IMPROVEMENTS APPLICABLE TO ** VENTILATION AND OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Kirkwood, of the City of Edinburgh,
Plumber, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS APPLICABLE TO **
VENTILATION AND OTHER PURPOSES."
Sealed the 9th November 1853, and dated the 17th August 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Kirkwood
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 17th August 1853.
I, THOMAS KIRKWOOD, of the City of Edinburgh, Plumber, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
APPLICABLE TO VENTILATION AND OTHER PURPOSES" to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in the adaptation and application of the fol-
lowing mechanism to the purposes herein-after mentioned:-The
mechanism consists of a fan of four vanes (more or less), which is
made to revolve in a trough or case filled with water or other fluid a
few inches above the axis of the fan. This axis passes through a pipe
in the centre of the fan, the vanes of which communicate with the
central pipe, and have openings at their outer end, being otherwise
closed. In the upper part of the trough or case is fitted a conical
pipe, which passes into a larger pipe communicating with the building

page_text: or space to be ventilated or disinfected.. When the fan is made to
revolve the water or other fluid. in the trough. or case displaces the air
or other gas contained in the vançs, which is thereby forced into and
through each end of the central pipe, thence into the upper part of the
trough or case, and out through the conical or taper-formed pipe, from
the end of which it passes into the larger pipe, inclosing the same
and communicating with the building or space to be ventilated, dis-
infected. This apparatus or mechanism may be employed with chemical
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thomas Kirkwood in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 14th February 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
THOMAS KIRKWOOD, of the City of Edinburgh, Plumber, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of August, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the
seventeenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and succes-
sors, give and grant unto me, the said Thomas Kirkwood, Her special
license that I, the said Thomas Kirkwood, my executors, administra-
tors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas Kirkwood, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS
APPLICABLE TO VENTILATION AND OTHER PURPOSES," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Thomas Kirkwood, 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thomas Kirkwood,, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement, reference being had to the Drawing here-
unto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is
to say):
My Invention of "Improvements applicable to Ventilation and other
Purposes" consists in forcing air or other gases into a pipe passing into
the building or space required to be ventilated or purified by means of
the apparatus herein-after described.
The apparatus or mechanism for the purpose consists of a fan com-
posed of four vanes (more or less), which is made to revolve within
a trough or case containing water or other liquid, by means of which
external air or gas admitted into the vanes may be expelled therefrom
through a cavity or pipe in the centre of the fan (or forming the axis
thereof), and forced into a chamber in the upper part of the case con-
taining the fan, whence it is discharged into a conical pipe contained
within another pipe leading to the building or space required to be
ventilated or purified.
•
In order, however, that my Invention may be fully understood, I
will describe a mode by which it may be readily carried into effect, a
form of apparatus suitable for the purpose being represented in the
accompanying Drawing, in the several Figures of which the same letters
of reference indicate corresponding parts.
Fig. 1, is a front elevation of the apparatus. Fig. 2, is a vertical
section in the line A, B, of Fig. 4. Figure 3, is a vertical section in
the line C, D, of the same Figure; and Fig. 4, is a horizontal section
of the same. a, a, is a trough or case, which may be supplied with
water or other liquid up to the level shewn in Figs. 2, and 3; that is
to say, a little above the axis of the fan. b, is the fan, composed of
four vanes, as shewn, or of any other suitable number. This fan is
mounted on a spindle or axis c, around which is a hollow space or
pipe d, with which the inner part of the vanes b, communicate, their
outer part having an opening e, into the trough a. They are otherwise
closed.

page_text: The fan may be made to revolve at the required speed through the
agency of toothed gear, as at f, driven by any prime mover, and the
ordinary pulleys g. In the upper part of the trough a, is a chamber h,
in which is a central chest i. In the latter is inserted the larger end
of a taper-formed pipe &, contained within a larger parallel pipe 7, one
end of which is open to the atmosphere outside the apparatus, and
the other end extends into the building or space required to be venti-
lated or purified.
The operation of the apparatus is as follows:-Air enters the upper
part of the trough a, at the part shewn at a in Fig. 1. This air
passes into the vanes b, through their orifices e, as they successively
emerge from the liquid, and is driven out therefrom into the central
space or pipe d, by the pressure of the liquid, which is made to enter
the said orifices by the progress of the vanes through the liquid. By
this means the air is forced into the central space or pipe d, whence it
issues at each end, and passes into the chamber h, and chest i, from
which it is discharged along the taper-formed pipe, into the pipe 1,
leading to the building or space required to be ventilated or püri-
fied. The water or other liquid which is made to pass into the cen-
tral pipe d, also passes out at the ends of the same, and returns into the
trough a.
The apparatus thus described may be employed for the purpose of
simple ventilation, or it may be made to pass streams of air or gas
more or less impregnated with chemical disinfecting agents into a
building or space required to be purified or disinfected. In such case
any suitable liquid might be used in the trough, and if it should be
found desirable a stream of another gas than atmospheric air might be
made to enter the apparatus, and be passed through the vanes.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I would have it understood that
I do not mean or intend to confine myself to the precise forms and
arrangements of the parts shewn and described; but what I claim as
of my Invention is the forcing of air or other gases into buildings
spaces required to be ventilated or purified, by means of a fan with
hollow vanes made to revolve in water or other liquid, by which the
or

page_text: air or other gas admitted into the vanes is made to pass out therefrom
and through a central pipe or hollow axis, as described.
In witness whereof, T, the said Thomas Kirkwood, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of January, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
THOMAS KIRKWOOD. (...)
JAMES IRONSIDE CAMERON, Witness.