CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR RAISING THE TEMPERATURE OF AIR TO WARM AND VENTILATE BUILDINGS
Year: 1832

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
SYLVESTER, of Great Russell Street, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Fifth day of June, in the second year of His reign, did,
for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said John
Sylvester, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I,
the said John Sylvester, my exórs, admors, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said John Sylvester, my exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the
term of years therein mentioned, should 'and lawfully might make, use, exer-
cise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed,
my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR RAISING THE
TEMPERATURE OF AIR TO WARM AND VENTILATE BUILDINGS;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso, that I, the said John Sylvester, shall cause
particular
description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is, to be performed, to be inrolled in His said Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within two calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the
same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Sylvester, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention of
"Improvements in Apparatus for Raising the Temperature of Air to Warm and
Ventilate Buildings," and the manner in which the same is to be carried into
effect, are clearly set forth and explained in the following description, that is
to say:-
The first part of my said Invention applies to a grate, in which the fire is
made nearly or quite on a level with the floor or hearth, under which grate I
make an excavation, for the two-fold purpose of an ash-pit and of supplying
fresh air to the bottom of the fire, and I place the fire bars of this grate with
their back ends resting upon the back brim of the ash-pit. Each bar lies
separate from the other, leaving the usual space for the ashes to fall through
and for the air to pass up into the fire, and from the front part of each fire bar
I make a prolongation of sufficient length to bear upon and lie over some por-
tion of the common hearth. Each prolongation is increased in width from
the fire-place outwards, so much that all the prolongations taken together
shall form one continuous plate or metal hearth in front of the fire-place,
nearly or quite level with the floor, as may be convenient; and I make along
the under side of each prolongation of the fire bars a groove or furrow, which,
by lying on its bearings, will form a tubular perforation for the admission of
fresh air to the ash-pit, and thence to the fire, and for the emission of warm
air into the room. The outward or front line of the metal hearth or the line
which binds the ends of all the prolongations may be either straight or curved,
and the fire bars with their prolongations may lodge in a curb of stone or
metal, at discretion. And in order more readily to open the ash-pit to remove
the ashes I leave four or more bars unfastened, except by their weight, and
which may be taken out at pleasure.
And I do further declare that the second part of my said improvement
consists in attaching to the sides or back or to the sides and back of my fire-
grate, and extending as high as may be convenient or the situation will permit,
a vessel or vessels for holding water to be heated by the fire, and I apply near
to the outsides of the said vessel or vessels the system of tubes used in the appa-
ratus known by the name of the "Derby hot-air stove," and described in a
work published in London in the year One thousand eight hundred and nine-
teen, entitled "The Philosophy of Domestic Economy, as exemplified in War-
ming, Ventilating, Washing, Drying, and Cooking in the Derbyshire General
Infirmary, by Charles Sylvester, Engineer," pages 11 and 18, the essential
principle of which stove is that currents of air are made to pass through
"6

page_text: a considerable number of tubes of about two or three inches in diameter, and to
impinge upon
the outer surface of a heated cockle, the delivering orifices of
the tubes being placed at about half an inch or three quarters of an inch
from the heated surface of the cockle, in order to deliver the air with certainty
and force against it, and carry off the heat; and in my improvement I cause
currents of air to be directed through tubes similarly placed, but make the
air impinge against the outside of my vessel or vessels of heated water, by
which arrangement a more equal temperature may be kept up with much less
care and labour in attending to the fire. The proportionate quantity of area
of all the tubes to the cubic contents of the apartment or apartments to be
warmed and ventilated, admits of considerable latitude, according to the aspect
of the room or the influence it is under, from the heat or cold of contiguous
apartments, or from the external air. The dimensions of the fire grate, as
also of the vessels of water, must obviously depend upon the size of the apart-
ment or apartments to be warmed and ventilated, and upon the degree of heat
to be raised.
And whenever it is desirable to keep up a large fire in the grate for trans-
mitting the heat copiously to distant apartments, without giving out too much
heat to the room in which the grate is fixed, I form a cover to fit over and in
front of the fire, having a doorway through which fuel may be supplied, and
thus I constitute my fire grate into an air furnace for the more ready heating
of my water vessel or vessels.
And I do further declare, that I lay no claim to the exclusive use of the
tubes above-mentioned, nor to any particular form of grate or of water vessel,
but only to the invention of forming and placing of the fire-bars with their
furrowed prolongations, as before described, and to the bringing of currents of
air through the tubes of the Derby hot-air stove against the sides of a vessel
or vessels of heated water instead of against the sides of a cockle heated
immediately by the fire.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Sylvester, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twelfth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-two.
JOHN (L.S.) SYLVESTER.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twelfth day of July, in the
year of our Lord 1832, the aforesaid John Sylvester came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Third day of August, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and thirty-two.