CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR SWEEPING AND CLEANING CHIMNEYS AND FLUES
Year: 1842

page_text: TO. ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
HAWE, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, did, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Ninth day of May, in the fifth year of Her reign, give
and grant unto me, the said George Hawe, my exors, admors, and assigns,"
Her especial licence, that I, the said George Hawe, my exors, admors, and
assigns, should and lawfully might, during the term of fourteen years therein
mentioned, make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR SWEEPING AND CLEANING CHIMNEYS AND FLUES;"
in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that if I, the said George
Hawe, should not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in Her
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months then next im-
mediately after the date of the said Letters Patent now being recited, that
then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever
thereby granted, should utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in
and by the same, reference being thereunto had, may more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I do hereby
declare that the nature of my said Invention, and the manner in which the

page_text: same is to be performed, are particularly described and ascertained by the
description and statement herein-after contained, with the aid of the Drawing
hereunto annexed, and herein referred to, and in which Drawing I have.
employed throughout the same letters or numbers of reference to denote the
same parts in all the different Figures in which the same letters or numbers
occur; and to avoid the multiplied use of the same letters of reference, when
referring to several similar or corresponding parts marked with the same
letter in the Figure or Figures in which they occur, I declare that by a
reference to any single letter I intend to refer to all the parts (if more than
one) marked therewith in any Figure or Figures in which the same occurs.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
In Figure 1 the parts marked a represent two small windlasses, which,
during the operation of sweeping, as practised by me, and herein-after described,
are attached to a fire-place b; to each of the windlasses is attached one end of
a chain or wire rope c, carrying the brush d, and passing from the one wind-
lass up the chimney or flue A, over the pulley y, and then down the chimney
to the other windlass, as shewn in the Figure; a sufficient portion of the chain,
for the purpose herein-after mentioned, must also be coiled round or upon one
of the windlasses before the operation of sweeping is commenced. The word
chain is herein-after used by me to express either chain or wire rope, unless
where the latter term is expressly used. d is the brush attached to the chain.
Across the chimney or flue are bars e, two at each bend in the chimney, as
shewn in the Drawing, Figure 1; these bars regulate the distance of the chain
and brush from the sides of the chimney, where the direction of its course is
bent; similar bars are to be used for this purpose whenever a bend occurs in
a chimney. fare two pieces of glass, fixed firmly in the chain, so as to form
a means of connection between two of the links of the chain, and at the same.
time to prevent their coming into contact with each other where the glass is
interposed.
In Figure 2, 9 is a front view, h a side view, and a plan, of one of
these pieces of glass, each of which has two grooves cut in it to admit
parts of two links of the chain, one from above, the other from below. If a
wire rope is used, loops may be made to fit into the grooves in the glass. By
the interposition of these pieces of glass, as described, and as shewn in the
Drawing, the chain is prevented from forming a conductor of electric fluid so
long as one piece remains at each side of the pulley y. At the commencement
of the operation of sweeping the chimney or flue by this apparatus, the brush d
is attached to the chains just above one of the windlasses, which must have as

page_text: much chain wound upon or round it as will, when drawn off by the revolution
of the other windlass, turned by the handle attached thereto, admit of the
brush being drawn up one side of the chimney or flue, round the top of the
pulley, and down the other side of the chimney, until the brush reaches
the side of the fire-place opposite to that from which it set out. The windlass
opposite to the brush, in the situation it has now arrived at, is now made to
revolve by turning its handle, and the brush thus made to retrace the course
it has passed and returned to the place it started from, and this operation may
be repeated until the chimney or flue is thoroughly swept or cleaned.
In Figure 3, i is a fire-board, made to fit into the framework of the chimney
or mantelpiece j, j, as nearly air-tight as may be and as is required for the
operation of sweeping or cleaning the adjacent chimney or flue, by means of
the action of the apparatus I am about to describe. k is a hollow cylinder,
open at both ends, made of sheet iron or other suitable material, and is firmly
fitted by an air-tight joint into a circular opening of corresponding diameter
in the fire-board; lis a piston, formed of wood or other suitable material,.
with a groove running round its periphery, as shown in dotted lines at m, in
Figure 3, for the purpose of introducing a packing of hemp or cotton, so as to
prevent the air in the cylindar from passing from one side the piston to the
other; n is a steel spring, fixed by the two feet o to the horizontal board p,
which lies on the floor, and is attached at one end to the fire-board during the
operation about to be described; q is a stud, attached to the spring n; r is a
tappet, fixed upon a shaft, with a handle at each side, which shaft is in a line
at right angles with and opposite to the spring stud q, and works in steps upon
two supports rising from the board p.
Figure 4 is a front view of the apparatus shewn in Figure 3; the spring n
is so adjusted, that it presses, by means of the stud q attached to it, against
whatever part of the circumference of the tappet r is opposed to it; so that
when the tappet, which is fixed excentric on the shaft, is turned in the
direction of the arrow, the spring n, and the piston, by its union therewith
at the moveable joint t, are gradually forced back, until the points of the
tappet, which is at the greatest distance from its shaft, has passed the stud. g,
and allowed the spring to fly back, when it draws the piston with it with.
great velocity. By the partial vacuum thus suddenly formed in the cylinder k,
the column of air in the chimney or flue receives a sudden impulse from
the top of the chimney to the cylinder, as much air rushing in at the top
of the chimney as was withdrawn by the action of the piston in the cylinder;
this sudden disturbance, given to the air in the chimney or flue, causes the
removal of a large portion of the soot adhering to its sides. The operation

page_text: must be repeated until all the soot, or, what practically may be called all, has
been withdrawn.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, I declare that I do not claim as of my
Invention, the use of a brush attached to a chain or wire rope passing over a
pulley and traversing up and down a chimney or flue for the purpose of sweep-
ing or cleaning the same, considered as a separate or independent contrivance,
the same having been already in public use; but I claim as of my Invention,
First, the employment and use, in manner herein-before described, of wind-
lasses, in connection with such chain or rope, as the means or instruments
of motion, by which the brush is made to travel up and down the chimney
or flue.
Secondly, the contrivance, herein-before described, for interruping the con-
tinuity of the chain or rope as a conductor of electric fluid, by the interposition
in manner herein-before described, of pieces of glass or other bodies, being
non-conductors of electric fluid,, or considered and practically employed as
such.
Thirdly, the contrivance for removing soot from chimneys or flues by the
sudden concussion or disturbance of the air therein, by means of the apparatus
herein-before described, and represented in Figures 3 and 4 of the Drawing, or
any similar apparatus producing a similar effect on the air in the chimney
or flue.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Eighth
day of November, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and forty-two.