IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OR APPARATUS EMPLOYED FOR WARMING AND VENTILATING BUILDINGS
Year: 1868

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Phillips at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 16th
October 1808.
I, JOHN PHILLIPS, of Hampstead, in the County of Middlesex, Civil
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OR APPARATUS EMPLOYED FOR WARMING AND
VENTILATING BUILDINGS," to be as follows:-
i
This Invention has for its object the arrangement of apparatus for the
purpose of imparting heat to currents of fresh air as it enters a building
in order to warm the various parts thereof, such apparatus also acting
to withdraw or discharge the vitiated air therefrom so as to effect the
perfect ventilation of every room or part of the building to which the
Invention is applied.
It is well known that great heat is evolved from hot water circulating
through iron pipes, and as they are now generally employed for heating
water for use in the upper part of a house (by causing the water to
circulate by means a pipe or pipes) conveying it from a boiler in the

page_text: kitchen or basement to the upper part of the building and back again
to the boiler by another pipe or pipes, I take advantage of this system
in carrying out my improvements in order to warm and ventilate the
various parts of a building where such hot-water apparatus is employed;
or the apparatus may be specially arranged and applied for the purpose
of warming and ventilating buildings of every description in accordance
with my improvements. For this purpose the hot-water pipes conveying
the upward and downward currents between a boiler below and cistern
or expansion chamber above are enclosed within air tubes or passages,
which may be placed or constructed within the partition or other walls
of a dwelling-house or other building, or they may be otherwise arranged.
The tubes or passages for the vitiated air surrounding the hot-water
pipes I prefer to make of increased capacity as they ascend from the
basement to the upper part of a building, those which are intended to
carry off the vitiated air passing out through the roof, a cover or shield
being placed above the outlet if required. Openings are formed into
the air tubes by preference in or near the ceiling of cach room with
which they communicate, through which openings the vitiated air passes
into the air tubes and away to the outlet through the roof, a strong
upward current being produced in the air tubes by the expansion of the
air therein caused by the heat evolved from the surface of the hot-water
pipe enclosed within such air tube or passage. In addition to the air
tubes or columns for conducting the vitiated air into the outer atmo-
sphere other air tubes or columns are arranged according to my
Invention so as to surround hot-water pipes branching from the main
circulating pipes, the upper ends of such air tubes terminating within
the upper part of the building. Air pipes or passages are introduced
between the joists of each story so arranged as to conduct the external
air into the air tubes or columns surrounding the branch hot-water pipes,
and the air in its passage for a certain distance up the tube or column
becomes heated by the hot-water pipe, and is delivered into the room
through an opening by preference near the floor, by which means a current
(or currents) of fresh warm air is being constantly introduced into the lower
or other part of a room whilst the vitiated air passes from the upper
part, as previously described. The fresh air is by preference admitted
to the air tube in the floor of the room holow the one into which it is
conducted, the air tube being stopped off by a diaphragm at the point
where the fresh air is delivered into the room. Hot-water pipes and air
tubes or passages may be continued into or around the room so as to

page_text: distribute the warm fresh air to any part of the room or building where
it is required, and outlet pipes or passages may be arranged to convey
away the products of combustion from gas, oil, or other lamps. For
comparatively small dwelling houses the two simple ascending and
descending columns of hot-water circulating pipes surrounded by air
tubes will serve for introducing fresh warm air and for carrying off the
vitiated air, as previously described.. In summer when cold air only is
required for circulation within a room or building the warm air inlet
tubes or columns may be caused to introduce currents of cold fresh air
by cutting off the circulation of the hot water through the branch pipes
enclosed within the air inlet pipes or columns, suitable stop-cocks being
arranged for this purpose, which arrangement would tend to increase the
power of the ventilating or outlet columns, owing to the increased
temperature of the hot-water, pipes therein. Additional air pipes may.
be arranged for the admission of cold air to the various rooms or parts of
a building in order to regulate the temperature therein when required.
The hot-water tubes employed in carrying out my improvements I prefer
to make of strong wrought iron with screw joints, the air columns being
made of metal or "stone ware" with sockets or with flanges bolted
together (or they may be of other suitable material) so as to make the
joints air and water tight. The bottom of the inlet openings for the
admission of air to the building I prefer to slope upwards and inwards
through the thickness of the wall, screens of perforated zinc, wire gauze,
or other suitable material of different degrees of fineness being inserted
within such inlets, in order to filter or arrest the impurities of the air in
its passage into the building, and I so arrange the openings into the air
tubos or columns that a brush can be introduced and worked up and
down within them to remove the dust, and thus keep them clean.
Diaphragms are introduced across the centre of the air columns opposite
the inlet and outlet openings to prevent the transmission of sound or
communication from one room to another. In large houses with rooms
surrounding a central staircase two, three, or more pairs of columns of
hot-water pipes and air tubes, as previously described, may be built
within the walls dividing the rooms, and also in the walls at the sides
and ends of large rooms, the hot water being arranged to circulate either
from the kitchen boiler or from a separate boiler specially arranged for
the purpose in the basement of the building to a cistern, and cold water
supply arranged in the roof or upper part of a building. In place of a
cistern an expansion tube may be employed for receiving the expanded

page_text: water in the pipes, as is well understood, for imparting heat to the
air tubes.
My improvements are applicable either to houses or buildings as now
built, but by preference I arrange and apply my improved warming and
ventilating apparatus to buildings during their erection. In the former
casc columns of tubing shaped like pilasters, and occuping but little
space, may be fixed in the angles or other parts of the rooms, the cornices
and skirtings being made good around such pilasters, if necessary.
Where the boiler below and cistern above are connected by means of a
single pipe a column of water separate passages may be formed on each
side of such pipes, one passage serving for the admission of fresh air to
the rooms or building, and the other serving to convey the vitiated air
away out of the building, as previously described, the hot-water pipe
being so formed as to act as a scaled diaphragm between the two
passages. By this arrangement the heat is transmitted to each passage
from opposite sides of the hot-water pipe.