Machine for charging furnaces

A machine for charging furnaces with scrap to be incinerated comprising, a hopper for receiving various types of bulk scrap to be incinerated, said hopper having an open bottom, a rectilinear and horizontal tubular body having opposite ends, one of said ends being connected to the inlet of a furnace, said tubular body having an intermediate portion with an open top which communicates with said open bottom of the hopper, a push member slidably mounted in said tubular body, said tubular body having an interior passage which is substantially equal to that of said push member, said hopper having a first lateral wall constituted by a trap door capable of being raised and lowered, a crushing head pivotably connected to said hopper, said head being exposed when said lateral wall is raised and covered by said lateral wall when said wall is lowered, means for pivotably lowering said head with said trap door raised to compress the scrap against the bottom of the tubular body, and a second wall of the hopper facing said first wall and pivotably connected for movement between a raised position where said second wall forms a wall of the hopper and a lowered position where the second wall constitutes an upper wall closing the interior passage of the tubular body.