IMPROVEMENTS IN LEARS OR ANNEALING CHAMBERS AND APPARATUS USED IN ANNEALING GLASS." PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said.
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Easton, of Oakwellgate, Gateshead-on-Tyne,
and George Donkin, of Bill Quay, Gateshead-on-Tyne, in the County of
Durham, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN LEARS OR ANNEALING
CHAMBERS AND APPARATUS USED IN ANNEALING GLASS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said. William Easton and
George Donkin at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 30th June 1862.
We, WILLIAM EASTON, of Oakwellgate, Gateshead-on-Tyne,; and GEORGE
DONKIN, of Bill Quay, Gateshead-on-Tyne, in the County of Durham, do
hereby declare the nature of. the Invention for.." IMPROVEMENTS IN LEARS OR
ANNEALING CHAMBERS, AND APPARATUS USED IN ANNEALING GLASS," to be as
follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in lears or annealing cham-
bers and apparatus used in annealing glass. Heretofore lears or annealing
chambers have, in some cases, been madetin such manner that the apparatus
or beds on which the glass: is piled or placed have been moved, horizontally

page_text: through a considerable length of a chamber or lear wherein the heat has
progressively decreased. Now, according to this Invention, a lear or annealing
chamber is constructed having an ascending and a descending limb which are
connected at their upper ends. The succeeding beds or surfaces on which the
glass is placed or piled are raised in the ascending limb, and having arrived
at the upper part of the ascending limb, they pass to and then down the
descending limb of the lear or annealing chamber. The ascending limb of
the lear or annealing chamber is heated, and the requisite heating of the glass
takes place therein and in the top part of the chamber. The temperature of
the descending limb decreases from the upper part downwards. It is preferred
that the series of beds or surfaces on which the glass is placed or piled should
be connected together in order that those in the ascending limb may be
counterbalanced by those in the descending limb of the lear or annealing
chamber. The two limbs are connected also at their lower ends, and pro-
vision is there made for the surfaces or beds, as they are unloaded, to pass
readily from the descending limb into the lower part of the ascending limb of
the lear or annealing chamber in order to their being again loaded before they
again ascend in the ascending limb. It is not, however, essential that the
several beds or surfaces on which the glass is placed or piled should be con-
nected together, as provision may be otherwise made for raising and lowering
them in the ascending and descending limbs of the lear or annealing chamber
respectively.
-SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Easton and George Donkin in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 30th December 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
EASTON, of Oakwellgate, Gateshead-on-Tyne, and GEORGE DONKIN, of Bill
Quay, Gateshead-on-Tyne, in the County of Durham, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirtieth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-sixth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said William Easton and George Donkin, Her special licence that we, the
said William Easton and George Donkin, our executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as we, the said William Easton and George Donkin, our

page_text: 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 LEARS OR ANNEALING CHAMBERS
AND APPARATUS USED IN ANNEALING GLASS," upon the condition (amongst
others), that we, the said William Easton and George Donkin, our executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our or their hands and
seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us or them, should particularly
describe 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 George Donkin, on behalf of myself
and the said William Easton, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion, 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:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in lears or annealing cham-
bers and apparatus used in annealing glass. Heretofore lears or annealing
chambers have, in some cases, been made in such manner that the apparatus
or beds on which the glass is piled. or placed have been moved horizontally
through a considerable length of a chamber or lear wherein the heat has
progressively decreased. Now, according to this Invention, a lear or annealing
chamber is constructed having an ascending and a descending limb which are
connected at their upper ends. The succeeding beds or surfaces on which the
glass is placed or piled are raised in the ascending limb, and having arrived
at the upper part of the ascending limb they pass to and then down the
descending limb of the lear or annealing chamber. The ascending limb of
the lear or annealing chamber is heated; and the requisite heating of the glass
takes place therein and in the top part of the chamber. The temperature of
the descending limb decreases from the upper part downwards. It is preferred
that the series of beds or surfaces on which the glass is placed or piled should
be connected together in order that those in the ascending limb may be
counterbalanced by those in the descending limb of the lear or annealing
chamber. The two limbs are connected also at their lower ends, and provision
is there made for the surfaces or beds, as they are unloaded, to pass readily
from the descending limb into the lower part of the ascending limb of the lear
or annealing chamber, in order to their being again loaded before they again

page_text: ascend in the ascending limb. It is not, however, essential that the several
beds or surfaces on which the glass is placed or piled should be connected
together, as provision may be otherwise made for raising and lowering them
in the ascending and descending limbs of the lear or annealing chamber
respectively.
The accompanying Drawings illustrate the method we prefer to employ in
carrying our Invention into operation.
Figure 1 shows a sectional elevation of the lear and apparatus, a side wall
being removed for that purpose; Figure 2 is a transverse sectional elevation
of the same. The end and side walls of the lear are lined with fire-bricks,
and the lear is closed in at top by an arched roof.
: a, a, shows the ascending heating limb of the lear; b, b, is the descending or
cooling limb of the lear; c, c, are a series of sets of annealing beds or surfaces
connected together at the required distances from each other. Each set is
attached by iron straps, d, d, to a transverse bar and to endless. chains. The
several sets of beds or surfaces are suspended so that they will hang vertically
while traversing the lear and in passing from one limb to the other, as is shown
in the Drawings. A is an opening in the end wall for loading the annealing
beds c, c, with goods to be annealed; B, B, B, are flue openings for diminishing
the heat in the cooling limb, and which may be regulated by dampers, according
to the temperature required; C is a furnace, running the entire width of the
lear, for heating the ascending limb of the lear; and heat may also be admitted
at A from a suitable furnace arranged in such manner as to admit of the
opening A being readily got at through such furnace to admit of the workman
piling or placing the goods on the annealing beds; D, D, represent a pair
of flanged metal wheels over which the endless chains, to which the sets of
annealing beds are connected, pass in such manner as to allow the sets
of annealing beds or surfaces in passing from the heating to the cooling limb of
the lear, and so as to clear the shaft on which such wheels D, D, are keyed;
E, E, E, E, are two pairs of smaller flanged guide wheels for guiding the
endless chains; F is an opening where the annealed goods may be taken off
from the annealing beds; G, G, represent the ground; H is a wheel, fixed on
one end of the shaft, by which motion is given to the pair of wheels D. The
scale to which the Drawings are made is half an inch to a foot. Provision
is to be made for preventing cold air from passing into the lear at the lower
ends of the limbs whenever it is necessary to do so, and for ascertaining and
regulating the heat at the top of the limbs of the lear.
We do not limit our Invention to the precise arrangement shown, as varia-
tions may be made therein without departing from the peculiar character of

page_text: our Invention, nor do we claim any of the mechanical parts separately; but
what we claim is the combined construction and arrangement of annealing
chamber and apparatus herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Donkin, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
GEORGE DONKIN. (L.S.)