IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF FIRE-GRATES
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Brereton Sharpe, of Llanolwedd, Builth,
South Wales, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION
OF FIRE-GRATES."
Scaled the 12th March 1869, and dated the 16th September 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Brereton Sharpe
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 16th September 1868.
I, GEORGE BRERETON SHARPE, of Llanelwedd, Builth, South Wales, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
CONSTRUCTION. OF FIRE-GRATES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the construction of
fire-grates. At the present time much inconvenience results from the
necessity of clearing out and cleaning fire-grates in the rooms in which
they are used, and the process being repeated from day to day it is
hardly possible to avoid injury to the furniture and contents of the room.
According to my Invention I avoid this inconvenience by making the

page_text: parts of the grate which require clearing and cleaning removable, so that
they may be carried out of the room to an outhouse or convenient place
where they may be cleaned, and the grate or fire holder may be emptied
and refilled. The front and the cheeks of the stove may be fixed in their
places as usual, but there is no fixed grate or fire holder, the grate or fire
holder consisting of a back, sides, bottom, and front bars, being
moveable, and fitting a suitable recess between the cheeks, and being
furnished with handles, so that it may be readily taken out of the room,
or it might be run out on wheels; in order that the cheeks may not
require much cleaning I prefer that there should be hobs either fixed or
movable between the grate or fire holder and the cheeks. A movable
tray under the grate receives the ashes. In some cases also I adapt the
supports which receive the moveable grate or fire holder in such manner
that it may be raised or lowered and advanced or set further back
according as required.
Old fire-grates constructed with fixed grates or fire holders may
readily be adapted to receive moveable grates or fire holders as above
described.
According to another part of my Invention I in some cases arrange
fire grates so that the fire may serve for two rooms, the fire-grate having
a front either way; or I close in the opening with a metal plate, so as to
allow the heat to pass, but without an open passage from room to room;
one front of the grate may be fitted with a hot plate and appendages for
cooking purposes. When thus forming fire-grates with a front either
way, so that it may serve for two rooms, the fire-grate may be made with
an ordinary fixed grate or fire holder, or with a moveable grate or fire
holder as above described.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said George Brereton Sharpe in the Great Scal Patent
Office on the 13th March 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
BRERETON SHARPE, of Llanelwedd, Builth, South Wales, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of September, in the year

page_text: of our Lord One thousand cight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-
second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said George Brereton Sharpe, Her special
licence that I, the said George Brereton Sharpe, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others, as I, the said George Brereton
Sharpe, 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 "Im-
PROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF FIRE-GRATES," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said George Brereton Sharpe, my executors
or administrators, by an 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 George Brereton Sharpe, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement thereof, that is to say :—'
This Invention has for its object improvements in the construction of
fire-grates. At the present time much inconvenience results from the
necessity of clearing out and cleaning fire-grates in the rooms in which
they are used, and the process being repeated from day to day it is
hardly possible to avoid injury to the furniture and contents of the
room. To avoid this inconvenience I construct fire-grates with the
grate or fire holder in such measure removable that both it and its
contents may be taken away, so as almost entirely to prevent the dust
and dirt ordinarily produced, the moveable grate or fire holder being
substituted for the ordinary front and fixed bottom bars of open fire-
places. Any suitable arrangement may be adopted for connecting the
moveable fire holder with the fixed part of the fire-grate.
I prefer as a simple method to construct the grate or fire holder as
follows:-I make the grate or fire holder of bars of iron bent into a semi-
circular or any other required form, so that they may both form the front
and sides of the fire holder, and the ends of these bars are rivetted on to two

page_text: upright pieces of iron. The bottom of the grate consists of bars rivetted
on to the lowest semicircular side bar. The ends of the top and bottom
semicircular bar project beyond the upright pieces, and are bent down so
as to form hooks which fit into iron eyes carried by and fixed in or upon
the fixed back of the grate; this back may be made of fire-brick or tile
or iron, or other suitable material, as is usual. The fire holder is also
provided with a moveable back of sheet iron which slides into slots cut
in the hooks, so that this back may be removed at pleasure. When a
grate or fire holder thus formed is to be removed I prefer to slip over the
This case is made of tin
front part of the grate a thin metal casc.
plate or other suitable metal, and is shaped similarly to the grate, so
that when it is slipped on to the grate or fire holder the top, front, and
bottom of the whole grate or fire holder together with its contents are
enclosed by it. To the outside of this case are attached two handles, or
it might be one swing handle, by means of which the case together with
the grate may be carried away after it has been raised to free the hooks
from the back, the whole can thus be removed without cinders or dust
escaping. The grate can then be emptied and cleaned in an outhouse
or other convenient place, and when the moveable back of sheet iron
has been slid into its place the fire may be relaid. The grate may then
be brought back and hooked upon the eyes, and the case and also the
moveable back are removed.
In order to make the above description more easily understood, I
have in the Drawings hereto annexed shewn a grate or fire holder
constructed as above described.
I have not thought it necessary to show a Drawing of the fixed
portion of the fire-grate, as it may be made in any ordinary manner.
Figure 1 is a vertical section of the grate together with the case and
moveable back. A, A, are the semicircular bars rivetted to the vertical
bars B, the top and bottom bars being bent down into hooks C, C; D is
the moveable back plate; E, E, are the bottom bars of the grate; and
F, F, is the outer case. Figure 2 is a side view, and Figure 3 a front
view, shewing the moveable grate separately with its back plate removed;
Figure 4 is a plan view of the same, shewing the slots G, G, into which
the moveable back slides; Figures 5 and 6 are a plan and edge view of
the moveable back D; and Figures 7 and 8 are a front and side view of
the case F, F, which is used for enclosing the fire holder when it is being
removed.

page_text: In place of the moveable fire holder being formed with bars at the
sides as above described it might be so formed that when in use there
may be fire blocks or tiles at the sides as well as at the back of the fire,
in which case in addition to the removable back already described I
employ removable sides, which may be made in one piece with the
removeable back to facilitate the removal of its contents and the relaying
of the fire.
Old fire-grates constructed with fixed grates or fire holders may
readily be adapted to receive moveable grates or fire holders as above
described.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner
in which I prefer to carry the same into effect, I would have it
understood that I do not claim an independent basket as substitute for
the proper grate; but what I claim in the construction of open fire-
grates is, the contrivance or arrangement of the true grate or fire holder
itself to be in such measure removeable as to take away with it the
contents, so as almost entirely to prevent the dust and dirt ordinarily
produced in clearing out the customary fixed grates, and that the fire
holder may be conveyed out of the room for cleaning or refilling.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Brereton Sharpe, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Eleventh day of March, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine.
GEO. BRERETON SHARPE. (L.S.)