IMPROVED MEANS FOR HEATING Box IRONS
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Frederick Stichbury, of Vicarage Road, Leyton,
in the County of Essex, for the Invention of "IMPROVED MEANS FOR
HEATING Box IRONS."
Sealed the 15th December 1874, and dated the 9th October 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Frederick Stichbury at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 9th October 1874.
I, FREDERICK STICHBURY, of Vicarage Road, Leyton, in the County
of Essex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVED MEANS FOR HEATING Box IRONS," to be as follows, that is to
say:-
This Invention, which relates to the finishing of textile fabrics, such
as shirts, collars, cuffs, skirts, petticoats, and other articles of wearing
apparel, and that in a speedier and more economical manner than by the
means at present in use for finishing such articles, consists in the use of
an iron heated by means of a mixture of air and coal gas or other gases,
ค

page_text: such iron being made to reverse, so that when one side becomes cool the
other, which has been heated in the meantime, is ready for use on the
said fabrics, and is so used after being reversed, such reversion of the
sides being made alternately so long as the iron is heated and is required
to be used.
In carrying the Invention into practice a hollow iron is so made as to
be heated by means of a burner or burners consuming a mixture of air
and coal gas or other gases, the said iron or sad iron being so constructed
and fitted as regards the pipes supplying the air and gas that the top is
easily converted into the bottom and the bottom into the top, and so on
alternately as long as it may be desired to use the said iron.
In mixing the gas and air the air is admitted to the pipe or pipes at a
level lower than that at which the iron itself is used. By so doing the
burner or burners within the iron is or are not affected by draughts or
by the motion of the said iron, and this arrangement consequently
affords a greater and a more steady heat.
By means of the arrangement for reversing the iron top to bottom,
and vice versa, great economy is obtained both in time and labour as
well as in the cost of the heating agent.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, :
filed by the said Frederick Stichbury in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 9th April 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FREDERICK
STICHBURY, of Vicarage Road, Leyton, in the County of Essex, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of October, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty-
eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Frederick Stichbury, Her special licence a
that I, the said Frederick Stichbury, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Frederick Stichbury, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and

page_text: By mixing the gas and air at a point distant about three feet or
thereabouts from the point of ignition I obtain a more intimate mixture,
and consequently a more economical consumption of gas for the degree
of heat obtained.
The irons to be heated by the combustion of this mixture may be con-
structed in different ways to suit the special purposes for which they are
required.
For use in laundries attached to the manufactories of linen collars,
cuffs, and similar articles of wearing apparel I prefer box irons con-
structed with two acting surfaces, such irons being fitted to their handles
so as to be reversible, that is to say, the "bottom" may become the
top," and vice versa. The terms bottom and top are therefore for the
purpose of this Specification used relatively.
"
In the accompanying Drawing Fig. 1 shows in side elevation a divided
reversible box or sad iron suited for laundry work; Fig. 2 is a plan view
with the upper half of the iron removed; and Fig. 3 is a vertical
section taken in the line 1, 2, of Fig. 1.
A and A¹ are the two corresponding halves of the iron, connected
together by means of screws, which pass through lugs a cast with one-
half of the iron and fitting into recesses made in the other half to receive
them; B is a central axle on which the iron is free to turn to bring the
acting surfaces alternately into use as they are heated. To this axle B
the handle C is firmly secured. Fitted to the arms of the handle is a
spring catch D, D, the hooked extremity of which takes into holes made
in one end of the iron, and thereby serves to lock it in position and
prevent its turning upon the axle B.
In the centre of the bottom of each half of the iron I make or cast a
gas-way or closed passage b (Fig. 3) which may be of any suitable form.
This gas-way communicates through a short passage in the back of the
iron with the interior of the axle B, which is made hollow for a portion
of its length, and terminates in a coupling screw or union for connection
with the flexible tube E that leads the mixed gases to the iron. Through
the cover of the passage 6 in the bottom of the iron I bore any suitablo
number of fine holes, and of any desired gauge for the issue of the
mixture of gas and air to be consumed for heating the iron. The interior
of each half of the iron, it will be understood, is constructed in a precisely
similar manner. The mixed gas, as it leaves the flexible pipe E, passes

page_text: through an opening made in the under side of the hollow portion of the
axle B to the gas passage 6 in that part only of the iron which for the
time being forms the bottom half, whence it issues at the holes above
mentioned as from a burner to be consumed.
On each side of the passage 6 I cast or otherwise construct a channel
or groove c, which communicates with the external atmosphere by
means of a number of holes & drilled through or otherwise formed in the
sides of each half of the iron. The holes in the bottom half serve to
admit air for supporting combustion, while those in the top half serve as
outlets for the products of combustion.
To prevent the necessity for relighting the gas at every turn over of
the iron (which motion cuts off the gas from one passage b, and admits
it to the other) I bore a hole in the under side of the hollow part of the
axle B, as at e, Fig. 1, and thereby ensure the maintenance of an ignited
jet of gas, which will serve to light the several jets issuing from the
pierced cover of the passage 6 of the heated half of the iron when brought
into the position for working.
A modification of the box or sad iron just described is shewn in side
elevation at Fig. 4, and in transverse section at Fig. 5. In this iron the
gas and air are consumed at one burner, the hollow axle B constituting
both the gas supply pipe and the burner. For this latter purpose the
axle is pierced with two rows of fine holes in its under side, and jets of
flame are thus deflected on to the iron, which in this case is cast in one.
piece, but cored out, as shewn at Fig. 5, and provided with longitudinal
recesses c, c, which are brought into communication with the air by the
lateral ventilating holes d, as in the first described arrangement. The
handle C, Fig. 4, is locked to the reversible iron by means of the spring
catch D, the construction of which is clearly shewn in the Drawing.
The arrangement for mixing the gas and air is shown at Fig. 6, which
represents a portion of a bench suitably fitted for four workers. In this
Figure F is a gas supply pipe situate near the floor, and connecting with
three Bunsen arrangements G, G, G¹, for mixing air with jets of gas
supplied from the pipe. Into the perforated bell shaped termination of
these vertical tubes the jets for supplying gas project about half an inch
or so above the openings for admitting air. At their upper ends the
tubes G, G, are severally connected with an india-rubber tube E, which
serves to make a flexible connection with the iron. It is essential in

page_text: arranging these pipes and tubes that they should be as straight as
possible, so as to offer the minimum amount of hindrance to the passage
of the mixture of gas and air. In certain cases I may place between
the point where the gas and air are mixed and the iron or irons in which
the mixture is consumed a reservoir from which tubes can be taken
to supply two or more irons, such reservoir being placed on the work
bench or in some other suitable place. This is illustrated at H, Fig. 6,
in connection with the tube G³.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of " Improved
Means for Heating Box Irons," and explained the manner of carrying
the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that under the above in
part recited Letters Patent I claim,―
First. The means above described for maintaining the heat of the
acting surfaces of box irons.
Secondly. Constructing box irons with reversible acting surfaces as
and for the purpose above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Frederick Stichbury, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, the Ninth day of April, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
five.