IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR HEATING AND VENTILATING, AND IN BATHS AND WASHING APPARATUS CON-
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Gowans, of Edinburgh, Scotland, Contractor
and Builder, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR
HEATING AND VENTILATING, AND IN BATHS AND WASHING APPARATUS CON-
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Gowans at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 2nd
January 1854.
I, JAMES GOWANS, of' Edinburgh, Scotland, Contractor & Builder, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPA-
RATUS FOR HEATING AND VENTILATING, AND IN BATHS AND WASHING APPARATUS
CONNECTED THEREWITH, APPLICABLE TO DWELLING HOUSES," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists, in the first place, in adapting and applying to the
back of kitchen grates or ranges a chamber with partitions, or a set of flues
by means of which the external air may be made to pass along behind the
fire, and return before it passes into the apartment required to be heated. The
external air may be admitted in any convenient manner to an inlet flue com-
municating with the chamber or flues on one side of the grate, and the warm
air may be conveyed from an outlet flue on the other side, and supplied to the
apartment or apartments required to be heated by means of hollow bricks or
channels formed in the walls. The supply of warm air to each apartment

page_text: may be regulated by a valve of simple construction fixed on the mouth of
each inlet. The vitiated air or vapour may be allowed to pass out of the
apartment, by means of hollow bricks or channels inserted or formed in the
walls or partitions, and communicating with a main tube or funnel, which is
carried up in immediate connection with the vents to the top of the gable.
And my Invention consists, in the second place, in connecting with such
grate and its ordinary boiler a vessel constructed of stone, iron, slate, or other
suitable material, which may be used as a bath, or by the insertion of a move-
able partition may be made to serve for two washing tubs, or one washing tub
and a sink. There is a cock for the admission of cold water on one side of
the partition, and another for hot water on the other side thereof.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions-of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Gowans in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
1st July 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
GOWANS, of Edinburgh, Scotland, Contractor and Builder, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the 2nd day of January, in the year of our Lord 1854,
in the 17th year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said James Gowans, Her special licence that I,
the said James Gowans, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said James Gowans, 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 "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR HEATING AND VENTILATING, AND IN BATHS AND WASHING
APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH, APPLICABLE TO DWELLING HOUSES," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said James Gowans, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, 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 James Gowans, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,

page_text: to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following state-
ment, 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 Apparatus for Heating and Ventilating,
and in Baths and Washing Apparatus connected therewith, applicable to
Dwelling Houses," is intended to supply to dwelling houses a means of trans-
mitting heat, and producing ventilation in different parts thereof from the
kitchen range as a central generator of heat; also to combine therewith an
apparatus which may be used either as a bath, or for the purpose of washing
articles of household use.
And this object is accomplished, in the first place, by adapting and applying
to the back of kitchen grates or ranges a chamber with partitions, or a set of
flues, by. means of which the external air may be made to pass along behind
the fire, and return before it passes into the apartment required to be heated.
The external air may be admitted in any convenient manner to an inlet flue
communicating with the chamber or flues on one side of the grate, and the
warm air may be conveyed from an outlet flue on the other side, and supplied
to the appartment or appartments required to be heated by means of hollow
bricks or channels formed in the walls. The supply of warm air to each
appartment may be regulated by a valve of simple construction fixed on the
mouth of each inlet. The vitiated air or vapour may be allowed to pass out
of the apartment by means of hollow bricks or channels inserted or formed in
the walls or partitions, and communicating with the main tube or funnel
which is carried up in immediate connection with the vents at the top of the
gable.
And my Invention consists, in the second place, in connecting with such
grate and its ordinary boiler a vessel constructed of stone, iron, slate, or other
suitable material which may be used as a bath, or by the insertion of a moveable
partition may be made to serve for two washing tubs, or one washing tub and
a sink. There is a cock for the admission of cold water on one side of the
partition, and another for hot water on the other side thereof.
In order, however, that my Invention may be fully understood and readily
carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the accompanying Drawings,
which represent a convenient form of the apparatus, and mode of its com-
bination with a kitchen range.
Figure 1 is a front elevation of a kitchen range and boiler; Figure 2 is a plan
oi horizontal view of the same, shewing also the cold air inlet flue, and the
warm air outlet flue on either side thereof; Figure 3 is a vertical section in the
line A, B, of Figure 2, shewing the construction of the heat chamber behind

page_text: the grate, together with the inlet and outlet flues; Figure 4 is a transverse
vertical section in the line C, D, of Figure 2, shewing the relative situations of
the grate and heat chamber; Figure 5 is a plan or horizontal view of the
vessel, which may be used either as a bath or washing apparatus. In all these
several Figures the same letters of reference indicate corresponding parts.
a is the grate of the range; b, the heat chamber fitted at the back of the
same; c, the inlet or flue for admitting cold air at the lower part of the
chamber; d, the outlet or flue for discharging heated air at the upper part of
the chamber. This heat chamber is constructed with a number of partitions a*,
so arranged that the cold air on entering by the inlet or flue c, at the lower
part of the chamber, is made to pass backwards and forwards several times
along the chamber within the heating influence of the fire in the grate before
it is discharged by the outlet or flue d, at the upper part of the chamber, the
course of the air in its passage being indicated by the arrows in Figure 3.
The air when heated by its having to pass in this manner through the
chamber b, may be transmitted and distributed by any convenient means
to different appartments. And the means of such transmission and distri-
bution would be varied according to the size and arrangement of the
house.
Ate is shewn a boiler connected in the usual manner with the grate a, from
which boiler hot water is intended to be supplied to the vessel represented at f
in Fig. 5, through the cock g; cold water may be supplied to the same vessel
through the cock h. There is a moveable partition i in this vessel, which when
inserted as shewn divides the vessel into two parts, but when withdrawn leaves
the internal space open throughout. By this means the vessel may be used
either as a bath without the partition i, or as a washing apparatus with it.
The form and size of this vessel may be varied, and the mode of its connexion
with the boiler e, which would depend upon the kind of house to which it was
applied.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, I would have it understood that I do not mean
or intend to confine myself to the precise forms of the parts shewn and
described, as the same may be varied without departing from the essential
character of my Invention; neither do I claim as of my Invention any
particular form of kitchen grate and boiler, or flues for the admission of cold
air into the heat chamber, and its discharge therefrom; nor any particular
mode of transmitting or distributing the heated air as it passes out of the
heat chamber; but what I do claim as of my Invention is,―
First, the adaptation and application to the back of kitchen grates or ranges

page_text: of a heat chamber, into which the cold air may be admitted by an inlet or flue,
and after being made to pass through the same in the course described, may
be discharged at an outlet or flue, and suitably conveyed to any required part
of the building.
And, secondly, the combination of a vessel or apparatus, such as that repre-
sented at Figure 5, with the boiler of a kitchen range, as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Gowans, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of June, in the year of our
Lord 1854.
WALTER GOWANS,
Witness.
JAMES GOWANS. (L.S.)