IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SWEEPING CHIMNEYS AND FLUES, AND FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRES THEREIN
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Anguish Honour Augustus Durant, Esquire, of Tong
Castle, Salop, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR
SWEEPING CHIMNEYS AND FLUES, AND FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRES THEREIN."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Anguish Honour Augustus
Durant at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 16th May 1854.
I, ANGUISH HONOUR AUGUSTUS DURANT, Esquire, of Tong Castle, Salop, do
hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS
FOR SWEEPING CHIMNIES AND FLUES, AND FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRES THEREIN," to
be as follows:-
This Invention relates to that class of apparatus called the "ramoneur,"
for which Letters Patent were formerly granted to me and Sir Francis
Desanges, and the several improvements in such apparatus are as follows:
In place of using tubes to guide the stems or rods of the brushes, I now
employ two kinds of frames, one with holes for receiving the rods or stems
of the brushes, and for them to slide in, and levers with flat or trian-
gular springs to act under the levers, with or without the spiral springs
formerly used.
I also apply friction rollers to the brushes and frame
as well as to the levers, to facilitate the movement of the apparatus through
a chimney or flue, and the rods or stems of the brushes are retained in
the frame by bolts, rivets, or screws. The levers which carry the brushes
slide over or are parallel with each other at one of their ends, and they
each move on an axis at their other ends, and they are made with
shoulders and covers at the top and bottom of the second-or other frame,.
acting in its passage in the same way as the separate bars for protection of
451

page_text: brushes under cover when necessary to protect them from blows. The brushes
when expanded are square, but when contracted they retire into the frame-
work, and are thus protected together with the rollers. In place of the
brushes being each on two levers sliding at their cads on each other, they may
be mounted on single lever arms, formed at their inner ends with excentric
surfaces acting on flat springs, the arms or levers being prevented moving
sideways by rollers or otherwise. At the bottom of the head and in the parts
of the rods, in order to get flexibility or bending, I apply a joint, composed of
two spheres joined together, and working in hollow cavities or framework
'made in the ends of the rods or parts, and these parts are connected together
by chains and springs; or, in place of such joint I employ two axes to one end
of one part of the rod, and slits in the other to receive such axes, together
with springs, by which the parts of the rods are made to bend in four directions.
When for extinguishing fires, there are plates in place of the brushes to cover
up the framework, and extend or shut it by these flat springs, as before named,
and the stems or rods of such plates coming out of the frame form a partition
across a chimney or flue.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Anguish Honour Augustus Durant in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 16th November 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ANGUISH.
HONOUR AUGUSTUS DURANT, Esq', of Tong Castle, Salop, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the seventeenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Anguish Honour Augustus Durant, Her special licence that I, the
said Anguish Honour Augustus Durant, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Anguish Honour Augustus Durant, 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 IN APPARATUS FOR SWEEPING
CHIMNEYS AND FLUES, AND FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRES THEREIN," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Anguish Honour Augustus Durant, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly describe

page_text: 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 Anguish Honour Augustus Durant, 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 thereof (that is to say):-
These improvements relate to modifications of apparatus known as the
ramoneur apparatus, for sweeping chimneys and flues and extinguishing
fires therein, and which I now proceed to describe, reference being had
to the Drawings hereunto annexed, the nature of which is written thereon.
In lieu of a tubular framework, formed of tubes sliding inside one another at
right angles, with brushes attached to the outer ends of the inner tubes, and
spiral springs inside them to expand the brushes, I now use an open frame-
work of metal, wood, or gutta percha plates, having friction wheels thereon,
as well as on the brushes and levers, which plates have holes or slides for rods
to pass through; and at the outer ends of these rods are attached brushes
forming externally a square head and expanded by flat feather or C springs,
and either fixed to the stem or centre and acting against the brushes; or these
springs may be fixed to the brushes and act against the stem, tube, or centre,
so as to cause similar expansion and contraction, which will be better under-
stood by examining Figures 1 and 2 of the Drawings. The springs and
brushes are protected from blows or injury in a chimney by levers or arms
fixed at one end, and acting or sliding at the other, together with friction
wheels on the framework or brushes and levers, and may be used either with
or without the aid of spiral springs between the framework and outside the
rods attached to the brushes. The brushes, when expanded by the springs,
form externally a square brush head for a chimney of similar construction, but
represent a circular or octangular shape when compressed in a chimney pot;
and when extra bolts or stops fixed on the brushes enter suitable holes in the
frame, greater strength or security is obtained for the brushes when so com-
pressed. The lower levers may also be protected by having a suitable case,
so that they cannot catch an angle in descending chimnies; and the brush
backs holding the whalebone or hair may be made of metal, wood, or gutta
percha, and fastened to one end of the levers or arms.
My next improvement consists in having, in lieu of brushes attached to the
universal spring joints at their outer ends, and held in an horizontal position
by the action of a spiral spring inside the tube with a chain or lever, a spherical

page_text: frame of wood, metal, or gutta percha, with longitudinal cavities for arms or
levers to act or lie in, as shewn at Figures 3 and 4; and on the outer ends of
these levers or arms are brushes attached in a similar manner, but at the base
of the lever is an arch secured laterally by bolt or rivet, protected by friction
wheels and pressing upon either of the springs before-named. Longitudinally
is a cam or excentric surface; thus, when the levers or arms, holding the
brushes on their outer ends and secured at their base or arch, are moved by
severe pressure, they press harder upon these springs secured underneath,
which allow them to move from the horizontal to the upright or downright
position, as shewn in the Drawings, describing, as it were, the segment of a
circle, and allowing the brushes to get out of danger near the top or bottom
of the stem or centre, when the friction wheels act and pass the machine head
up or down a chimney. This spherical framework may also be made with
horizontal cavities to receive brushes with similar rods, levers, and springs,
acting in the same manner as in the open frameworks, before described.
.: My next improvement refers to the apparatus for extinguishing fires in
chimnies, and consists in applying the same kind of spring levers, friction
wheels, and rods to a similar framework to that first described, (in lieu of a
tubular framework with spiral springs inside the tubes, as heretofore,) having
the rods and springs named to draw out plates horizontally placed over one
another, so as to stop the draught.in a chimney, instead of having the plates
drawn out by tubes with spiral springs inside them, as heretofore.
Having thus described the nature of these improvements, I wish it to be
understood I do not claim any of the parts as separately considered, nor do I
confine myself to the precise details so long as the peculiar character of my
Invention is retained; but what I claim is, the arrangement of apparatus
for sweeping chimnies and flues, and for extinguishing fires therein, as herein
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Anguish Honour Augustus Durant, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Sixteenth day-of-November, in-the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four
Witness,
MORTIMER HALL,
Clerk to Chilton & Co.,
7, Chancery Lae.
A. H. AUGUSTUS DURANT. (L.S.)