AN IMPROVED SELF-ACTING UNIVERSAL VENTILATOR, THE IMPROVEMENTS OF WHICH ARE ALSO APPLICABLE FOR INDICINA A CHRRONG FOR OTHER PUP
Year: 1875

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LETTERS PATENT to Middlemost Wawn and Francis William
3
Willcox, of Sunderland, in the County of Durham, Consulting
Engineers, Machine Inspectors and Steamship Surveyors and
Designers, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED SELF-ACTING UNIVERSAL
VENTILATOR, THE IMPROVEMENTS OF WHICH ARE ALSO APPLICABLE FOR
INDICINA A CHRRONG FOR OTHER PUP"
t
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Middlemost Wawn
and Francis William Willcox at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 28th June 1875.
We, MIDDLEMOST WAWN and FRANCIS WILLIAM WILLCOX, of
Sunderland, in the County of Durham, Consulting Engineers, Machine
Inspectors, and Steamship Surveyors and Designers, do hereby declare
the nature of our said Invention for "AN IMPROVED SELF-ACTING UNIVERSAL
VENTILATOR, THE IMPROVEMENTS OF WHICH ARE ALSO APPLICABLE POR? INDUCING A
CURRENT FOR OTHER PURPOSES," to be as follows (that is to say) :—
Our Invention consists in applying to an elevated delivery.tube, flue

page_text: way, or other passage in connection with the place to be ventilated, a
self-acting current inductor, which we construct in the following way :—
Over the delivery tube or flue way (which may be of any dimensions,
according to circumstances or capacity of the place to be ventilated,
whether a mine, ship, building, or otherwise), a cowl is fixed on a
vertical centre that it may freely revolve, the cowl being capped with a
wind vane that the exit of ventilation shall be in the direction of the
wind.
The end of the cowl towards the wind we form of an expanded or
trumpet mouth shape, and this cowl so formed surrounds the internal
flue way proper, which being curved at its end in a line with the course
of the wind it becomes evident that the current of wind passing through
the cowl impinges and induces an active current through the flue way,
which being once set in motion continues by the more or less activity of
the wind or external atmospheric current. Thus the flue way passage
in houses may be converted not only into the means of ventilation by a
suitable regulated opening of a room into the flue, but also as a means
of inducing a current from the top suction through the flue as a means
of promoting combustion and carrying away the smoke.
On board ship an air-tight canvas tube can be carried down between
decks or into the ship's hold, so that an active refreshing current can
always be kept up, which in the case of transport or emigrant ships is
highly important, as also with ships freighted with live stock.
In the cooling or crystallizing of sugar, brewing and distilling, or
other chemical, manufacturing, or other purposes where an inducted
impinged current of cold air is requisite, our self-acting current
generator may be readily adapted, and will be found of great advantage.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Middlemost Wawn and Francis William Willcox
in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 28th December 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, MIDDLE-
MOST WAWN and FRANCIS WILLIAM WILLCOX, of Sunderland, in the
County of Durham, Consulting Engineers, Machine Inspectors, and
Steamship Surveyors and Designers, send greeting.
3

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of June, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the
thirty-ninth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto us, the said Middlemost Wawn and Francis
William Willcox, Her special license that we, the said Middlemost Wawn
and Francis William Willcox, our executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as we, the said Middlemost Wawn and Francis William
Willcox, executors, administrators, or 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
"AN IMPROVED SELF-ACTING UNIVERSAL VENTILATOR, THE IMPROVEMENTS OF
WHICH ARE ALSO APPLICABLE FOR INDUCING A CURRENT FOR OTHER PURPOSES,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Middlemost Wawn
and Francis William Willcox, by an instrument in writing under our
hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature
of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be per.
0 formed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office
within six calendar months next and immediately after tho dato of the
said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Middlemost Wawn and Francis
William Willcox, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention,
5 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 :—
Our Invention consists in applying to an elevated delivery tube, fluo
way, or other passage in connection with the place to be ventilated, a
self-acting current inductor, which we construct in the following way :—
Over the delivery tube or flue way (which may be of any dimensions,
according to circumstances or capacity of the place to be ventilated,
whether a mine, ship, building, or otherwise), a cowl is fixed on a
5 vertical centre that it may freely revolve, the cowl being capped with a
wind vane that the exit of ventilation shall be in the direction of the
wind.

page_text: B, B, before referred to, as indicated by the arrows, and thus remove all
vitiated atmosphere constantly, gradually, and at all times; without
attention or expence beyond first cost, which, however, is trifling
compared with the advantages secured. This cowl forms a very
powerfull chimney pot, and would make active the slowest draught.
The ventilator, Fig. 2, likewise shewn in section, also acts by sucking.
hot or vitiated air from all places requiring ventilation, but it differs
from Figure 1, as it consists of a bottle-shape casing A, into the base
of which is inserted a cone B. The cone and casing are connected to
an upright shaft C, as in Figure 1, and is free to revolve in the usual
way. Its larger end is kept to the wind by a vane marked F. Its action
is as follows: The wind passes through the cone in a large, powerfull,,
unbroken volume, and drives the air out of the contracted end of the
casing at great velocity, causing a vacuum in the casing and upright
shaft, which in its turn will suck foul air from or cause an upward
current in any apartment or place to which it is connected, as indicated
by the arrows in the vertical section, Figure 2. This is an extremely
powerful cowl, and not suitable for the flue ways of ordinary house
chimneys.
1.
The practical application of our self-acting ventilating cowls, accord-
ing to position required, is very simple; for example, in order to ventilate
a ship's cabin, state rooms, waterclosets, and other places, perforated.
pipes are carried close under the deck, above the berths, and into the
holds, &c., and connected to one or two large ventilators placed in
suitable positions on deck; the cowls constantly sucking will remove all
hot or vitiated air, its place being supplied by fresh air, which will
readily find its way down below when the foul air is drawn off to make
room for it. And for vessels engaged in carrying coals our self-acting,
ventilator becomes highly important, as being fitted to the hatches
all gas will be constantly withdrawn, thus rendering the disastrous
explosions that now constantly occur (causing great loss of life and
destruction to property) impossible.
The cowls can be unshipped when loading or unloading, but they will
be found of great use for drawing off coal and grain dust from the holds
of vessels, thus allowing men to work the cargoes in or out with
comfort. In wooden vessels the ventilation constantly kept up by our
1

page_text: self-acting cowls is a great preventative of dry rot, and in grass or hay
cargoes liable to heat or to spontaneous combustion their value is
obvious; as also the highly beneficial effect to be derived from the
application of our self-acting ventilators applied to emigrant, troop, and
mail ships; also ships carrying live freights. In hospitals, institutions,
or buildings in which numbers of people live and sleep, as also in
private houses, one should be fitted to each ward and connected by
perforated pipes to all rooms, waterclosets, and other parts of the
building, and all chimneys. In theatres one or two large ventilators on
our self-acting principle should be fitted and connected by pipes to
openings under the overhanging galleries where all the foul air is
collected, and one also should be fitted over the central pendant gasalier
of the pit, which will be highly beneficial for drawing off all heated and
foul air from the body of the theatre or other like public buildings.
These self-acting cowls, if properly fitted to sewers, either as Figs. 11
or 2, according to requirment, will draw off the dangerous gasses therein
evolved, and which, under the present system, are too often forced into
our dwellings during high winds, thus bringing typhoid, epedemics, and
other pestilence into our midst.
Our self-acting ventilating cowls being quite open and unobstructed in
their passages by revolving fans or other useless contrivances (which
have to be driven round by the escape of the hot or foul air which is
thus impeded in its escape) are never liable to become choked up or get
out of order, as beyond a vertical spindle to revolve on like a common
wind vano there are no moving parts.
In giving effect to our improved self-acting mode of ventilation we
will observe that to counteract excessive or violent draughts which may
vary with the position of the place to be ventilated or strength of the
wind we purpose introducing a simple valve system for closing or
regulating the said inducted current way, as induced by our self-acting
suction cowls. And this mode of inducing an upward current, which
may be made more or less active by the proportion and construction of
our patent wind cowls, may be benefically used for many purposes not
before mentioned, such as for special manufactures where even tem-
perature and an active current may be desirable, as also for the
ventilation of mines, in which case our improved patent cowls are
particularly applicable from their inexpensiveness and perpetual self-

page_text: acting activity, likewise for flour mills, metal grinding shops, and a
variety of other purposes.
Q
In witness whereof, we, the said Middlemost Wawn and Francis
William Willcox, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this
Twenty-fourth day of December, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-five.
Witness,
(L.S.)
MIDDLEMOST WAWN.
FRANCIS WILLIAM WILLCOX. (L.S.)
CHARLES F. BARKER,
41, Tatham Street,
Sunderland.
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