IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR UTILIZING HEAT FOR HEATING, WARMING, VENTILATING, COOKING, LIGHTING, AND SANITARY PURPOSES
Year: 1871

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PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles Ritchie at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 24th
January 1871.
I, CHARLES RITCHIE, of Brixton, in the County of Surrey, Gentleman,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN APPARATUS FOR UTILIZING HEAT FOR HEATING, WARMING, VENTILATING,
COOKING, LIGHTING, AND SANITARY PURPOSES," to be as follows:-
My Invention is based on a similar system to that described in the
Specification of Letters Patent dated 23rd of September, A.D. 1867,
No. 2674, and also in the Specification (final) of Letters Patent dated
25th of January, A.D. 1868, No. 265; but my present Invention is not
necessarily confined to the adoption of all or any of the constructive
details described in those Specifications.
My Invention now to be described effects various results, some of
which may be effected separately, or some or all in combination, and
some may be brought into operation with some of the stoves now
generally in use, and some with gas lights or lamps.
.
First. I will refer to my fluc stove or heater having traversing plates.
The tendency of stoves with flues to carry off the heated products of

page_text: combustion without such arrangements as I propose to use is that such
heated products draw to one side of the stove where the flue is placed
more than to another side, and escape quickly through the flue into the
outer air, so that much heat or caloric is lost to a room or chamber.
My Invention is intended to compel such products to traverse the stove
and to heat all the inner surfaces thereof in a thorough manner, from
which surfaces as hereafter described I gather up the heat from the
heated products in their passage between the source of heat and their
final point of exit from the stove, and convey it to the room by rapid
circulation of air through an air shaft or shafts within the apparatus for
use in the room, or I store it in greater or less degree for use in cooking
or heating purposes.
With my flue stove I sometimes combine means (hereafter described)
for arresting and condensing the deleterious and destructive vapours in
such heated products, and the sanitary treatment of air passing through
the flue or through the air circulation passages, and likewise in some
cases for absorbing the noxious gases from the source of heat, so that
it becomes unnecessary to carry the flue from the room or chamber to
the outer air. I also in some cases filtrate (as herein-after described)
the air which passes through the apparatus (for use in the room) from
floating particles or germs, and likewise in some cases I consume the
smoke by causing the fire in an ordinary open or other stove to play
upon the lower plate or plates that are placed transversely in a case or
receptacle, so as to form a series of highly heated passages, by which the
smoke in its transit through them becomes partially consumed, while
the outer surface of the receptacle affords a convenient radiator of heat
for general and cooking purposes. To effect this thoroughly it is necessary
to arrange the flue so that it becomes the chief or only passage between
the room and the chimney shaft, in view that the shaft may derive its
upward current through the furnace, which furnace may in some cases
be connected with outer atmospheric air in order to support combustion.
I also construct as hereafter described improved fire-boards for the
purposes hereafter set forth. I can however construct stoves without
flues by providing them with passage or passages for circulating air for
heating a room or place in which the heat is radiated by preference from
fire-brick or terra cotta surfaces, and in some cases these may be readily
adapted to cooking purposes, the protecting case of the stove being made
of iron or other suitable metal. For stoves and even for gas lights I can
-

page_text: arrange the same with a syphon flue or duct, so that the flame of the
burner or heater placed at the top portion shall be drawn downwards,
and the heat and products of combustion made to descend to the bend
of the syphon, and thence ascend a long flue or up air shaft, which is
to be provided 'with a gas jet or other means of determining or sustaining
the upward current. The same arrangement may be applied to gas
chandeliers or gasliers, whereby lighting and ventilation will be effected.
Valves and dampers may be applied to my heating, lighting, and
ventilating apparatus, so as to regulate the heat, the light, and the
ventilation, and in some cases to change the stove into a ventilator and
vice versa, and the details of construction of my apparatus may be
modified and adapted to suit the circumstances of different cases.
Gas lights or other lighting apparatus can also be improved in effect
by the application of my arrangements in other forms. My Invention
admits of the application of coloured glass illuminated by the stove (as
by reflection from the central shaft); it also admits of the apparatus
being painted according to fancy, which I prefer to do with indestructible
paint.
For cooking purposes the apparatus can be arranged so as to deflect
the heat for cooking and things being cooked, so enclosed as to carry
up the flue smells and vapours arising in the cooking operations; and
whether for cooking or heating it is generally desirable to surround
the outer surface of the stove with non-conducting material.
The following are some illustrations of the details of construction of
apparatus which I adopt:-My flue stove for heating or heating and
cooking consists of a case which is preferred to be of metal, but may
be jacketted with a non-conducting material; through this. I form an
air shaft or shafts which heat the air passing through it or them, some
or all of which may by means of valves, lids, or other contrivances be
made receptacles for heat for cooking or otherwise. Heat is obtained
in this stove by means of a gas burner or small fuel grate or other heater,
'so arranged as to heat directly the lower part of one or more of the air
shafts, and allow the heated products to pass through passages in a zig-zag
or serpentine direction, in such a way as not to become mixed with
the air which passes through the air shaft for use in the room, which
passages I prefer to construct by fitting the stove with plates which have
perforations or other openings of communication, one or more at one
end of the first plate, and one or more at the other end of that plate

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immediately above it, and so on. From the last of these passages the
heated products pass to and are discharged by the flue, the heat however
having been gathered up by the said plates, and in some cases by heat
collecting substances, such, for instance, as iron shavings, twisted wire,
fire-brick, pieces or balls placed in the said passages, but not so as to
prejudicially obstruct the passage of the products of the flue. In place
of passages between plates I sometimes use fire-clay balls or blocks
(perforated), or any other heat collecting substance, through which the
heat will pass so as to distribute it over a number of surfaces before
reaching the flue. Close sliding or hinged openings may be provided for
cleaning the passages and other purposes. The air shaft or shafts may
in a similar manner be provided with plates or projections so as to
circulate the air over a large heated surface, and means may be employed
in the air passages for deodorizing and otherwise beneficially treating the
air so as to obtain sanitary effects. The air shafts or passages it will
generally be desirable to make of fire-clay or terra cotta, though they
· may be made of metal. In some cases I place below the air shaft or
shafts cotton wool or similar substance, so as to arrest injurious particles
or germs floating in the atmosphere. For cooking I can arrange a
cover with a descending flue or an opening communicating with the main
flue, so as to remove all smells from the cooking. The cooking, may
be performed in a chamber at the bottom of the stove by deflected heat,
so that all smell may ascend up through the stove. This arrangement
may be used in connection with a gas light placed beneath the same
so as to afford a light in an apartment or place, and in some cases by
placing the whole arrangement at a suitable elevation, and having the
stove part of small size a lamp stove and ventilator is obtained. With
this stove I can, where available, use my improved fire-place board;
this is a board or plate fitted to the fire-place, having openings provided
with broad feet and castors, and having a fitting opening for my stove
flue to pass through, and in some cases also provided with another
.opening or openings to supply air from the chimney shaft or the outer
atmospheric air to the stove, so as if desired to cut off the heating
chamber from all connection with the room or place, and avoid the
unpleasantry of escape of gas and so forth.. This fire board may be
formed with valves for ventilation of the room, and is applicable to
stoves other than those of my Invention.
My improved stove without a flue is similar in general arrangement
to the foregoing, the main difference being that no flue is used.. .I prefer

page_text: that a fresh air pipe should introduce air to the burner or heater. In some
cases however the whole of the flue is not dispensed with, but it is very
short and terminates in a chamber in which substances or chemicals
or means are provided for acting on the products of combustion, and for
condensing the vapour so as to avoid injurious effects arising from them
in issuing out into the room or apartment. And this last-mentioned
arrangement I consider applicable to stoves other than those of my
Invention. The syphon flue arrangement consists of a tall chimney
shaft or tube which communicates with the external air to be continued
in a bent form and brought up under a stove arrangement constructed
substantially as before described; the air passage or passages through
this stove to communicate by a pipe or pipes with the burner or burners,
or source of light and heat. A burner should be placed just above the
bend if inside and just below if outside the shaft or tube, in order that
upon being lighted it may heat the column of air sufficiently to establish
an ascending current. Above the stove arrangement a gas burner at the
top of a suitable glass globe or glass chimney is placed, and the effect
of the above arrangements will be that its flame is drawn downwards
giving out great light, and the heated products descending into and
through the stove arrangement heating the same, and the residual
products passing through the bend of the syphon up the shaft or tube,
which thus becomes an active ventilator shaft to the room or place.
The above-described details of my Invention are only some of those
which may be adopted in carrying out the same, but there are others
which may be adopted where circumstances may render the use of
different details desirable.