IMPROVEMENTS IN WARMING AND VENTILATING APARTMENTS
Year: 1857

page_text: Sealed the 24th July 1857, and dated the 30th March 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Henry Johnson at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
30th March 1857.
I, JOHN HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of
Middlesex, and of 166, Buchanan Street, in the City of Glasgow, North
Britain, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN WARMING AND VENTILATING APARTMENTS," a communication
from Daniel Leasure, of Newcastle, Pensylvannia, in the United States of
America, to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to an improved system or mode of warming and
ventilating apartments, and to a peculiar construction and arrangement of
apparatus employed for such purpose. According to this Invention, a peculiar
apparatus is employed for the purpose of drawing a body of cold pure air
from the atmosphere outside the building, which apparatus also heats this pure
air, and subsequently discharges it near the ceiling, whilst at the same time it

page_text: extracts from the apartment all impure air and noxious gases, and causes them
to pass off to the chimney without becoming mixed with the pure heated air
which is supplied from above.
The apparatus which it is proposed to employ for this purpose consists of
a metal casing, enclosing an ordinary heating stove, and fitted with an
ascending hot-air pipe, which reaches to within a short distance of the ceiling;
a plate being fitted over the mouth of this pipe, for the twofold purpose of
deflecting the current of hot air into a horizontal direction, and of protecting
the ceiling from injury. The cold pure air is conveyed to the bottom of the
warming apparatus by a passage leading from the outside of the building, or
from any other convenient source, and is heated by circulating round the
stove and flue pipes. The stove itself is fitted with an ordinary ash-pan and
registers for the supply of air to support combustion, and below it is a pipe
for carrying off the impure air and noxious gases. This pipe opens into the
flue pipe of the stove, and consequently the impure atmosphere is carried off'
with the products of combustion, without being permitted to mingle with the
pure warm air which is constantly entering the upper portion of the apart-
ment. A vessel containing water is placed on the top of the stove inside the
warm-air chamber or casing, for the purpose of imparting the requisite
amount of moisture to the warm air before it is admitted into the apartment,
such admission being regulated by a register or damper of any convenient
construction fitted into the ascending pipe of the apparatus.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Henry Johnson in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
25th September 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, J, JOHN
HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of Middlesex,
and of 166, Buchanan Street, in the City of Glasgow, North Britain, Gentle-
man, send greeting.
2
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters 3
Patent, bearing date the Thirtieth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said John Henry Johnson, Her special license that I, the said John Henry
Johnson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the 3
said John Henry Johnson, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should

page_text: 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. "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN WARMING AND VENTILATING APARTMENTS," a communication from
Daniel Leasure, of Newcastle, Pensylvania, in the United States of America,
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Henry Johnson,
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 Henry Johnson, do hereby
declare the nature of the 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 accompanying Drawings, and
to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say:-
The said Invention relates to an improved system or mode of warming and
ventilating rooms or apartments, and to a peculiar construction and arrange-
ment of apparatus employed for such purpose.
According to this Invention, a peculiar apparatus is employed for the
purpose of drawing a body of cold pure air from the atmosphere outside the
building, which apparatus also heats this pure air, and subsequently discharges
it near the ceiling, whilst at the same time it extracts from the apartment all
impure air and noxious gases, and causes them to pass off to the chimney
without becoming mixed with the pure heated air which is supplied from
above.
The apparatus which it is proposed to employ for this purpose consists of
a metal casing, enclosing an ordinary heating stove, and fitted with an
ascending hot-air pipe, which reaches to within a short distance of the ceiling;
a plate being fitted over the mouth of this pipe, for the twofold purpose of
deflecting the current of hot air into a horizontal direction, and of protecting
the ceiling from injury. The cold pure air is conveyed to the bottom of the
warming apparatus by a passage leading from the outside of the building, or
from any other convenient source, and is heated by circulating round the
stove and flue pipes. The stove itself is fitted with an ordinary ash-pan and
registers for the supply of air to support combustion, and below it is a pipe
for carrying off the impure air and noxious gases. This pipe opens into the
flue pipe of the stove, and consequently the impure atmosphere is carried off

page_text: with the products of combustion without being permitted to mingle with the
pure warm air which is constantly entering the upper portion of the apart-
ment. A vessel containing water is placed on the top of the stove inside the
warm-air chamber or casing, for the purpose of imparting the requisite
amount of moisture to the warm air before it is admitted into the room, such
admission being regulated by a register or damper of any convenient con.
struction fitted into the ascending pipe of the apparatus.
And in order that the said Invention may be fully understood I shall now
proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose I shall
refer to the Figure on the Sheet of Drawings hereunto annexed.
The accompanying Drawing represents a sectional elevation of my improved
heating and ventilating apparatus. A represents the line of the floor, and
B, that of the ceiling of the room to be heated and ventilated; C is an
exterior casing, which may be made of any suitable material, but I prefer to
use metals of the least conducting power. From this casing to within a short
distance from the ceiling projects the hot-air pipe D. E is a metal plate, which
is attached to or suspended to or from the ceiling, for the double purpose of
protecting the latter from the heat, and serving, with the funnel mouth of the
pipe D, to deflect the heated air into a horizontal direction along the ceiling.
F is an ordinary stove, having its outlet at G for the passage of the smoke
and other products of combustion to the pipe H, which pipe, after passing
through the exterior casing C, communicates with the chimney of the building;
I is the ash-pit drawer, arranged to slide in and out in the usual manner,
and having an opening or series of openings furnished with any suitable valve
or register apparatus, by which more or less air may be admitted from the
apartment through the grate bars to support combustion. Underneath the
ash-pit is the foul-air passage J, which is also furnished in front with an
adjustable or valvular opening. This passage communicates through the
pipe I and flue pipe II with the chimney. L is the cold or fresh air passage,
communicating through an opening in the wall of the building with the pure
atmosphere outside and with the interior of the casing C. The top of the
stove is furnished with a vessel M, containing water for imparting the requisite
moisture to the heated air. Access is obtained to the interior of the stove
through a doorway N in the exterior casing, and through another doorway O
in the stove.
The beating of confined apartments has hitherto been accomplished by
means of open fire-places, close stoves, hot air, hot water, or steam pipes, and
in all these instances the principle of heating the air as near to the floor as
possible has been hitherto adopted as a general rule. The defects of this

page_text: system of heating may be explained as follows:-The air when near the floor,
when heated by any of the above means, and consequently expanded, rushes to
the ceiling, and in its progress becomes mixed to a great extent with the colder
air of the apartment, together with any deleterous gases or animal exhalations
that may exist in the room. The ceiling forming an obstacle to the further
ascent of this impure heated air, the latter accumulates and forces the cold air
downwards, compelling it to escape through orifices under the doors or other
imperfectly closed apertures near the floor, this unwholesome heated air
having to pass again and again through the lungs of the inmates. When the
heated air becomes too intense and oppressive it is usual to lower an upper
window sash and allow it to escape; the pressure being thus removed, the
external cold air rushes into the room at every cranny it can find nearest the
floor, causing those drafts which prove a prolific source of colds and other
diseases.
If the heated air be very dry, and many persons in the apartment, the dry
air absorbs the moisture which has been exhaled from the lungs of those
present, and this nauseous compound is again heated as the best substitute for
vital air that the circumstances will admit.
The above evils are obviated by means of the apparatus above described,
which operates as follows:-A fire being lighted in the stove or furnace F,
the products of combustion pass through the vent G into the pipe H, and
thence to the chimney; at the same time a constant current of pure cold air
from the exterior of the building rushes through the passage L into the interior
of the casing C; after becoming heated by contact with the stove and its pipes,
and moistened by the steam from the vessel M, it rushes upwards through the
pipe D, from which it passes into the apartment in a direction parallel with the
ceiling. As the hot air accumulates in the upper portion of the apartment, the
colder air below and the air which, by passing through the lungs of the in-
mates, or from other causes, has become vitiated, either passes into the valvular
opening of the ash-pit drawer I to support combustion, or into the opening of
the foul-air passage J, whence it passes into the pipe K, and thence to the
chimney.
It will thus be seen that an uniform and constant supply of pure and
wholesome heated air is admitted to the apartment, and the vitiated air drawn
from the same and discharged into the external atmosphere, and this without
the necessity of opening doors or windows; in fact, the latter may be perfectly
tight, and free from those openings and crevices which are absolutely necessary
for rooms heated in the ordinary manner.
Although I have shewn and described my apparatus as applied to one room

page_text: of a house, it is equally applicable to the heating and ventilating of a number
of rooms, and is especially adapted to shops, hospitals, stores, prisons, ware-
houses, and other buildings, as well as to railway carriages, cars, and the cabins
of steam and other vessels. Where a number of apartments have to be heated
and ventilated by one apparatus, I connect branch pipes of badly or non-
conducting material to the main pipe D, and these branch pipes are connected
to the different rooms of the buildings, so as to discharge the heated air
near the ceiling, as already described, the vitiated air in each of the rooms
being discharged through an aperture communicating with the chimney.
For heating a room of unusual length, the pipe, instead of terminating near
the ceiling, may be carried longitudinally along the same, and furnished with a
series of openings in the top, and at suitable distances apart, so as to disperse
the heated air equally throughout the room.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of the said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried into
effect, I would observe, in conclusion, that I do not confine or restrict myself
to the precise details or arrangements which I have had occasion to describe
or refer to, as many variations may be made therefrom without deviating from
the principles or main features of the said Invention; nor do I claim any of
the mechanical elements of which the said apparatus or parts of apparatus
are respectively composed, as being separately or apart from the use or appli-
cation of such elements to form the combination constituting such apparatus
and parts of apparatus respectively, as being any part of my said Inven-
tion; but what I consider to be novel and original, and therefore claim as
the Invention secured to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Pa-
tent, is, the general construction, arrangement, and combination of apparatus
for warming and ventilating buildings and rooms therein, as herein-before
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Henry Johnson, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Twenty-second day of September, One thousand
eight hundred and fifty-seven.
J. HENRY JOHNSON. (L.S.)