Apparatus and Arrangements for Conducting, Collect- ing, and Purifying the Smoke arising from Public and Private Buildings.
Year: 1850

page_text: Apparatus and Arrangements for Conducting, Collect-
ing, and Purifying the Smoke arising from Public
and Private Buildings.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PIERRE
ARMAND Le Comte DE FONTAINE MOREAU, of 4, South Street, Finsbury,
London, English and Foreign Office for Patents of Inventions, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-third day of
April (One thousand eight hundred and fifty), in the thirteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Pierre Armand Lecomte de Fontaine Moreau, my exors, adññors, and
assigns, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege, and authority, that I,
the said Pierre Armand Lecomte de Fontaine Moreau, my exors, admors, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Pierre Armand Lecomte de Fontaine
Moreau, 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 the Islands of
Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and also in all Her said Majesty's
Colonies and Plantations abroad, the Invention of "A NEW AND IMPROVED
MODE OF CONDUCTING, CONSUMING, AND DISENGAGING SMOKE FROM ITS DELETERIOUS
COMPONENTS," communicated to me from abroad; in which said Letters Patent
is contained a proviso, that I, the said Pierre Armand Lecomte de Fontaine
Moreau, should cause a particular description of the nature of the said Inven-

page_text: tion, and in what the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Pierre Armand Lecomte de Fontaine Moreau, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention communicated to me, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawing here-
unto annexed, and to the figures and letters therein contained (that is to
say):
The Invention communicated to me consists in gathering and extracting
from all private, public, and other buildings the smoke of fires, and in con-
ducting it, by means of underground pipes, to general reservoirs, where it is
consumed and disengaged from ammoniacal compounds and deleterious gases,
whence it is sent out into the air inodorous and colourless.
The evils arising from the aggregation of vast and dense clouds of smoke
over large towns and cities has for a long while demanded that some efficient
means should be employed to obtain their complete dispersion. It will be
useless to dwell on that imperious necessity, though it will not be too
much to say that London would be considered the finest city in the world
if its atmosphere were not ever loaded with a thick, heavy, and yellow
canopy, arising from the immense quantity of smoke too dense to be scattered
even by the winds. By the new and improved mode herein-after described, of
conducting, consuming, disinfecting, and dispelling the smoke and ammoniacal
products and deleterious gases arising from the burning of coals, the laws of
natural philosophy, conjointly with some of the means already put in practice,
on account of their simplicity and efficiency, and which have supported the test
of long experience, have been taken as bases; it is therefore by means of the
three herein-after described improvements that the important results already
pointed out are obtained. Firstly, to determine the draught of each separate
fire, in order to carry away the smoke; secondly, to gather the smoke in a
general reservoir; thirdly, to consume the smoke when accumulated, and to
separate it from its deleterious components.
To determine the draught of each separate fire, in order to carry away the
smoke. The first improvement comports in itself many others, which, although

page_text: they may be considered of a secondary order, are nevertheless of the utmost
importance; because their operation require that a chimney should never
smoke, that the sweeping be very easily effected, that the conduct pipes be
used as heat conductors,-that the first outlay be small, and be largely repaid by
the economy in heating the dwellings already constructed,—that the outlay for a
new construction be far less than the masonry works necessary for the conduct
of smoke until now employed. It is also necessary to regulate the draught of
each chimney, as well as that of the principal conduct pipes of the buildings, to
clear out the soot coming from each dwelling, and to produce a good heat
conductor at a very small cost. These results are obtained in houses already
constructed, and also in those to be erected, by the application of pipes
receiving the smoke as it egresses from each fire, and conducting it into a pipe
which descends into the subterranean parts of the dwellings, where an apparatus
for separating the soot is purposely set. Figure 1 in Drawing I. represents a
section and plan of an old and also of a new house without chimney. They
are provided with iron pipes, having the registers a, a, acted upon by the hand
c, to receive the smoke egressing from each hearth to conduct it to a receiving
tube with a register b, set in the lower part of the building, where the apparatus
for separating the soot is placed. A register callows the smoke to be received
in the main pipe set in the street. Figure 1 is two sectional elevations of c, c',
and a, b, of Figure 1, and represents the pipes of the main street tube.
Figure 2 represents a plan of the external place where the smoke gathered
from the severel buildings is accumulated; the dotted lines represent the
main conduct pipes passing through the streets of a town cr part of a town up
to the main apparatus set in the suburb. A, Figure 3, is a horizontal section
or plan, which is level with the ground, and represents the complete main
working apparatus for consuming the smoke; in that Figure a, a, shew the
draught register in connection with the main street pipes. A are accessory
buildings, which can serve as baracks or other public buildings; B is the
reservoir for condensing C, the large draught chimney; D, D, the rooms
where the working machinery is set; E, the room for the ventilators.
Figure IV. is a sectional elevation of the plan, Figure 3. Figure 5 is the
canals of condensation, according to the line of Figure 3. Figure 6 represents
a section of the canals connected with the ventilation and draught chimney,
according to the line A, B, of Figure S.
Drawing II. represents in detail the several apparatus for conducting the
smoke and gases from buildings and houses into the main street pipes. In that
Drawing. Figure 1 is à longitudinal section, according to c, d, of Figure 1,
Drawing I., of an old dwelling-house. Figure 2 is a sectional elevation according

page_text: to a, b, of Figure 1, Drawing I.; that Figure represents the chimnies of the apart-
ments. The old flues for the smoke and the opening for the egress of heat are
represented by dotted lines. Figure 3 is a section, according to a, b, of Figure 1,
Drawing I., and represents two chimneys, set one against the other.. In that
Figure the tubes of each chimney are represented branching into the main
conduct pipe, which descends through the old flue of the lower chimney of the
dwelling, and reaches the apparatus for separating the smoke, placed in the
underground part of the house where the soot is deposited, and from which the
smoke egresses into the main street pipes. In these three Figures the same
letters of reference represent parts which are similar. a, b, c, d, are the plates
by which the old flues of chimneys are shut, and through which, however,
the external air penetrates to be heated, and enters the apartments. e is the
register of the apparatus for the separation of the soot and for regulating the
draught. ff, g, g, h, h¹, registers, serving to modify or suppress the draught
in each room; jjjj, openings for the egress of the external air into the
appartments when heated by its contact with the pipes. In the herein-before
described arrangements, represented by Figures 1, 2, and 3, of Drawing II., to
apply the new system to old houses, the chimneys are employed to conduct the
smoke pipes, by which means these said pipes are rendered heating chambers
or calorifers; but in the houses to be constructed purposely for the applica-
tion of this Invention, and represented by Figures 4, 5, and 6 of the same
Drawing H, the main smoke conduct pipe is made to pass through the
dining-room or parlour where stoves may be erected, the construction of which
serves for the application of this improved system. In the above three last
Figures the same letters of reference represent parts which are similar;"
a, b, c, d, e, f, represent the valves serving to modify or to suppress the draught
of the apartments, and g is the valve of the apparatus for separating the soot,
and serves to regulate the draught. The Figures 4, 5, and 6 are sections
through c, d, a, b, and e, f, of the Figure 1, Drawing I.; each room where there
is a chimney communicates with the next apartment, by means of an opening
through which the heat is made to egress. By that new mode of setting the
draught, the chimney of the upper story can be employed to heat a whole house
by regulating the valves set in each room, and that of the apparatus of separa-
tion; in that case, however, it is merely necessary to shut the hearths of the
other rooms by means of the registers, with which the pipes, as herein-before
described, are provided.
The apparatus for separating the soot, and which is represented in Figures
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, Drawing II., several times in section and elevation, is
composed, firstly, of a cylindrical box, ending like a truncated cone, the

page_text: smallest basis of which receives the pipe conducting the smoke; secondly, of
a cone, having its upper extremity bent towards the ingress of the smoke, and
having the axis in the same direction as those of the pipes conducting the
smoke from the chimney, and those of the pipes by which it egresses into the
main street pipes this cone forces the soot to fall round these last pipes ;
thirdly, of an egress pipe, having the shape of an inverted 1, to facilitate the
sweeping of a pipe when it is foul; fourthly, of a door, to allow the sweeping
of the apparatus. From what has been herein described, it will be seen that
the construction of houses already built is but very slightly modified; and
besides, that the whole of the heat which is lost in common chimneys is sent
back into the interior of the apartment by means of branch caloric pipes; it is
therefore competent to say that they serve as calorifers. It is a known fact
that the ordinary fire-places utilise only one-fifth of the heat developed by the
combustion of a body, whilst, by the application of the present system, the use
of the calorifer herein-before described would utilise four-fifths of the caloric
developed by the combustion of every kind of fuel, which thus alone effects a
saving or rather a gain of three-fifths of the heat in favor of the present mode.
New buildings will be more elegantly built, the roof better and more closely
constructed, and more easily kept in repair, and the whole architectural
appearance will be preserved without being spoiled by the ugly sight of
chimney tops.
The speed of the draught for the smoke in the fire-places has been calcu-
lated at nearly twenty-six feet per second, which corresponds to the maximum
draught which takes place when the temperature of the gases in the chimneys
has reached six hundred and thirty-six degrees Fahrenheit, according to well
known experiments.
To determine the general draught of the smoke. For this part of the
Invention, it is necessary, after having found the velocity required by experi-
ment for burning the fuel in such a manner so as to determine a good draught,
to obtain thus that velocity, which velocity, as stated before, has been laid down
at twenty-six feet per second; that improvement is obtained by the following
rules-Firstly, that for ventilating coal mines in which the air circulates
through numerous galleries, the length of which extends sometimes to thirty
thousand feet, the same air is forced in by means of a fire placed at one hun-
dred and sixty to two hundred, or even three hundred and thirty feet, from the
mouth of the mine, and from the open atmosphere, or by means of ventilators

page_text: placed outside of the mine; secondly, on the great velocity given to the air by
means of bellows in high furnaces, and which is determined by a very small
difference of pressure; thirdly, on the escape of gases; and, finally, by means
of the laws of natural philosophy in their several applications; and by applying
the above results, which experience has consecrated, there will be no diffi-
culty in the construction of general draught chimneys, and in their elevation
from three hundred to three hundred and twenty feet, as represented in
Drawings I., III., IV., and V. The smoke reaching (by means of canals or
conducts herein-after described) at the base of these main chimneys will be at
first subjected to the powerful action of ventilators, and afterwards to that of
a fire, where the carbonic gases produced by the distillation of the coals in
each separate fire of the several dwellings will be removed (the gases pro-
duced by these separate fires not having suffered complete combustion);
after that operation they will be ejected into the air through the main
chimneys three hundred feet high. If London be taken for the application
of the present system, the following calculations will serve as a basis for every
other city.
The population of London alone is calculated at one million five hundred
thousand persons, or about five inhabitants per fire, that is to say, three hun-
dred thousand fires, for the service of which five main chimneys will be
constructed, therefore each of them would receive the smoke of sixty thousand
chimneys of dwelling-houses; but as generally only two-thirds of that number
have fires at the same time, the smoke of forty thousand chimneys only will
consequently reach a main chimney. Each private stove consumes commonly
about one pound of coal per hour, and admitting according to well known
experiments, that about fifty-nine cubic feet (1 × x) of gas is developed at the
egress from the stove per two pounds of burnt coal, it follows that per each
pound of about twenty-nine and a half cubic feet of gas or smoke, or one
thousand nine hundred and eighty-one gallons of smoke per hour, passes
through a flue, which per second is pints, or four and a half pints.
Let us admit five pints of gas or smoke per, fire and per second.
It is well to observe that the temperature of the smoke in the flues is at
thirty-one degrees Fahrenheit; the calculation would give nearly thirty-one
feet per pound of burnt coal. Those calculations are sufficiently approximate
to permit to fix at twenty-nine feet per pound and per second as the velocity
of the smoke. The velocity of egress for the smoke being twenty-six feet per
second, as herein-before stated, this formula will be quite sufficient for the
calculations relating to the conduct pipes.

page_text: in great part from the soot, as it can be seen in Figure 2, Drawing II. The
diameter of the main chimney, see Drawings I., III., IV., and VI., must be
calculated according to the known formula for fixing the diameter of the
chimnies;, that formula may be given as follows:-Log: D=1, (2 Log A +
log Klog L-log H x axt) in which,
D represents the required diameter.
A, the volume of gas which the chimney receives per second, videlicet,
three hundred and ninety-three cubic feet.
K, the coefficient of the friction of the sides in bricks, videlicet, 0.042 feet.
L, the development of the pipes leading to the chimney, videlicet, seventy-
seven pounds.
.
H, the height of the main chimney, viz, three hundred and twenty-eight
feet.
a, the coefficient of dilatution of the gases, viz, 0.0123 feet.
t, the temperature, which is at six hundred and thirty-six degrees Fahren-
heit, in the conditions of the best draught, and which is restored to the cold
gases when they reach the main chimney, by the action of the fire placed at
about ninety-eight feet from the ground.
By the calculation, the formula of the main chimnies would be twenty-nine
feet for the diameter, that for the running of the gases fourteen feet, the mean
proportion of which
= 21 50. The mean of the surfaces would be for the
surface or circle D 200-8 square feet, and for the running surface 14 feet equals
forty-nine feet, which will give for mean 20 124 54 feet, which surface of
124.54 feet has for diameter 23 feet, and for the side of the square 20.2 feet.
Experience has proved that it is always advantageous to increase (in small

page_text: proportions however) the quantities obtained by calculation relating to the
chimnies; it is therefore more certain to take twenty-three feet as the side of
the square, see Drawing V. In case of a main draught chimney being inter-
nally circular, two dimensions are necessary, see Drawings I. and III.; one of
twenty-three feet at its basis, and the other of 19.2 feet in diameter at the
basis; those calculations, however, cannot be rigorously exact, and they give
only approximate numbers; besides, those dimensions must be modified,
when applied according to the the necessities, and the extension of the streets
worked by a main chimney.
The number of inhabitants of the city of London exceed one million five
hundred thousand; moreover, the cellars existing under a part of the streets,
the gas and water conducts, and the drains, would render, perhaps, the
canalisation difficult for the present system, if the smoke of sixty thousand
chimneys of private dwellings were to be directed to a single main chimney.
In that case the following basis could be adopted, namely, two millions the
number of inhabitants; four hundred thousand the number of fires, at the rate
of five inhabitants per fire, ten main chimnies would be constructed to serve
each of the forty thousand fires, (one third part of the houses having no fires,)
which would reduce the number of private stoves served by a main chimney
to twenty-seven thousand; that new division would very much simplify the
system of laying the street pipes. It will be easy also to vary the dimensions
of the main draught chimnies, according to the disposition of the districts, and
the number of fires which are to send their smoke to them. All those ques-
tions will be easily answered in case of application; but it was necessary to lay
down calculations, and to facilitate the developement of the system.
It has been herein-before stated, when speaking of the dimensions of the
sheet conduct pipes, that the highest temperature of the gases of the chimnies
was six hundred and thirty-six degrees of Fahrenheit, and that the corre-
sponding velocity to that temperature was about twenty-six feet; it now
remains to ascertain the velocity which the main chimney would give to the
gas. The formula given by several experiments upon the velocity of the
egress of burnt air into the chimnies is v² H, a, t, D in which V is the
D+ 29 K, L
velocity of egress per second, produced by the main chimney, and the fire;
g is the weight =218; H, the height of the chimney = three hundred
and twenty-eight feet; a, the coefficient of dilation of the gases = 0.0123
feet; t, the temperature of the burnt air in the chimney
and thirty-six degrees Fahrenheit; D, calculated diameter or side twenty-
three feet; K, the coefficient of friction of the brick sides 0414; L, the
= six hundred

page_text: That velocity is insufficient; the velocity as before stated, viz,
fect
26
-
feet
4.16 21-74 feet,
expresses the velocity which the ventilating apparatus must give to the products
of combustion of the forty thousand chimnies.
=====
It has been herein-before stated that each private chimney ought to have a
diameter of about three inches, and a section of about nineteen and a half
inches square, but that such dimensions were given only because the gases in
those conduct pipes were hot, and the smoke deposited in them the greatest
part of its soot; it has been also demonstrated that the volume of smoke of
forty thousand chimnies was, per second, twenty-six thousand four hundred and
twelve gallons. The mean density of the gases and vapours egressing from a
chimney is 1.66 pounds per 3.280 cubic feet, and 393-60 cubic feet × 1.66
pounds 198.45 pounds; this last quantity will represent the weight of the
volume of gas and vapour which arrive per second in the main chimney.
The working of the main chimney is obtained by means of the section of the
velocity and the weight of the gases: thus, the volume of gases which it can
attract 4.26 feet x 124 6 square feet = 162 square feet. The weight
of this volume 109 pounds x 1.66 pounds =81-70 pounds. By providing
for the difference of 108-45 pounds per second between the amount of work
necessary for the attraction, and 81-70 pounds (amount of work obtained
from the chimney), we will obtain nearly 117 pounds per second, which is the
work to be effected by the ventilator; as a steam horse power of 165 pounds
is capable of raising PP being the weight of the gases and vapours which
it can raise; v, the velocity of the ventilating apparatus, viz., 21.77 feet;
g, the weight or P=72-76 pounds. By that calculation the number of
horse power of the ventilator will be obtained by putting n pounds
=1lb. Thus, all the required conditions of velocity, egress, and friction
being fulfilled and assisted by the draught fire and the main chimney, a
ventilator of two horse power at most could serve forty thousand chimnies,
burning each of them one pound of coal per hour. Those calculations are
based upon all the known experiments made with the greatest care. However,
on account of so great an application as that of the present system, it is more
prudent and certain to increase considerably the attracting power; therefore,
two ventilators serving each of them, twenty thousand chimnies will be placed

page_text: in the great main channel under the main chimnies. Those ventilators would
have a power which could be raised to ten horse power; they are put in
motion by the steam engine, and their transmission of movement is easily
understood by referring to Figures 2 and 5 of the Drawing IV.
CONSTRUCTION OF THE STREET CONDUCT PIPES AND OF THE MAIN CHIMNEY.
Figure 1 in Drawing III. shows a complete front view of the main draught
chimney, and Figure 2 is a sectional elevation of the same through its main
axis, and represents the sections of different elevations; the ventilating
apparatus and that of the main fire-place, the several stories or platforms of
the upper buildings, as well as several recesses made in the thickness of the
wall, can be made use of for establishing an observatory, a station for night
guards, and for setting alarm bells, in case of fire in any part of the town.
The Figures 3, 4, and 5 of the same Drawing represent different sections of
Figures 1 and 2.
In Drawing IV., Figure 2 is a sectional elevation drawn through the
middle of Figure 4, which last Figure represents a main draught chimney
having a gothic form. Figure 1 represents the main canal for gathering all
the smoke in the condensation canal and draught ventilators; the Figure 2
represents the level plan of the building with ground; and Figure 3 is the
plan of a story or platform, set at about one hundred feet from the ground,
and on which the fires are kept. Figure 1, Drawing V., represents a front
view of another main draught chimney, and Figure 2 is a sectional elevation
through its main axis; the Figures 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 are the plans of the
different parts of the building. Pipes of eight inches and 1.19 feet in diameter,
will be placed in the same manner as gas pipes, and will also be made of cold
drawn iron with a bituminous coating, which are far superior to cast iron
pipes, both on account of their resistance to pressure, for their durability, and
the facility of laying them. The cleaning of those pipes will be easily
effected by means of a kind of mop, adapted at will, to an iron rod set at
convenient distances, of about three hundred and twenty-eight feet, having
small reservoirs to receive dust, soot, and condensed waters.
The scavengers
will descend at fixed times, and at night before the fires of dwellings are light,
and by drawing the rod with the mop along the reservoirs will clean them
thoroughly, as is represented in Figure 7, Drawing 1, in which A, A, are the
recesses for the reception of the soot, water, &c., which are to be taken away
by a small trap-door. O, M, is the rod with a mop to cleanse the conduct pipes;
these conduct pipes are slightly inclined, as shewn in the Drawing, in order to
facilitate the ingress into the recesses, and afford the means of taking away the

page_text: dirt, soot, and water. The pipes of three feet diameter will be also of strong
sheet iron, covered by asphalte or any other similar substance, and protected by
masonry work; they will be placed at a depth of three feet. The cleansing
will be effected by means of holes at convenient distances, at about six hundred
feet one from the other; the workman will descend into them, and with brooms
of a circular form will effect the cleaning with facility. Some small reservoirs
prepared at a proper distance from each other will receive the produce of the
cleaning and condensation, see Figure 8, Drawing I., representing a sectional
elevation of a conduct pipe. The conduct pipes, having a diameter of seven
feet, which carry the products of ten thousand chimneys, being constructed only
at the opening of the squares or places, will be made in strong masonry work
with stone or bricks and perfectly joined; see Figure 9, Drawing I., which
represents a sectional elevation of one of those pipes. Their cleaning will be
effected with the same facility as the preceding ones. They will be placed at
a depth of nine, twelve, or fifteen feet, and will meet at the top of the vault
of the main canal, No serious objection can be made to the cleaning of the
pipes, as herein-before described. The sweeping of present chimnies and the
attention required to look out to avoid fires in houses, entail more difficulties
and require more persons than by the new system. The great main canal,
which will contain the ventilators and washing apparatus, has greater dimen-
sions than given by the herein stated calculations, as it serves as a reservoir;
it is placed under the main chimney; its vault set at the bottom of that strong
building serves to consolidate the basis of the former. This great main pipe
is shut by means of doors made of hard wood, and is provided with a staircase
serving for its inspection, see Figure, Drawing VI.
REPAIRING OF THE PIPES.
Whatever be the cause for cleaning or repairing, the conduct pipe can be
always served by the main chimney. When the cleaning or repairing is to be
made, a valve of communication between the conduct pipe is opened between
the pipe to be repaired and the next pipe; the first pipe will be shut
up close
to the obstructed part, and when the cleaning and repairing are effected, the
former communication of the smoke will be restored. The arrangement of
the pipes is therefore such, that any pipe whatever may be always replaced by
another, either entirely or partly. As for the main conduct pipes, which
contain the gases of ten thousand chinnies, and which are four in number,
arriving two by two in the great main channel, they will have also a com-
munication between them, so that their cleaning or repairing does not prevent
the general flow of the smoke. The main chimney will be three hundred and

page_text: twenty-eight feet high, the side of its interior basis twenty-three feet, and it
can have any suitable form of architecture. The hearth for the fire will be
placed on one of the several platforms or floorings; the other will serve for the
construction of an observatory for the guard-room of watchmen, or for placing
alarm bells, &c. &c.; the staircases constructed in the body of the masonry will
lead to those several stories. Drawing VII. represents an application of the
improvements herein-before and herein-after described to one part of London,
and shows by the several arrows the dispositures of the street conduct pipes.
This Drawing represents about one-third of the streets which can be worked
Jane of the main chimneys
gated smoke from its carbonic principles, deleterious gases, and noxious vapours.
It has been already stated, that for every building a proper flue conducting
the smoke into a certain apparatus, as shewn by Drawing II, was to be con-
structed in the subterranean parts of the building. That apparatus disengages
the greatest part of the smoke from the soot; any small quantities which the
smoke may still retain are deposited in the other street main pipes. The
ammoniacal products, carburetted hydrogen, and sulphurous gases, water,
arsenical, and mercurial vapours, &c., &c., produced by manufactories and
dwelling-houses, are condensed in small quantities during their passage through
the several conduct pipes. The greatest part of these deleterious agents
arrive at the main canal or general reservoir. In Drawing VI., Figures 1, 2,
& 3 represent the sections according to I, K, A, B, G, H, of the basis of the
main chimney, represented by Drawing IV., and show the whole of the appa-
ratus set at the bottom of the said main chimney. In Figures 1, 2, 3, the
same letters refer to the same parts; a steam engine of forty-five to fifty horse
power giving motion, firstly, to the draught ventilators; secondly, to the
washing wheels; thirdly, to the exhaust pumps; fourthly, to the machine for
raising the fuel for feeding the fires of the hearths. B is the washing wheel;
C, C, represent the draught ventilators propelling the gases in an opposite
direction to the shower of water thrown out by the washing wheels; D, D,
are the reservoirs, the water of which drops in small continuous streams
on the washing wheels; those reservoirs let the water fall on the wheels only
in a surface or sheet of water of 9.84 feet long and large, by means of per-
forated spouts; E, E, E, E, are the escape conducts, for the egress of the
smoke which they receive from the street iron pipes.
Those escape conduits are constructed in masonry works, and are built at a

page_text: small distance from the principal or main canal, which is placed under the
bottom of the main draught chimney; F, F, are the wells, the sections of
which, according to I, K, Figure 2, and according to C, D, Figure 5, shew
the use and the construction of the apparatus for transmitting motion to the
wheels, and the mode of working them for the exhaustion of the waters in the
draining wells; G, G, are the wells used for the room or apartment necessary
for the apparatus, transmitting motion to the ventilators; I, I, are basins or
reservoirs placed under the wheels, wherein the waters used for the washing
meet, and thence fall into the draining wells J, J; J, J, are the draining wells,
the waters of which are drawn out by means of the pumps placed at about
thirty-three feet above them; K is the vault serving as access to the several
parts of the apparatus and great canal. Figures 4 and 5 contain the longitu-
dinal and transversal sections of a washing wheel, its transmission of move-
ment, the reservoir for the washing serving to work the wheels, the internal
reservoir, its overfall, and finally, the vault for the service.
In Figure 4, B represents the washing wheel in its working position and
provided with the paddles, the radii of which are 9.84 feet; D is the basin
from which the water is sent on to the paddles of the wheels B; H is the axis
of the wheel set on its bearings.
In the main canal, and close to the draught ventilator herein-before described,
the large wooden wheels B, B, are placed; their velocity is forty revolutions
per minute. These wheels B, B, are 19-68 feet in diameter; one point of their
circumference turns therefore 2301fect=39-36 feet per second. The reservoirs
D, D, fed by the water coming from above, are set at a short distance from
the upper extremity of the wheels B, B. These reservoirs or basins are pro-
vided with three thousand holes, about one inch in diameter. The distance of
the opening for the egress of the water to the level of the water's surface is one
inch; the velocity of flowing on account of the elevation is therefore to the orifice
of egress as follows:-V 29h 63.28 3 or V
×
25 feet per second.
The difference of the velocities 39-36 feet - 25 feet = 14 36 feet shews
the velocity with which the rain will fall amidst the gases and vapors.
-
To find the number of rotations performed by the wheels B, B, and to express
it in horse power, the action of the water upon the wheel must be ascertained.
Now, an orifice of one-tenth of an inch with a velocity of twenty-five feet
per second necessitates a flow of water of 0.000568 feet, and three thousand
orifices will exhaust five feet, therefore there will be a fall of two hundred and
seventy-four pints of water upon the wheel per second; five horse power. per
wheel will be quite sufficient to work the wheels B, B, and the steam
engine shewn in Figure 2, Drawing VI., will easily provide for that power.

page_text: Those cleansing wheels when put in motion will remove the greatest part of
the deleterious gases and vapors; the gas will arise afterwards and be submitted
to the combustion of the fires. The main fire is set at about one hundred feet
above the ground, and is composed of small fires fed with coke, the heat of
which serves also for the boilers of the steam engine, and afterwards proceeds
to a large pipe set in the centre of the main chimney. The platform or floor
on which is set the fire is provided with a large iron grating, on which the
gases arising from the coal burnt in each of the separate fires of the private
dwellings will be consumed. At the same place an apparatus for producing a
powerful light is constructed; it is put in motion by the steam engine, and
will emit a brilliant light through the mouldings, and also add to the handsome
aspect of the main draught chimney. The gases which rise in the main
chimney, after being submitted to the cleansing action of the wheels B, B, set
in motion as herein-before described, will be freed of their last deleterious
principles, by passing through the large pipe set as hercin-before stated in the
centre of the main chimney. The heat of this pipe will give to the gases the
necessary temperature, and when egressing from the chimney they will be fully
purified and colorless, and in a fit state to be mixed with the external air, which
they can no longer injure or pollute, having by the several herein-before
described operations been entirely deprived of all their noxious qualities. The
Figure 3, in Drawing II., shews a sectional elevation of the fifteen horse power
steam engine, serving to raise the coke for feeding the fires placed, as stated
before, on one of the floors of the main chimney; in that Figure A represents
the steam engine, and B a wooden wheel.
From what has been herein-before described, the importance of the Inven-
tion can be easily understood, and the immense advantages arising from its
adoption will not fail to attract the attention of the economist. The entire dis-
persion and disparition of the smoke in large towns, its complete suppression
in the interior of houses, the small outlay required in every dwelling for the
erection of the necessary apparatus, and the economy of three-fifths in the
combustion of the fuel, are of the greatest moment for every member of society,
and render nearly imperative the adoption of the Invention.
And having now described the nature of the Invention communicated to me,
and the means of performing the same, I wish it to be understood that I do
not confine myself to the precise details either in the construction of the several
apparatus and machinery, or in the several calculations laid down to direct the
operations, nor to the exact modi operandi; nor do I claim as the Invention
communicated to me any separate part of the several component parts of the
apparatus or machinery, provided the general features of the mechanical

page_text: arrangements and of the system for carrying out the Invention be preserved.
But what I claim as the Invention communicated to me, and intended to be
protected by the herein in part recited Letters Patent, is,-
Firstly, the mode of conducting by a system of conduct pipes the smoke
from every private dwelling to a general reservoir, as herein-before described,
reference being had to Figures 1, 1, 2, 3, and 5, Drawing I.; Figures 1, 2, 3,
4, 5, and 6, Drawing II.; Figure 1, Drawing IV.; and Drawing VII.
Secondly, the mode of conducting smoke by means of pipes from the rooms
of private dwellings to an apparatus under ground, in connection with street
pipes, as herein-before described, reference being had to Figures 1, 1, 2, 3, 4,
5, & 6 of Drawing I.; Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 of Drawing II.
Thirdly, the mode of conducting, by a system of pipes set under ground, the
smoke from dwelling-houses to a general reservoir placed under a main
draught chimney, as herein-before described, reference being had to Figures 1,
1, 2, and 6, Drawing I.; to Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Drawing II.; to Figure 2,
Drawing V.; and to Figure 1, Drawing VII.
Fourthly, the application of machinery for disengaging smoke from its
deleterious components, as herein-before described, reference being had to the
Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Drawing II.; and to Figures 1, 2, 4, 5, Drawing VI.
Fifthly, the consuming smoke in large draught chimnies, as herein-before
described, reference being had to the Figures contained in Drawings III., IV.,
and V.
In witness whereof, I, the said Pierre Armand Lecomte de Fontaine
Moreau, have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of
October, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty.