IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF EFFECTING THE CONSUMPTION OF SMOKE IN FURNACES
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Houston, of Nelson Square, Blackfriars Road,
in the County of Surrey, Gentleman, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE MEANS OF EFFECTING THE CONSUMPTION OF SMOKE IN FURNACES."
Sealed the 1st November 1858, and dated the 31st July 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Houston at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
31st July 1858.
I, JOHN HOUSTON, of Nelson Square, Blackfriars Road, in the County-of.
Surrey, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention for.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF EFFECTING THE CONSUMPTION OF SMOKE IN.
FURNACES."
This Invention consists in first of all preventing the smoke from ascending
directly from the ordinary smoke box (as it does in furnaces of the usual
construction) by means of a damper or valve, which shuts in-when required
the lower part of the stack from the atmosphere; and at or near the top or
other convenient position in the smoke box I have a reverberatory tube or
pipe, and just above the smoke box a blowpipe or pipes, which blowpipe or

page_text: pipes, as the smoke is prevented from ascending from the chimney as aforesaid
will cause much of the smoke, &c. generated to return to the burning fuel in
the fire-place, and be destroyed; that which passes into the smoke box will
pass through the reverberatory pipe into a chamber attached to the furnace,
where I have jets of flame, which are intensified and directed by a blowpipe
or pipes, and this portion of the smoke will pass back into the smoke box and
fireplace, and thus the whole of the smoke will be consumed.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Houston in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
29th January 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
HOUSTON, of Nelson Square, Blackfriars Road, in the County of Surrey,
Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirty-first day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-second year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
John Houston, Her special licence that I, the said John Houston, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John
Houston, 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 of years 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MEANS OF EFFECTING THE CONSUMPTION OF SMOKE IN FURNACES,". upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Houston, my execu-
tors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one
of-their-hands-and-seals, 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 John Houston, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-

page_text: formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, that is to say:-
"
This Invention will be readily understood from the following statement before
referred to, and by referring to the accompanying Drawings; in which Fig. 1
denotes a plan view of an arrangement which may be adopted in that kind of
boilers called "stationary." In this case there is a damper in the chimney (not
seen in the Drawing) for shutting in when deemed necessary the lower part
of the stack from the atmosphere, and thus temporarily preventing, as when
firing," the smoke from ascending directly from the smoke box beneath it.
This smoke box is a devellopment of a smoke chamber A, wherein is a tube
or pipe B conveying gas (generated extra and independent of the furnace),
which is ignited at the perforations or opening, and beyond this is an
air or blowpipe C, which air or blowpipe as the smoke is prevented from
ascending from the chimney, as aforesaid, will keep up a due supply of air, so
that the gas flame may act upon the nascent smoke coming from the burning
fuel in the fire grate, and destroy it.
Fig. 2 is a transverse section, and Fig. 3 a longitudinal view, of a common
cylindrical boiler and furnace, the above arrangement being modified so that
instead of having a gas pipe at some distance behind the bridge, here the gas
pipe G leads into a hollow bridge H, as does the air pipe I, and at top of
the hollow bridge is a very fine opening at which the gas is ignited.
Fig. 4, a transverse section of a cylindrical boiler with a fire-place inside.
G, gas pipe I, air pipe; H, hollow bridge. The description of Figs. 2 and 3
will apply to this Figure.
Fig. 5, view of a tubular boiler with this Invention applied to its furnace.
Things here depicted other than those above mentioned being noted on the
Drawing.
Having now described the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, as required by the aforesaid Letters Patent, I hereby
declare that I claim not the separate and distinct details above mentioned, but
the improvements in the means of effecting the consumption of smoke, wherein
provision is made (by means of a damper, for instance), for preventing the
smoke from ascending directly from the ordinary smoke box beneath the
chimney, as also for a tube or pipe or passage way for gas generated indepen-
dent of the furnace, so as to admit said gas at, near, or behind the back of the
fire-grate; perforations or an opening or openings being provided in such tube
or pipe or passage way, so that the gas may be ignited (and ignition may be
maintained by an air pipe or blowpipe), and jets or a stream or streams of

page_text: flame obtained (which may, if deemed requisite, be intensified and directed
upon the burning fuel and nascent smoke), whereby the smoke can be
consumed or destroyed.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Houston, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
Signed and sealed in my presence
F. W. CAMPIN, Patent Agent,
156, Strand.
JOHN HOUSTON. (L.S.)