IMPROVEMENTS APPLICABLE TO THE VENTILATION OF APARTMENTS IN WHICH GAS AND OTHER COMBUSTIBLE MATTERS ARE CONSUMED BY IGNITION
Year: 1844

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, DONALD
GRANT, of Greenwich, in the County of Kent, Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Eighteenth day of April, in the seventh year of Her reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Donald Grant, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said Donald Grant, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and such
others as I, the said Donald Grant, my executors, administrators, 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 mentioned, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, and in all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, and in the
Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, my Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS APPLICABLE TO THE VENTILATION OF APARTMENTS IN WHICH GAS
AND OTHER COMBUSTIBLE MATTERS ARE CONSUMED BY IGNITION;" in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Donald Grant, 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 Her Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately

page_text: after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the
same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Donald Grant, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following description thercof, reference being
had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked
thereon (that is to say) :-
:-
My Invention of Improvements applicable to the Ventilation of Apartments
consists in an improved mode of constructing and arranging certain apparatus
in connection with gas or other burners, whereby the products of combustion
may be carried off, and the apartments in which such burners are situate
effectually ventilated. The temperature of the apartment may also, by means
of my improvement, be maintained uniform, or nearly so, as the heated and
foul air which rises to the upper part of the room will be carried off by means
of my improved apparatus, which will be found more particularly useful and
advantageous when burners which give out considerable heat and a large body
of flame are used, as is the case with most centre lights constructed on the
Boccius or Bude principle, in which metallic tubes are employed to carry off
the products of combustion. It has been found that the gases and other
products arising from the combustion of carburretted hydrogen gas injuriously
act upon and destroy these metallic tubes, even when they are made of copper.
Metal is also so good a conductor of heat that tubes made of this material are
liable to get overheated, and would ignite any inflammable substance that
might be contiguous thereto. The object of the present Invention is, as far as
possible, to obviate these difficulties; and to effect this object I propose to
employ pipes made of earthenware or stoneware, to conduct the products of
combustion away from the burners. This material is not only a bad con-
ductor of heat, but it may be heated to a very high temperature without
danger; moreover, it is not liable to oxydation, or to be otherwise injuriously
acted upon by the carbonic acid or other gases arising from the flame. I
employ either the Bude light, the Boccius light, or any other in which there is
a large body of flame, and consequently great heat, and suspend it from the
ceiling in the ordinary manner, as shewn in Sheet I. of the accompanying
Drawings at Fig. 1, which represents a pendant burner with my improvements
applied thereto, the ceiling of the room and also the flooring of the room
above being shewn in section.
Fig. 2 is another sectional view of the ceiling and flooring taken in a line
at right angles to the preceding Figure, and shewing my plan of conducting

page_text: off the products of combustion through tubes suspended between the ceiling
and flooring.
Fig. 3 is a transverse section of the earthen or stoneware tube, together
with its jacket or covering and appurtenances, and also the mode of suspending
the tubes. The section is taken in the line A, B, of Fig. 2.
The other Figures in Sheet I. represent various views of different parts of
the apparatus detached, and upon an enlarged scale. As each of these Figures
has a note or description of the part it represents written above, a more
detailed description of these separate parts will not be required. The burner
is supplied with gas from the main pipe m by means of the pendant pipes
,,, r, and it is represented in Fig. 1 as being furnished with an ordinary
glass chimney a; it is also furnished with a series of conical glass chimnies
b, b, b, ranged one above another, and supported by moveable galleries c, c, c,
which may be set and maintained at any height on the pendant tubes r, r, by
means of screws (as seen in the detached view, Fig. 4). The upper end of the
ordinary glass chimney a is inserted a short distance (about half an inch,
rather more than less) into the lower end of the lowermost conical chimney b;
and the upper end of this latter is inserted in the lower end of the next, and so
on, the upper end of the uppermost conical chimney being inserted into the
opening in the earthen or stoneware tube d in the ceiling, as seen best in
Fig. 2. By this means the products of combustion are effectually prevented
from escaping into the room, and a constant draft of the heated and foul air is
kept up into the interior parts of the chimnies 6 at all the junctions, and also
through a ventilator in the ceiling into a chamber surrounding the pipe d, as
will be hereafter described. The products of combustion are, as before stated,
carried up into the earthen elbow tube d, from whence they pass along the
long straight tube d, d, made of similar materials, and constructed in lengths
of about two feet. These lengths are securely luted together with any suitable
cement, so as to form a continuous length of tube, as seen in Fig. 2. The
earth or clay, which I find to answer my purpose most effectually, and which
I therefore prefer to employ as the material for constructing my earthen tubes,.
is that description of earth which is used for stone pottery, which is much
employed by chemists in the vicinity of London. The tubes may of course be
made of any convenient form, according to circumstances, such as round, -
ovular, square, or flat. The sections of the earthen tube are furnished with
projections e, e, e (see the detached views, Figures 5), and the whole length of
the tube is surrounded by an iron or other metal casing f, f, f, f, which is
supported in slings 8, 8, 8, attached to the joists, as seen in Figures 2 and 3,

page_text: and the earthen tube is supported in the metal one by the projections e, e, e, so
that there is a free current of air all round the earthen tube. A metal
ventilating plate g, g, surrounds the aperture into which the upper end of the
uppermost conical glass chimney is inserted. This ventilating plate is
furnished with holes or apertures, whereby the hot and foul air from the
apartment is admitted into the space between the metal tube f, f, and earthen
tube d, d, and allowed to pass along this annular space in the direction of the
arrows, until it ultimately escapes either into a flue or into the external atmo-
sphere by means of the aperture h. The products of combustion being conducted
along the earthen tube d do not become mixed with the heated air from the
apartment until both are upon the point of escaping into the atmosphere through
the aperture h. In order further to insure against any of the parts becoming
overheated by the heat arising from the flame to the burner, a cold air pipe
i, i, communicating with the external atmosphere, is made to convey a stream
of cold air, and cause it to impinge against the outer surface of the metal
jacket f,f; and this current of cold air, being allowed to play freely all round
the whole extent of the external surface of the metal tube, will carry off the
superabundant heat therefrom, and keep the tube moderately cool. This
current of air eventually escapes through the apertures j, j, in the vicinity of
the before-mentioned aperture h. The cold air tube i, i, may be made either
of earthen or stone ware, or it may be constructed of iron. It is represented in
the Drawing as being suspended by slings s, 8, in the same manner as the
metal tube ff, but it may be applied, affixed, or suspended in any other
convenient manner. The ceiling of the apartment in which the light is
burning is seen at k, k, the flooring of the room above at 1, 1, and the gas
supply pipe at m; and as all the apparatus can be laid between two joists, as
seen in Fig. 3, it may be hidden from sight, and placed out of all danger of
accidental injury, and it can be easily fitted or applied by removing one or two
of the flooring boards above. As the heat given off from a burner of magni-
tude is very considerable, I propose to utilize this heat for the purpose of
warming an adjoining apartment. One plan of effecting this object I have
shewn in Sheet II. of the accompanying Drawings. The upper end of the
uppermost conical glass chimney is seen at b, Fig. 1, which represents a
vertical section of the apparatus. d, d, is the earthen or stoneware tube
which carries off the products of combustion; but instead of carrying off
these products directly, as in the former case, I conduct them upwards
through the flooring 1, 1, of the room above into an earthen or other vessel,
chamber, or stove t, t, where they radiate their heat, and then pass down

page_text: another earthen pipe d* into the horizontal pipe d, and finally escape into
the atmosphere. f, f, is the metal jacket or covering which surrounds
the earthen pipe, as in the other instance, and i, i, is a cold air pipe bringing
air from the external atmosphere, which, by circulating through the bent
pipe p, p, becomes warmed by the products of combustion that issue from the
pipe d, and when thus warmed the air in the bent pipe p is allowed to issue
from the ventilator q into the room above. The bent pipe p, p, is made flat or
ovular, as seen in the Drawing, in order to present a greater extent of surface
to be acted upon by the heated vapours arising from the flame of the burner,
and thereby warm the cold air contained in the pipe p, p, more rapidly. This
bent pipe may be made in the form of the worm of a still, or in any other form
whereby an extended surface can be obtained.
Fig. 2 is a plan view of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a horizontal section taken in the
line A, B, of Fig. 1; and Fig. 4 is also a horizontal section taken in the line
C, D, of the same Figure.
Fig. 5 represents an external elevation of the air chamber or vessel in
which the cold air is warmed.
Having now described my Invention, and the manner of carrying the same
into effect, I would observe that, in order to make the nature and object of
my Invention more evident, I have found it necessary to shew and describe
various parts which have been long known and in use. I therefore wish it to
be understood that I do not claim any of such well-known parts; but that
which I consider as new, and therefore wish to claim as the Invention secured
to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, is,-
First, the general arrangement of the parts of the apparatus, so far as it
may be new, as applied to the purposes herein-before mentioned.
Secondly, the employment of an earthen or stoneware tube for carrying off
the products of combustion in place of a metal one, as has been herein-before
practised; and also the employment of a cold air tube for the purpose of
bringing a current or stream of cold air, and causing it to impinge upon or
play around the external surface of the tubes which convey away the heated
air and gases, and thereby to prevent such tubes from becoming overheated.
In witness whereof, I, the said Donald Grant, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-four.
DONALD (L.s.) GRANT.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Eighteenth day of
October, in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Donald Grant came
before our Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specifi-
cation aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the same Eighteenth day of October, in the year above written.
Inrolled the same Eighteenth day of October, in the year above written.