IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN THE ANNEALING OF GLASS AND THE FIRING OF POTTERY WARE." DISCLAIMER AND MEMORANDUM OF ALTERATION
Year: 1857

page_text: En the Matter of Letters Patent granted to SAMUEL NEVILLE, of
Gateshead, in the County of Durham, Glass Manufacturer, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS EMPLOYED
IN THE ANNEALING OF GLASS AND THE FIRING OF POTTERY WARE."
DISCLAIMER AND MEMORANDUM OF ALTERATION proposed to be
filed in the Great Seal Patent Office by the said Samuel Neville.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
NEVILLE, of Gateshead, in the County of Durham, Glass Manufacturer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters Patent under the
Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date
the Twenty-first day of January, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and fifty-seven, granted unto me, the said Samuel Neville, my execu-
tors, administrators, and assigns, the sole privilege to make, use, exercise, and
vend my Invention, therein entituled "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPA-
RATUS EMPLOYED IN THE ANNEALING OF GLASS AND THE FIRING OF POTTERY WARE,"
(and part of which title is intended to be hereby disclaimed, so that the same
may and shall henceforth be a title in these words "Improvements in Machi-

page_text: 66
nery or Apparatus employed in the Annealing of Glass,") within the said
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle
of Man, during the term of fourteen years thence next ensuing: And whereas
in pursuance of a proviso in the said Letters Patent contained, I did by a
Specification in writing under my hand and seal, bearing date the Sixteenth
day of July, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-
seven, particularly ascertain and describe the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, and did cause the same
Specification to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within the time by the
said Letters Patent prescribed in that behalf: And whereas since the filing of
my said Specification I have been advised that it is doubtful whether the
application of my said Invention to the firing of pottery ware is of much
utility; and also that it is doubtful whether the claims of Invention at the end
of my said Specification may not be deemed to be somewhat indistinct and
indefinite, and more extensive than I intended them to be: I am therefore
desirous of disclaiming a part of the said title, and also certain words in the
said claims, and of altering the same claims in manner herein-after expressed.
NOW THEREFORE KNOW YE, that by and with the leave of Her
Majesty's Solicitor-General and for the reasons aforesaid, I do hereby disclaimi
the words "and the firing of pottery ware," contained in the said title of the
said Invention, and do declare that the same title as hereby altered shall hence-
forth be in these words, "Improvements in Machinery or Apparatus employed
in the Annealing of Glass." And by and with the leave aforesaid and for the
reasons aforesaid, I disclaim the mechanical parts or elements of which the
machinery described in my said Specification is or may be composed, as being
separate or apart from the combination and application thereof in manner and
for the purposes described in my said Specification, any part of the Invention
comprised in the said Letters Patent. And by and with the leave aforesaid
and for the reasons aforesaid, I do alter the description contained in the said
Specification by striking out and disclaiming the words "or fired" therein
contained near to the commencement thereof, and I do alter the claims of
Invention at the end of the said Specification by striking out and disclaiming
the word "first" and the word "second" therein contained, and also by
striking out and disclaiming the words "and firing," in two places, and the
words "or fired," and also the words "or caused," and also the words " and
"to be again presented for a fresh load or charge without the necessity of
being removed from the lear by any means other than by the employment of
a horizontal revolving platform or table;" and by inserting in the said Speci-
fication the words following, "nor do I claim the mechanical parts or elements
66
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"of which the machinery, herein described, is or may be composed as being
separate or apart from the combination and application thereof in manner
"and for the purposes herein described, any part of the Invention comprised
"in the said Letters Patent;" so that the said Specification as hereby altered,
with the aid of the Drawings thereunto annexed, shall henceforth be deemed
to describe and shall describe the undisclaimed part of the said Invention in
these words:-
My Invention consists in arranging a number of lear pans (or plates
or vessels for holding articles to be annealed or fired), in the form of
an endless or continuous table made to travel and convey the articles
through the lear at the desired rate of speed, which pans or plates are again
returned to receive a fresh charge without being removed from the lear.
The Drawings hereunto annexed represent the manner of carrying my
Invention into effect.
Figure 1 is a sectional elevation of my improved apparatus shewn inside
a kiln or lear; and Figure 2 is a plan of the same with the brickwork in
section.
A, A¹, are two shafts, which are free to turn in bearings inserted in the
brickwork B, B; on the shafts A, A', cylinders may be fixed, or instead of
cylinders polygonal castings, as represented at C, C, over which the endless
chains D, D, pass. The length of the links of the chain must correspond to
the sides of the polygonal castings C, C; the lear pans or plates E, E, are
rivetted or otherwise secured to the chains D, D. The requisite motion is
communicated to the chains and pans by one or other of the shafts A or A¹,
being caused to rotate by winch handle or otherwise; F is the lear in which
the endless chains and pans are set; G, G, are rollers, over which the chains
and pans travel, and are supported between the end bearings, or instead of
rollers, cross bars or other suitable supports may be used. The articles to
be annealed are placed on the lear pans or plates E, which being made to
travel slowly in the direction of the arrows, convey them to the opposite end
of the lear, from whence they are taken off; or I form a continuous table by
the employment of any required number of lear pans or plates, which fit
loosely in grooves or rest upon rails in such manner that they may be pro-
pelled through the lear, and brought back from whence they started without
being removed from the lear, the last pan or plate being made to drive for-
ward that immediately before it, and so on through the series; or the whole
being arranged and propelled in the manner shewn in Figure 3, a plan, and
Figure 4, a longitudinal section on the line a, b, of Figure 3. A, A, are
wo side frames connected together by transverse stay bolts B, B, B; C, C,

page_text: are continuous grooves or channels formed on the inner facings of the side
frames A, A; D, D, lear pans or plates, which rest and move forwards and
backwards in the grooves C, C, when acted upon, as herein-after explained;
E and E' are two shafts, which fit concentrically into the semicircular ends
of the grooves C, C, at the front and back ends of the apparatus. Each of
these shafts again carries two discs or wheels F, F, F, F1, the peripheries
of which coincide with the inner sides of the grooves C, C; G is a toothed
wheel, which is keyed to the same shaft E as the discs F, F, so that when
that wheel is made to rotate it carries the discs F, F, with it. Motion being
communicated to the wheel G, the whole of the uppermost lear plates are
caused to advance gradually from the front of the furnace towards the back
end of it. The plates so pushed forwards press against the plates resting
upon the discs F, F, and in the lower groove C, C, and thereby cause them
to advance from the back towards the front of the furnace, that is to say,
the teeth R, R, or R, R', affixed to the discs F, F, (one or other of them)
pressing upon the plate next in the series, cause a simultaneous progression
of the lear plates from front to back and from back to front; T is a pinion,
which gears into the wheel G, and is fixed upon the end of a shaft U, which
carries two pullies V, V. The office of these pullies is to cause the last of
the plates in the lower groove C to be carried sufficiently far forward to be
laid hold of by the teeth R, R, or R, R', and so to prevent the plates resting
in such a position as to get unterlocked.
In the event of any of the plates becoming broken, they can easily be
taken out and replaced, even while the apparatus is in action, by opening a
portion Y of the front side of the grooves C, C, this part of the ledge of the
groove being hinged, so that it readily admits of its being open for this
purpose.
I do not confine myself to the precise method of raising the plates from
the lower to the upper grooves, as the same may be effected in various ways,
but the arrangement shewn is that which I prefer.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I am aware that it bas
been proposed to employ in lears horizontally revolving platforms similar to
railway turntables; but they are objectionable on account of the space they
occupy, and the consequently extensive and particular form of lear necessary
for them, and that therefore I seek to lay no claim to such horizontally revolv-
ing platforms; nor do I claim the mechanical parts or elements of which the
machinery, herein described, is or may be composed as being separate or apart
from the combination and application thereof in manner and for the purposes

page_text: herein described, any part of the Invention comprised in the said Letters Patent;
but I do claim,―
First, the employment in annealing and-firing furnaces or lears of lear pans
or plates attached to endless chains or bands or otherwise combined, so as to
form an endless table, as shewn in Figures 1 and 2, or a continuous table, as
shewn in Figures 3 and 4, for receiving the articles to be annealed or-fired
while being passed through the furnace or lear, as herein-before described.
And, second, the employment in annealing and firing furnaces or lears of
lear pans or plates caused to travel from end to end of a lear, er-eaused to
receive and discharge their load in a lear, and-to-be-again-presented for a fresh
load or charge, without the necessity-of-being-removed-from-the-lear by any means
other than by the employment of-a-horizontally-revolving platform-or-table, as
herein-before described.
And I, the said Samuel Neville, do further declare that the above-written
Disclaimer and Memorandum of Alteration are not, nor are nor is either of
them, nor any parts thereof, respectively intended to extend the exclusive right
granted by the said Letters Patent, and that these presents shall not extend
the said exclusive right in any way whatsoever.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Neville, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of August, One thousand eight
hundred and sixty.
I hereby grant my fiat, giving leave to the above-mentioned Samuel Neville
5 to file in the Great Seal Patent Office, with the Specification to which the
same relates, the above-written amended Disclaimer and Memorandum of
Alteration.