AN IMPROVEMENT IN GAS STOVES
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Smith and Thomas Phillips, of Snow
Hill, in the County of Middlesex, Gas Engineers, for the Inven-
Sealed the 3rd February 1854, and dated the 5th August 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Smith and
Thomas Phillips at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 5th August 1853.
We, WILLIAM SMITH and THOMAS PHILLIPS, of Snow Hill, in the
County of Middlesex, Gas Engineers, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN GAS STOVES" to be as
follows:-
This Invention relates to stoves for heating rooms, buildings, &c.,
and consists of a mode of giving the appearance of an ordinary coal fire
from jets of gas radiating upon lumps of glass or glass and metal ore or
other similar material laid upon a piece of plate glass in the stove; the
reflection upon these lumps is shown through plates of coloured glass
arranged between the bars in front of the stove.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Smith and Thomas Phillips in the
Great Seal Patent Office, on the 4th February 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we,
WILLIAM SMITH & THOMAS PHILLIPS, of Snow Hill, in the County of
Middlesex, Gas Engineers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fifth day of August, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the seven-
teenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto us, the said William Smith and Thomas Phillips,
Her special licence that we, the said William Smith and Thomas
Phillips, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we,
the said William Smith and Thomas Phillips, our executors, adminis-
trators, and signs, 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 IMPROVEMENT IN GAS
STOVES," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said William
Smith and Thomas Phillips, by an instrument in writing under our
hand and seal, 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 we, the said William Smith & Thomas
Phillips, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement, and in and by the
Drawings accompanying this Specification, together with the expla-
nation thereof herein contained, that is to say:
Our Invention consists of an improvement in gas stoves for heating
rooms, buildings, &c., by which we obtain the appearance and effect of an

page_text: ordinary coal fire from jets of gas radiating upon lumps of glass or lumps
of glass and metal ore laid upon a piece of plate glass in the bottom of
the stove. The reflection from these lumps is shown through plates
of coloured glass arranged between the bars in front of the stove, and
thus presents the appearance of hot or burning coals in an ordinary
coal fire, while the heating effect is given to the products of combustion
by causing a circulation of the atmosphere of the room or building
through air boxes in the interior of the stove. These boxes are fitted
together so as to exclude the products of combustion, and are supplied
with atmospheric air from under the plinth of the stove at the level of
the floor, or nearly so, by means of pipes the lower ends of which are
open. The air when heated passes into the room or building through
apertures provided for the purpose in front of the stove.
There are two of these air heating and circulating boxes, one of
which is placed in the chamber of the stove immediately over the grate,
the other consists of a chamber at the top of the stove. The upper
and lower chambers are separated by a cast iron plate. In the top of
the upper chamber there is an aperture to allow the heated air to pass
into the open space which is left all round and over the outer plates
of the stove, between the same and the recess in which it is fixed;
the air passes to and from this recess through open fretwork round
the front of the stove. The mode of fixing the stove is hereafter
described.
In the upper chamber of the stove there is an inverted box, which
receives the products of combustion after they have acted upon the
pipes and heating box in the lower chamber; the radiation of heat
from this inverted box acts upon the air in the upper chamber, which is
supplied by pipes in a similar manner to the heating box in the lower
chamber. From this inverted box a pipe conveys the waste products
of combustion into the flue or chimney.
The stove may be fixed in the recess of an ordinary chimney opening,
which should be sufficiently large to allow a space at the back, sides,
and top of the stove for the circulation of air, and which, with the
exception of an aperture for the waste pipe, should be as nearly as
possible air-tight to prevent the escape of heat.

page_text: The stove is heated in the following manner, that is to say: the
gas burners are arranged between the cheeks and the back of the stove,
and are concealed from view by a plate in front; the products of com-
bustion pass up the lower chamber and come in contact with the lower
heating box, and passing round which they come in contact with the
iron plate which divides the upper and lower chambers, passing under
which plate and through an aperture therein enter the inverted box in
the upper chamber, and thence pass through the waste pipe into the
flue or chimney.
The products of combustion also act upon the plates which compose
the outer case of the stove, and the radiation of heat from these plates,
together with the heat from the aperture in the top of the stove before
mentioned, acting upon the air surrounding the stove in the chimney
place recess, heats the same and causes it to circulate.
It will therefore be seen that the heating medium admitted into the
room or building is simply the atmosphere of the room heated and
circulated by the products of combustion without coming in contact or
being mixed therewith.
The mode in which these stoves are constructed is shown upon the
accompanying Drawings, to which the following explanation applies.
EXPLANATION OF THE DRAWINGS.
The Drawings accompanying this Specification are drawn to a
scale of
Fig. 1, the elevation of the stove.
Fig. 2, the plan thereof.
Fig. 8, a longitudinal section through A, B, Fig. 2.
Fig. 4, a transverse section thereof through the line C, D, Fig. 2.
For convenience of reference the same parts of the store on letters

page_text: the heated air passes from the heating or hot air box in the lower
chamber; K, K, apertures round the stove; L, the burners; N, the
plate glass on which the lumps of broken glass are laid; O, the back of
the grate; P, P, the cheeks of do.; Q, the plinth under which the
cold air passes into the pipes communicating with the hot air boxes;
R, R, the outer plates of the stove; S, S, the cold air pipe; T, the
lower hot air circulating box, in which are the circulating plates t, t;
U, the aperture for conveying the heated air into the front of the stove;
V, the upper chamber or hot air box, in which there is an aperture in
the top V'; W, the inverted box for receiving the products of com-
bustion from the lower chamber; X, the pipes which conveys the same
into the chimney; Y, the recess round the stove in the chimney place;
Z, is the knob by which the gas is turned on or off.
We have now, to the best of our ability, described and explained the
nature of our said Invention, but we do not confine ourselves to the
precise form and dimensions shown upon the Drawings or herein
described, as the same may be modified; we therefore claim the stove
in which we produce the appearance and effect of an ordinary coal fire,
as above described and illustrated on the Drawings, and all such
modifications thereof as may be, so long as the principle of our said
Invention is maintained.
In witness whereof, we, the said William Smith and Thomas
Phillips, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Fourth
day of February, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and fifty-four.
WILLIAM (L.S.) SMITH.
THOMAS (L.s.) PHILLIPS.
WILLIAM (L.S.) SMITH.
THOMAS (L.s.) PHILLIPS.