A NEW OR IMPROVED SELF-ADJUSTING VENTILATING APPARATUS
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Davies, of Tetbury, in the County of Gloucester,
Machinist, for the Invention of "A NEW OR IMPROVED SELF-ADJUSTING
VENTILATING APPARATUS."
Sealed the 27th October 1859, and dated the 27th July 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Davies at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
27th July 1859.
I, JOHN DAVIES, of Tetbury, in the County of Gloucester, Machinist, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "A NEW OR IMPROVED
SELF-ADJUSTING VENTILATING APPARATUS," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists of an apparatus constructed in the manner herein-
after described, the said apparatus being applicable to the ventilation of rooms
or enclosures where it is required to replace hot and vitiated air by means of
air drawn from the atmosphere external to the room or enclosure.
The said apparatus is constructed as follows:-Two tubes situated the one
above the other communicate between the room and the external air. The
lower tube passes horizontally through the wall of the room, and the upper
tube is inclined to a horizontal plane, the lower end of the said inclined tube
being in the interior of the room. Both ends of each tube are covered with
perforated metal or wire gauze. In each tube a series of valves are situated,
the valves in the lower tube opening towards the interior of the room, those
in the upper tube opening towards the external air. The said valves are thus
made: A frame fitting the tube transversely is so perforated with rectangular

page_text: openings as to form a sort of grating. A series of flaps made of vulcanized
caoutchouc or other flexible material are fixed on the said grating by the
upper edges of the flaps being attached to the upper edges of the openings
respectively. The said perforated plates are inclined in the tubes, so that the
flexible flaps when in their normal position do not close the openings in front
of which they hang. The perforated plate in the lower tube is so inclined,
that its upper edge is nearest the interior of the room, and the perforated
plate in the upper tube is inclined in the opposite direction. The hot vitiated
air of the room passes out by the upper tube, and fresh air enters by the lower
tube. The valves prevent the circulation of air in any other direction than
that described. The inclined position of the upper tube promotes the escape
of the heated air, and the clevation of its external end occasions the delivery
of the vitiated air at a point so distant from that at which air enters the lower
tube as to render it scarcely possible that any of the impure air can re-enter
the room. Although I prefer to make the flaps of the valves of flexible
material, yet I do not limit myself thereto, as rigid flaps turning upon joints
or hinges may be used with the same effect. I sometimes use counterpoised
metal flaps in the upper tube.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Davies in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 21st
January 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
DAVIES, of Tetbury, in the County of Gloucester, Machinist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-third year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said John Davies, Her special licence that I, the said John
Davies, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said John Davies, my executors, administrators, and 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 "A NEW OR
IMPROVED SELF-ADJUSTING VENTILATING APPARATUS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said John Davies, my executors or administrators, by an

page_text: instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
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 John Davies, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say:-
My Invention consists of a new or improved ventilating apparatus con-
structed in the manner herein-after explained and illustrated in the accom-
panying Drawing, the said apparatus being applicable to the ventilation of
rooms or enclosures where it is required to replace hot and vitiated air
by means of air drawn from the atmosphere external to the room or
enclosure.
Figure 1 of the Drawing represents a transverse vertical section of a
ventilating apparatus constructed according to my Invention; Figure 2 is a
front elevation of the end a of the same; and Figure 3 is a front elevation
of the end of the said ventilator.
Figures 4 and 5 represent detached portions of my Invention, as herein-
after explained.
The said apparatus consists of two tubes or passages c and d, placed one
above the other, as represented, one end of each of the said tubes opening
into the room, and the other end of each of the said tubes opening into the
atmosphere. I make the said tubes c, d, by preference of metal, but other
hard and rigid material may be employed. The lower tube d passes hori-
zontally through the wall of the room, and a portion of the upper tube c is
inclined to a horizontal plane, as represented, the lower end of the said
inclined tube being in the interior of the room, and the upper end opening
into the external air. Although I prefer to make the tube c inclined, as
represented, yet it may be made horizontal with the same or nearly the same
effect. The ends and d² of the tubes c and d, opening into the interior of
the room, are covered with an ornamental perforated metallic plate e, having
the form represented in Figure 2, or other ornamental form, and the opposite.
ends c and d of the said tubes c and d opening into the external air are
covered by an ornamental perforated metallic plate f, having the form repre-
sented in Figure-3, or other ornamental form; or wire gauze may be sub-
stituted for the plates e and f for closing the ends of the tubes c and d. In
each of the tubes c and d a series of valves are situated. In the tube c tho

page_text: turn.
valves or flaps g, g, open outwards to the external air, the said valves turning
on the centres h, h, and counterbalanced by weights at their lower ends, as
represented. In the tube d, the valves or flaps i, i, open towards the interior
of the room.
The valves 9, 9, and i, i, are constructed in the following
manner-In the tube c a frame & is placed, the said frame fitting the tube
transversely, in which said frame the centres of the counterpoised valves 9, 9,
A front view of the frame and valves 9, g, is represented in Figure 4.
The tube is also provided with a frame 1, fitting it transversely, the said
frame being perforated with rectangular openings, so as to form a sort of
grating, as represented in Figure 5 of the Drawing, which Figure is a front
view of the said frame 1. The valves i, i, are attached to the upper edges of
the openings in the frame respectively. Instead of the perforated plate 1,
the valves may be mounted upon a sheet of perforated metal. The said
perforated plate or frame is-inclined in the tube d, as represented, so that
the flaps or valves i, i, when in their normal position, do not close the openings
in the said frame. I prefer to make the flaps or valves in the lower tube d
of vulcanized caoutchouc or other flexible material, and the counterpoised
flaps or valves in the upper tube c of metal or other rigid material, but
I do not limit myself thereto; and, instead of using flexible valves in the
lower tube, counterpoised ones may be used, and instead of counterpoised
valves in the upper tube, flexible ones may be employed; but I prefer the
arrangement first described and represented in the Drawing. The hot
vitiated air of the room passes out by the upper tube c, and fresh air from
the external atmosphere enters the room by the lower tube d, as will be
understood by referring to Figure 1, where the directions of the two currents
of air are indicated by arrows. The valves g. 9, and i, i, prevent the cir-
culation of air in any other direction than that described and indicated. The
inclined position of the tube c promotes the escape of the heated air, and the
elevation of its external end occasions the delivery of the vitiated air at a
point so distant from that at which the fresh air enters the tube d as to render
it scarcely possible that any of the impure air issuing from the upper tube c
can re-enter the room. The valves both in the upper and lower tubes are
self-acting, that is to say, as the air in the room becomes more or less heated,
and thereby expanded, it escapes through the tube c, opening more or less
the valves g. 9, at the same time the current of fresh air passing through the
tube d, to replace the heated air which has escaped through the tube c, opens
more or less the valves i, i, according as the current of hot air passing through
the said upper tube c is greater or less. The apertures in the perforated
plates e and f, covering the mouths or ends of the tubes c and d, are suited to

page_text: their respective functions. The small apertures in the perforated plates at
the mouths of the tube d are arranged horizontally, so as to divide the fresh
air, and prevent it entering the room with too great a force, and the apertures
in the perforated plates at the mouths of the upper tube c are of larger size,
so as to facilitate the exit of the heated air.
Figure 6 of the Drawing is a sectional diagram of a room to which my
new or improved ventilator is applied, from which diagram the action of the
ventilator will be readily understood. In the said diagram the smaller or
inside face of the ventilator is shown in the position which it is preferred it
should occupy in the room, that is to say, at a point in the room to be
ventilated the most distant from the fire-place, and near the ceiling of the
said room.
The descending arrows in the diagram indicate the direction of
the current of fresh air entering the room through the lower tube, and the
ascending arrows indicate the direction of the current of heated and vitiated
air escaping from the room through the upper tube of the ventilator.
My Invention is applicable to the ventilation of all such rooms or enclosures
ns have one or more sides exposed to the external air.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
carrying the same into effect. I wish it to be understood that I do not limit
myself to the precise details herein described and represented, as the same
may be varied without departing from the nature of my Invention; but I
claim as my Invention the new or improved self-adjusting ventilating appa-
ratus herein-before described, and illustrated in the accompanying Drawing,
that is to say, a ventilator consisting of two tubes or passages, situated one
above the other, placed at the upper part of the wall of the room to be
ventilated, and communicating between the said room and the external air,
the heated and vitiated air escaping from the room through the upper tube,
and the fresh air entering the room through the lower tube, the said tubes
being constructed and provided with valves, as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Davies, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
Witness,
EDWARD GEORGE WOOD.
JOHN DAVIES. (L8.)