NEW INVENTED PROCESS AND METHOD OF STOVING AND DRYING TOBACCO, AND THE PREPARATION OF SNUFF
Year: 1801

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN'
STEVENSON, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Tobacconist, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty. King George the Third, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Tenth day of November, in the forty-second year of
His reign, did give and grant unto me, the said John Stevenson, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, His special licence and authority that
I, the said John Stevenson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, during
the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within that part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland called England, the Dominion of Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, my "NEW INVENTED PROCESS AND METHOD OF STOVING
AND DRYING TOBACCO, AND THE PREPARATION OF SNUFF;" in which Letters Patent
is contained a proviso obliging me, the said John Stevenson, 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 performed, to be inrolled in His
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar month next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, as in and by the same,
relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Stevenson, do hereby declare that my method of stoving and drying
tobacco, and the preparation for snuff, according to the said Invention, is
described and ascertained as hereafter mentioned, that is to say:-
A plan of the elevation of the stove, and of the top of the flues and
drawers, is drawn and delineated in the margin of these Presents. In

page_text: heating this Invention or stove with wood, coal, or any other fuel, the fire
dampers A, A, at the middle ends of the lower flues; and B, B, at the middle ends
of the higher flues, must be opened, and the side dampers C, C, and the steam
dampers D and E shut, provided the whole stove, pans, dampers, and other parts
be made agreeable to the Figures in the Plan, which are drawn in a twelfth
proportion. The person who uses it may put into each of the tobacco pans
F, F, which are similar to drawers, forty pounds, that is twenty pounds into each
division, of such tobacco as is intended to be dryed, and into the lower pan or
drawer G eighty pounds of snuff work. When the tobacco in the pans F, F,
is got warm it must be alternately drawn out, stirred, and put in again, and
about every twenty minutes the same must be done by the snuff work in the
lower pan G. Should the stove, or any part of it, get too hot, it may be
immediately regulated by shutting the whole or any of the dampers A, A, B, B,
and letting the heat of the fires or fire escape through both or one of the said
dampers C, C, into one of the upright flues H, which is similar to the other
flue H,, both of which discharge themselves at a, a, into the general receiver I,
which is cleared at the door e. If it be wished to let out or retain the steam
upon the tobacco, it may be done by the assistance of a cord or wire to open
or shut the steam damper D, fixed in a square pipe K, built in the back wall.
The same may, in like manner, be effected on the snuff work by the
damper E fixed into another pipe L, which empties itself, like K, into the
receiver I on the nearer side. The dotted lines in the elevation Figure
shew the size and situation of the higher flues, which serve to heat the upper
side of the tobacco, and also the lower flues which heat the bottom of the
tobacco pans and the upper side of the snuff work. The vacancy betwixt
the lower flues is secured by sheet iron, to prevent the sour steam of the snuff
work communicating with the tobacco part of the stove. The pans F, F,G,
are supposed to be drawn out in the ground plan, so as to shew a part of each
pan, that is, the top pan F is a little drawn, the second or lower pan F is still
more, and the bottom pan G is drawn nearly to the edge of the stove.
The said pans F, F, G, when used, must be drawn out till the further-sides-or
edges come level with the front of the stove, and the said sides or edges,
as well as the front sides or edges, of the said pans must be so made as
to shut close up with the front of the stove when drawn out or put in, so as to
prevent the heat from escaping in front of the stove. The dotted line O, O, in
he ground plan to the edge of the tobacco pan least drawn out, shews the
breadth of all the pans which, when shut, reach as far into the stove as the
strong dotted line u, u, leaving a vacancy M at the back part for the tobacco
and snuff-work steam to pass up K and L. N is a half-brick wall, supported

page_text: on iron bars, and covering in the front of the flues and the parts above and
below them. P is the back wall. Q are the end walls which project forward,
and on which the three pans run with castors upon the slides R, fixed in the
same wall. The upper flues which are marked S, S, S, S, and the lower ones
marked with the same letters, have their ends open as when cleaned, and are
made up with a sheet of iron lying against a shoulder, upon which mortar, is
spread, and flag or other material laid against it. T is a space to receive the
heat of the higher part of the upper flues, which again falls on the tobacco
pans through the vacancy V. W, is a piece of sheet iron coming in a bevel
direction to receive the ashes of the higher fire, and pass them into the ash
hole in front of the lower fire. X is a cast-iron fire grate, with a division in
the center, and is similar to the lower fire grate, both of which are shut by a
door in front of each. Y, Y, are two drawers, by which I, II, are cleaned.
Z, Z, Z, covers the upper flues by a plate of sheet iron lying upon bars
immediately over the space T, on which a layer of sand is spread for reflecting
the heat and bedding the flags, with which the stove is covered in and finished.
By the tobacco receiving the heat thus gradually on two sides, that is the part
laying to the pans and the part uppermost, it requires little working or stirring,
so that one man is enabled, in the course of a day, to dry twelve pans of
tobacco and two of snuff work, and the tobacco will keep much longer, make
less small, which is preserved in the same state with the tobacco, and the whole
will retain less of the flavour of fire than would otherwise have been communi-
cated to it from the plate of cast iron or copper now used, and the snuff work,
being longer in operation, smells less of fire, is capable of having the sour
strengthened by keeping the steam upon it, and the great consumption of coal
used in a large grate is also saved. The upper and lower flues (which heat
the stove) marked S, S, S, S, the upright flues H, H, the general receiver I,
and the three pans F, F, and G, are all made of strong sheet iron. This stove
will admit of variation in having the tobacco pans and the snuff-work pan
unconnected with each other, without deviating from the general principles of
the Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Stevenson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Third day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and one.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Third day of December,
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid John Stevenson came before our
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid,
and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written. And also
the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute
in that case niade and provided.
Inrolled the Fifth day of December, in the year above written.