IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR HEATING BUILDINGS BY MEANS OF HOT WATER
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Henry Pierce, of Plymouth, in the County
of Devon; Gentleman, for the Invention of "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR
HEATING BUILDINGS BY MEANS OF HOT WATER."
Sealed the 24th November 1863, and dated the 29th May 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Henry Pierce
at. the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
29th May 1863.
I, GEORGE HENRY PIERCE, of Plymouth, in the County of Devon, Gentleman,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVED APPARATUS
FOR HEATING BUILDINGS BY MEANS OF HOT WATER," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to hot-water apparatus employed for warming or
heating buildings, and consists of a furnace with a suitable flue, and a boiler
with flow and return pipes, the furnace being provided with a self-acting
feeder, which (by means of clockwork) supplies the requisite amount of coal
or fuel to the fire at any fixed time of the day or night. The boiler is of
conical shape, with the feeding door placed in the usual position. The flue,
instead of being at the side or back, is at the top, taking any turns required by
the form of the building to which it is applied. The flow pipe is in proportion

page_text: to the flue as large again and contains the flue to the length of the building;
the object of the flue passing through the flow pipe is, that all heat generated
within the boiler will be. turned to account in the course of the draught coming
in contact with a large portion of metal surrounded by water. A damper is
placed just above the end of the flow pipe, so that when the fuel is well lit up
the heat may be regulated. The feeder is a box or spout of a semicircular
shape, about one foot in length, with an opening in the flat side about one
inch from the front of the boiler, into which fits a sliding door with a trap to
fall over the orifice when the slide is withdrawn; into this box the requisite
quantity of coal or fuel is placed, and the feeder is then closed by a door.
any hour of the day or night to which the clockwork may be set a hammer in
the clockwork falls on a catch, which action will release the end of a lever to
which a weight is attached, which in its descent lifts the sliding door in the
feeder, and allows the coal in the feeder to slip into the furnace or cavity
of the boiler.
At
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George Henry Pierce in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 28th November 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
HENRY PIERCE, of Plymouth, in the County of Devon, Gentleman, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-sixth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said George Henry Pierce, Her special license that I, the said George Henry
Pierce, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said George Henry Pierce, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
thereafter 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 Invention for "IMPROVED
APPARATUS FOR HEATING BUILDINGS BY MEANS OF HOT WATER," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said George Henry Pierce,
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my hand

page_text: and seal, or under the hand and seal of one of them, should particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same was 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 George Henry Pierce, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement in writing, and on reference being had to the accompanying
Sheet of Drawings, that is to say :-
This Invention relates to hot-water apparatus employed for warming or
heating buildings, and consists of a furnace with a suitable flue, and a boiler
with flow and return pipes, the furnace being provided with a self-acting
feeder, which (by means of clockwork) supplies the requisite amount of coal
or fuel to the fire at any fixed time of the day or night. The boiler is of
conical shape, with the feeding door placed in the usual position. The flue,
instead of being at the side or back, is at the top, taking any turns required
by the form of the building to which it is applied. The flow pipe is in
proportion to the flue as large again, and contains the flue to the length of the
building; the object of the flue passing through the flow pipe is, that all heat
generated within the boiler will be turned to account in the course of the
draught coming in contact with a large portion of metal surrounded by water.
A damper is placed just above the end of the flow pipe, so that when the fuel
is well lit up the heat may be regulated. The feeder is a box or spout of a
semicircular shape, about one foot in length, with an opening in the flat side
about one inch from the front of the boiler, into which fits a sliding door
with a trap to fall over the orifice when the slide is withdrawn; into this box
the requisite quantity of coal or fuel is placed, and the feeder is then closed
by a door. At any hour of the day or night to which the clockwork may be
set a cord connected to the clockwork acts on a catch, which action will
release the end of a lever to which a weight is attached, which in its descent
lifts the sliding door in the feeder, and allows the coal in the feeder to slip
into the furnace or cavity of the boiler.
Such being the nature and object of my said Invention for improved
apparatus for heating buildings by means of hot water, I will now proceed
to describe more in detail the manner in which the same is to be or may be
performed or carried into practical effect; and in order that the same may be
distinctly understood, I have annexed hereunto a Sheet of Drawings illustrative

page_text: thereof, and have marked the same with figures and letters of reference.
corresponding with those in the following explanation thereof, that is to.
say:
In the annexed Drawing, Figure 1 represents a front view of my improved
feeding apparatus as applied to a boiler, and Figure 2 is a vertical section
taken through about the centre of the boiler and flue..
a, a, represents the boiler, and b, b, the flue; c, c, is the flow pipe, which is
about twice the diameter of the flue, and surrounds the latter throughout the
whole extent of the building, both the flue and the flow pipe taking such turns
or bends as may be required by the form of the building; d is the mouth of the
flue outside the building; e is a damper in the flue for regulating the draught;
f is a cap, by removing which the flue may be cleansed by means of an ordinary
flue brush; g, g, is the return pipe; h, h, is the feeder, consisting of a box or
spout of a semi-cylindrical form, with an opening in the flat or upper side near
to the boiler, into which fits a sliding door i, i, which when in its place closes
the opening into the cavity of the boiler, and retains the reserve supply of fuel
in the box h, h, till the door i, i, is withdrawn; k is a door for closing the
mouth of the feeder, and is a trap which falls over the orifice from which the
sliding door i, i, has been withdrawn. The withdrawal of the sliding door i, i,
and consequently the admission of the reserve fuel into the furnace, is effected
at the desired time by the following means:-m, m, is a wall plate fixed in
the brickwork and supporting an ordinary alarum clock, to the alarum wheel
of which one end of the piece of gut or cord n is attached, the other end of the
same being connected to a catch o, o; p, p, is a lever, one end of which is
placed under the catch o, o, and the other end through a loop in the cord or
chain 9, 9. This cord passes over two pullies, and has a weight r, r, attached
to one end, and the sliding door i, i, to the other. The clock being set to the
desired time, and the feeder supplied with fuel, as soon as the alarum runs.
down the cord or gut n withdraws the catch o from the end of the lever p,
when the weight r draws down the other end of the lever p, slipping the loop
of the cord or chain q off the end, and raising the sliding door i, i, allows
the fuel to fall into the furnace, the trap closing the orifice from which the
sliding door i, i, has been withdrawn.
l
Having now described the nature and object of my said Invention for
improved apparatus for heating buildings by means of hot water, together with
the manner in which the same is to be or may be performed or carried
into practical effect, I would remark in conclusion that I claim as my
Invention,-

page_text: Firstly, constructing boilers for such purposes with the flue passing through
the flow pipe.
And, secondly, the self-acting feeding apparatus constructed substantially
in the manner and for the purposes herein-before set forth and described.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Henry Pierce, have hereunto set
'my hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of November, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.
G. H. PIERCE. (L.S.)