COKE 



887 



erected at the Camden Town station, consisting of 18 ovens in two lines, the whole 

 discharging their products of combustion into a horizontal fluo, -which terminates in a 

 chimney-stack 115 feet high. Fig. 494 is a ground plan of the elliptical ovens, each 

 being 12 feet by 11 internally, and having 3 feet thickness of walls, a, a is the 

 mouth, 3J feet wide outside, and about 2| feet within, b, b are the entrances into the 

 flue ; they may be shut more or less completely by horizontal 

 slabs of fire-brick, resting on iron frames, bushed in from 

 behind to modify the draught of air. The grooves of these 

 damper-slabs admit a small stream of air to complete the 

 combustion of the volatilised particles of soot. By this 

 means the smoke is well consumed. The flue c, c, is 2 feet 

 high, by 21 inches wide. The chimney d, at the level of the 

 flue, is 11 feet in diameter in the inside and 17 outside ; being 

 built from an elegant design of Eobert Stephenson, Esq. e, e 

 are the keys of the iron hoops, which bind the brick-work of 

 the oven. Fig. 495 is a vertical section in the line A, B, of 

 fig. 494, showing at b, b, and e, e, the entrances of the dif- 



ferent ovens into the horizontal flue ; the direction of the draught being indicated 

 by the arrows. /,/, is a bed of concrete, upon which the whole furnace range is 

 built, the level of the ground being in the middle of that bed. g is a stanchion on 

 which the crane is mounted ; h is a section of the chimney wall, with part of the 

 interior to the left of the strong line. Fig. 496 is a front elevation of two of these 

 elegant coke ovens ; in which the bracing hoops i, i, i, are shown ; k, k are the 

 cast-iron doors, strengthened outside with diagonal ridges ; each door being 5 feet 

 high, by 4 feet wide, and lined internally with fire-bricks. They are raised and 

 lowered by means of chains and counterweights, moved by the crane I. 



496 



Each alternate oven is charged, between 8 and 10 o'clock every morning, with 

 3 i tons of good coals. A wisp of straw is thrown in on the top of the heap, which 

 takes fire by the radiation from the dome (which is in a state of dull ignition from 

 the preceding operation), and inflames the smoke then rising from the surface, by 

 the reaction of the hot sides and bottom upon the body of the fuel. In this way the 

 smoke is consumed at the very commencement of the process, when it would other- 

 wise be more abundant. The coking process is in no respect a species of distillation, 



