IMPROVE. IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF FURNACES, OVENS, OR KILNS. FOR DRYING, BAKING. OR BURNING POTTERY OR EARTHENWARE, BRICKS. TILES, OR SIMILAR ARTICLES, AND IN THE MEANS OF COLLECTING AND CONDENSING OR CARRYING OFF THE SMOKE, GASES, OR VAPOES EVOLVED FROM SUCH OR OTHER FURNACES OR FIRE-PLACES. OR THAT ESCAPE OF AEISE FROM THE RETORTS AND OTHER PARTS OF THE APPARATUS USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF GAS
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Kirkham, of Tonbridge Place, New Road, in
the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVE.
IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF FURNACES, OVENS, OR KILNS. FOR DRYING,
BAKING. OR BURNING POTTERY OR EARTHENWARE, BRICKS. TILES, OR
SIMILAR ARTICLES, AND IN THE MEANS OF COLLECTING AND CONDENSING OR
CARRYING OFF THE SMOKE, GASES, OR VAPOES EVOLVED FROM SUCH OR OTHER
FURNACES OR FIRE-PLACES. OR THAT ESCAPE OF AEISE FROM THE RETORTS AND
OTHER PARTS OF THE APPARATUS USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF GAS."
Sealed the 21st August 1857, and dated the 23rd February 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Kirkham at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
23rd February 1857.
I, JOHN KIRKHAM, of Tonbridge Place, New Road, in the County of
Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said In-
vention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF FURNACES, OVENS, OR KILNS
FOR DRYING, BAKING. OR BURNING POTTERY OR EARTHENWARE. BRICKS, TILES, OR
OTHER SIMILAR ARTICLES, AND IN THE MEANS OF COLLECTING AND CONDENSING
OR CARRYING OFF THE SMOKE, GASES, OR VAPORS EVOLVED FROM SUCH OR OTHER
FURNACES OR FIRE-PLACES, OR THAT ESCAPE OR ARISE FROM THE RETORTS AND OTHER
PARTS OF THE APPARATUS USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF GAS," to be as follows:-
My, Invention of improvements in the construction of furnaces, ovens,
or kilns for drying, baking, or burning pottery or carthenware, bricks,
tiles, or other similar articles, and the means of collecting and condensing
or carrying off the smoke, gases, or vapors evolved from such or other
furnaces or fireplaces, or that escape or arise from the retorts and other.
parts of the apparatus used in the manufacture of gas, relates, in the

page_text: first place, to an improved mode of constructing the furnaces, ovens,
or kilus for the above-named purposes; and, second, to a means of
collecting and condensing or carrying off smoke and gases or vapors,
which means is not only applicable to the furnaces above referred to,
but also to all furnaces, retorts, or apparatus from which such gases
may be evolved.
In carrying out the first part of my Invention, the furnace or oven
should be built with brickwork, and the crown or top arched over or
otherwise made close and air-tight, and the internal capacity con-
structed in a suitable manner for the quantity of materials required
to be burnt at any one time, for which purpose one, two, or more fire-
places may be constructed in the bottom part of the oven, and air is
admitted over the top of the fuel from the sides or ends of the furnaces
to assist the combustion of the gases evolved therefrom. The flame and
heat circulates through the oven, and is then drawn or conducted
through flues constructed in the bottom of the oven, and from thence
is carried through a second, third, or more ovens, whereby the spare
heat may be beneficially employed in drying and preparing the articles
or wares to be next burnt. The heat and gaseous vapors are drawn or
conducted as before described through the ovens and flues, so that as
much as possible of the heat may be used and economized; after which
the vapors are either conducted direct to the chimney, or through close
condensing vessels containing pebbles, stones, or other suitable materials
for increasing the contact surfaces. The vapors or gases are drawn
by fans or other machinery suitable for such purpose, and water is
injected in and amongst the pebble stones contained in the condensing
vessels, whereby the gaseous vapors in passing through the condensing
vessels will be partially condensed and absorbed by the water. I some-
times use lime water or other chemical agents instead of water in its
natural state for the pupose of extracting the carbonic acid or other
noxious gases or vapors from the vapors arising from the fuel.
The second part of my Invention, viz., that for collecting and con-
densing or carrying off the gases and vapors as above described, is also
applicable to all ordinary furnaces, from which smoke and gases will
be prevented from issuing by exhausting from the flues of the furnaces
and collecting and condensing all such gases and vapors produced either
by heat, or distillation, or combustion of coals, coke, tar, or any other
substances, as well as the gases and vapors arising from decomposition,
or from any other cause.
This part of my Invention is also applicable to the exhausting.

page_text: collecting, and condensing or carrying off of all gases
and vapors arising
from any fuel used for heating all kinds of boilers, coke ovens, kilns,
glass-house furnaces, retorts, and retort houses, or other distilling or
heating apparatus, or any furnaces whatsoever. Also for the ventila-
ting by exhausting, collecting, and condensing, or carrying off the
smoke and gaseous vapors produced in retort houses, purifying houses
of gas works, or any other buildings requiring ventilating, and which
gases may be purified by being passed through condensing chambers
before being allowed to escape into the atmosphere.
In order to more fully describe my Invention as applicable to
ventilating retort houses or any other buildings, I would observe, that
I cause the roofs and upper windows or openings in the walls to be
closed and made air-tight, so as to prevent the vapors, smoke, or gases
from passing off except through the proper channel. The fresh atmo-
spheric air will flow into the building by the lower windows, doorways,
or other openings, and press the smoke and all other gaseous vapors
upwards under the roof, from whence the smoke and vapors are drawn
or conducted through pipes, trunks, or channels into a brick shaft,
which is carried up from the ground to a suitable distance above the
upper part of the roof. The end of such pipes or trunks may terminate
in a hopper or bell-mouth shaped chamber, from which the smoke and
gaseous vapors may be drawn and conveyed through pipes or other
channels to and through the close condensing chamber or chambers
above described.. The draught is produced by a revolving fan or other
suitable exhausting machines, and the smoke and gaseous vapors being
drawn into the condensing chamber, the noxious parts thereof are there
condensed or arrested and absorbed by water, as before described.
The most convenient. method of ventilating the retort or purifying
houses of large or extensive gas works consists in building a central
ventilating shaft of considerable diameter and suitable height, and
causing the enclosed roofs of the retort houses to communicate there-
with by means of pipes, tubes, or channels, which will convey the smoke
or vapors from the roof of the retort houses to the central vertical
ventilating shaft. A draught must be established in this shaft, either
by building it of sufficient height in the first instance, or by suitable
exhausting apparatus: or an artificial draught may be produced by con-
veying the waste heat of the retorts along horizontal flues into a smaller
shaft. placed within the large ventilating shaft, and carried up to a
little above the level of the top of the roofs of the retort houses. By
this means the air in the ventilating shaft will be rarefied, and the

page_text: smoke from the retort houses will be naturally drawn therefrom into
the rarefied atmosphere of the ventilating shaft.
In some cases the smoke and gases thus collected in the shaft may
.be conducted direct into the atmosphere, but if required, the vapors
and gases drawn from the retort houses may be purified by passing them
through condensing chambers before being discharged into the atmo-
sphere. These chambers may be placed either in the ventilating shaft
itself at any convenient part thereof, or contiguous thereto and com-
municating therewith. These arrangements must, however, depend
in some measure upon the circumstances of each particular case where
the above improvements are intended to be applied.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Kirkham in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
22nd August 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
KIRKHAM, of Tonbridge Place, New Road, in the County of Middlesex,
Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of February, in the year of
our Lord One thousand cight 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 Kirkham, Her special license that I, the
said John Kirkham, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said John Kirkham, 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 THE CONSTRUCTION OF FURNACES,
OVENS, OR KILNS FOR DRYING. BAKING. OR BURNING POTTERY OR EARTHENWARE,
BRICKS, TILES, OR OTHER SIMILAR ARTICLES, AND IN THE MEANS OF COLLECTING AND
CONDENSING OR CARRYING OFF THE SMOKE, GASES. OR VAPORS EVOLVED FROM SUCH OR
OTHER FURNACES OR FIRE-PLACES, OR THAT ESCAPE OR A RISE FROM THE RETORTS AND OTHER
PARTS OF THE APPARATUS USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF GAS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I. the said John Kirkham, by an instrument in
writing under my hand and seal, should particularly describe and

page_text: 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 1, the said John Kirkham, do hereby declare the
nature of my 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 Drawings hereunto
annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say):-
My Invention of "Improvements in the Construction of Furnaces,
Ovens, or Kilns for Drying, Baking, or Burning Pottery or Earthen-
ware, Bricks, Tiles, or other similar Articles, and in the Means of
Collecting and Condensing or Carrying off the Smoke, Gases, or Vapors
evolved from such or other Furnaces or Fire-places, or that Escape or
Arise from the Retorts and other Parts of the Apparatus used in the
Manufacture of Gas," relates, in the first place, to an improved mode
of constructing the furnaces, ovens, or kilns for the above-named
purposes; and, second, to a means of collecting and condensing or carry-
ing off smoke and gases or vapors, which means is not only applicable
to the furnaces above referred to, but also to all furnaces, retorts, or
apparatus from which such gases may be evolved.
In carrying out the first part of my Invention, the furnace or oven
should be built with brickwork, and the crown or top arched over or
otherwise made close and air-tight, and the internal capacity con-
structed in a suitable manner for the quantity of materials required to
be burnt at any one time, for which purpose one, two, or more fire-
places may be constructed in the bottom part of the oven, and air-is
admitted over the top of the fuel from the sides or ends of the furnaces
to assist the combustion of the gases evolved therefrom. The flame
and heat circulates through the oven, and is then drawn or conducted
through flues constructed in the bottom of the oven, and from thence
is carried through a second, third, or more ovens, whereby the spare
heat may be beneficially employed in drying and preparing the articles
or wares to be next burnt.
In Sheets I., II., and III. of the accompanying Drawings I have
shewn views of an oven for baking or burning pottery or earthenware,
but constructed upon the improved plan above referred to. In these
Drawings two ovens are shewn in connection with each other, but a
greater number can be connected together and worked in combination
if desired,

page_text: In Fig. 1, Sheet I., the right-hand oven is shewn in external elevation,
while the left-hand oven is shewn in vertical section.
In Fig. 2, Sheet II., are also shewn two ovens in combination, in fact
the Figure represents sectional plan views of the ovens shewn in Sheet I.,
and therefore similar letters of reference will denote corresponding
parts in both Figures.
a, a, is the masonry of the ovens; b, b, the arched roof; c, the floor or
hearth of the oven, and on which the articles to be baked or burned are
placed; is the furnace or fire-place for heating the ovens; e, e, the fire
bars that support the fuel; and f, /, are openings made in the side of
the fire-place, and communicating with the flues.or passages g, g, which
partially surround the fire-place, and are connected with the hot-air
apparatus A at the side of the oven by means of the lateral flues h, h,
which are constructed below the hearth of the oven, as shewn in Fig. 3,
and by dots in Fig. 1. The heat and gaseous products of combustion in
the fire-place of the left-hand oven, after circulating and reverberating
in that oven, descend the short vertical flues i, i, i, i, situated at each
corner of the oven, and pass along the horizontal flues j, j, Fig. 2, to the
vertical flues, which terminate in a large horizontal common flue 1,
whereby the heated gases are conducted away and made to pass down
a branch pipe * into the adjoining or right-hand oven, where they will
circulate, and dry or prepare for the subsequent burning or baking
operation any articles that may be placed upon the hearth or floor of
that oven.
The heated gases then pass down the corner flues i, i, along horizontal
flues, similar to those shewn at j, j, in the left-hand oven, and are
ultimately conducted by a common flue either into the atmosphere or to
the hot-air apparatus at the side, for the purpose of heating the air that
is to be supplied to the burning fuel of the fire-place of the other oven.
It will be seen that the various flues or passages are provided with
dampers, moveable tiles, or other contrivances, shewn at m, n, m, for
the purpose of cutting off the communication and directing the heated
gases in any direction that may be desired. Some arrangement of this
kind will of course be required, as when the charge of one oven, say,
the left-hand one, has been properly baked or burned a fire must be
ignited in the fire-place of the right-hand oven, to operate upon the
dried and prepared charge that has been previously put into it, and
then the heated gases must be conducted from the right-hand to the left-
hand oven. and in exactly the opposite direction to that just described.
The heat and gaseous vapors are drawn or conducted, as before

page_text: described, through the ovens and flues, so that as much as possible of
the heat may be used and economized; after which the vapors are either
conducted direct to the chimney, as above mentioned, through close
condensing vessels containing pebble stones or other suitable materials
for increasing the contact surfaces. The vapors or gases are drawn
through the condensing vessels by fans or other machinery suitable for
such purpose, and water is injected in and amongst the pebble stones
contained in the condensing vessels, whereby the gaseous vapors in
passing through the condensing vessels will be partially condensed and
absorbed by the water, and any smoke, soot, uncombined carbon, or
other solid matters will be removed from the gases, which may then be
allowed to pass into the atmosphere. 1 sometimes use lime water or
other chemical agents instead of water in its natural state, for the
purpose of extracting the carbonic acid, ammoniacal vapours, or other
noxious gases, some of which may be employed as manures for fertiliz-
ing land. By this means useful products are extracted from the vapors
arising from the fuel previous to allowing the gases ultimately to
escape. This collection and condensation of the gases evolved from the
fuel of furnaces forms more particularly a part of the second head of my
Invention, and is also applicable to all ordinary furnaces, from which
smoke and gases will be prevented from issuing by exhausting all such
gases and vapors, produced either by heat, or distillation, or combustion
of coals, coke, tar, or any other substances, as well as the gases and
vapors arising from decomposition, or from any other cause.
This part of my Invention is also applicable to the exhausting,
collecting, and condensing, or carrying off of all gases and vapors arising
from any fuel used for heating all kinds of boilers, coke ovens, kilns,
glass-house furnaces, retorts, and retort houses, or other distilling or
heating apparatus, or any furnaces whatsoever. Also for the ventila-
ting by exhausting, collecting, and condensing, or carrying off the
smoke and gaseous vapors produced in retort houses, purifying houses
of gas works, or any other buildings requiring ventilating, and which
gases may be purified by being passed through the condensing chambers
before being allowed to escape into the atmosphere.
In order to more fully describe my Invention as applicable to
ventilating retort houses or any other buildings, I would observe that
it is necessary to collect the smoke or gases before conducting them
either to the condensing chamber or to the main flue to be carried off.
In order to collect the gases, I cause the roofs and upper, windows or
openings in the walls of the buildings in which the smoke or gases are

page_text: evolved to be closed and made air-tight, so as to prevent the vapors,
smoke, or gases from passing off except through the proper channel;
the fresh atmospheric air will flow into the building by the lower
windows, doorways, or other openings, and press the smoke and all
other gaseous vapors upwards under the roof, from whence the smoke
and vapors are drawn or conducted through pipes, trunks, or channels
into a brick shaft, which is carried up from the ground to a suitable
distance above the upper part of the roof. The end of such pipes or
trunks may terminate in a hopper or bell-mouth shaped chamber, from
which the smoke and gaseous vapors may be drawn and conveyed
through pipes or other channels to and through the closc condensing
chamber or chambers above described. The draught is produced by a
revolving fan or other suitable exhausting machines, and the smoke and
gaseous vapors being drawn into the condensing chamber, the noxious
parts thereof are there condensed or arrested and absorbed by water, as
before described.
The most convenient method of collecting the smoke or gases given
off from the retorts or fire places of the retort or purifying houses of
large or extensive gas works consists, in the first place, in constructing
over the mouth end of each bench of retorts a capacious hood or funnel-
shaped chamber, into which the smoke from the retorts will rise and
be conveyed along a suitable closed channel either to the condensing
chambers above described, or to the main fluc, which consists of a
central ventilating shaft of considerable diameter and suitable height.
The enclosed roofs of the retort houses may also be made to com-
municate therewith by means of pipes, tubes, or channels, which will
convey the smoke or vapors from the roof of the retort houses to the
central vertical ventilating shaft. A draught must be established in
this shaft cither by building it of sufficient height in the first instance
or by suitable exhausting apparatus; or an artificial draught may be
produced by conveying the waste heat of the retorts along horizontal
flues into a smaller shaft, placed within the large ventilating shaft, and
carried up to a little above the level of the top of the roofs of the retort
houses.
By this means the air in the ventilating shaft will be rarefied, and
the smoke from the retort houses will be naturally driven therefrom into
the rarefied atmosphere of the ventilating shaft.
In Sheet IIII. I have shewn one means of carrying out this part of
my Invention. Fig. 4 is a longitudinal vertical section of a retort house
with my improvements adapted thereto. a, a, a, a, are the walls of

page_text: the retort house; b, b, b, b, the benches of retorts; c, c, c, the fire-places
for heating the same; e, e, the line of the ridge of the roof; ƒ', f', f', f',
is a large central ventilating shaft, in the lower part of which are made
two or more large apertures or openings g, g, communicating. with the
roof or upper part of the retort house. This central ventilating shaft
and the openings g, g, therein, are shewn in the cross section, Fig. 5.
In order to produce a current or draught in this shaft, another shaft
h, h, is built within it, and extends up to some distance above the level
of the roof of the retort house. This shaft is lined with fire brick, and
communicates at its lower end with horizontal flues, channels, or
passages i, i, placed along the top of the retorts, so that the waste heat
therefrom may be conveyed with facility into these flues or channels i, i,
and be conducted thereby into the vertical shaft, h. By this means
a strong current or draught is created in the chimney, and all the heated
vapors, smoke, and noxious gases that are evolved from the fires or
retorts will be carried away up the central ventilating shaft f', '.
In some cases the smoke and gases thus collected in the shaft may be
conducted direct into the atmosphere, but if required the vapors and
gases drawn from the retort houses may be purified by passing them
through the condensing chambers above mentioned before being dis-
charged into the atmosphere. These chambers may be placed either in the
ventilating shaft itself at any convenient part thereof, or contiguous
thereto and communicating therewith. These arrangements may, how-
ever, depend in some measure upon the circumstances of each particular
case where the above improvements are intended to be applied.
Having now described my Invention of improvements in the con-
struction of furnaces, ovens, or kilns for drying, baking, or burning of
pottery or earthenware, bricks, tiles, or other similar articles, and
having explained the means of carrying the same into effect, I claim,
in reference to this part of my Invention, the mode herein shewn and
described of constructing furnaces, ovens, or kilns, whereby the heat'
evolved from the fuel is economized and more usefully employed than
heretofore. I also claim applying heated air to the surface of the fuel,
as above described, so as to produce a more perfect combustion of the
fuel than in furnaces, ovens, or kilns of the ordinary description.
In reference to the second part of my Invention. viz., the means of
collecting and condensing or carrying off the smoke, gases, or vapors
evolved from furnaces or fire-places, or that escape or arise from the
retorts and other parts of the apparatus used in the manufacture of gas,
I claim collecting the same and causing them to pass through con-

page_text: densing chambers or vessels, so that certain portion of the gaseous pro-
ducts may be arrested, condensed, and extracted from the vapours
before the latter are allowed to escape into the atmosphere. I also
claim the mode of and apparatus for collecting and carrying off the
vapours, smoke, or gases evolved from the retorts or other parts of
buildings in which the manufacture of gas is carried on.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Kirkham, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Twenty-second day of August, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
J. W. Moffatt.
66, Chancery Lanc.
JOHN KIRKHAM. (L.S.)