AN IMPROVED METHOD AND APPARATUS OR MEANS TO BE EMPLOYED IN CONNECTION THEREWITH FOR FIRING CERAMIC AND OTHER ARTICLES
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Bristow Hunt, of Serle Street, Lincoln's Inn, in
the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, for the Invention of "AN
IMPROVED METHOD AND APPARATUS OR MEANS TO BE EMPLOYED IN CONNECTION
THEREWITH FOR FIRING CERAMIC AND OTHER ARTICLES."-A communication
from abroad by George Mendheim, of Berlin, Prussia, Engineer.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Bristow Hunt at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
18th April 1873.
I, BRISTOW HUNT, of Serle Street, Lincoln's Inn, in the County of
Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "AN IMPROVED METHOD AND APPARATUS OR MEANS TO BE EMPLOYED. IN.
CONNECTION THEREWITH, FOR FIRING CERAMIC AND OTHER ARTICLES," (a com-
munication to me from abroad by George Mendheim, of Berlin, Prussia,
Engineer,) to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to an improved method and apparatus or
means to be employed in connection therewith for firing ceramic and
other articles.
.

page_text: The principal feature of this Invention consists in the continuous
and intermittent firing of the ceramic or other articles by gas. The gas
is produced from coal, tar, pitch, wood, or other material producing gas
by generators arranged according to one modification side by side. It
passes thence into different rooms or laboratories, two ranges of which
compose the oven, by means of canals or passages, being admitted to the
rooms required by valves. The articles to be fired are placed in these
rooms, which are separated by walls, but are in communication by canals
passing through the same. The gas can be directed at pleasure from
the generators to cither side of the oven through or by means of the
canals above mentioned and other valves, depending upon which room
or laboratory is required to be heated. On entering that room the gas
mixes itself with the air which has already passed through three or four
rooms previously fired and warmed by it and is lighted, the hot air
of one room passing into the next and thus preparing the same to
receive and inflame the gas, the excess of combustion and draft passing
up a chimney common to all of the rooms. The flame resulting,
warms or heats, first, the room in which the gas is directed and passes;
through the three or four following rooms, the communication after,
the last of which is obstructed by a small sheet of iron or clay slab
which is placed from the top into the canal of communication, and
which is removed when it is required to heat additional rooms, and
replaced so as to separate the last of the same in a similar manner.
The last or the two last rooms are placed in communication with
the chimney by valves and a canal which runs between the two ranges
of rooms, the number of which is unlimited. When the firing is
completed in any one of the rooms the valves communicating from
the gas generators and canal therewith are closed and the supply
of gas thereto discontinued, and the valve communicating with the
next (which has been already warmed by the flame of the preceding
one) is opened. The gas on entering that room immediately ignites
by the access of the warmed air proceeding from the previous rooms,
which process is repcated every time a fresh room is fired. The fire
thus passes from one room to another all around the oven, the two
ranges of rooms of which are joined at either end by canals for the
passage of the fire or heated air. The removal of the contents of the
rooms fired and the renewal thereof follows the track of the fire.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
: filed by the said Bristow Hunt in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 17th October 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, BRISTOW
HUNT, of Scrle Street, Lincoln's Inn, in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of April, in the year
of our Lord One thousand cight hundred and seventy-three, in the
thirty-sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Bristow Hunt, Her special
licence that I, the said Bristow Hunt, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Bristow Hunt, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "AN IMPROVED
METHOD AND APPARATUS OR MEANS TO BE EMPLOYED IN CONNECTION. THEREWITH,
FOR FIRING CERAMIC AND OTHER ARTICLES," a communication to me from
abroad by George Mendheim, of Berlin, Prussia, Engineer, upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Bristow Hunt, my executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or
one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was
to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent
Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Bristow Hunt, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed; to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement in writing and on reference being had to the
accompanying Sheet of Drawings, that is to say :-
This Invention relates to an improved method and apparatus or
means to be employed in connection therewith for firing ceramic and
other articles, which will be readily understood. on reference being had
to the accompanying Sheet of Drawings.

page_text: The principal feature of the Invention consists in the continuous and
intermittent firing of the ceramic or other articles by gas. The gas is
produced from coal, tar, pitch, wood, or other material capable of
producing gas by generators A arranged or placed according to one
modification side by side. It passes thence into different rooms or
laboratories, two ranges of which compose the oven, by means of canals
or passages a, being admitted to the rooms required by valves c. The
articles to be fired are placed in the rooms B which are separated by
walls but are in communication with each other by canals or
passages passing through the same. The gas can be directed at
pleasure from the generators A, to either side of the oven through or
by means of the canals a and valves b, and into any of the rooms or
laboratories B (which ever are required to be heated) by the valves c. On
entering the room required the gas mixes itself with the air which
has previously passed through three or four rooms, previously fired and
warmed by it, and is lighted, the hot air of one room passing into the
next and then preparing the same to receive and inflame the gas, the
excess of combustion and draft passing up a chimney C common to all
the rooms. The flame resulting warms or. heats, first, the room in which
the gas is directed and passes through the three or four following rooms,
the communication after the last of those required, of which is obstructed
by a small sheet of iron or clay slab y placed from the top into the
canal of communication, and which is removed when it is required to
heat additional rooms, and replaced so as to separate the last of the
same in a similar manner.
The rooms B are placed in communication
with the chimney C by valves d and a canal e, which runs between the
two ranges of rooms, the number of which is unlimited. When the
firing is completed in any one of tlie rooms B, the valve c communicating
from the gas generators A and canal à therewith is closed and the
supply of gas thereto discontinued, and the valve communicating with
the next (which has been already warmed by the flame of the preceding
one) is opened. The gas on entering that room immediately ignites by
the access of the warmed air proceeding from the previous rooms, which
process is repeated every time a fresh room is fired. The fire thus
passes from one room to another all round the oven, the two ranges of
rooms of which are joined at either end by canals y* for the passage of
the fire or heated air. The removal of the contents of the rooms fired
and the renewal thereof follows the track of the fire.

page_text: Having now described the nature and object of the said Invention
for "An Improved Method and Apparatus or Means to be employed in
connection therewith for Firing Ceramic and other Articles," together
with the manner in which the same is to be or may be performed or
carried into practical effect, I would remark in conclusion that I claim as
the Invention communicated to me by the said George Mendheim, the
improved method or process together with the improved apparatus or
means to be employed in connection therewith for firing ceramic and
other articles, substantially as above described and as illustrated on the
accompanying Drawings or any modification thereof operating in the
same or a similar manner.
In witness whereof, I, the said Bristow Hunt, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of October, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three.
BRISTOW HUNT. (L.S.)