A NEW METHOD OF CONVEYING AND DISTRIBUTING HEAT IN OVENS USED BY MANUFACTURERS OF CHINA AND EARTHENWARE, BRICK, TILE, AND QUARRY MAKERS
Year: 1842

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
RIDGWAY, of Northwood, in the County of Stafford, Earthenware Manufac-
turer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Eighteenth day of August, in the sixth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
William Ridgway, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and autho-
rity, that I, the said William Ridgway, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, or
such others as J, the said William Ridgway, my exors, admors, 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, and in all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations
abroad, my Invention of "A NEW METHOD OF CONVEYING AND DISTRIBUTING
HEAT IN OVENS USED BY MANUFACTURERS OF CHINA AND EARTHENWARE, BRICK,
TILE, AND QUARRY MAKERS;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a
proviso that I, the said William Ridgway, shall cause a particular description
of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within
six calendar months next and immediately 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Ridgway, do hereby declare that my said Invention is described
and ascertained in manner following, and by the aid of a Sheet of Drawings
hereunto annexed (that is to say) :-
Whereas the mode hitherto used in the baking or burning of china and
earthenware in potters' ovens is to place the furnaces or mouths around a
circular oven, and to convey a portion of the flames from the burning fuel by
vertical flues to the inner surface of the oven, and to convey the other portion
of the flames by horizontal converging flues into a pit in the centre of the
floor of the oven, from which they ascend to the aperture in the middle of
the top or dome of the oven. My oven, on the contrary, is so constructed as
to convey. the flames from the furnaces by parallel flues, both horizontal and
vertical, and to reverberate the whole of the flame and heat upon the goods
to be burned after its ascension from the flues. To effect this, I build my
oven of a square form instead of round, and construct a fireproof partition
wall across the middle of it, thus dividing it into two chambers, which are
covered in by two parallel arches. The furnaces are placed in the two sides
of the oven opposite to the partition wall. From these furnaces narrow flues
ascend the inner face of the wall, which distribute the flame in a sheet
equally over the whole of its surface. The other portion of the heat I convey
by many parallel or diverging horizontal flues under and across the floor or
hearth of the oven to the middle or partition wall, over the surface of which I
distribute equally the flame and heat which ascends from the numerous flues
in immediate contact with the wall. This sheet of flame ascending strikes the
spring or shoulder of the arch, and is reverberated upon the saggers beneath,
until it meets the reverberated flame from the opposite of the arch, and
both escape by the vents of the summit of the oven. The same construction
I apply to the opposite chamber. But for some purposes I use but one
chamber, and vary the number of my furnaces as the magnitude of my oven
may require. In some cases I burn the fuel upon an iron grate or bars in
the furnaces, and in some of my ovens the fuel is laid upon the ground
without any ash pit. The whole method of constructing my ovens, with all
the peculiarities of their flues, I have exhibited in the Sheet of Drawings
hereunto annexed, in which a represents the square walls or body of the oven;
6, the partition wall; c, the furnaces with their iron bars; d, the mouths of
the furnaces, by which the fuel is supplied; f, the ashpits; g, the horizontal
flues under the hearth of the oven; h, the vertical flues; i, the vents in the
summit of the arches; k, the entrances to the chambers of the oven.

page_text: And having now fully described my invented improvements, and the
manner in which the same are effected, I declare that what I claim to be my
Invention is,
Firstly, the conveying the heat by horizontal or diverging flues, and the
distributing it equally over the inside of the chambers of potters' ovens, by the
means before described.
And secondly, the reverberating of the heat after it has crossed the floor of
the oven and ascended the opposite wall, by means of the arch, before it escapes
by the central vent.
I also declare that I claim the exclusive right of applying the same mode
of construction for the conveying and distributing of heat in single ovens,
that is to say, ovens with one chamber only, without any partition wall.
And such my said Invention being, to the best of my knowledge and belief,
entirely new and never before used in any of the Potteries, or in any part of
Her Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England,
Her Dominion of Wales, the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, or any of Her
said Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, I do hereby declare this to be
my Specification of the same, and that I do verily believe this, my said
Specification, doth comply in all respects, fully and without reserve or disguise,
with the proviso in the said herein-before in part recited Letters Patent;
wherefore I hereby claim to maintain exclusive right and privilege to my said
Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Ridgway, have hereunto set my
band and seal, this Eighth day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-three.
(L.S.) K GWAY.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Eighth day of February, in
the year of our Lord 1843, the aforesaid William Ridgway came before our
said Lady the Queen in Her 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 stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Eighteenth day of February, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-three.