AN IMPLEMENT FOR LAYING FIRES. AND TREVET COMBINED, AND ALSO AN IMPROVEMENT IN FIRE-GRATES
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Edward Thomas Darke at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 9th November 1878.
EDWARD THOMAS DARKE, of No. 2, Brecknock Crescent, Camden Road, London,
N.W., in the County of Middlesex, Engineer. "AN IMPLEMENT FOR LAYING
FIRES. AND TREVET COMBINED, AND ALSO AN IMPROVEMENT IN FIRE-GRATES."
The object of this Invention is to give to the wood and coals or other fuel used
in lighting fires a temporary support, 1stly, by means of a movable false-bottom
which I call a fire-layer and trevet combined; and, 2ndly, by the means of certain
improvements in fire grates in order to prevent the weight of the said wood and
coals, &c., crushing the paper shavings, &c., commonly placed underneath to ignite
the wood and coals, &c., laid above, and thereby to give sufficient space for the proper
combustion of the paper or shavings and for the convenient introduction if necessary
of additional paper, shavings, &c.
This fire-layer is a short-handled iron fork of three or more prongs sufficiently
long to reach from the front, to the back of the fire-grate. The cross-bar which
connects the prongs and handle is turned up at each end at right angles to the
prongs and to the cross-bar itself, and when the fire-layer is resting with the prongs
upon one of the lower grate-bars these pieces thus turned up are intended to press
against the outside of the grate-bar next above, and a short double-headed pin
falling loosely in a hole so situated in each outer prong that the pin shall touch the
inside of the grate-bar on which the fire-layer rests the fire-layer will be supported
as a bracket by the grate-bars and may easily be withdrawn or inserted, and if
wood and coals, &c., is placed upon the prongs such wood and coals will be
supported above any paper, shavings, &c., which may lie underneath, and the paper,
&c., will have space for its free combustion, and any additional paper, &c., may be
easily introduced if necessary.
And if the two outer prongs be continued in a straight line past the cross-bar to
a distance equal to the width of the topmost grate-bar and then turned up in the
same direction as that of the pieces at the ends of the cross-bar, and the fire-layer be
turned over and laid upon the topmost grate-bar so that those pieces at the ends of
Linia 71

page_text: the cross-bar touch the inside of the grate-bar next below, and the pieces at the
ends of the prongs touch the outside of the topmost grate-bar, the fire-layer may be
used as a trevet or a bracket upon which to support a cooking utensil, &c., above the
fire. As a trevet the loose pins fall in the holes and offer no obstruction. The
temporary support given by the fire-layer to the wood and coals, &c., and space for
the proper combustion of or for the introduction if necessary of additional paper,
shavings, &c., may be obtained by forming a step or ledge in the back or upon the
bottom of a fire-grate so that the wood used in lighting the fire may be supported
at the one end by this step or ledge and at the other by a lower grate-bar, the coals,
&c., may be supported by the wood instead of by the prongs of the fire-layer. This
step or ledge is the improvement in fire-grates named.