AN IMPROVEMENT OR ADDITION TO GRATES AND STOVES, AND AN INSTRUMENT, MACHINE, OR APPARATUS FOR SUPPLYING GRATES AND STOVES WITH FUEL
Year: 1816

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
ISAAC HAWKINS, of Great Titchfield Street, in the County of Middlesex,
Engineer, 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 West-
minster, the Twenty-third day of March, in the fifty-sixth year of His reign,
did give and grant unto Emerson Dowson, of Welbeck Street, in the County
of Middlesex, Ironmonger, and the aforesaid John Isaac Hawkins, their execu-
tors, administrators, and assigns, His special licence, full power, sole privilege
and authority, that the said Emerson Dowson and John Isaac Hawkins,
their 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 Town of Berwick upon Tweed, their said
Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT OR ADDITION TO GRATES AND STOVES, AND AN
INSTRUMENT, MACHINE, OR APPARATUS FOR SUPPLYING GRATES AND STOVES WITH
FUEL;" in which Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging the said
Emerson Dowson and John Isaac Hawkins, under their hands and seals, or
under the hand and seal of one of them, to cause a particular description of

page_text: the nature of their said Invention, in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be enrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within two
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited
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 Isaac Hawkins, do hereby declare that the nature of our said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is fully described and
ascertained as follows, that is to say:-
The general intention of our said improvement on grates and stoves, and
our said instrument, machine, or apparatus for supplying grates and stoves
with fuel, is to produce a more perfect combustion of the fuel than is effected
in the grates and stoves of the usual construction; and we do accomplish this
our intention by the inserting or depositing of fresh coals or unburnt fuel into
or under the bottom of a fire previously lighted and burning. And we do
prepare our grate or stove for the reception of the said fresh coals or unburnt
fuel, by making the bottom bars or gratings which support the burning fuel
quite flat and level; and we do place under the said bars or gratings a plate
for the purpose of occasionally obstructing the passage of fine coals or cinders
between the said bars or gratings; and this plate we do cause to slide away, or
otherwise to be hung with hinges, and fall away whenever it may be thought
necessary for the admission of fresh air up through between the said bars to
the bottom of the burning fuel; and we do sometimes place upon this plate ribs,
projecting upwards, so as to fill the interstices or spaces between the said bars
or gratings, and present a plane surface to the bottom of the fire. This sliding
or falling plate may always be removed after fresh coals have been deposited
under the fire, as soon as the heat shall have caused the coals to have a small
degree of adhesion. And in stove grates or kitchen ranges we do sometimes
make the lowest front bar, or that front bar which is immediately above
the horizontal grating that supports the fuel, to slide up, or to turn upon
hinges, in order, at pleasure, to give more room than is usual between the said
gratings and the said lowest front bar for the reception of our instrument,
machine, or apparatus, as hereinafter described; and we do insert or deposit
fresh coals or unburnt fuel under the fire, upon the said flat grating and plate,
by means of our said instrument, machine, or apparatus, which may with
propriety be called a feeding shovel. The construction of this feeding shovel
will be easily comprehended by supposing a common fire shovel to have a side
perpendicular to and standing up at right angles from the pan or bottom of

page_text: the shovel, and crossing also at right angles the place where the handle is
joined to the pan; let the height of this side be two inches from the bottom of
the pan, and let the width of the pan and the length of the side be eight inches
from the extreme ends of this first or handle side, and standing at right angles
to the said side and to the pan; let two parallel sides extend to that end of
the pan which is opposite to the handle; and, supposing the pan to be nine
inches long, these parallel sides will also be nine inches long at the bottom
edge where they join the pan, but they are only to be seven inches long at the
top edge, and consequently the ends or extreme edges of these sides next the
end of the pan will taper off in an angle of forty-five degrees from the plane of
the pan; let a top piece be seven inches long and eight inches wide, reckoning
that direction to be the length which is parallel to the handle of the shovel;
let this top piece be united to the three sides above described, which will,
together with the bottom or pan, form a box, open only at the side or
end which is opposite to the handle, the plane of the opening making an
angle of forty-five degrees with the planes of the top and bottom; let this
open end of the box be closed by a door or flap fastened by hinges to the
end of the top piece; let the handle be hollow, and let a rod slide through
the hollow handle and through the end of the box next to the handle,
and let a septum or piston, nearly filling the width and height of the
box be fixed at right angles across the end of the said rod, so that the
motion of the rod forward and backward within the handle shall move
the piston or septum forward and backward within the box, and on being
pressed against the aforesaid door or flap the said piston shall force open
the door or flap. The other end of the piston rod may be terminated by
a knob or ball, which knob or ball may form a stop to prevent the piston
from being protuded farther through the doorway than is necessary for
opening the door. The whole motion of the piston may be about eight inches,
or from the handle end of the box to about the middle of the door, which
is one inch beyond the hinges of the door, or one inch short of the extreme
end of the bottom or pan. From this description it will be seen by any com-
petent workman that our feeding shovel consists of a box or scuttle, with a
hollow handle at one end, and a door or flap at the opposite end, this door
making an angle of about forty-five degrees with the bottom and one hundred
and thirty-five degrees with the top of the box, all the other angles being right
ones; the box containing a piston made to slide by means of a piston rod
moving through the handle. The above measurements are merely given to
assist the mind in comprehending the description, for it is obvious that the

page_text: dimensions of the instrument must depend upon the size of the grate or stove
in which it is intended to be used. For large furnace fires, such as are used
in steam engines, in distilleries, breweries, or other works, where large grates
or stoves are used, the feeding shovel may very conveniently be made to hold a
peck of coals; but for a small parlour fire, one holding a pound or two of coals
will be sufficient. To bring the feeding shovel into action, draw back the
piston close to the handle end of the box, open the door and fill the box with
coals, shut the door and pass the box with its contents into the stove upon the
horizontal grating above described; the door of the box acting as a wedge will
then lift up the greater part of the fuel previously placed and burning in the
stove; then by pushing the piston rod the piston will press against the coals in
the box, and cause the coals to force open the door and lift up the remainder
of the burning fuel; then by continuing the pressure against the piston rod
and withdrawing the box, the whole of its contents will be deposited upon the
grating and underneath the burning fuel. A fire thus supplied with fuel
scarcely ever requires any other stirring than what it receives from the action of
the shovel at the time fresh coals are inserted. The form of our feeding shovel
may be varied at pleasure; as, for instance, the piston may slide outside of the
handle, or there may be an opening at the end of the box next to the handle
for the reception of a detached piston; or the door or the top piece may be
omitted, in which case the coals might be pushed in under the fire by means of
a detached piston; but, though we mention these as possible variations, we do
not recommend them, because we give the preference to the form above
described of the piston rod sliding through a hollow handle, and moving the
piston in a box having a door, which when shut down shall enter as a wedge
under the fire. And we do distinguish this our Invention from all others
which may seem to be similar by declaring our said Invention to be an instru-
ment, machine, or apparatus, furnished with a piston, made or used for the
purpose of conveying, inserting, or depositing of fresh coals or unburnt fuel
into or under the bottom of a fire previously burning in a grate or stove
formed for the occasional reception of the said instrument, when filled with
fuel, as herein-before particularly described and set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Isaac Hawkins, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twentieth day of May, One thousand eight
hundred and sixteen.
JOHN I. (L.s.) HAWKINS.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Twentieth day of May, in
the year above mentioned, the aforesaid John Isaac Hawkins 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 made and provided.
Inrolled the Twenty-second day of May, in the year above written.