AN IMPROVED METHOD OF CONSTRUCTING THE FLUES AND INTERIOR ARRANGEMENTS OF OVENS AND. KILNS USED BY MANUFACTURERS OF CHINA AND EARTHENWARE
Year: 1845

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSHUA
SEDDON, of Burslem, in the County of Stafford, Earthenware Manufacturer,
sond greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria, in and by Her
Letters Patent, under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-fourth day of May, in the eighth year of Her
Majesty's reign, after reciting that Jeremiah Simpson, of Burslem aforesaid,
Oven Builder, and I, the said Joshua Seddon, had by our Petition humbly
represented to Her Majesty that we had invented "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF
CONSTRUCTING THE FLUES AND INTERIOR ARRANGEMENTS OF OVENS AND. KILNS USED
BY MANUFACTURERS OF CHINA AND EARTHENWARE," that we were the first and true
Inventors thereof, and that the said Invention had never been practised or used
by any other person or persons whomsoever to our knowledge or belief, Her
said Majesty therefore did give and grant for Herself, Her heirs, and successors
unto the said Jeremiah Simpson and me, the said Joshua Seddon, our exors,
admors, and assigns, Her especial license, full power, sole privilege and
authority that we, our exors, admors, and assigns by ourselves, or by our
deputy or deputies, servants, or agents, or such others as we, our exors,
admors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to
time, and at all times thereafter during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend our said Invention
within that part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called
England, Her Majesty's Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-

page_text: Tweed, in such manner as to us, our exors, ailññiors, and assigns, or any of us,
should in our discretion seem meet, and that we, our exors, adññiors, and assigns,
should and lawfully might have and enjoy the whole profit, benefit, commodity,
and advantage, from time to time coming, growing, accruing and arising by
reason of the said Invention for and during the term of years therein
mentioned, to have, hold, exercise, and enjoy the said license, powers, privileges,
and advantages therein-before granted unto us, our exors, adiñors, and assigns,
for and during, and unto the full end and term of fourteen years from the date
of such Letters Patent next and immediately ensuing, and fully to be complete
and ended according to the Statute in such case made and provided; in which
said Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging the said Jeremiah Simpson
and me, the said Joshua Seddon, to particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be per-
formed, by an instrument in writing under our hands and seals, or under the
hand and seal of one of us, and cause the same to be enrolled in Her Majesty's
Iligh Court of Chancery, within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the now reciting Letters Patent, as in and by the said Letters
Patent on reference thereto will more fully appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Joshua Seddon do by this present instrument under my hand and seal declare
that the nature of the said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to
be performed, are fully described and ascertained in and by the following state-
ment thercof, reference being had to the Schedule of Drawings hereunto
annexed, and to the figures and letters marked and written thereon.
And in order that the utility and advantage of such Invention may be
understood, I declare that it consists in affording to manufacturers of china and
earthenware more space within an oven or kiln constructed on the plan here-
after described, and the means of firing in such oven or kiln a greater quantity
of wares than can be set in and fired in any oven or kiln of equal dimensions
heretofore in common use, and that the heat of an oven or kiln so constructed
is diffused with greater effect and without the expenditure of more coals, or
other fuel, in the process of firing than in any ordinary oven, or kiln of the
same dimensions.
I now proceed to describe the Schedule of Drawings hereto annexed, which
are explanatory of the said Invention.
Figure 1 therein represents the exterior elevation of an oven ordinarily used
by potters and china manufacturers, and which corresponds also with the ovens
in which our interior alterations are made, and this Figure is only given for
the better understanding of the Figures or Drawings therein marked Figures

page_text: 2, 3, and 4. The arches over the mouths of the oven are distinguished in
Figure 1 by the letters a, a, a; the glut holes underneath, by the letters
b, b, b; the projecting base which is called the hob, by the letters c, c; the
opening or entrance to the oven is marked with the letter d, and the small
regulating holes with the letters e, e, e, e, e, e.
Figure 2 in the said Schedule represents a half oven, or vertical section of
the interior of an oven with the flues constructed therein according to one
mode of arrangement which our said Invention embraces, and in which the
flues or bags (as they are usually called by potters) for conducting the heat
from the oven mouths are formed in or close inside the oven walls; and carried
to a certain height within the oven, and they issue through several vents or
orifices right upwards and flush against the walls, and so the heat is diffused
regularly throughout the whole interior of the oven. The bags of the oven
represented in Figure 2 are connected together by a continuous circular flue
constructed above the floor of the oven, and are divided from each other at
regular distances either by solid brickwork, or by a course of bricks placed
horizontally and at intervals over the circular flue between the respective bags,
so as to leave small openings or interstices between each brick for the heat to
escape through. The letters f.f.f.f, in Figure 2, denote the fire-places of the
oven; the letters 9, 9, mark the circular cavity of the open flue or tunnel
under the floor; the floor is distinguished by the letters h, h, h; the
circular flue above the floor by the letters i, i, i, i; the upright bags by the
letters k, k, k, the course of open bricks between the flues by the letters 1, 1, 1, 1,
and the orifices or vents of the bags by the letters m, m, m, m, m. But I think it
proper to observe that the Invention I claim does not apply to the particular
height of the bags, as shewn in Figure 2, but that the height of the bags may be
varied as circumstances may require for giving a lower or higher vent to the
heat. The recessed parts of the oven walls shewn in Figure 2 above the
vents, and marked by the letters n, n, n, n, n, show how the bags are taken
partially out of the walls in this peculiar construction of the oven.
'
Figure 3 in the said schedule represents a half oven, or the interior section
of an oven, differing only from that shewn in Figure 2 in these respects,
that the walls are recessed all round to admit of the bags and the brickwork
between them, and that besides the main bags which are built. perpendicularly
to the oven mouths, there are intermediate bags between each main bag. The
letters 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, in Figure 3, denote the main bags, and the letters p, p, p, p,
distinguish the intermediate bags. The flue under the floor of the oven in this
Figure, marked q, q, is taken right across its centre diameter, and does not
show the circular concavity as represented by letters 9, 9, in Figure 2:

page_text: Figure 4 in the said sohedule represents the ground plan and floor of an
oven with the improved arrangement of the flues, which I claim as 'the proper
Invention of the said Jeremiah Simpson and myself. The top semicircle of
this Figure, marked A, shews the construction of the oven under its floor.
The shaded parts therein, marked r, r, r, r, r, denote the oven mouths. The
dark shades, marked 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, denote the main flues or bags, constructed
perpendicularly to the oven mouths, and the dark shades marked t, t, t, t,
denote the intermediate flues; as before described in reference to Figure 8.
The radiating shades in the semicircle A, which extend from the centre to the
oven sides, are severally marked with the letter u, and shew the tunnels or
flues under the floor, and their connection with the bags or flues built in the
walls. The vent hole in the centre, marked v, and the circular flue, marked tv,
do not differ from an ordinary oven. The foundations and brickwork of the
oven are, in this Figure, coloured red. The lower half, or semicircle of
Figure 4, marked B, represents a horizontal section of the oven, taken above
the floor and upon a level with the hob, in which the mouths or feeding holes
of the oven are marked x, x, x, x, x; the bags are marked severally with the
letter y, and the opening or entrance with the letter ; the brickwork of the
oven walls is also, in this semicircle, coloured red, and the floor is coloured
blue. But I deem it proper to observe that I claim no originality of Inven-
tion for the construction of the floor or tunnels under the floor of the oven
I have before described; and Figure 4 is depicted merely to afford a better
explanation of Figures 2 and 8, and the manner in which the bags or flues
therein are constructed, as before described in reference to those respective.
Figures. And although I have in the Drawings now referred to represented
the ovens to which the improved flues and arrangements I claim are applicable,
as being of a circular form (that being the most usual form of potters' ovens)
the Invention I claim is equally adapted to ovens or kilns of a square, oval, or
any other external form or shape, and I assert the right to apply such Inven-
tion to any such ovens or kilns used by manufacturers of china and earthen-
ware, of whatever exterior form they may be constructed.
And I claim in general the several methods of constructing the flues and
interior arrangements of ovens and kilns used by manufacturers of china and
-carthenware by means of flues or bags formed immediately within and against
the oven walls, and with main bags and intermediate bags issuing in vents or
orifices close to the walls or sides of the ovens or kilns, according to the
particular descriptions thereof herein-before contained, and as shewn by
Figures 2 and 3 in the said Schedule of Drawings annexed hereto. And I do
hereby declare this to be the Specification required of the said Jeremiah

page_text: Simpson and myself, or one of us, of our aforesaid Invention, and that such
Invention hath not been ever heretofore to my knowledge or belief used
within that part of Her said Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland called England, Her Dominion of Wales, or Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, and I verily believe this my Specification doth comply in all respects
fully and without reserve or disguise with the proviso in the said herein-before
in part recited Letters Patent contained. Wherefore I do hereby claim to
maintain exclusive right and privilege to the aforesaid Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joshua Seddon, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Nineteenth day of November, in the Ninth year of
Her said Majesty Queen Victoria, and in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-five.
named Joshua Seddon, in the presence of
JN° WARD, Solicitor,
Burslem.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Nineteenth day of November,
in the year of our Lord 1845, the aforesaid Joshua Seddon came before our
said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, 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.