IMPROVED ARRANGEMENTS FOR VENTILATING, AND IN PART APPLICABLE FOR FUMIGATING
Year: 1862

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Sinclair at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 1st August
1862.
I, JOHN SINCLAIR, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain,
Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention of
"IMPROVED ARRANGEMENTS FOR VENTILATING, AND IN PART APPLICABLE FOR
FUMIGATING," to be as follows, that is to say:-
This Invention relates to improved arrangements for ventilating or inducing
the change of air, or the diffusion of fresh air, and the removal of vitiated air
in apartments or enclosed spaces of any kind, a modification of the arrange-
ments being specially designed for securing a proper ventilation in heaps or
mounds of potatoes or other vegetables or roots, or in ricks of corn or other
crops.
A modification of the improved arrangements suitable for a dwelling house,
for example, comprises, in the first place, apparatus for admitting fresh air
from without into the ball or lobby. Provision for this may be made by an
opening in any part of the wall; it is, however, most convenient to contrive
this at the top of the door. For this purpose, a recess may be cut or formed
in the lintel to receive an air duct of a rectangular or other convenient form,
or the duct may project downwards from the lintel, and a recess be cut out of
the top edge of the door to fit it; or, again, it may be fixed to the top of the
door. The outer end of the air duct is open for the air to enter, and at the
inner end it communicates with a shallow vertical box, the side or sides of
which are perforated to cause the air to enter in a diffused condition, and
without perceptible draught. If a large ingress of air is needed, large

page_text: openings may be provided at the top of the diffusing box with mouths shaped
to direct the air in a suitable manner. A simple valve is fitted to the
air duct, so that the amount of ingress may be regulated. Similar apparatus
for the ingress of air is provided at the doors of the various rooms commu-
nicating with the hall or lobby. The egress of the vitiated air is provided for
by inserting small tubes through the windows or window frames in the room,
these tubes being, by preference, placed as high as possible, and with their
inner ends turned upwards and fitted with valves, so that their action may be
conveniently regulated.
The modification of the improved arrangements suitable for ventilating
potatoe mounds, corn ricks, and the like, comprises apparatus made, by
preference, in sections or lengths which can be combined to suit various sizes
of mounds or ricks. A section of the apparatus consists of a rectangular box of
convenient length divided by a horizontal partition into two ducts; the bottom
duct is for the egress of vapour or vitiated air, which enters it by perforations
in the bottom and sides, and leaves it at either end. The upper duct is for
the inlet of fresh air, which enters at either end, and is diffused amongst
the vegetables or grain through perforations in the top and sides. In apply-
ing these to a potatoe mound, the mound being heaped up to about half the
intended height, the ventilators are laid horizontally along the centre or s
transversely, as may be preferred, being, by preference, supported on stilts so
as not to weigh upon the potatoes beneath. The ends of the ventilators are
of course allowed to project a little from the sides of the mound, and they are
fitted with gratings or with perforated metal to prevent the ingress of vermin,
and are also provided with simple valves, so that the ventilating action may be
easily regulated, and frost excluded.
In applying the ventilators to corn ricks, two or more lines of them may
be arranged across the rick at different beights and in different horizontal
directions, and in this application their action will be facilitated by the central
cavity usually formed in constructing the rick. When there is reason to
suppose the mound or rick is infested by vermin, poisonous fumes or vapours
may be conveniently blown into the ventilators, and be thereby diffused
throughout, and insure the destruction or expulsion of the vermin.