The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-02-14 00:00:00

THE SMOKELESS FURNACE.

Tgs monthly meeting of the Liverpool Polytechnic
Society was held last night, at the Royal Institution, in
Colquitt-street. In the absence of Mr. Newlands, the
president, Mr. Grantham was called to the chair. Mr.
.E. H. Bramah, law-clerk to the Birkenhead trustees, Mr.
Andrew Leighton, Mr. Michael Neville, and Mr. William
Bennett, were elected members of the society. Mr. John
'Lee Stevens then real' a paper on " The Subversion of the
Smoke Nuisance," and gave a full explanation of his
patent smokeless furnace. He complained of the want of
earnestness on the part of the Corporation ,of Liverpool
in their endeavours to suppress the nuisance of smoke,
mid denied that he wished to claim exclusive patronage
for his plan over that of other inventors. There
was plenty of room for all, and the great difficulty
which he had experienced of late was to supply the
many demands for his furnaces in the metropolis. All
he wanted was fair competition, and he claimed no other
favour than that which the merits of his invention de-
served. He then proceeded, with the aid of large coloured
diagrams, to explain the peculiarities of his invention.
At the far end of the ordinary furnace is placed a supple-
mentary bearing bar, under which, at a few inches from
the upper fire-bars, is a small grating, upon which a
portion of incandescent fuel falls from the furnace beyond
the supplemental bearing bar ; and, at the end of the
furnace, there is an opening, in which is placed two plates,
protruding into the furnace, with an opening between
them for the admission of air. The oxygen of the
atmosphere, passing through the ashpit, over the grid
plate, and between the two caloric plates, becomes
heated, and in that state comes into contact with
the gases passing off from the body of the furnace,
and so combining with the carburetted hydrogen,
ignition is produced, and the flame carried along
the flues in place of the black smoke. Mr. Stevens
denied that he proffered to prevent all smoke, but he
proffered to reduce the dense black smoke produced from
the fuel ordinarily in use,,to the thin semi-opaque vapour
from the best anthracite, and also to save the cost of fuel
to the extent of from ten to twenty per cent. In this there
was no deception, he had no means of practising it, for the
working was under the control of the proprietors and
engineers where it had been tried, and their reports were
the testimonials to which he referred. The invention was
an advantage to those who tried it, the saving in fuel
alone would in a year or little more pay the first expense,
in addition to the prevention of the smoke nuisance, and
therefore, while he spared no labour to make its merits,
known, he was not begging for its adoption, as he was sa-
tisfied in a little time he and his co-proprietors would have
more demands on them than they could well supply. He
said he had, in April, 1853, made an offer to the Corpo-
ration of Liverpool to put up his invention at his own
expense and 'risk, if they would give him the oppor-
tunity : he now withdre* that offer, for he did not see
why he should be making experiments at Liverpool
when he could find employment in London, Manchester,
Leeds, and other places. If any one, however, were willing
to try it, the question of royalty he would leave until per-
fect satisfaction were given. He concluded by mentioning
several places where the furnaces were at work, or being
erected.

Mr. C. \Vim WILLIAMS took advantage of the opportu-
nity afforded for discussion to read some testimonials in
favour of an invention of his own, for the prevention of
smoke. Upon being called to order, he said that Mr.
Stevens' invention must be successful, but it was only to
certain furnaces, and under particular circumstances.
After some few remarks from the Chairman, thanks
were voted to Mr. Stevens and to the chairman, and the
meeting separated.