A FURNACE, OF A NEW CONSTRUCTION, WHICH MAY BE EITHER ROUND, SQUARE, OR OF ANY OTHER SHAPE ON THE INSIDE, FOR THE SMELTING AND REFINING OF TIN FROM THE ORE
Year: 1782

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by
His Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing
date at Westminster, the Fourth day of March, in the twenty second year
of His Majesty's reign, did give and grant unto me, JOHN PARTRIDGE the
younger, of Monmouth, in the County of Monmouth, Ironmaster, His especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said John Par-
tridge, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and every of us, by myself
and themselves, or by my and their deputy and deputies, servants or agents, or
such others as I, the said John Partridge the younger, my executors, admors,
or assigns, should at any time agree with (not exceeding the number of five in
the whole), and no others, from time to time, and at all times thereafter during
the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within that part of His said Majesty's Kingdom of Great
Britain called England, His Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A FURNACE, OF A NEW CONSTRUCTION, WHICH
MAY BE EITHER ROUND, SQUARE, OR OF ANY OTHER SHAPE ON THE INSIDE,
FOR THE SMELTING AND REFINING OF TIN FROM THE ORE," in such manner as t
me, the said John Partridge the younger, my executors, administrators, or

page_text: assigns, or any of them, should in their discretions seem meet, and that I,
the said John Partridge the younger, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, should and lawfully might have and enjoy the whole profit, benefit,
commodity, and advantage from time to time coming, growing, and arising
by reason of the said Invention, to have, hold, exercise, and enjoy the said
license, powers, priviledges, and advantages therein-before granted or men-
tioned to be granted unto me, the said John Partridge the younger, my execu-
tors, administrators, and assigns, for and during and unto the full end and term
of fourteen years from the date of the said Letters Patent next and imme-
diately ensuing, and fully to be compleat and ended, according to the Statute in
such case made and provided; in which said recited Letters Patent there is
contained a provisoe that if I, the said John Partridge the younger, should
not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under
my hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High
Court of Chancery, within four calendar months next and immediately after
the date of the said recited Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent,
and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, should utterly
cease, determine, and become void, as by the same, relation being thereunto
had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in pursuance of the said proviso or condition,
and in full performance of the same, I, the said John Partridge the younger,
do by these Presents declare and make known that the full dimensions, pro-
perties, materials, utensils, and several parts of my said Invention of a Furnace
of a New Construction, which may be either Round, Square, or of any other
Shape on the Inside, for the Smelting and Refining of Tin from the Ore, and
how the same is to be composed, made, and performed, is set forth and described
in manner and form following, that is to say:-
Firstly. A stack to be eight fect square in the clear, and nineteen feet high;
the walls about two feet thick, with good building stone or brick, crampt
with iron squares to prevent its spreading by forse of the heat.
2d.-Openings to be left in Building the Front and Bellows Side.--In build-
ing the stack an opening must be left in the side intended to work the fur-
nace and let out the metal, about four feet wide and six feet high, arched
over at top, to bring the materials when the inside work is built or repaired.
The side intended to insert the blast may in like manner be left open as the
front.
3d. Inside Walls. When the stack is so far built, the inside walls may
be set about.. In the bottom must be laid one or two large firestones, a foot

page_text: thick, that will nearly cover the bottom (if more than one stone they must be
joined very true, to prevent the metal penetrating through these stones (or
good firebrick will answer the same purpose), must be laid level or rather
declining to the place intended to let out the metal; at and upon this bottom
the inside work is built and the furnace formed. The facing next the fire must
be of firestone or firebrick. The part called the hearth must be of same
substance of firestone or bricks, to bear the force of the heat; behind this
may be done with common bricks or stone, but the whole of the inside work
should be laid in loam esteemed of a good quality to bear the fire, and air
pipes in the several sides should be left to pass of the damp of the building.
4th. Formation & Dimensions of the Furnace.-At the distance of eight
inches from the center of the furnace the hearth is begun to be formed, vide-
licet, first, a square or nearly so, being fifteen inches wide on the inside to six-
teen inches wide in the front, contracted gradually in two feet high to a
circle.
5th. The Hearth. From the bottom of the hearth to four feet high,
bevelled one inch and quarter in a foot, so far is called the hearth.
i
6th. The Boshes. From four feet high to seven feet high, bevelled five or
six inches in a foot. This is to bear the materials up till the blast works them
down into the hearth; this part is called the boshes. From seven feet high
to fifteen feet high it is contracted regularly to fifteen inches, which is called
the charging place or funnel head, where the materials are put in (videlicet)
a quantity of fuel, and a proportion of ore, till the furnace is filled up.
7th. Filling up the Openings next the Blast.-When the stack and inner
5 walls are so far compleated, fill up the side next the bellows, from the bottom
of the hearth to about ten inches high; build a piece of wall two feet thick,
to put a plate on to rest the bellows' pipes upon. At this place a hole of three
-inches square must be left against the center of the hearth for the suyere.
From this hole must play the two sides, and over the suyere hole must splay
as much as prudent or the strength of the work will bear, to give room to the
workmen to make and repair the blast hole, which is formed with good tem-
pered clay upon the plate. The pipes rest upon a semicircular form, about
one and thee quarters of an inch wide, and one and a quarter of an inch high.
8th. Filling up the Opening in the Front. The opening in the front may
now be filled up; about a foot or fourteen inches each side may be built plim
or flush with the stack; the other sixteen inches must be splayed something
like that part over the blast hole, leaving an opening from the bottom of the
hearth fourteen or fifteen inches high, and sixteen inches broad.
9th. Dame Stone.-Before the furnace is sett to work a firestone, about a

page_text: foot thick, is hewn of a triangular form, about fourteen inches long or two
inches shorter than the breadth of the hole, the broad part to be set on
the bottom stone nearly paralel with the pillars of the opening. This is
called a dame stone, and must be about two inches under the level of the
blast hole, over which the scoria or slaggreens which rises on the face of
the metal.
10. Dame Plate.-To keep the dame stone in its place a cast iron plate,
called a dame plate, is put against it, but this must not be higher than the
stone. This plate must be sixteen inches long, and in that case a nitch must
be in it to insert barrs to let out the metal. The plate and dame stone are
stopped up by a body of sand or clay at the tapping place, to hinder the metal
from running till the hearth is full. Towards the other end of the plate may
be placed a piece of pig or sow iron a few feet long, which keeps that end to
its place, and is a guide for the scoria or slagg that runs over the dame plate.
11th. Overshot Wheel.-The wheel necessary to work this furnace should be
twelve or fourteen feet high, twenty inches to two feet wide, in ladle or bucket,
and the water overshot.
12th. Bellows. -The bellows about four feet broad behind or breech, and
six feet long.
The form of the furnace may be square, or any other shape the proprietors
may think proper, and the dimensions may be enlarged or lessened, and the
stack or furnace may be raised or lowered several feet, according to the power
of water and supply of materials that may obtained to encourage such an
undertaking, but then the power of the blast and side of the bellows must be
increased or lessened in proportion. And for the further illustration of the
said furnace of a new construction for the smelting and refining tin from the ore,
and to the end the same may be the better known and understood, I, the said
John Partridge the younger, do hereby further declare, that the Drawing here-
unto annext are true plans, sections, and elevations of the said furnace, with
all the constituent parts, and herein-before described and set forth.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this
Twenty-second day of June, One thousand seven hundred and eighty-
two.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBRED, that on the same Twenty-second day of June,
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid John Partridge came before our
said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt according to
the tenor of the Statute made in the sixth year of the reign of Their late
Majestys King William and Queen Mary of England, and so forth.
Inrolled the Twenty-eighth day of June, in the year above mentioned.