The "Player stove" was provided at its base with a large "combustion chamber" (see Fig. 35), into which the gas entered, and there meeting with sufficient air for its combustion, the resulting heated gases passed upward through flues (indicated by the arrows s, s, s) in the roof of the "combustion chamber" into the "pipe chamber" above. In this chamber were arranged a series of vertical "siphon pipes," standing upon hollow bases or
Fig. 35.—Longitudinal Section of the Player Hot-blast Stove.
"bed pipes" of cast iron. The air to be heated was admitted to the right-hand bed pipe B (Fig. 36), and passed thence in the direction of the arrows through the siphon pipes into the left-hand bed pipe B', from one end of which it was taken in suitable pipes to the furnace. The introduction of the "Player stove" was the means of greatly increasing the production of iron in the furnaces to which they were applied, and at the same time the amount of fuel required per ton of iron was diminished; further economies were realized by increasing the size of furnaces, and the power of the engines that supplied them with blast.
The first example of the second type of hot-blast stove erected
