AN IMPROVED FIRE GRATE
Year: 1831

page_text: GAUNT, of Chapman Street, Islington, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman,
and GEORGE FREDERICK ECKSTEIN, of Holborn, in the same County, Stove and
Grate Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Fourteenth day of April, in the first year of His reign, did,
for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said Thomas
Gaunt and George Frederick Eckstein, His especial licence that we, the said
Thomas Gaunt and George Frederick Eckstein, our executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as we, the said Thomas Gaunt and George Frederick
Eckstein, our executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time, and at all times during the term of
years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise and
vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, our
Invention of "AN IMPROVED FIRE GRATE;" in which said Letters Patent is
contained a proviso obliging us, or one of us, the said Thomas Gaunt and
George Frederick Eckstein, by an instrument in writing under our hands
and seals, or under the hand and scal of one of us, particularly to describe and
ascertain the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being
thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
Thomas Gaunt and George Frederick Eckstein, do hereby declare the nature
of our said Invention consists in the following particulars, that, is to say:-
Our improved fire grate is so constructed that the range of bars containing
the ignited fuel may project into the room where the grate is placed, by which
means it will emit into the room a greater degree of heat than the fires of
ordinary grates, and over the fire a hood, cap, or segment of a dome is fixed, as
a smoke conductor. Under this hood, cap, or segment of a dome is an aperture
for the escape of the smoke from the fire up the chimney, the range of bars
containing the ignited fuel being made to rise up to the hood, cap, or segment
of a dome, or to fall, at pleasure, whereby the rapidity of the combustion of the
fuel may be encreased or diminished, as circumstances or convenience may
require, and this means of regulating the draft will very much correct, if not
wholly prevent, the annoyance of smokey chimnics. The hood, cap, or segment
of a dome will become more or less heated by the ascent of the smoke, and
from its upper surface a considerable degree of warmth will be imparted to the
room. The accompanying Drawing, Fig. 1, exhibits a front view of our
improved fire grate; Fig. 2 is a back view of the same, shewing an apparatus
by which the range of bars containing the fuel is raised or lowered. Fig. 3 is
a transverse section taken through the middle, for the purpose of more
perfectly exhibiting the improved parts of the fire grate. a, a, a, is the back
of the grate, to which all the parts are connected; bis the inside back, fixed to
the back a, a, a.
The bars c, c, c, are attached to the standards d, d, to which
is also fixed an open barr'd bottom. e, c, reprosent narrow grooves cut through
the back a, a, a, extending downwards to the bottom of the standards d, d, and
each of these standards, by means of small screws and nuts passing through
the grooves e, e, is fixed to a vertical sliding barf, placed edgeways, as shown
in Fig. 2 & 3, and sufficiently thin to move up and down in the grooves or
ricks c, e, Fig. 1. Two chains g, g, respectively affixed to the lower parts of
the vertical or sliding bars ff, are passed over the pullics h, h, and a weight i, i,
is attached to each chain, for the purpose of balancing the range of bars
containing the fuel and the estimated weight of fuel to be at any time used.
In Fig. 1, is the square head of an arbor on which the pinion 1, seen in
Fig. 2, is fixed. This pinion takes into a segment rack (lever) m, m, m, the
pivot or fulcrum of which is fixed in the back of the grate a, a, a, at n. To
the reverse end of this lever m, a rod o is attached by a joint at p, and the
lower end of this rod is, by a similar joint at q, connected to a cross bar r, which
cross bar is screwed or rivetted to the vertical sliding bars f, f. By turning
the arbor by a winch or key, the lever m, m, m, will be moved upon its

page_text: fulcrum pin, and its reverse end be made to raise or lower the bar r, which,
through the agency of the vertical bars f, f, will elevate or depress the range of
bars containing the ignited fuel. In Fig. 1, s, s, s, is intended to represent a
moveable plate, covering a space sufficiently large to permit a chimney sweeper
to pass through, in order to sweep the chimney.
The forms and proportions of the several parts of our improved fire grate
may of course be varied according to the taste and experience of any manu-
facturer, and though we have shewn it under only one form, we do not intend to
confine ourselves to this particular form, but we recommend that the hood, cap,
or segment of a dome (j) should be made to correspond with the projection of
the bars of the grate with which it is connected, and that its outer rim should
not extend beyond them.
Lastly, we desire it to be observed that we claim as our improvement the
adaptation of a hood, cap, or segment of a dome, placed over the fire, as a con-
ductor of the smoke and draft of air, in connection or combination with a grate
or range of bars containing the ignited fuel, capable of being raised or lowered
at pleasure, for the purpose of increasing or diminishing the rapidity of the
combustion of the fuel.
In witness whereof, we, the said Thomas Gaunt and George Frederick
Eckstein, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Fourteenth
day of October, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and thirty-one.
Inrolled the Fourteenth day of October, One thousand eight hundred and
thirty-one.