TRANSMITTING HEAT WALL FOR THE RIPENING OF FRUIT
Year: 1828

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
ANDREW IIUNT GRUBBE, of Hanton Saint Bernard, in the County of Wilts,
Clerk, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Eighth day of January, in the eighth year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
James Andrew Hunt Grubbe, His especial licence that I, the said James
Andrew Hunt Grubbe, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said James Andrew Hunt Grubbe, my exors, adiñors, or assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time, and at all times
during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, my Invention of "TRANSMITTING HEAT WALL FOR THE RIPENING OF
FRUIT;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, obliging me, the
said James Andrew Hunt Grubbe, by an instrument in writing under my hand
and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be
inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in
and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
annear

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
James Andrew Hunt Grubbe, do hereby declare that the nature and particulars
of my said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be construed,
is herein-after particularly described (that is to say) :-
My said Invention consists in the formation of walls, or rather of partitions
to answer the purpose of walls for training fruit trees in gardens or other
situations, formed of such thin materials that the heat of the sun may be trans-
mitted through the same, and may operate to ripen the fruit of trees trained on
the opposite side of such walls, to the end and effect that the north side of
such walls (or partitions) may be rendered nearly as effective for the purpose
of ripening fruit as the south side of the same; and the materials which I find
is best suited to this purpose is building slate, or that kind of slate used for
covering the roofs of houses, and these I accordingly use in the following
manner I cause frames of wrought or cast iron to be made in the form of
window sashes, and with similar rebates, and I put in slates to the same with
glazier's putty, precisely in the same manner as glass would be put into a sash;
these frames may be of any dimensions, but I make them as wide as will
admit of their being conveyed without inconvenience, and I unite them at the
distance of every six or eight feet by mortices, and support them by braces or
buttresses fastened thereto by screw bolts or rivets, which branch out on each
side of the said wall, and are fixed at their bottoms to large blocks of stone or
wood, which are buried a sufficient distance in the soil to insure their
perfect stability. Lastly, I cover both sides of the wall constructed as afore-
said with a light framing of trellis work, or of straight slight bars of wood or
iron punctured with holes and fixed at convenient distances from the slates and
from each other for the purpose of training the trees, and these training
frames I make to correspond in dimensions with the stronger framing for sup-
porting the slates, and I affix them thereto by screws, or in any way so
that they can be removed at pleasure. From the above account of my
aforesaid Invention, it will appear that it consists, as before stated, of a wall or
partition, which, from the thinness of the materials I make use of, is capable
of transmitting the heat which may be imparted to it on the one side through
to the other, and thus producing the beneficial effect of ripening the fruit on the
north side, or that which is least exposed to the sun. And I therefore do not
confine my Invention to the exclusive use of slate as above described, but plates
of cast or wrought iron, or even glass, may be used, or in fact any other material
which is not liable to shrink or decay by exposure to the weather, and which
possesses the power of transmitting heat with rapidity and facility; but I prefer
slate used as aforesaid, on account of its cheapness, its lightness, and its dura-

page_text: bility, besides which its dark colour renders it more capable of receiving and
radiating the heat; and where great durability is required the said frames or
pannels of slate or other material may be supported or built into piers of brick
work or masonary, instead of using the braces or buttresses as herein-before
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Andrew Hunt Grubbe, have here-
unto set my hand and scal, this Seventh day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight.