80 REPORT— 1848. 
The caution and reluctance to entertain or adopt alterations in any pro- 
cess of manufacture, is a safe and prudent feeling in those who manage ma- 
nufacturing concerns, and I by no means complain of it, when applied to my- 
self ; but as time passes by, and the iron trade observes that my stoves do 
not wear out, that there are no stoppages for repair, that I use no coal or 
Jabour, and thus have the blast well-heated without any current cost, I expect 
that a greater degree of interest will be felt in my improvement. If of the 
1,500,000 tons of iron made yearly in Great Britain, we assume that 1,000,000 
tons are made by hot-blast in 200 furnaces, making 5000 tons a-year each, 
the saving of £500 a-year per furnace would be £100,000 a-year. This im- 
portant amount will I hope soon be added to the profits of the iron trade, or 
at least be a reduction from its losses. 
Having thus given an account of the use made of the gaseous escape from 
the blast furnaces at Ystalyfera, to heat the air by which they are blown, I 
will proceed to detail the further use made of the same plentiful and valuable, 
though hitherto neglected vapours, to raise the steam for the engine, 
I stated that I do not consider that it requires one-sixth of the escape of a 
furnace to heat the blast in the stove ; this sixth part does the work of from 
30 to 35 tons of rubbly anthracite coal a week, burnt in the ordinary way in 
reverberatory furnaces. I was deterred until recently from applying any part 
wf the other five-sixths going uselessly to waste, to the purpose of raising 
steam in the boilers, by the distance of the hoilers from the furnaces. I 
feared that the heated vapours would be too much cooled down in the passage 
to the boilers, and that the draught would consequently be faint. However, 
‘on the approach of the meeting of the British Association, I resolved to make 
the attempt, to show the practical men who might attend it, that the long- 
neglected gaseous escape of a furnace would not only heat the blast, but with- 
‘out combustion raise the steam also in the boilers. For this purpose I pre- 
pared No. 9 furnace for blast, and as No. 8 furnace adjoining is out of blast, 
the whole result attained is the independent effect from No. 9 alone. To 
‘carry out my purpose, besides applying part of the escape from No. 9 to its hot- 
blast stove adjoining, I constructed two flues, 24 inches in diameter, leading 
into a main flue 32 inches in diameter, which is conducted into the tube of the 
nearest boiler, the distance from the furnace to the boiler being 46 feet. The 
‘tube of the boiler is divided by a brick partition into two compartments, and 
the heated vapours pass four times through and under the boiler, a total 
length of 120 feet. The boiler stack is 80 feet high and 6 feet in diameter, 
‘and creates an overpowering draught, which takes off the gases from the 
furnace, and fills the boiler with these heated vapours. Although from the 
length of the fiue required, 46 feet, to conduct the vapour from No. 9 furnace 
to the boiler, during which it is exposed to the cooling of the atmosphere in | 
its whole length, being carried on girders as a bridge, I consider that a con- 
siderable part, say above one-half of the heating effect, is lost as compared 
with that produced in the stoves, where the flues are under cover in masonry, 
and the whole is kept close, yet the success of the attempt has been beyond 
my expectations. The boiler raised double the steam it did when heated by 
coal, so that I am already in the enjoyment of a saving of 35 tons of coal a 
week on the boilers’ use. I am preparing to carry the gaseous escape from 
two other furnaces to two other boilers, and in doing this I shall protect the 
flue from exposure to the air, which will I expect give me sufficient steam for 
the engine, and I have little doubt of saving the consumption of boiler coal 
altogether, except we use one boiler with a fire, in order to make a start in 
case of stoppage. I might perhaps have deferred the attempt, which I have 
long contemplated, to use the vapours from the furnace to raise steam, but for 
the visit of the British Association, and this rousing one to action is among 
