CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CON- STRUCTION OF FURNACES OR FIRE-PLACES FOR THE PURPOSES OF HEATING, BOILING, OR EVAPORATING OF WATER AND OTHER LIQUIDS, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE APPLICABLE TO STEAM ENGINES AND OTHER PURPOSES, WHEREBY A GREATER SAVING IN THE CONSUMPTION OF FUEL IS EFFECTED, WITH A MORE COMPLETE DESTRUCTION OR CONSUMPTION OF THE SMOKE BY COMBUSTION, THAN HAS HITHERTO BEEN PRO
Year: 1818

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
JOHNSON, of Salford, in the Parish of Manchester, in the County Palatine
of Lancater, Brewer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present Majesty King George the Third, in and by His
Letters Patent under the Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster,
the Twenty-fourth day of December last, for Himself, His heirs and suc-
cessors, did give and grant unto me, the William Johnson, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, His especial license, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said William Johnson, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, and every of them, by myself and themselves, or by my and
their deputy or deputies, servants or agents, or such others as I, the said
William Johnson, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time
agree with, 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 the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland called England, the Dominion of Wales, and Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CON-
STRUCTION OF FURNACES OR FIRE-PLACES FOR THE PURPOSES OF HEATING, BOILING,
OR EVAPORATING OF WATER AND OTHER LIQUIDS, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE
APPLICABLE TO STEAM ENGINES AND OTHER PURPOSES, WHEREBY A GREATER SAVING
IN THE CONSUMPTION OF FUEL IS EFFECTED, WITH A MORE COMPLETE DESTRUCTION
OR CONSUMPTION OF THE SMOKE BY COMBUSTION, THAN HAS HITHERTO BEEN PRO-
in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging

page_text: me, the said William Johnson, by an instrument in writing under my hand
and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same
to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within two calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Johnson, do hereby describe and ascertain the nature of my Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be understood, acted upon, and
carried into execution by the plan or Drawing in the margin of these Pre-
sents, and the following description thereof, that is to say :-
My said newly improved method of constructing furnaces or fire-places
consists in causing the smoke or flame of fresh fuel in its way to the fines or
chimney; first, to take a downward direction, immediately behind the common
bridge; then, secondly, to pass under an arch or arches, extending in an
angular line. with the boiler seating, for the purpose. of supporting a wall that
is erected thereon, which erection is brought up to or nearly unto the boiler
bottom, parallel with the said common bridge, which I call a stop wall,
for the purpose of giving the flame the downward direction; and, thirdly,
of bringing up the flame to the boiler bottom again immediately behind
the said stop. wall, which is afterward trassed forwards into the flues or
chimney. When the said arch or arches and the stop wall, together with
the adjoining brickwork, that determines the downward and upward direc-
tion of flame, has become red-hot, or heated to redness, the smoke or flame
of. fresh fuel when brought into contact with or near unto the said heated
bodies, together with an admission of a proportionate quantum of fresh or
unburnt air, whilst in these circumstances, there commences a certain igni-
tion of the combustible properties of smoke or grosser parts of flame, with
an increase of heat or pure flame free from smoke. For the performance of
which (the furnaces or fire-places, that are upon the common principle,) are
divided into two, by introducing a partition, as is represented at 6, in Fig. 2,
that, by extending backwards to, and being connected with, the stop wall behind,
forms two separate yet connected furnaces or fire-places, for the purpose of
bringing one fire over the other, in-cases of a sudden surcharge of steam,
arising from a cessation of, or stop put to, any branch of operation, such as
boiling, heating, &c. by steam, or from any other cause connected with the
steam engine, without sustaining any loss whatever, either in opening of the

page_text: furnace doors, or of discharging the steam to waste. This operation may be
performed alternately by opening and shutting of dampers or doors, or by any
other medium, moving vertically, horizontally, or laterally, either against or
near unto the stop wall, or any part determining the downward or upward
direction, for the purpose of uniting or disuniting of either or of both of the
said fires, with the regular course passing into the flues or chimney through
the said flues or passages, determining the downward or upward direction. But
in general I prefer dampers that act horizontally upón slides that pass through
the common bridge about four or six inches below the bearer' of the bars, as is
represented near to number 6 to the left hand in Fig. 4; and when required
to be shut, they are shot forward by the rods that come to the front; as is
represented at 3, 3, in Fig. 3, against a stop that is upon the slides at the father
end of them, to prevent the dampers from injuring the stop wall. For example:
suppose the fire acting in furnace or fire-place No. 1, Fig. 3, was become red,.
and of a pure flame, and at the same period the fire acting in No. 2 in the same
Fig. be recruited with fresh fuel, then, by shutting or closing of the damper
belonging to the said No 2 fire, the smoke of flame arising from the same is*
by this operation cut off from taking the downward direction, and is rever-
berated to the front and conveyed through the passage forming the connection
of the two furnaces of fire-places at m, and 'is passed over through or into
contact with or near unto the said intensely heated fuel in No. 1 furnace or
fire-place, when and where a complete ignition of the combustible properties
of smoke ensues, with a conversión of the same into heat or pure flame, free'
from smoke, and so long as the aforesaid surcharge of steam should continue.
arising from causes being such as before stated, or that there should be
produed a sufficient quantity of steam, by using of "the said damper in : such
manner as has been 'already recited, the saving of fuel and the regularity of
heat produced will be found of the utmost importance. But in cases where
there is a sudden demand for steam of "a greater elasticity than what can
be produced from such a mode of proceeding, then the dampers, or doors, or
whatever may be the term given to any moveable body, acting vertically,
horizontally, or laterally, for purposes aforesaid recited,' inust in this case
be opened, and both fires united with the course leading through the flues
or passages determining the downward and upward direction into the flues or
chimney.
Fig. 1 represents the exterior front of the steam engine boiler with its 'erec-
tion. a, the boiler; b; b, the furnace or fire-place doors; c, c, the bottom fluc
doors, opening into the downward and upward direction, for the purpose of

page_text: cleaning out; d, d, the side flue doors; e, e, the ash-pit; f, the partition wall;
1, 1, the bearers; 2, 2, the dampers, that slide horizontally towards the stop
wall, against a stop that is upon the slides, to prevent the stop wall from being
injured by them.
Fig. 2 represents the interior of the same. a, the boiler; b, the partition
wall, which is brought up to the boiler bottom with a brick upon the edge;
c, c, the bearers; d, d, the flues round the boiler; 1, 1, the common bridge
at the extremity of the furnace or fire-place; 2,2, the arch or arches that
support the stop wall; 3, 3, the entrance to, or bottom of, the downward and
upward direction.
Fig. 3 is a plan of the same. a, a, the furnaces or fire-places; b, b, the
partition wall; c, c, the common bridge, which the flame passes over; d, d,
the downward direction; e, e, the stop wall, which the. flame passes under;
ff, the upward direction; g, the back bridge; h, the passage under the boiler
leading to the flues; i, i, i, i, the side flues; k, the chimney; 1, 1, the furnace
or fire-place doors; 2, 2, the front plate; 3, 3, 3, 3, the rods that work the
dampers; 4, 4, the apertures in the common bridge, for the admission of air
for the purpose of giving vigour to the flame.
Fig. 4 is a side view of the aforesaid Fig. a, a, a, the back bridge; b, the
upward direction; c, the stop wall; d, the downward direction; e, the common
bridge; f, the bottom flue door, opening to the downward and upward direc-
tion; g, the ash-pit; h, h, the flues round the boiler; i, the aperture in
the common bridge; k, k, the furnace or fire-place; 1, the bars; 2, 2, the
bearers; 3, the front plate; 4, the door frame; 5, 5, 5, the boiler; 6, 6, 6,
represents the dampers and the rods that work them.
Fig. 5 represents the figure or form of the bottom of a steam engine boiler,
to which my method of constructing furnaces or fire-places are more effectually
applied, which figure or form of the said boiler bottom extends backwards to
the stop wall, but afterwards upon the common principle. a, a, the furnaces
or fire-places; b, the partition wall, which serves in this case for the seating of
the boiler at the centre; c, c, the bearers; d, d, the ash-pit.
Fig. 6 is a front view of the furnace or fire-place applied to a copper or
round boiler. a, a, the furnaces or fire-places; b, the partition wall; c, c, the
bearers; d, d, the ash-pit; the dotted lines shewing the Figure above the
seating of the boiler.
Fig. 7 represents the plan of the same upon the boiler seating. a, a, the
furnaces or fire-places; b, b, the common bridge; c, c, the downward direction;
d, d, the stop wall, which is brought up to the boiler seating; e, e, the

page_text: upward direction; f.f, the partition wall; g, the passage from one fire to the
other; h, h; h, h, the flues round the boiler; 1, 1, the fire doors; 2, 2, the front
plate, the chimney being over the fire doors, as is represented by the dotted
lines; the dotted circle shews the boiler seating.
Lastly, be it known that I do not claim the partition wall as my Invention,
but the use and application of it, as before specified or set forth; nor do I
mean to say that giving the flame a downward direction is a new Invention,
but the application thereof in manner aforesaid; and it is this modification of
these things in producing the effect aforesaid in which my Invention consists.
And be it likewise known that I do not confine myself to any specific body,
substance, or composition standing the test of heat, in the erection of the par-
tition and stop wall, or to the figure or form of the same, by being constructed
hollow, having interior divisions or subdivisions, for the purpose of passing air
or water through them.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-
second day of February, One thousand eight hundred and nineteen.
Inrolled the Twenty-fourth day of February, in the year above written.