AMERICAN INDUSTRIES SINCE COLUMBUS. 4.55 



the idea embodied in the walking-beam blowing-engine, and is 

 very far from adequately representing the latest exemplification 

 of that idea, as carried out in the colossal machines employed to 

 blow many of the largest modern furnaces. 



There is great variety in the construction of blast-heating ap- 

 paratus, but it can be comprehensively described as consisting of 



Fio. 34. Iron Blowing-Engine. 



two well-defined types : (1) those forms in which the air is heated 

 by passing through hot iron pipes, inclosed in a brick chamber or 

 " oven " ; (2) those forms in which the blast is heated by actual 

 contact with red-hot masses of brick-work inclosed in air-tight 

 chambers. Fig. 35 is a vertical longitudinal section, and Fig. 36 

 a vertical transverse section, of one of the best of the many forms 

 of the first-named type of " hot-blast stove." This construction 

 of " stove " was the invention of John Player, of England, who 

 introduced it to the notice of American iron-masters in 1807 ; and 

 the first " Player stove " in the United States was erected at the 

 anthracite furnace of J. B. Moorehead & Co., at West Consho- 

 hocken, Pa. Before Mr. Player came to America it had been the 

 usual though not universal practice to place the gas-fired " hot- 

 blast stoves," as well as steam-boilers, on the same level as the 

 top of the furnace, but in all the furnaces erected by him he 

 placed the "hot-blast stoves" and the boilers on the ground, and 

 brought the gas down to them in a large pipe or " down-comer " 

 as it was called. 



