AN IMPROVED METHOD OF USING FUEL SO AS TO BURN SMOKE
Year: 1831

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
LISTER MAW, of Southmolton Street, in the County of Middlesex, Lieutenant
in His Majesty's Royal Navy, send greeting.
".
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Twentieth day of July, in the second year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Henry Lister Maw, His especial licence that I, the said Henry Lister Maw,
my exors, adiñiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Henry Lister
Maw, my exors, adñiors, or assigns, 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, and also in all His
said Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "AN IMPROVED
METHOD OF USING FUEL SO AS TO BURN SMOKE;" in which said Letters Patent
is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Henry Lister Maw, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and
ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, and to cause the same to be enrolled in His said Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being
thereunto hal. will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: Deen consumed by passing up through the nre, after which i place the supply
fuel on the top of the fire, as occasion may require; and in further compliance
with the said proviso I, the said Henry Lister Maw, do hereby describe the
manner in which iny said Invention is to be performed by the following descrip-
tion thereof, reference being had to the Drawing annexed, and to the figures
and letters marked thereon, that is to say:-
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
I put the supply fuel into a separate cavity or receptacle placed under the
grate containing the ignited fuel, and when the more volatile parts of it have been
carried off through and burnt by the ignited fuel or fire above it, it is removed
as required and placed upon the said fire, which is thus fed with fuel. It is
manifest that the form of this separate cavity or receptacle, which I shall for
distinction call the lower or fuel grate, and its arrangement and situation with
respect to that containing the ignited fuel, which I shall call the upper or fire
grate, as well as the mode of removing the fuel from the lower to the upper
grate, admit of great variation, and must in each particular case be adapted to
the particular purpose and object of the fire, whether it be for culinary or
ordinary domestic purposes, or as applied to steam engines, or the fires of large
manufactories. In a common fire-place a second and lower bottom box or drawer
may be used, upon or into which the supply fuel is to be placed until it be coked,
or until the more volatile particles of the fuel that would occasion smoke, if
placed on the top of the fire, be consumed by passing up through the fire of
the upper or fire grate; when it is required to feed the fire the supply fuel, so
coked as aforesaid, is to be taken out from the lower bottom box or drawer and
placed on the top of the fire of the upper or fire grate, and fresh fuel placed under-
neath on or in the lower bottom box or drawer to undergo the process of coking.
Figure 1 represents a front view, and Figure 2 a section of such a fire-place,
A being the upper grate, and B the lower one, supposed in these Figures to be
a drawer in which the supply fuel is to be placed; the drawer must of course
have a grated bottom. In powerful furnaces, where, from its weight and
dimensions, a moveable drawer might be inconvenient, the underneath part or
lower bottom may be made a fixture, extending from the front to within a

page_text: moderate distance of the end or back part of the upper grate, such distance
being one foot, or more or less, according to the size of the furnace, and in
such case an iron box sliding upon bars, fixed under the lower part of the
second bottom or grate, and which may be drawn out or pushed in, is to be
made to fit under the space left at the end of the lower grate; when fresh fuel
is applied to the furnace it is to be placed on the front of the lower grate and
pushed progressively backwards as it cokes, until, having undergone the process
of being coked, or until the more volatile particles that would occasion smoke
having been consumed by passing up through the fire of the upper or fire grate.
it falls into the iron box that is placed ready to receive it, and is drawn forwards
in the box when required, and removed to feed the fire in the upper grate.
Figure 3 represents a section of such a fire-place, A being the upper grate on
which the coked or charred fuel is burnt; B, the second or lower grate, on
which the supply fuel is placed at its front 6, and pushed gradually backwards
until it falls over the end b, b, into the box C; this box, sliding on the bars d, d,
is brought forwards when required to the front for the purpose of being emptied
and having its contents, the coked or charred fuel, transferred to the upper
grate A. Figure 4 is a front elevation of Figure 3.
In grates for domestic purposes, where the air has access to the fire, the more
volatile parts of the fuel passing up from the lower fire-place in front of the
fire are liable to be chilled and converted into smoke, instead of being burnt, to
prevent which the bottom of the upper fire-place may be made with circular or
semicircular bars, so as to throw the more volatile parts of the fuel coming up
from the lower fire-place into the centre and back of the fire, the form of
which grate may be represented by Figures 5 and 6.
It is obvious that a great variety of methods may be resorted to for the
arrangements of the several parts of a furnace or fire-place constructed upon
the principle of my Patent, and for transferring the fuel, when coked or
charred, to the grate on or in which it is to be finally burnt or consumed. But
whereas I claim as my Invention the placing of the fresh fuel, and which I call
the supply fuel, in a second or separate cavity, receptacle, or grate below the
ordinary fire grate in which the ignited fuel is placed until the supply fuel is
coked or charred, and the smoke or volatile parts arising from it have been
carried to or burnt by the fire above it, and also the feeding of the fire in the
upper grate by the fuel which has been so coked or charred as aforesaid in the
lower grate, and such my Invention being to the best of my knowledge and
belief entirely new, and never before used within that part of His said Majesty's
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, His said
Dominion of Wales, or Town of Berwick upon Tweed, nor in any of His said

page_text: Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, I do hereby declare this to be my
Specification of the same, and that I do verily believe this my said Specification
doth comply in all respects, fully and without reserve or disguise, with the proviso
in the said herein-before in part recited Letters Patent contained. Wherefore
I hereby claim to maintain exclusive right and privilege to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Lister Maw, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of December, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-one.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-fourth day of December
in the year of our Lord 1831, the aforesaid Henry Lister Maw 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 stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Fifth day of January, in the year of our Lord One thousand