of the outer tube. Hot exhaust gas may be passed from an inlet of the outer tube into the inner tube, through the holes in the inner tube to an outlet. Coolant water may be passed through the casing from an inlet port to an outlet port. Baffles and/or twist coils may be provided to improve heat transfer.

Abstract: A downflow, gravity type gasifier includes a vertically oriented chamber having a loading zone at the top, followed by a drying zone, followed by a pyrolytic zone for pyrolytic decomposition, followed by a cracking zone for cracking the tars, followed by a reduction zone and an oxidation zone wherein the gas is generated and the combustible material is burned. The cracking zone has a divider, e.g. a cruciform divider, in it, and each of the resulting sections of the cracking zone is individually supplied with air for more uniform distribution of air and more uniform cracking than heretofore available. In addition to the air supplied to the periphery at the cracking zone, air outlets are arranged in respective radial arrays of the outlets for more uniform distribution of air into the reduction and oxidation zone.

Abstract: A dirty water heat exchanger keeps solids from settling out while passing through the heat exchanger and includes a cylindrical furnace duct, connected at a first end to a conventional burner, having a spiral liquid heating duct along which the dirty water passes from its first end to its second end. The second end of the furnace duct is open. An exhaust tube surrounds the furnace duct and provides an annular exhaust gap for the hot gases to flow back over the outer surface of the spiral liquid heating duct. The outer end of the exhaust tube is closed to redirect hot gases into the exhaust gap. Spiral flighting along the exhaust gap spirals the exhaust gas to keep the hot gases collecting along the top of the heat exchanger. The gases pass out of the exhaust gap through a flume at the first exhaust tube end. The furnace duct and the exhaust tube are connected together at at most one axial position to accommodate different amounts of axial expansion.

Abstract: A heat exchanger serving for the heating of an organic transfer liquid by combustion gases from a burner has a metallic housing in the shape of an upright cylinder with a widened upper part; the transfer liquid flows through an inner coil extending over nearly the full height of the housing and in series therewith through an outer coil surrounding the inner coil in the widened upper part. The two coils are enveloped by combustion gases, generated within or outside the housing, which rise from its bottom to the top inside the inner coil and then descend around the outer coil to an exit port provided near the lower end thereof. The top, bottom and upper cylinder part are overlain by conduits carrying a cooling fluid, preferably the same transfer liquid; in a preferred embodiment, these conduits are designed as half-pipes welded onto the outer housing surfaces to form cooling channels.

Abstract: The boiler comprises a primary furnace in which the combustion reactions are initiated, a secondary furnace extended by a radiating tube in which the combustion reactions are terminated, a heating surface disposed around the radiating tube and means for causing the combustion gases issuing from the radiating tube to pass into the annular space between the radiating tube and the heating surface. The secondary combustion radiating tube comprises two coaxial chambers, the first chamber terminating in a convergent part which directs the combustion gases toward the second chamber and the second chamber being closed at its end and having at its entrance a diameter larger than the diameter of the end of the convergent part so as to define with the end of the convergent part an annular opening through which the combustion gases injected into the second chamber are discharged. Means are provided for circulating the gases thus discharged in the annular space between said heating surface and the second chamber.

Abstract: A water heater having an inner water tank into which cold water is passed and from which hot water is periodically withdrawn including a jacket within the inner water tank constructed of material which absorbs and gives up heat rapidly whereby on periodic withdrawal of hot water from the inner water tank, cold water entering the inner water tank is rapidly heated by the jacket which has assumed the temperature of the hot water in the tank.

Abstract: A central heating boiler comprising a combustion chamber, flue gas passages, a flue gas collecting chamber and a liquid jacket surrounding both the combustion chamber and the flue gas passages, the inner wall part of said jacket surrounding the flue gas passages being composed of interwelded section staves, of which each one confines a flue gas passages, said inner wall part being very rigid, all other wall parts of the jacket being made of sheet metal and having such shapes and dimensions, as to ensure that the thermal stresses set up by the differences in expansion and shrinkage of the wall parts of the jacket remain under the breaking point of the sheet metal wall parts of the jacket and their welded points.

Abstract: A heat shield for hot vertical pipes and, in particular, coke oven ascension pipes. This heat shield includes a lower, open-bottomed cylindrical housing section which peripherally encloses the pipe. Vertically projecting from this housing is an arcuate wall which is spaced from the pipe. The housing is internally partitioned into a warmer space adjacent the pipe and a cooler space remote from the pipe so that a heat dissipating upward draft is established in the housing and between the pipe and the vertical arcuate wall.

Abstract: A liquid heating apparatus according to the present invention comprises an outer body portion, an inner body portion which is disposed within said outer body portion so as to provide space forming an outside water jacket, an inside water jacket which is provided within said inner body portion and communicates with said outside water jacket by way of its upper and lower parts, a rising heated gas chamber disposed along one side of said inside water jacket and a falling heated gas space disposed along the other side of the same, said rising heated gas chamber and falling heated gas space being so devised that the ratio .xi.