IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF GLASS
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Walter Swinburne, of South Shields,
in the County of Durham, Glass Manufacturer, for the Invention
Sealed the 28th June 1853, and dated the 3rd May 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Walter
Swinburne at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
his Petition, on the 3rd May 1853.
I, ROBERT WALTER SWINBURNE, of South Shields, in the County of
Durham, Glass Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF GLASS" to be as
follows:-
A mode or modes of casting or manufacturing glass or other vitreous
material by means of cisterns or casting vessels placed in the furnace
whilst being filled for the purpose of avoiding the diminution of the
heat of the melted glass or metal before casting, which is consequent
upon the ordinary mode of casting plate glass.

page_text: Near to each melting pot in a furnace I place a cistern or casting
vessel of such a size that, when filled, it can be conveniently removed
from the furnace and taken to the casting table; and I place each
cistern so close to a melting pot, that the melted glass or vitreous metal
contained in the melting pot, or a portion of it, may be transferred
without waste, by a ladle or other convenient means, from the pot into
the cistern. When the pots have been charged, and the glass or vitreous
material in them has been melted, and is ready for use, I transfer, by
means of an iron ladle or other convenient implement, from each pot,
into the adjoining cistern or casting vessel, a sufficient charge or
quantity of the melted material; the cistern into which the melted
material is thus transferred, remaining in the furnace during the whole
time that the operation is going on, and until the workmen are ready
to take it to the casting table.
A cistern or casting vessel being thus charged, the workmen take it
quickly to the casting table, and cast the contents of it upon the table,
and roll it into a sheet or plate in the usual way, and immediately
return the cistern to the furnace, and place it near to the melting pot
ready to receive another charge, to be dealt with as above described.
I continue to transfer the melted material from the melting pots into
the casting cisterns, and to cast the same into plates or sheets of glass
or vitreous material until the whole charge contained in each of the
melting pots. in the furnace has been exhausted; after which, the pots
are to be refilled and heated, until the contents of them are ready for
casting as before.
I have described my mode of making glass as applicable to a furnace
containing several melting pots, but it may of course be used in a case
in which only one melting pot is placed in a furnace. And although
I have mentioned the use of a casting cistern or vessel for each
melting pot in a furnace, one casting cistern may, if preferred, be used
for two or more melting pots.

page_text: .
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Robert Walter Swinburne in the Great Seal
Patent Office, on the 3rd November 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
ROBERT WALTER SWINBURNE, of South Shields, in the County of
Durham, Glass Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Third day of May, in the year of
our Lord One thousand cight hundred and fifty-three, in the sixteenth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said Robert Walter Swinburne, Her special licenco
that I, the said Robert Walter Swinburne, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigus, or such others as I, the said Robert Walter
Swinburne, 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 In-
vention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF GLASS," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Robert Walter Swinburne,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should particu-
larly 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 Robert Walter Swinburne, do
hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say:
My Invention consists of a mode or modes of casting or manufac-
turing glass or other vitreous material in a melted state, by means of
cisterns or casting vessels, which are placed in the furnace or kiln whilst
being filled or charged from the melting pots, for the purpose of
avoiding the diminution of the heat of the melted glass or metal before

page_text: casting, which is consequent upon the ordinary mode of casting plate
glass. And the manner in which I carry my said Invention into effect
is as follows: Near to each melting pot in a furnace I place a cistern
or casting vessel of such a size that, when filled, it can be conveniently
removed from the furnace, and taken to the casting table. And I place
each cistern close to the melting pot from which it is to be filled or
charged, in order that the melted glass or vitreous metal contained in
the melting pot, or a portion of it, may be transferred without waste, by
a ladle or other convenient means, from the inclting pot into the
cistern. When the pots contained in a furnace have been charged,
and the glass or vitreous material in them has been 'melted, and is
ready for use, I transfer, by means of an iron ladle or other convenient
implement, from cacli pot, into an adjoining cistern or casting vessel
(which must be previously heated in the furnace), a sufficient charge
or quantity of the melted material; the cistern into which the melted
material is thus transferred remaining in the furnace or kilu during
the whole time that the operation of charging it is going on, and until
the workmen are ready to take it to the casting table. A. cistern or
casting vessel being thus charged, and the casting table ready, the
workmen withdraw the cistern from the furnace, and take it quickly to
the casting table, and cast the contents of it upon the table, and roll it
into shoots or plates in the usual way, and immediately return the
cistern to the furnace, and place it near to the same or some other
melting pot ready to receive another charge, to be dealt with as above
described.
I continue to transfer the melted material from the melting pots
into the casting cisterns, and to cast the same into plates or sheets of
glass or vitreous material, in manner above described, until the whole
charge contained in each of the melting pots in the furnace has been
exhausted, after which the pots are to be refilled and heated until the
contents of them are ready for casting as before.
I have described my mode of making glass as applicable to a furnace
containing several melting pots, but it may of course be used in a case
in which only one melting pot is placed in a furnace. And although
I have mentioned the use of a casting cistern or vessel for each

page_text: melting pot in a furnace, one casting cistern may, if preferred, be used
for two or more melting pots. And with reference to the furnaces or
kilns in which the melting pots are to be placed, the same may be of
the ordinary or any other improved construction which may be con-
venient for the purpose of melting and preparing the glass or material,
but the furnaces must be furnished with convenient apertures through
which the casting vessels may be with facility introduced into and
withdrawn from them, and they must also be furnished with doors or
other convenient means for closing such apertures when they are not
required to be open. The melting pots may be the same as those
which are ordinarily employed for the melting of the materials used in
the manufacture of glass.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim
as my Invention is, the mode or modes of casting or manufacturing
glass or other vitreous material, by means of casting vessels which are
placed in the same furnace with the melting pot whilst being filled,
in manner and for the purposes herein-before described.
In witness whercof, I the said Robert Walter Swinburne, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Thirty-first day of October,
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.
ROBERT WALTER SWINBURNE. (L.S.)