Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 26.djvu/506

490 the sublimed sulphur collects. At one end of the chamber is a vertical chimney, I, provided with a damper, K.

The kiln is charged in the usual way by placing the large pieces of ore on the floor in such a manner as to leave passages for the flow of the liquid sulphur; the small pieces are next filled in, and the finer ore at the top. A few blocks of rough stone, or burned ore, are placed at the opening in front in such a way as to leave a vacant place for the melted sulphur to collect before being run off. When charged, the ore is covered with bricks laid flat, and on these is put a layer of genese, well rammed and wetted, so as to form a nearly impermeable



coating, with a slight slope toward the walls, in order that the rain-water may run off. The opening, F, in the front wall should be closed with a thin wall of plaster of Paris. The ore in the kiln, which is now ready for fusion, is put in communication with the spent calcarone, B, by opening the damper, D, and at the same time a small hole, N, is made in the wall that closes the opening in front, from which the melted sulphur has been run off from the calcarone, B. The current of air entering by the hole, N, and passing through the incandescent mass of ore, is thus heated, and enters the kiln by the flue, N, at a sufficient temperature. In this manner the heated mass of spent ore in the calcarone becomes a regenerator of heat, to be utilized in the kiln for the fusion of the sulphur that it contains. In the upper covering, two or more tubes, O P, are placed, and serve not only for observing the internal temperature by a thermometer, but also for firing the mass.

The combustion of the sulphur supplied with hot air, mixed with a considerable proportion of sulphurous-acid gas, proceeds slowly in the upper part of the kiln, and the liquid sulphur dropping to the floor, over the already heated ore, can not solidify and choke the passages, and so prevent the circulation of the heated air and products of combustion of the sulphur to the chimney; in this manner the operation proceeds with regularity. The success of the kiln is principally due to the