Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 19th Mar., 1895
Complete Specification Left, 19th Dec.. 1895-Accepted, 19th Mar., 1896
1, PETER LYONS, of 112 West Street, Drogheda, in the County of Louth,
Ireland, Baker and Confectioner, do hereby declare the nature of this invention
to be as follows:-
My invention relates to bakers' provers by means of which certain advantages
are obtained.
Bakers' provers as at present constructed are open to certain serious objections.
In the case where steam is employed it is generated at the bottom of the
prover itself and in ascending comes first into contact with the lowest of the
tins of dough. This tin therefore becomes ready for the oven sooner than those
higher up, these getting vapour at a lower temperature the higher up they are.
In consequence of this want of uniform heating the tins have to be shifted every
few moments, thereby causing loss of time and heat, as well as a checking of the
process of fermentation by the frequent opening of the door. The vapour on
reaching the top of the prover becomes condensed and drops on to the tins of
dough, fouling the latter and making its cleanly handling almost impossible.
In the case where gas is employed the products of combustion, which are always
more or less foul, come in contact with the soft dough and injure it. When coal
or other solid fuel is used the dough is apt to be spoiled by ashes and dust
falling upon it. A. further objection existing in provers as at present constructed
is that regulation of the heat is difficult and in some cases practically
unattainable.
My invention is designed to overcome these drawbacks and to enable the tins of
bread to be proved equally and the dough maintained clean and sweet. At the
same time the bread can be examined at any time without any such serious lowering
of temperature as would check the process of fermentation.
In carrying my invention into effect I construct my provers of two nesting
chambers the inner one of which is designed to hold the tins of dough during the
process of proving and the outer to contain the heating fluid employed.
In a contemplated form of my invention the inner or dough chamber is square
or rectangular in section whilst the outer or heating chamber is of such form as
to surround the dough chamber at all parts except one side this side being left for
the door. The said door may conveniently be made hollow so as to contain a
heating fluid.
Another contemplated form of my invention may consist of a pipe or pipes coiled
or bent in any convenient form and through which the heating fluid may circulate
as in the case herein before mentioned. The heating chamber may be provided
with a door of any convenient form and with lagging to prevent loss of heat
externally.
The said beating chamber may also be furnished with cocks or other suitable
fittinge to which pipes or the like may be attached for conveying the heating fluid
from a generator or reservoir.
When steam is the heating fluid employed I find it convenient to adapt to the
heating chamber an escape valve and a clearing cock.
I have herein before spoken of the heating chamber being placed in connection
with a generator or reservoir of the heating fluid. I may however when desired

page_text: make the heating chamber itself a generator by suitably adapting a source of
thermal energy thereto such for example as a furnace or jet of flame.
Dated this 19th day of March 1895.
J. G. LORRAIN, M. Inst. E.E., M. Inst. M.E.,
Norfolk House, Norfolk Street, Strand, London, W.C.,
Chartered Patent Agent.
provements in Bakers Provers.
1, PETER LYONS, of 112, West Street, Drogheda, in the County of Louth,
Ireland, Baker and Confectioner, do hereby declare the nature of this invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement:-
My invention relates to bakers' provers by means of which certain advantages
are obtained.
In
Bakers' provers as at present constructed are open to certain serious objections.
In the case where steam is employed it is generated at the bottom of the prover
itself and in ascending comes first into contact with the lowest of the tins of
dough. This tin therefore becomes ready for the oven sooner than those higher
up, these getting vapour at a lower temperature the higher up they are.
consequence of this want of uniform heating the tins have to be shifted every
few moments, thereby causing loss of time and heat, as well as a checking of the
process of fermentation by the frequent opening of the door. The vapour on
reaching the top of the prover becomes condensed and drops on to the tins of
dough, fouling the latter and making its cleanly handling almost impossible.
In the case where gas is employed the products of combustion, which are always
more or less foul, come in contact with the soft dough and injure it. When coal
or other solid fuel is used the dough is apt to be spoiled by ashes and dust
falling upon it. A further objection existing in provers as at present constructed
is that regulation of the heat is difficult and in some cases practically
unattainable.
My invention is designed to overcome these drawbacks and to enable the tins
of bread to be proved equally and the dough maintained clean and sweet. At the
same time the bread can be examined at any time without any such serious lowering
of temperature as would check the process of fermentation.
In carrying my invention into effect I construct my provers of two nesting
chambers the inner one of which is designed to hold the tins of dough during the
process of proving and the outer to contain the heating fluid employed.
One type of my invention is illustrated diagrammatically in Figure 1 and is
constructed as follows. Two rectangular boxes 1 and 2 of different size are
nested one within the other in such manner that the smaller box 1 may form the
dough chamber 3 and the space between it and the larger box the heating chamber.
The said boxes are left open at one side, the said side being that at which the
door 4 is to be placed, so as to admit of access to the dough chamber when required.
At this side however is a flange or strip 5 connecting the edges of the sides of the
two boxes together so as to completely enclose the space between the said two boxes
or in other words the heating chamber. The dough chamber may be fitted with
shelves in the usual manner.
The heating chamber is intended for the reception or circulation of the heating
fluid which may enter by a pipe 6 provided if desired with a tap and may escape
by another pipe not shown in the drawing similarly provided when desired. The
door may be made hollow so as to receive a heating fluid also. I find it convenient

page_text: when using this type of my invention to cause the heating fluid to circulate
through both the door and the heating chamber. For this purpose I connect the
hollow space 7 in the door and the heating chamber with two communicating pipes
which may conveniently be constructed as follows. At a space near the bottom of
the door and close to the hinged side thereof I place a short pipe or nipple 8 com-
municating with the hollow space in the door and at a contiguous part of the wall
of the inner box I place a similar pipe or nipple 9 communicating with the heating
chamber and projecting into the dough chamber and I connect these two nipples
by a curl of flexible steam pipe 10. At corresponding parts of the upper part of the
door and of the inner box I attach two similar nipples 11 and 12 similarly
connected by a curl 13 of flexible steam pipe. The heating chamber and the hollow
space of the door are thus placed in communication with one another the heating
fluid passing through one curl and returning through the other, whilst the flexibility
of the said curls enables the door to be opened and closed freely without interfering
with the circulation of the heating fluid.
I have herein before spoken of the heating chamber as a device which receives
heating fluid from an external source or reservoir thereof but in a second type of
my invention I cause the heating chamber to be itself the generator or source of
the heating fluid. In a convenient form of this type (see Figure 2) I extend the
bottom 14 of the beating chamber to a considerable distance below the bottom 15
of the dough chamber and in the space between the two or in other words at the
bottom of the heating chamber I place a quantity of water 16. Below the bottom
of the heating chamber I place a furnace or flame 17 of any convenient kind so as
to boil the water and fill the heating chamber with steam.
In a third type of my invention I make the dough chamber as before but in this
case (sce Figure 3) the heating chamber consists of a coil of pipes 18 coiled round
the dough chamber each convolution preferably lying in a plane parallel or
approximately parallel to the plane of the door and through the coil the heating
fluid circulates so as to heat the dough chamber. This coil of pipe may be in
communication with a source or generator of heating fluid or a part of the coil
may itself be made the said source or generator of the heating fluid by being passed
for example through a furnace of any convenient kind. It will be seen that in the
case of the third type of my invention the coil of pipes constitutes a heating
chamber. A flat coil of pipe may be embedded in the door and the ends thereof
connected by curls of steam pipe with the coil or coils of pipe surrounding the
dough chamber.
In practice I find it convenient to provide my provers with a lagging of the usual
kind for the purpose of preventing loss of heat externally.
It will be seen that by means of taps the circulation of the heating fluid may be
regulated and thus a greater variety of action, with accompanying advantage to
the quality of the goods produced, be obtained. Escape valves clearing cocks and
other fittings may be provided if desired.
It will be seen that in my invention the opening of the door will not lower the
temperature to nearly so great an extent as in ordinary provers.
The heating fluid may be of any convenient kind as for example steam, hot water,
hot air or the like.
I find boiler plate to be a suitable material of which to form the boxes.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is :-
1. The combination of two nesting boxes substantially as and for the purpose
described.
2. The employment of a heating chamber nesting with and surrounding the
dough chamber on all sides save one, substantially as described.
3. The arrangement and combination of parts constituting the first type of my
invention, substantially as described.

page_text: 4. The arrangement and combination of parts constituting the second type of my
invention, substantially as described.
5. The arrangement and combination of parts constituting the third type of my
invention, substantially as described.
Dated this 10th don of
1002
Dated this 10th day of December 1895.
For the Applicant,
J. G. LORRAIN, M. Inst. E.E., M.I. Mech. E.,
Norfolk House, Norfolk Street, Strand, London, W.C.,
Chartered Patent Agent.