IMPROVEMENTS IN GAS STOVES
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Walker Torr, of the Firm of Robert Walter
Winfield and Company, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
Merchants and Manufacturers, for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN GAS
STOVES"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Walker Torr at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 12th November 1881.
CHARLES WALKER TORR, of the Firm of Robert Walter Winfield and Company,
of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Merchants and Manufacturers.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN GAS STOVES."
My Invention consists of the improvements in gas stoves herein after described;
my said Invention having for its object the production of a gas stove for warming
rooms and buildings, and for other like purposes, in which stove the products of
the combustion of the gas are removed from the room or place in which the stove
is situated, and the air of the room warmed by the said stove without coming into
contact with heated metallic surfaces. The air thus warmed is free from the
unpleasant odour of air heated by stoves of the ordinary kind.
In making a gas stove according to my Invention I make the body or case of
the stove preferably of terra cotta. In the bottom of the case the gas burner,
which is the source of heat, is situated. The burner prefer to employ is a
Bunsen burner of the kind commonly called a solid flame burner; but I do not
limit myself to any particular kind of burner. Crossing the body of the stove, and
inclined at a considerable angle to a horizontal plane, a series of tubes is fixed.
The said tubes are made of terra cotta or unglazed earthenware, or of a mixture
of clay and plumbago. These tubes are open at both ends, and are in communi-
cation only with the atmosphere external to the body of the stove.
The ascending current of heated air from the flame of the gas burner circulates
about these tubes and heats them, and then passes to a flue or chimney. The air
of the room or place where the stove is situated is set into circulation and warmed
by these inclined heated non-metallic tubes. The air enters the lower end of each
Pains 11

page_text: tube, and being heated ascends to the higher end and passes into the room or place.
in
The tubes may either be arranged so that they all incline in the same way,
which case the air enters at one side of the stove, and passes out at the other; or
some of the tubes may be inclined in one direction and some in the opposite
direction, in which case the air passes in and out of the tubes at both sides of the
stove. The open ends of the tubes may be made ornamental, and the warming
of the room or place may either be regulated by means of the gas burner or by
means of valves or appliances for limiting the flow of air through the tubes.
Although I prefer to make the case of the stove of terra-cotta, yet I do not
limit myself thereto, as any analogous substance, such as glazed or unglazed
earthenware or porcelain, may be used in place of terra cotta.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Charles Walker Torr in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
3rd May 1882.
CHARLES WALKER TORR, of the Firm of Robert Walter Winfield and Company,
of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Merchants and Manufacturers.
IMPROVEMENTS IN GAS STOVES."
44
'
My Invention consists of the improvements in gas stoves herein after described,
my said Invention having for its object the production of a gas stove for warming
rooms and buildings, and for other. like purposes, in which stove the products of
the combustion of the gas are removed from the room or place in which the stove
is situated, and the air of the room warmned by the said stove without coming into
contact with heated metallic surfaces. The air thus warned is free from the
unpleasant odour of air heated by stoves of the ordinary kind.
.
In making a gas stove according to my Invention I make the body or case of
the stove preferably of terra-cotta. In the bottom of the case the gas burner,
which is the source of heat, is situated. The burner I prefer to employ is a
Bunsen burner of the kind commonly called a solid flame burner; but I do not
limit myself to any particular kind of burner. Crossing the body of the stove,
and inclined at a considerable angle to a horizontal plane, a series of tubes is fixed.
The said tubes are made of terra-cotta or unglazed earthenware, or of a mixture of
clay and plumbago. These tubes are open at both ends, and are in communication
only with the atmosphere external to the body of the stove. The ascending current
of heated air from the flame of the gas burner circulates about these tubes and
heats them, and then passes to a flue or chimney. The air of the room, or place
where the stove is situated, is set into circulation and warmned by these inclined
heated non-metallic tubes. The air enters the lower end of each tube, and being
heated ascends to the higher end and passes into the room or place. The tubes
may either be arranged so that they all incline in the same way, in which case the
air enters at one side of the stove and passes out at the other; or some of the

page_text: tubes may be inclined in one direction and some in the opposite direction, in which
case the air passes in and out of the tubes at both sides of the stove. The open
ends of the tubes may be made ornamental, and the warming of the room or place
may either be regulated by means of the gas burner, or by means of valves or
appliances for limiting the flow of air through the tubes.
Although I prefer to make the case of the stove of terra-cotta, yet I do not limit
myself thereto, as any analogous substance such as glazed or unglazed earthenware
or porcelain may be used in place of terra-cotta.
I will now proceed to describe with reference to the accompanying Drawing the
manner in which my Invention is to be performed,―
Figure 1 represents in side elevation; Figure 2, in vertical section; and Figure 3
in horizontal section, taken on the line a, a, Figure 1, a gas stove constructed
according to my Invention; Figure 4 is a front elevation (with a portion broken
off); and Figure 5 is a vertical section of the same taken in a plane at right angles
to that in which the section, Figure 2, is taken; Figures 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 are parts
of the stove, as herein after explained.
The same letters of reference indicate the same parts in the several Figures of
the Drawing.
The body, or case of the body, is preferably oblong in plan, and is constructed
of the foot b and the four upright slabs c, c, c, c, of terra-cotta, the side and end
slabs constituting the body being connected together by rebates in the manner
shown in the horizontal section, Figure 3, the angles of the slabs being bound
together by means of the metallic angle pieces d, d. One of the slabs c is repre-
sented separately in Figure 10. The slabs c, c, c, c, are surmounted by the metal
or terra cotta top e; ff are the air heating tubes fixed in the manner herein after
explained, and crossing the body c, the said tubes being inclined by preference at
about the angle represented. The said tubes ff, are open at both ends, and are
in communication only with the external atmosphere; that is, they do not open
into the case or body of the stove (see Figure 2). The side slabs of the body into
which the ends of the tubes f, f, are fixed are perforated with holes g, g, the inner
part of each hole being enlarged at h, and having a depression i. The ends of
each of the tubes f are provided with collars k, l, (see the separate views, Figure 9,
of one of the tubes) for taking into the enlargements h, h, of the holes in the
body, and each collar is furnished with a projection for engaging with the
depression in the circulur enlargement h.
One of the side slabs c of the body is represented in Figures 6 and 7, Figure 6
being an inside elevation and Figure 7 a vertical section. When the projections
or nibson the collars of the tubes are engaged in the depressions i in the slabs
the said tubes are incapable of turning in the body. On the inside of the short
slabs of the body are inclined deflecting ribs m, m, (see one of the slabs represented
separately in Figure 8) for causing the heated air from the gas burner to take a
tortuous path among the tubes f, and thereby to give out its heat effectively to the
said tubes; and over the series of tubes f is a false inclined top at n for deflecting
downwards the heated air upon the upper row of tubes, the heated air and products
of combustion passing up the passage p at the summit of the inclined top n, and
escaping by the side pipe q into the flue or chimney. The deflecting top at n, p,
is made of inclined projecting pieces on one slab taking into recesses on the opposite
slab.
r is the burner resting on the foot or base b of the stove, introduced into the
stove through the cleaning door 8. The said burner is a Bunsen burner of the
kind commonly called a solid flaine burner, but other kinds of burners may be
employed with stoves constructed according to my Invention.
I prefer to joint the burner r to the fixed pipe conveying the mixture of gas
and air by jointed tubes, the said tubes resembling those of a folding gas bracket,
so that the burner may be turned into or out of the body of the stove through
the door s, the back opening in the body being in that case merely an air inlet.
By this means the flame of the burner may be ignited outside the stove, and the

page_text: slight explosion of the gaseous mixture which sometimes takes place when the flame
is ignited inside the stove is prevented.
The ascending current of heated air from the flame of the gas burner r circulating
about the inclined tubes f. f. heats the said tubes. The air of the room or apart-
ment where the stove is situated is set into circulation and warmed by the inclined
heated non-metallic tubes f. f, the air entering the lower end of each tube, and
being heated ascends to the higher end and passes into the room or apartment, as
indicated by the arrows in Figures 2 and 4.
Instead of inclining the whole of the series of tubes f,f, in the same direction,
as represented in the Drawing, some of the tubes may be inclined in one direction
and some in the opposite direction. In this inodification air passes in and out of
the inclined tubes at both sides of the stove.
Although I have described the body and tubes of the stove as being made of
terra-cotta, and which material I prefer to use, yet the body and tubes of
the stove may be made of the other non-metallic materials herein before
enumerated.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the manner in which
the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that I claim as my
Invention, the improvements in gas stoves herein before described and illus-
trated in the accompanying Drawing, that is to say, the combination with the
body of a gas stove made of terra-cotta or other like non-metallic material, of a
series of inclined tubes of terra cotta or other like non-metallic material, the said
tubes crossing the body of the stove and being open at both ends, and in comnu-
nication only with the atinosphere external to the body of the stove, for the purpose
-and-substantially as described and illustrated.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Walker Torr, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Second day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and eighty two.
Witness,
WILLIAM HENRY TAYLOR,
Cambridge Street Works,
Birmingham.
CHARLES WALKER TORR. (L.S.)