AN IMPROVED AIR FURNACE FOR THE PURPOSE OF MELTING OR FUSING METALLICK SUBSTANCES
Year: 1824

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
WHITE the younger, and THOMAS SOWERBY, both of Bishop Wearmouth, in
the County of Durham, Merchants, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty George the Fourth, by the
grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland King,
Defender of the Faith, by His Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of
Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster, the Sixth day of November,
in the fifth year of His said Majesty's reign, and now last past, did give and
grant unto us, the said John White and Thomas Sowerby, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, His said Majesty's. special licence, full power, sole
privilege and authority, that we, the said John White and Thomas Sowerby,
our executors, administrators, and assigns, during the term of years therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
that part of His said Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
called England, His said Majesty's Dominion of of Wales, and Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, our Invention of "AN IMPROVED AIR FURNACE FOR THE
PURPOSE OF MELTING OR FUSING METALLICK SUBSTANCES;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso obliging us, the said John White and Thomas
Sowerby, or one of us, particularly to describe and ascertain, by an instrument
in writing under our hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of
us, the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, and to cause the same to be enrolled in His said Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within four calendar months next and immediately after

page_text: the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as by the same Letters Patent,
reference being thereunto had, will more fully appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
John White and Thomas Sowerby, do hereby describe and ascertain the naturo
of our said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
reference being had unto the Drawings hereunto annexed (that is to say):-
Our Invention of an Improved Air Furnace for the Purpose of Melting or
Fusing Metallic Substances consists in our so adapting it as to have the means
of giving to the current or currents of air admitted by a flue or opening, or by
flues or openings in the side or sides of the furnace, different directions through
the fuel, as the heat is required to be applied, and of using coke or other fuel
with greater advantage than has hitherto been done without the aid of a
mechanical power, as used for the blast furnace or cupelo. One example of
our Invention we shall give as follows (that is to say):-
Figure 1 shews a ground plan of our improved air furnace as adapted for 1
melting pig or cast iron for foundry purposes, which operation has been
usually performed by means of the common reverberatory furnace, or by a
small blast furnace, otherwise called a cupelo.
Figure 2 represents a section of our improved air furnace.
Figure 8 shews an elevation of the same furnace.
The preceding Figures are drawn to the scale annexed thereto, and the
same letters refer to the same parts in each Figure. A, B, represents the
upright or vertical part of the furnace. D, D, D, the bottom or bed place,
which is open into or communicates with a flue or chimney at E. C, an open-
ing from the furnace also into or communicating with a flue or chimney. 2
F, the air flues by which atmospheric air is admitted, of which there may be
one or more. G, a man-hole or opening for clearing out or preparing the bed
place or flue. H, H, the main flue or chimney, the height of which is required
to be about the same as for the common reverberatory furnace. a, a, a cast-
iron cover for the top of the furnace. b, b, a plate or damper for regulating s
the capacity of the flue. c, c, a plate or damper for the like purpose. The darts
point out the direction of the currents. The furnace and bed place D, D, D,
being cleared and prepared, the cover a, a, is taken off, and the coke or
fuel is put in at A, which is lighted at the air flue or flues, or other convenient
opening. When the furnace has come to a sufficient degree of heat for melt- s
ing, well known to any workman used with and competent to attend tho
reverberatory furnace or cupelo, the man-hole or opening G being closed in the
ordinary way of closing such openings in furnaces by a loom cake, or otherwise,
then the metal to be melted and coke are put in alternately at A, in such way,

page_text: quantities, and proportions, as they are generally done in the small blast furnace
or cupelo. The cover a, a, which is taken off to put in the coke or metal is
replaced as soon as that is done. As the metal is melted it is precipitated to
the bottom or bed at D, D, D, where it is kept hot by a current of flame
passing over it to the flue or chimney in the direction of the dart B, E, and
whence it is drawn off for use at O.
The foregoing example of the application of our improved air furnace will
be sufficient to enable a workman to construct one for the purpose of melting
or fusing other metallick substances, but the furnace may be either square or
round, or oval or octagon, or any other form retaining the power of giving
to the current or currents of air admitted by a flue or opening, or by flues or
openings, in the side or sides of the furnace, different directions through the
fuel as the heat is required to be applied.
In witness whereof, we, the said John White and Thomas Sowerby,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, the Twenty-eighth day of
February, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
twenty-five.
JOHN WHITE, Jr. (L.S.) THOMAS SOWERBY. (L.B.)
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-eighth day of February,
in the sixth year of the reign of His Majesty King George the Fourth, the
said John White and Thomas Sowerby came before our said Lord the King
in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every
thing therein contained and specified, in form above written. And also the
Instrument aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made
in the fifty-fifth year of the reign of His late Majesty King George the
Third.
Inrolled the Second day of March One thousand night handmed and