IMPROVEMENTS IN WASHING AND PURIFYING SMOKE AND VAPOURS EVOLVED FROM FURNACES OF VARIOUS DESCRIPTIONS
Year: 1837

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, TOBIAS
MICHELL, of Kingsland Green, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Seventh day of November, in the first year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Tobias
Michell, Her especial license, full power, sole privilege and authority, that
I, the said Tobias Michell, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Tobias Michell, my executors, administrators, or assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick upon Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN WASHING AND
PURIFYING SMOKE AND VAPOURS EVOLVED FROM FURNACES OF VARIOUS DESCRIPTIONS;"
in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said Tobias
Michell, shall cause a particular description of the naturo of my said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in Her
said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and

page_text: immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in
and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at
large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Tobias Michell, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed are particularly described
and ascertained in and by the Drawing hereunto annexed, and the following
description thereof, that is to say:-
My said improvements in washing or purifying smoke and vapours evolved
from furnaces of various descriptions consist in the use or employinent of
machinery to cause an exhausting or propelling current or currents or both,
whereby I compel the smoke or vapours evolved from furnaces to pass
repeatedly through bodies of water, or water or other fluids impregnated with
alcalies or other fit and proper substances, or through substances or through
interstices between substances, whether moist or dry, and which are calculated
to neutralize or decompose the acid or other noxious fumes evolved from
furnaces, and particularly those furnaces which are employed in the smelting,
calcination, or fusion of metallic ores, as also in the decomposition of common
salt or muriate of soda or mineral alcali therefrom. And such machinery nay
be exhausting pumps actuated by the powers of wind, water, steam, or either
first movers of machinery, or centrifugal exhausting machines, and either
such as will be more particularly described herein, or any others possessed
of sufficient powers to produce the desired effect. In the said Drawing,
Figure 1 is a front view or elevation; Figure 2, an end view; and Figure 3,
a plan or top view, of an exhausting or propelling apparatus, consisting of a
series of vessels A, A, with pipes or tubes B, B, one end of each of which
descends below the surface of the water or other fluid contained in the said
vessels, whilst their other ends C, C, proceed from the upper part of the said
vessels; these said vessels and pipes may be more or less numerous according
as the smoke and vapours evolved from the furnaces require to be purified in a
greater or lesser degree. The tube or pipe D conveys the smoke or vapours
from the first vessel A into a valve box E, a plan of which is shown separately
in Figure 4; upon the top of this valve box E two exhausting cylinders F, F,
are mounted, and secured by flanches with screwed bolts and screwed nuts to
them, and each cylinder is provided with a piston G, G, shewn by dotted lines
in Figures 1 and 2, which fits rather loosely, so that it descends by its own
weight at the same time that it fits as tightly in each cylinder as may be to
allow of such descent. The tops of these cylinders are open, and lines or cords

page_text: affixed to each piston are secured at their other ends to a cylinder, barrel, or
drum H, Figures 1, 2, and 3, with a shaft or axis having necks or pivots
turning in bearings with brasses to them, which are mounted firmly upon a
platform secured upon the upper ends of the cylinders F, F, as shown in those
Figures, and upon the said shaft or axis a toothed wheel or pinion I is affixed,
as shewn in Figures 2 and 3, and by dotted lines in Figure 1, and in which a
toothed rack J works backwards and forwards, and as impelled by the first
moving power which actuates the machinery, and thus alternately raises and
lowers the pistons. The smoke or vapours from the furnaces are brought by
the pipe or tube B, Figures 1 and 3, which descends through the closely fitted
cover of the vessel A, below the surface of the water or other fluid contained
in the said vessel, where it is diffused or spread through the said water by
means of a number of slender rods of wood or metal, which are affixed
underneath the end of the said pipe or tube, they being mounted upon a disc
or support which surrounds the aperture of the pipe. The smoke or vapours
being thus once washed are conveyed through the pipe C, D, into a chamber
E, of the valve box, from whence they pass through one of the valves K, K,
shewn in Figures 2 and 4, into one of the pump cylinders F, whilst the piston
is rising, and also into the other cylinder on its piston being raised. When
the pistons are depressed the washed smoke or vapours are expelled through
the valves L, L. and are either delivered into the external air or again
propelled through other waters or fluids repeatedly, as their impurities may
require. During the passage of the smoke or vapours through the water or
other fluids they may also be compelled to pass underneath a series of
horizontal combs or brushes M, M, M, Figures 5 and 6, which dip into the
water or other fluids in the manner shown in Figure 5, which is a longitudinal
section of a metal pipe or trough, and a transverse or cross section of which is
shewn in Figure 6, and thereby become further purified, or they may be
passed through other apparatus similar to that shewn in Figure 7, which
is provided with a convenience whereby a specimen of the state of the
process may be withdrawn occasionally for examination through the lower
aperture of a vessel N, which is fitted with a closely shutting pan or dish O,
nd which is kept shut by means of the following contrivance:-The dish O
is hung to a bent lever P, which is jointed to an arm affixed upon the
vessel N. To the outer end of the bent lever P another bent lever Qis
connected by means of a pin or stud which slides within a groove formed
in one branch of the bent lever P; the bent lever Q has a hole made through
its angular part, which is fitted upon a stud or pin affixed in the solid part R,

page_text: of the frame of the apparatus and turns upon the said pin as a fulcrum.
When the dish is to be held or retained in the position shewn in Figure 7 the
pin in the lever Q is brought down to the bottom of the groove in the bent
lever P, and retains it nearly at a right angle. When, however, the dish is to
be set at liberty and the aperture opened, the lever Q being brought into the
position shewn by the dotted lines, the dish and the other parts connected
with it will likewise assume the different positions there also indicated by the
dotted lines. A partition S, formed of a metal plate perforated with holes all
over it, and having a number of slender rods at its edge, in the manner of a
brush, and as shewn separately in Figure 7, S reaches across the upper
orifice of the vessel N, and compels the smoke or vapours in their passage
through it to descend within the water or other fluids contained in the vessel,
and thereby become farther washed or purified, and which is still promoted by
the partitions T, T, &c. which are placed across the pipe or trough for that.
purpose. U in Figures 5 and 7 are doors hinged air-tight to the pipes or
troughs, to be opened occasionally in order to see whether any arsenic, flowers
of zinc, sulphur, or other volatile deposits arising with the smoke or vapours
from the furnaces may be lodged there, and if so to remove them. Figure 8
represents two inverted bells, rising and falling in circular grooves, of water or
other fluids, as being substituted in place of the pump barrels and pistons
above described. The circular grooves may be formed in brickwork, as shewn
in the Figure, or of iron or other proper metal or materials, and the bells may
be alternately raised and lowered by means of the grooved arched heads
mounted upon an axis and furnished with ropes or chains from which the bells
are hung or suspended, and they may be actuated by means of a toothed
wheel mounted upon the axis, into which a toothed rack is fitted, to be
worked alternately backwards and forwards by the first moving power of the
machinery. The smoke or vapours enter this apparatus and pass through
the valves and up the middle pipes or tubes into the bells on their being
raised up, and are again propelled through the same tubes and thence through
other valves on the descent of the bells, and, finally, either pass out through
the central orifice V below into the surrounding atmosphere or are conveyed
to other purifying apparatus when needful through pipes connected with the
said orifice. Instead of an alternating exhausting action, as produced by the
two different machines above described, I can produce a continued one, in
the following manner:-Figure 9 is a side elevation and section of a new
exhauster, composed of an upright shaft or axis W, W, furnished with
eight flat metal wings or vanes X, X, &c. mounted upon as many arms

page_text: affixed upon the upper end of the axis, the whole being covered with a flat
metal plate, and having also a flat metal ring below extending to the diameter.
of the vanes, and with a central hole the diameter of the internal ends of the
vanes. This exhauster is surrounded by a square metal frame, open at the.
sides, with metal pillars at each corner, which are supported upon the main
building or basis of the machine; the cross bars extend above the centre of.
the frame, where a screwed pivot with a screwed lock bar passes through
a screwed-hole formed in a socket and descends into an oil cup and female
pivot formed at the upper end of the shaft or axis W. The lower end of this.
shaft is made flat, and is supported upon a circular convex block of hardened
steel mounted in a chair or step Y, filled with oil and secured to the main
building. A pulley or band wheel Z is affixed upon the shaft, to be actuated
or driven by a band proceeding from another band wheel (not shewn), and
which is put into notion by the first mover of the machinery. The smoke or
vapours after being previously washed or purified by any of the methods above
described, or by any other means, is conveyed into the central hole in the-
lower metal ring of the wheel through one or more metal tubes or pipes, as
shown by the darts or arrows, and by the rapid centrifugal action of the
machine will be scattered and dispersed into the atmosphere on all sides.
Figure 10 is a plan of this machine, but with the central part of the fixed
frame shewn only by dotted lines, in order to exhibit the form of the wheel
the better. Figure 11 is a horizontal windmill of a new construction, which
I can employ to actuate these machines, as well, as those of the usual con-
trivances; a, a, is an upright shaft or axis, the lower part of which is formed
into a crank b, and it has likewise a toothed spur wheel c mounted upon
it, the use of which will be described hereafter. The bottom pivot of this
shaft is made flat and hard, and it rests upon a convex circular block of hard
steel let into a recess made in the centre of the socket and oil cup & to
receive it. Figure 12 is an enlarged view and section of these parts. The
upper part of this shaft a, a, has a cast iron oil cup e mounted upon it, having
a cylindrical tube around its centre, which is fitted to another tube, secured
by screwed bolts and nuts underneath a rafter or beam f of the building.
within which the machine is erected. This latter tube is marked g, and these
parts constitute the upper pivot and bearing of the shaft a, a. This shaft is
continued above this bearing, and has affixed to it twelve wings or vanes,
constituting the wheel or moving part of the horizontal windmill, by means of
two sets of four arms each, with sockets mounted upon the shaft. Around this
wheel of the windmill an iron frame h, h, swings, and carries a large wind
vane i, and a quadrantal screen j, one half of which is made to fold back upon

page_text: hinges, as is shewn by the dotted lines in Figure 18, which is a plan of it
shewn upon a smaller scale. This plan likewise exhibits the action of the
wind by means of darts or arrows, shewing that when the large wind vane i
is in the direction of the wind the quadrantal screen ; shuts off its action
entirely upon one half of the windmill, whilst nearly the whole of the other
half of it is freely exposed to its action; but when the half of the screen
is folded back, as shewn by the dotted lines in Figure 13, then the wind
acting upon both sides of the windmill with equal powers, one to turn the mill
and the other to oppose its motion, of course the mill remains at rest or
immoveable, and in order to set it in motion again the screen must be again
opened as at first. The frame carrying the screen ; and large vane i swings
around, and is supported upon the mill shaft a, a, in the following manner :-
The upright standard k, to which the large vane is affixed, passes through the
centre of the upper part of the frame downwards, and is made cylindrical and
flat at its bottom, and is hardened. Within the upper end of the shaft a, a,
a cylindrical hole is made to fit the cylindrical descending part of the
standard k, and it has likewise a short cylinder of hard steel, having its upper
surface made convex, fitted into the bottom of that hole, as shown upon a
larger scale in Figure 14, and upon which the flat bottom of the descending
standard rests, and is thus supported. To the lower central part of the
frame there is also affixed by screwed bolts and nuts another metal socket g,
similar to that before described, and which is received and turns in another
cast iron oil cup e, with a socket made to fit it, which is fixed upon the mill
shaft a, a, and within which it freely swings. The toothed spur wheel c
above mentioned drives a pinion 7, which is mounted upon another upright
shaft or axis m, carrying a band wheel n, from which a band is passed to a
smaller band wheel, similar to that shewn in Figure 9, to actuate the
centrifugal fan or exhauster. The upper end of the shaft m is furnished with
an oil cup and socket, similar to that described in the references to that
Figure, into which a screwed cylindrical pivot with a lock bar is passed from
the beam f, and its foot is made cylindrical and flat, and turns in an oil cup
and socket, and rests upon a hard cylinder with a convex upper surface,
mounted within the said oil cup, exactly in a similar manner with the upright
shaft W, W, of Figure 9.
In witness whereof, I, the said Tobias Michell, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventh day of May, One thousand eight hundred
TOBIAS (L.B.) MICHELL.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Seventh day of May, in the
first year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, the said Tobias Michell
came before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged
the Instrument aforesaid, and all and everything therein contained and
specified, in form above written. And also the Instrument aforesaid was
stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the fifty-fifth year of
the reign of His late Majesty King George the Third.