AN IMPROVED KITCHEN FIRE-PLACE
Year: 1810

page_text: CRAIGIE'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, 1. JOHN
CRAIGIE, of Quebec, in the Province of Lower Canada, now residing in
Craven Street, in the County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the First day of February,
in the fiftieth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said John Craigie,
my executors, adiñors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privi-
lege and authority, that I, the said John Craigie, my executors, adñiors, and
assigns, during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick upon Tweed, and also in all the Colonies and Plantations abroad, my
Invention of "AN IMPROVED KITCHEN FIRE-PLACE;" in which said Letters Patent
there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said John Craigie, by an instru-
ment in writing under my hand and seal, to cause a particular description of
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be enrolled in Ilis Majesty's High Court of Chancery within two
calendar months after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by
the same, relation being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Craigie, do hereby declare that my said Invention consists in the application
of the powers of an air furnace to give heat externally, and in using sand, iron,
or other dense bodies to receive and retain such heat to be employed for various
useful purposes.

page_text: DESCRIPTION OF A FIRE-PLACE ON THE SMALLEST SCALE, BUT COMPREHENDING
THE SEVERAL OBJECTS PROPOSED.
A foundation or basis is to be placed in some convenient part of the kitchen
or house, in stone or brick, of about four feet in length by about two feet eight
inches in breadth, about 20 inches in height at one end; in the front is to be
placed the chimney grate, eighteen inches wide and six deep.
On the foundation in the centre, at nineteen inches distant from each other,
are to be raised two sides in stone or brick, the whole length thereof, about
eight inches in height; on these sides is to be placed a pan of cast iron, of
size to cover the whole, with rims to rest on the sides, but leaving a small space
vacant, say about half an inch, from each side below; the depth of the pan
may be about five or six inches, and will be raised above the basis so as to
leave an aperture throughout of about an inch and a half. At the end of the
furnace, opposite to the fire grate, the aperture will terminate in a flue of brick
or iron, to convey the smoke into the chimney of the house, which flue should
be furnished with a register or damper.
A plate projecting from the lower end of the pan will form the top of the
fire-place, of eighteen inches by six or eight. The sides will be formed of fire
bricks. The back of fire brick will ascend towards the top in a sloping direc-
tion under the pan.
A frame of iron will be placed to receive the door or front, which will be in
the clear about eighteen inches in width by about sixteen inches in depth, that
is to say, to cover the ash-pit four inches, and about twelve inches above
the grate for the fire-place, in front of which there should be an inner grate of
about five or six inches high. This door must have in the lower part of it, say
about an inch and a half from the bottom, a small door of about three inches
wide by two in depth, to furnish air through the ash-pit. When wood is used
for fuel the depth of the fire-place may be twelve inches instead of six.
PURPOSES TO WHICH THESE FIRE-PLACES ARE PROPOSED TO BE APPLIED.
The iron pan being filled with dry sand will form a sand bath with heat
sufficient according to the depth to which the vessel is placed in it for all
culinary purposes, and being once heated will retain the heat for a considerable
time, especially if the doors are kept close shut.

page_text: The plate or front will serve for broiling or frying. Roasting may be per-
formed to perfection before the door in front, even with the doors shut. An
oven for baking may be fixed at the flues. Convenience will be found in having
the meat, &c. to be roasted suspended from a moveable fire-screen.
And I do hereby describe the above means of retaining and using the heat
without expenditure of fuel, by preventing the access of air, to be one of the
parts and advantages of my said Invention.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Sixteenth day of March, in the
year of our Lord 1810, the aforesaid John Craigie came before our said Lord
the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid, and
all and everything therein contained and specified, in form above written. And
also the Specification aforesaid was stampt according to the tenor of the Statute
made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Sixteenth day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and ten.