A NEW OR IMPROVED MACHINE FOR SWEEPING OR CLEANING CHIMENTES
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Britten, of Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, Engineer, for the Invention of "A NEW OR IMPROVED MACHINE
FOR SWEEPING OR CLEANING CHIMENTES."
Sealed, the 10th September 1855, and dated the 26th March 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Britten at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
26th March 1855.
I, JOHN BRITTEN, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Engineer,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "A NEW OR IMPROVED
MACHINE FOR SWEEPING OR CLEANING CHIMNIES" to be as follows:-
Figure 1 represents my Invention in elevation, and Figure 2 represents in
plan a portion of the same. a is a guide roller, working like an ordinary castor;
b, a brush for cleaning the top of the chimney; c, c, are elastic stems carrying
the elastic angular brushes d, d; there may be four or other convenient number
of the elastic stems c, c. e, e, is the upper division of the main rod, which is made
to slide freely through the blocks f, g, so far as may be permitted by the en-
larged parts or bosses h, h'. i, i, is a cord or chain, two or more of which may
be used attached to the brushes d, d, and passing freely through the block g.
The chain or chains i, i, hang somewhat loosely during the upward motion
of the machine, but are drawn tight during the downward motion of the said
machine, by the boss h³ coming in contact with the block g.. I, sometimes

page_text: prefer making the rod e, e, so as to be drawn wholly or partially away from the
head of the machine during its downward motion. k is a ball and socket joint,
and is a double guide roller. I sometimes substitute scrapers for the brushes
d, d, the said scrapers being placed at right angles to the line of the machine's
motion, but so held by springs as to be capable of yielding and taking an
inclined position on meeting with an obstruction in the chimney. I prefer to
provide the scrapers with vertical cross pieces, situated at right angles to the
plane of the said scrapers and coming flush with their edges, for the purpose of
preventing the scrapers from being projected into the horizontal joints in the
brickwork of the chimney.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of-the-conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Britten in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
21st September 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
BRITTEN, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of March, 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 John Britten, Her special licence that I, the said John Britten, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John
Britten, 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 "A NEW OR IMPROVED MACHINE
FOR SWEEPING OR CLEANING CHIMNIES," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the 'said John Britten, 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 John Britten, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof (that is to say)
L

page_text: My Invention consists of machinery for cleaning chimnies constructed in the
manner herein-after described, and illustrated in the accompanying Drawing.
Figure 1 represents, in elevation, a sweeping machine constructed according to
my Invention; and Figure 2 represents a plan of the same. a is the main
stem or rod of the machine; b is a guide roller on the top of the stém a; c is
a circular brush for cleaning the chimney pots; d, d, and d', d', are four angular
brushes, the shape of which will be understood by reference to Figure 2. The
brushes are fixed on the tops of two steel or other elastic rods e, e', in such a
manner that the brushes have a tendency to spring outwards, that is to say, to
be forced away from the stem a. The brushes d, d, are situated at a higher
level than the brushes d', d', as represented, so that when the several brushes'
are made to approach the stem a, the pair marked d, d, will work over the
pair d', d. The manner in which the elastic rods e, e¹, are constructed is
illustrated in Figure 3. Two rods or wires f, g, have each a semicircular bend
h, i, made in its middle, which bends, when the rods or wires are bound together
by binding wire, as at k, l, constitute a ring h, i, through which the main rod a,
Figure 1, passes; the ring h, i, Figure 3, is marked m in Figure 1. The ends
of the wires f, g, being turned up constitute the spring e,.e, Figure 1. n is a
boss or enlargement on the rod a, and situated above the ring m. By means
of the said boss or enlargement, the brushes may be drawn downwards in a
chimney or flue. o is another boss on the rod a, situated a little below the level
of the brushes d', d'; p is a short loose tube sliding on the rod a above the
boss o; q, r, (see Figure 2) are cords or chains connecting the opposite brushes
to each other; the said cords or chains pass through rings s on the tube p.
When either of the brushes in its ascending motion comes in contact with a
fixed obstacle, the main rod a advances a short distance without the brushes;
when, however, the boss o, being in contact with the tube p, carries the said
tube forward, the cords or chains q, r, become deflected from their horizontal
position, and assume the positions indicated by dotted lines at t, Figure 1. By
the deflection of the cords or chains q, r, as represented at t, the brushes d, d,
d', d, are made to collapse, that is to say, are made to approach the stem a;
the brush which caught against the obstacle is thereby made to pass the said
obstacle, after which the springs e, e¹, expanding the brushes, bring the several
parts into the position represented in Figure 1. Figure 1 A represents the
machine when the brushes are collapsed by one of them coming in contact
with a fixed obstacle. The several parts in Figure 1 A are marked with the
same letters as the corresponding parts in Figure 1.
I sometimes attach á
tooth to the upper side of the boss o, and- make a notch in the lower edge of
the tube
P.. in which notch the said tooth may engage. By turning the rod.a

page_text: on its axis, the tube f will be made to coil up the cords or chains q, 1, and
thereby effect the collapsing of the brushes. Any other mechanism whereby
the boss o may be made to engage with the tube p may be employed in place
of the tooth and notch described. When the tooth and notch described are
thrown out of gear, by drawing the main rod a backwards the said main rod,
with the round brush c and guide roller b, may be turned round freely without
thereby turning round the brushes d, d, d', d', a motion which greatly facilitates
the operation of clearing the guide roller from any projection or obstruction
in the chimney. The angular brushes d, d, d', d', may be fixed on the ends of
the springs c, e, by means of angular plates, soldered or otherwise fixed on the
tops of the springs, the wooden heads of the brushes being attached in any
convenient manner to the said angular plates; or the ends of the springs may
be connected directly with the wooden heads of the brushes. In place of
brushes I sometimes use angular scrapers, mounted in the manner which will
be understood by an inspection of Figures 4 and 5; Figure 4 representing
an elevation of two pairs, and Figure 5 a plan of one pair, of scrapers
constructed according to my Invention, and intended to supply the place of the
angular brushes d, d, d', d', Figure 1.
u is the frame to which the scrapers
are attached; the said frame is sloped off to points v₁, vl, at top and bottom.
The cords or chains q, r, Figure 1, are attached to the point v³, as shown, and
the point v¹¹ is fixed on the top of one of the springs e, e¹, Figure 1. w, w, are
two scrapers made of sheet metal; these scrapers are carried by and turn upon
axes a, a, attached to the frame u. The scrapers w, w, are held in a horizontal
position by springs y, y, either of steel or other wire, or vulcanized caoutchouc,
one end of each spring being attached to its scraper and the other end to the
frame, which will be understood by an inspection of Figure 5. One of the
pairs of scrapers, Figures 4 and 5, is fixed on the top of cach spring e, e,
Figure 1, in place of the brushes represented. The scrapers overlap each
other, as shewn by the second scraper z, Figure 4. When a machine con-
structed with the scrapers, Figures 4 and 5, is passed through a chimney or
flue, the scrapers w, w, are deflected from their horizontal position when
they come in contact with any fixed obstacle, and are brought back to their
horizontal position when they have passed the said obstacle, by the springs y, y.
Although I prefer the method last described of constructing my scraping
machine, yet I sometimes modify its construction in the following manner,
that is to say, instead of having rigid scrapers, whose position is determined
by springs, I make the scrapers themselves of thin steel plates of sufficient
clasticity to yield and recover their figure without the use of separate springs.
I sometimes also modify my scraping machine, by substituting in place of the

page_text: plates w, w, represented in the Drawing, scrapers made of steel wire, the
object of these steel wire scrapers being to detach the soot from the wall,
leaving the said soot to be swept out of the chimney by the circular brush c,
Figure 1. In machines constructed with scrapers as described, the scrapers
or scraping wires are intended to overlap each other when the machine is in a
compressed state, like the brushes d, d, d', d', Figure 1; but in some machines,
instead of making the scrapers overlap on the compression of the machine, I
join together the ends of the two scrapers which would otherwise overlap.
I effect the joining in such a manner as to admit of the scrapers bending
upwards or downwards to admit of the machine being drawn into smaller than
its ordinary dimensions in narrow chimnies. Or, instead of two such scrapers
having their ends joined as described, I use one elastic plate of steel or other
material, which by bending upwards or downwards will allow of the machinė
being compressed into smaller dimensions in narrow chimnies. In machines
thus constructed, I prefer having the cords or chains (see 9, 1, Figure 1,)
attached, not to the ends of the elastic rods e, e', Figure 1, but to the point at
which the two opposite scrapers are joined together; or if one elastic plate be
used instead of two scrapers, I attach the said cords or chains to the middle of
such elastic plate, that is to say, midway between the point at which such
plates are connected with the rods e, e', Figure 1. In some machines, whether
to be used for sweeping or scraping, I use a large guide roller, about four feet
below the body of the machine, and I provide the rods at that point with ball
and socket or other universal joint.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner of
carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that I do not confine
myself to the precise details herein described, as the same may be varied
without departing from my Invention; but I claim as my Invention,―
Firstly, the form of the angular brushes d, d, d', d¹, herein described and
illustrated in the accompanying Drawing.
Secondly, raising the machine up a chimney or flue by means of cords or
chains attached to the main stem of the machine at a point situated above the
level of the brushes during the ascending motion of the machine, the said cords
or chains being arranged as herein described and illustrated in the accom-
panying Drawing.
Thirdly, making the main rod capable of turning round without turning
round the angular brushes, as herein-before described and illustrated in the
accompanying Drawing.
Fourthly, making the turning of the main rod produce a collapsing effect on
the machine, as herein described.

page_text: Fifthly, mounting, scrapers and, cutting wires, as herein described and
illustrated in the accompanying. Drawing.
Sixthly, introducing a large guide roller and a universal joint in the
main stem of sweeping and scraping machines below the brushes or scrapers,
as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Britten, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
Witness,
GEORGE SHAW.
JOHN BRITTEN. (L.B.)