CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE FURNACES EMPLOYED IN THE REDUCTION OF IRON ORES AND OTHER METALLIC ORES, AS ALSO IN SOME OF THE PROCESSES OF THE IRON MANUFACTURE AND OF THE MANUFACTURE OF OTHER METALS, SUCH FURNACES BEING APPLICABLE TO OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1837

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, greeting, I,
the said HENRY ADCOCK, of Summer Hill Terrace, in Birmingham, in the
County of Warwick, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His late most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Eleventh day of January, in the seventh year of His reign,
did give and grant unto me, the said Henry Adcock, my exors, admors, and
assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I,
the said Henry Adcock, my exors, adññiors, and assigns, and such others as I, the
said Henry Adcock, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no other, from time to time, and at all times thereafter during the
term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my
Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE FURNACES
EMPLOYED IN THE REDUCTION OF IRON ORES AND OTHER METALLIC ORES, AS ALSO IN
SOME OF THE PROCESSES OF THE IRON MANUFACTURE AND OF THE MANUFACTURE OF
OTHER METALS, SUCH FURNACES BEING APPLICABLE TO OTHER PURPOSES;" in
which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, that I, the said
Henry Adcock, shall cause a particular description of the nature of my
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to be inrolled in His Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next immediately after the
said in part recited Letters Patent, reference being thereunto had, will more
fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Henry Adcock, do hereby declare the nature of my Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following description thereof, that is to say :-
My Invention of "Certain Improvements in the Construction of Furnaces
employed in the Reduction of Iron Ores and other Metallic Ores, as also in
some of the Processes of the Iron Manufacture and of the Manufacture of other
Metals, such Furnaces being Applicable to other Purposes," consists in the
following-Ores of metal and metals, as is well known, are usually smelted and
melted in blast furnaces and cupolas by the intense heat afforded by artificial
blasts of air acting on the fuel of the fire, and increasing its combustion. Such
blasts are produced by steam engines, water wheels, or other power. Instead of
employing such artificial blasts, I derive the same effect by the natural pressure of
the atmosphere, that is, by the difference of density between the atmospheric
air when heated, as in the chimney, and when not heated, as in the vicinity of
or contiguous to the mouth or feeding place of the furnace. One method by
which I effect it may be thus stated:-I make the interior of the furnace in
which the smelting or melting processes are to be carried on of the form of an
inverted cone, or like unto a lime kiln, and by a flue I connect the smallest
part of such cone or bottom of the furnace with a chimney. At the bottom
either of such cone or chimney I make a hollow space or chamber for the
reception of the melted metal and scoria; and I'make the dam and capping
hole as is common in practice. Into the furnace or cone aforesaid, when
smelting from the ore, I put the materials or charges as in a blast furnace and
when melting as in a cupola. Sometimes, when smelting from the ore, I put
the ore, after it has been calcined, into a close furnace, and expose it to the
action of carbon, that it may become carbonized; after which I put it into the
furnace or cone aforesaid, with the limetone or other flux.
The same kind of furnace is applicable to glass works, china works, and
various processes of manufacturing industry, and to the destruction of noxious
vapours and disagreeable effluvia. In these last, the vapours or effluvia are
conducted into a pipe or trench near to the mouth of the furnace, and the
furnace is so closed that the air to support the combustion of the fuel, or the
greatest part of it, must pass through such pipe or trench. By this means the
current is such that the noxious vapours and disagreeable effluvia are
carried into the furnace, where their properties are altered or become changed.
A fire or feeding door is adapted to such furnace, that it may be supplied with
the requisite quantity of fuel.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of

page_text: carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that I do not confine
myself to the precise arrangements and dispositions of the parts as herein
expressed, but avail myself of such other arrangements and dispositions as may
be equivalent thereto.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Adcock, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Tenth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven.