The operation of a blast furnace making pig iron produces large volumes of gas as a by-product. This gas can be used as a fuel and it was used in the early days to produce steam and heat furnace blast.
With the development of the internal combustion engine, the application of gases, and in particular blast furnace gas, as a fuel for these engines quickly followed.
Gas engines to produce electric power and blast for the furnaces were installed at A. Hickman Ltd between 1901 and 1909. With one exception the engines were of premier design, being two cylinder tandem units. There were twelve engines ranging from 200 - 800 BHP coupled to dynamos producing direct current electricity for driving a rolling mill, charging machines, motors, lighting, voltage range 250-500.
Six engines of between 1000 and 2000 HP supplied air to the blast furnaces. All of the above engines used to clean blast furnace gas and continued in operation until 1957.
Rollover the captions in the box to see the available images in thumbnail format, click the caption to see the full-size image
| Reference: | 455 |
| Keywords: | Blast Furnace Gas Generator Blowing Engine |
| Archive Ref: | |
| Updated: | Sun 9 Apr 2006 - 15 |