Portable space heater and gas burner for the same

Claim 1

A portable heating unit for use with gaseous fuel, comprising: A. a tubular housing having an air inlet at a rear end thereof and an outlet at its front end for heated air and combustion products; B. a fan in said housing for moving air therethrough at a substantially high velocity; and C. a burner in the housing, adapted to burn gaseous fuel substantially without production of carbon monoxide despite high velocity of air flowing past it, said burner comprising 1. a generally cylindrical primary combustion chamber having its axis substantially parallel to that of the housing, said primary combustion chamber having a rear end wall but being open at its front end, and having a cylindrical side wall that is apertured for admission of primary combustion air in a circumferential zone which is spaced from its front and rear ends, 2. an eccentric fuel gas inlet in said rear end wall, communicable with a source of fuel gas, 3. an igniter for the combustion chamber, intermediate its front end and said zone, 4. a flat disc-like baffle having a radius substantially greater than that of the primary combustion chamber, fixed in forwardly spaced coaxial relation to the open front end of the primary combustion chamber and providing a surface normal to the axis thereof against which combusting gases impinge and by which they are deflected radially outwardly as they issue from the primary combustion chamber, and 5. a forwardly concave conical flange on the front of the primary combustion chamber having a radius larger than that of the baffle and opposing the same, said flange being spaced rearwardly from the baffle to cooperate therewith in defining a radially outwardly opening circumferentially extending secondary combustion chamber, said flange having circumferentially spaced secondary combustion air apertures therethrough in an annular zone in its radially outermost portion.