IMPROVEMENTS IN GLASS-FLATTENING FURNACES
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Timmins Chance, of Birmingham, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN GLASS-FLATTENING FURNACES."-A com-
munication.
Sealed the 13th November 1855, and dated the 14th June 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Timmins Chance at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
14th June 1855.
I, JAMES TIMMINS CHANCE, of Birmingham, do hereby declare the nature of
the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN GLASS-FLATTENING FURNACES" to be as
follows:-
. This Invention has for its object improvements in glass-flattening furnaces,
in order more advantageously to apply the heat, and to avoid dirt or dust
settling on the glass. For this purpose an inner arch or reverberating surface
is applied in such manner, that the heat and products of combustion rising
from the fire pass between the two arches till they arrive near the back end
of the furnace where the inner arch ends, the heat and flame then pass under
the inner arch or reverberating surface and over the glass which is about
to be flattened, thence the products-pass-by a suitable flue or flues to tho

page_text: chimney or shaft. The dirt and dust passing over the inner arch will be
deposited or for the most part deposited before the heat and products from the
fire pass back under the inner arch.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Timmins Chance in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 13th December 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
TIMMINS CHANCE, of Birmingham, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the eighteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said James Timmins Chance, Her special licence that I, the said James
Timmins Chance, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said James Timmins Chance, 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 "Iм-
PROVEMENTS IN GLASS-FLATTENING FURNACES," a communication, upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said James Timmins Chance, by an
instrument in writing under my 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. I, the said James-Timmins Chance,- 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 thereof (that is to say):-
This Invention has for its object improvements in glass-flattening furnaces,
in order more advantageously to apply the heat, and to avoid dirt or dust
settling on the glass. For this purpose an inner arch or reverberating surface
is applied in such manner, that the heat and products of combustion rising

page_text: from the fire pass. between the two arches till they arrive near the back end
of the furnace where the inner arch ends, the heat and flame then pass under
the inner arch or reverberating surface and over the glass which is about to
be flattened, thence the products pass by a suitable flue or flues to the chimney
or shaft. The dirt and dust passing over the inner arch will be deposited or
for the most part deposited before the heat and products from the fire pass
back under the inner arch.
Having thus stated the nature of the said Invention, I will proceed more
fully to describe the manner of performing the same.
This Invention refers to that description of kiln which is used in the
manufacture of sheet glass for opening or flattening cylinders into sheets or
plates of glass. In the flattening kilns hitherto used in this kingdom for this
purpose, the flames come direct from the grate where it is generated into the
flattening chamber, and is apt to deposit upon the bed on which the glass is
flattened a certain quantity of dust or fine particles during the interval which
elapses between the removal of one flattened sheet of glass and the opening
of the next cylinder in succession on the same bed, and thereby the under
surface of this next succeeding sheet of glass is liable to be injured by
receiving the impression of the dust or fine particles accompanying the flame.
In order to remedy or at least to diminish considerably this defect, the flame
is made to pass from the fire grate over an arch or other covering before
entering the flattening chamber or coming over the flattening bed, so that the
greater part of the dust is deposited on such arch or other covering. A slab
of brick or a covering of other suitable material might be suspended over the
flattening bed for the foregoing purpose; but it is preferred to have an arch
constructed of fire bricks and arranged as shewn in the accompanying
Drawings, which I will proceed to explain. The same letters in the different
Figures refer to the same parts of the flattening kiln.
Figures 1 and 2, an elevation and plan in section; a cylinder of glass is
introduced at the opening a, and flattened on the bed b, as is well under-
stood. Figure 3 is a longitudinal vertical section through the line A, B,
in Figure 2. Figure 4 is a perspective view of the interior of the kiln.
Figure 5 is a transverse vertical section through the line C, D, in Figure 4.
Figures 3 and 4 shew the internal arch over which the flame first passes
before entering the flattening chamber, its direction being indicated by red
arrows and dotted lines. The openings by which the flame enters and by
which it emerges from the flattening chamber are shown at d. Figure 5
serves to show the relative position of the openings 1, 2, 3, 4, by which the

page_text: flame first passes from the fire grate 9 over the internal arch; and of the
openings at d, by which the flame finally emerges.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Timmins Chance, have hereunto
set my haud and seal, this Eleventh day of December, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
JAMES T. CHANCE. (L.S.)
Witness,
SAMUEL BARNES,
Cashier to William Chance, Son, & Co.,
Merchants, Birmingham.