IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF LAVA WARE
Year: 1852

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William H. Smith, of the County of Mont-
gomery and State of Pennsylvania, America, Clergyman, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF LAVA WARE."
Sealed the 17th January 1853, and dated the 12th October 1852.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William H. Smith
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 12th October 1852.
I, WILLIAM H. SMITH, of the County of Montgomery and State of
Pennsylvania, America, Clergyman, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF LAVA WARE"
to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object the use of the slags obtained from
blast and other furnaces obtained in the manufacture of iron and other
metals from their ores. These slags have been heretofore for the most
part thrown away as useless. My improvements have for their object
the application of such slags by refining them, and by casting, blowing,
grinding, cutting, in the manner of glass works, articles made therefrom,
so that a new class of vitreous manufactures will result; and I apply in

page_text: making such and like vitreous manufactures a compound reverberatory
furnace, consisting of a succession of beds or compartments heated by
the same fire, so as to obtain various degrees of heat in the succeeding
compartments, by which the more easily fused matters may be simul-
taneously worked with those more difficult of fusion in the same range
of furnaces, and thus economise fuel.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William H. Smith in the Great Seal Patent
Office, on the 12th April 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
WILLIAM H. SMITH, of the County of Montgomery and State of Pen-
sylvania, America, Clergyman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of October, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, in the six-
teenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said William H. Smith, Her special
licence that I, the said William H. Smith, my executors, admi-
nistrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said William H.
Smith, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after during the term 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 Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF LAVA WARE," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William H. Smith, by
an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is 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 William H. Smith, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the

page_text: same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement (that is to say):
My said Invention consists in a manufactory of scoria or slag from
reducing furnaces into a ware which I denominate lava ware. For said
manufactory I employ hot fluid, slag, or scoria, using it directly out of the
smelting blast or reverbatory furnace by running it into suitable moulds,
or into a car, or into the chamber of a reverbatory furnace, constructed
with especial reference to the refining and working of vitreous products.
In the processes of moulding, casting, pressing, and blowing I use great
caution, lest the ware be chilled or suffer sectional electro polarization
before it is placed in the annealing oven and thoroughly annealed.
An essential part of my Invention consists in the application of the.re-
verbatory furnace, in which I refine, colour, and soften slag; for the above-
mentioned purpose I find it necessary to use a compound reverbatory
furnace, consisting of many consecutive chambers, constructed upon the
following plan, reference being had to the annexed Drawings, in which
Figure 1, represents a vertical section, and Figure 2, a ground plan. In
Figure 1, letter R, represents a boiler for generating steam, to be used
to propel machinery for grinding ware or other purposes, but especially.
to supply a continuous current of steam to the fuel, by which the rever-
batory is heated to add intensity to the flame. Letter V, represents a
many chambered hearth, consisting of eight or more chambers, separated
from each other by suitable bridges. I, represent hoppers placed over
one or more of said chambers. E, represents the chimney, with the
damper f. H, represents an opening or outlet for heat from the base of
the chimney into adjacent annealing ovens, which I construct as a part
of the furnace. The letter C, represents openings or holes on the sides
of each chamber, out of which the vitreous material is dipped or blown.
W, represents an arched chamber under the furnace hearth, to be used
as an annealing room. Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8, represent the
series of chambers into which the entire hearth is divided; and (n) indi-
cates a door in each chainber, to be used in emptying it or filling it-with
materials. In Figure 2, of the ground plan P', represents a basin or
mould, into which melted metal reduced in chamber 6, from the ore
(by the flame issuing from the fire-place T,) is removed or moulded:

page_text: S, represents a mould into which slag or scoriae is run after it has been
removed from above the surface of the metal in chamber 6, to the
chamber 7, which is used as a reservoir for the slag melted in chamber
6. N, represents the annealing ovens.
The dimensions of the above compound reverbatory, which may be
varied in different localities, I ordinarily determine as follows:-The
hearth V, I construct thirty-six feet long, and divide into cight compart-
ments, each four feet long. The height of the hearth, which is three feet
in the centre, diminishes to one and a half feet towards the sides, which
(viz., the sides,) are made shallow to ensure thorough fusion of the vitreous
products at the place from which it is gathered for working. The width
of the hearth at the point where it is separated from the fire-place by
a bridge is seven feet. At the chamber 6, the hearth tapers to five or
six feet width, and at the chimney or termination of the hearth it is ten
or eleven feet wide. The form of the hearth thus becomes shad-shaped.
The draught throughout the entire hearth is determined by a chimney
(E) fifty feet high, the upper part of which is furnished with a damper,
opened by means of a chain and lever, by which the amount of air
admitted into and of heat escaping from the furnace can be regulated.
This damper is closed when the heat is to be passed through the annealing
ovens through the opening (H). The bridge separating the fire-place
from the hearth is raised to within three or four inches of the top of the
arch of the hearth. The bridges between the consecutive chambers
allow of twelve inches space for the flame to reverberate from one end
of the hearth to the other. The bridge adjacent to the chimney is
about the same height as that next to the fire-place. The flame and
heat are admitted within the chimney by openings made in the base of
the side of the chimney adjacent to and terminating the furnace. The
boiler is built in the fire brick arch covering the hearth, either directly
over the flame or at any convenient height above the upper surface of
the flame of the hearth.
In my manufacturing process I use this reverbatory either for forming
pure slag by the reduction of metallic ores without the admixtion of coal
or other fuel (the flame being supplied from the fire-place) for the sepa-
ration of the slag from the ores thus fused, and the subsequent coloring,

page_text: refining, softening, and working of slag. Or if I am supplied with good
slag by an ordinary blast or reverbatory furnace, I use the several
chambers of the above-described furnace for refining, coloring, and
working the slag thus obtained.
The ware which I manufacture consists of all the varieties of pressed,
blown, and cast glass ware, including bottles, slabs, pitchers, vases, bells,
voltaic troughs, stoves, columns, cylinders, tyles, table tops, mantle
pieces, coffins, monuments, statuary, building blocks, and electrically
insulated furniture and apparatus.
What I claim as my Invention, and desire to secure by Letters
Patent, consists in,--
First, the manufactury of a new vitreous ware, to be called lava ware,
made from hot and fluid scoriae, obtained from blast and reverbatory
reducing furnaces for smelting of various ores by the processes of
refining, moulding, blowing, casting, and annealing.
Second, I claim in said manufactory the process of refining and working
vitreous products in a compound reverbatory, such as above described,
which may be used either for preparing suitable slag directly from the
ore by fusing, without the admixture of fuel with the ore, or for refining
and working vitreous products obtained from ordinary furnaces, or for
manipulating on any vitreous products whatever.
Third, I claim in said manufactury the use of precautionary means to
protect the molten material from sectional polarization, either by heat
or electricity, previous to the completion of the annealing process.
In witness whereof, 1, the said William Henry Smith, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this the Twentieth day of
March, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and fifty-three.
30 Witness,
ROBERT DAVIS.
THO. MOORE.
WILLIAM HENRY SMITH. (L.S.) Seal.