IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR WARMING AND VENTILATING ROOMS
Year: 1852

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Adolph, of 9, Bury Court, St. Ivary
Axe, in the City of London, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
Sealed the 12th January 1853, and dated the 6th October 1852.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Adolph
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 6th October 1852.
I, WILLIAM ADOLPH, of 9, Bury Court, St. Mary Axe, in the City
of London, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR WARMING AND VENTILATING ROOMS"
to be as follows:-
This Invention consists of an arrangement or combination of appa-
ratus to be heated by gas or charcoal, such apparatus consisting of a
chamber suitable for standing within a suitable recess or other place.
such chamber having within a series of tubes or passages, through
which products of combustion pass in their way from the burner or
burners or fire bars to the chimney. The burners within a small box
at the lower end of the tubes or passages, and at the lower part of the

page_text: chamber; there is also an opening below into the chamber for the
passage of air from the room into the chamber, and from it above into
the chimney. The recess into which this heating apparatus is placed
consists of a chamber fitting within or standing out from the ordinary
fire-place, the front of which chamber is made more or less reticulate, so
that air may circulate into from the room, or from an external source,
at or near the lower part, and pass into the room. Or, in place of
using the gas stove in combination with the last-mentioned chamber,
an ordinary stove or fire grate may be used, having a pipe or flue
passing above it, through the chamber behind, and above into the
chimney.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Adolph in the Great Seal Patent Office,
on the 6th April 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, T,
WILLIAM ADOLPH, of Bury Court, Saint Mary Axe, in the City of
London, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Sixth day of October, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, in the six-
teenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said William Adolph, Her special licence
that 1, the said William Adolph, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said William Adolph, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR WARMING AND VENTILATING," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said William Adolph, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same

page_text: 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 William Adolph, 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):
My Invention consists of an arrangement or combination of appa-
ratus to be heated by gas or charcoal, such apparatus consisting of a
chamber suitable for standing within a suitable recess or other place,
such chamber having within a series of tubes or passages through
which products of combustion pass in their way from the burner or
burners or fire bars to the chimney. The burners within a small box
at the lower end of the tubes or passages, and at the lower part of the
chamber; there is also an opening below into the chamber for the
passage of air from the room into the chamber, and from it above into
the chimney. The recess into which this heating apparatus is placed
consists of a chamber fitting within or standing out from the ordinary
fire-place, the front of which chamber is made more or less reticulate,
so that air may circulate into and from the room, or from an external
source near the lower part, and pass into the room. Or, in place of
using the gas stove in combination with the last-mentioned chamber,
an ordinary stove or fire grate may be used, having a pipe or flue
passing above it through the chamber behind, and above into the
chimney. And in order that my said Invention may be most fully
understood, and readily carried into effect, I will proceed to describe
the means pursued by me.
My improved gas apparatus consists of two chief parts, videlicet :-
First, the warm air chamber or box; and,
Second, the warming apparatus; and the warming apparatus consists
again of two chief parts, namely,-
First, the fire box; and, secondly, the smoke flue or flues for retaining
the heat.
The warm air chamber or box may be made in any shape fitting the
recess of the present fire grates, or any other part of the room where the

page_text: new gas apparatus is to be placed. The chamber or box may also be
made of any material, even wood, according to the heat for which the
stove is required.
The general shape of the warm air box or chaihber is an oblong,
either perpendicular or horizontal, with the top a little inclined towards
the back, though it may also be perfectly level or horizontal.
The top of the said box or chamber which is quite closed shows two
apertures, one for ventilating the room by taking off the air from the
apartment, and the other for passing through the gas pipe or smoke
flue into the chimney, or the outside of the room or house. "The ven-
tilating aperture, large or small according to the place: to be ventilated,
is not of necessity confined to the central part of the top of the warm
air box or chamber, but may also, as well as the aperture for the exit
of the smoke flue, be applied at any other part of the top, or at the
back or sides, as circumstances may require. These two apertures need
not be in separate places either, bit may be combined, so that the gas
or smoke flue passes, wherever it may be, through the ventilating aper-
ture. This, in fact, is almost necessary when the gas apparatus is not
placed into the recess of the chimney.
The ventilating aperture may have a slide or valve, in order to
prevent or promote the escape of the air from the room at pleasure.
The warming apparatus for burning the gas and for warming may
altogether be placed within the air chamber or box, so that nothing but
the warm air chamber or box, or the front or other part thereof, is
visible, or the fire box containing the gas burner may wholly or in part
project, whilst the pipes or flues conveying away the fumes are placed
inside.
Figure 1, shows a front view; Figure 2, a similar view with the
front parts removed; and Figure 3, a horizontal section through the
lotted line 1, 1, in Figures 1, and 2.
The fire box a, containing whatever gas burner may be thought best,
may be of any size, shape, or material, according to circumstances, with
or without a door to it; it may also have a lid b, at the top, as shewn,
to open and close, for the purpose of lighting the gas for boiling or
warming anything. In the latter case the fire box projecting generally

page_text: in front of the warm air box or chamber, it will be an advantage to
have a hob along the front of the chamber on a level with the fire
box, attached to or separate from it, as it may seem best; this to many
improves the appearance of the whole, apparatus, and is a great con-
venience for putting things on to warm or to keep warm, and it forms
an important arrangement of my Invention for domestic purposes.
The hob may be of any size, shape, material, or device, so also may
the whole apparatus.
If the gas apparatus is placed in any elevated part of the room upon
the mantelpiece into a recess of the wall above a desk, &c., the light
of the fire box may be, thrown into the room upon the table or desk,
and the said fire box constructed accordingly; common glass globes or
shades may be used for the purpose; there may also be more than one
fire box or burner, with globe or shade, applied to the gas apparatus,
each burner, globe,, or fire box, &c., having a separate smoke flue
within the warm air box or chamber, or. the effluvia from 'these burners
may all be conducted into one pipe. The application of several fire
boxes, burners, or globes, &c. is, however, not limited to the gas.
apparatus when used also for the purpose of lighting, but extends to it
wherever it may be applied..
When the gas apparatus is thus placed any distance from the ground,
the air. to, be warmed must be conducted into the warm air chamber or
box by means of; one or, more shafts of any shape or material; the
aperture in the shaft for the admission of air, if within the room, not
to be higher than 'about a foot froin the ground, and the hole or aper-
ture in the ventilating shaft, should one be required, to be about three
or four feet from the ground.
"
The aperture or apertures for admitting air for the combustion of
the gas may be at any of the sides in the door, or in the bottom of the
box, and so arranged as to admit of regulation..
From the fire box pipes are passing to and fro in a coil or serpentine
manuer, and these pipes or pipe may be simply passing to and fro, as
shewn in the Drawing, or in a double, triple, ör manifold coil; they serve
to retain the heat within the air chamber to the utmost possible extent,
and after they have done so the end of the pipe or of pipes emerging

page_text: into one is passed in a perpendicular manner or otherwise, if necessary,
through at the top of the air box into the chimney; it may also be
passed out of the air chamber at any other convenient place into the
chimney or external atmosphere. There should not be less than two
inches clear space between the pipes themselves, and between the pipes
and the inside of the air chamber.
The pipes or flues retaining the heat may be of any shape, material,
or size, and pass to and fro, up and down, or across in any desirable
direction. At or towards the end of the gas smoke pipe there may
be
a damper to check the draft, if required, and economize the heat.
The warm air chamber or box a, with the gas apparatus is made or
placed into the recess of the chimney, the front having a recess c, of
a semicircular or any other form in the middle; at the bottom of this
recess c, is placed the fire box a, from which the smoke pipe d, passes
through the back of the recess c, into the air box or chamber c. If
the recess c, is not carried down lower than the top of the fire box,
upon which it may be made to rest, then the smoke pipe from the fire
box passes into the air chamber below the back of the recess, as
shown.
The front f, f, of the warm air chamber or box on each side of the
recess c, may be of any material, design, or construction, and must be
perforated either entirely, or the upper and lower part only, so as to
admit the cold air freely into the box at the bottom, and to allow it to
escape in a warmed state at the top or upper part into the room. If
the hob before alluded be placed before the warm air chamber or box
, then the front of the hob must be perforated, or so constructed as to
allow the cold air to enter the chamber at the bottom. It will be well
if the front on each side of the recess is arranged in the form of doors
to open or shut, or to put in and take out for the purpose of getting
at the apparatus within, should it require anything to be done to it.
At the top of the recess c, perpendicularly over the lid or top b, of
the fire box is the aperture for ventilation mentioned already, to allow
the air to escape, as the arrow indicates, after it has passed through
the warming chamber and filled the room. By this means, though the
lid of the fire box were to remain open, no gas, burnt or unburnt, will

page_text: ever come into the room, but rise up from the lid, and make its way
straight into the chimney or external atmosphere. In the ordinary
way the air necessary for combustion entering into the fire box at y,
from below or at the side in no greater quantity or little more
than actually required, and the products of combustion being carried
into the chimney or external atmosphere without the slightest com-
munication with the air that comes into the room for respiration, no
fumes of the gas will ever vitiate the fluid inhaled by persons occupying
the apartment, or annoy the sense of smell.
The aperture for ventilation does not of necessity require a recess
below it, but may be passed through the warm air chamber or box from
any of the sides; it is not even required where the chimney is not used
for the
gas apparatus, as in that case the chimney will be the ventilator
apart from the apparatus.
For the ordinary purposes of ventilation the opening of doors, the
crevices of windows, and of all parts of the room are sufficient, but if
special ventilation is required for assembly rooms, hothouses, school-
rooms, &c., then the apertures near the bottom of the warm air chamber,
or in the hob admitting the cold air to within, must be made to
close, and apertures or holes, or one hole, capable of regulation, must be
provided inside through the bottom of the warm air chamber commu-
nicating with a room or passage underneath, or by means of a pipe or
pipes from the said chamber with the external atmosphere, or by any
means with another room on the same level, so as to obtain plenty of
fresh air from an external source.
For preventing accidents in lighting the gas the burner may be so
arranged as to pull out of the fire box, and to be pushed back again
when lighted by means of a pipe sliding up and down within another.
The admission of air to the gas burner may be regulated by means of
a slide to be connected with the valve for turning the gas off or on, the
slide to open in proportion as more gas is turned on, and to shut in pro-
portionas the gas is turned off; this will prevent a waste of heat which
would be carried away uselessly by admitting more air than necessary
for complete combustion.
Instead of gas, charcoal may also be burned in the fire box of my
apparatus.

page_text: As regards the part of my Invention just described, I claim,-
First. The combination of the warm air chamber with fire box and
smoke flue coil for the purpose of warming by gas.
Second: The smoke flue coil.itself, for, warming by gas.
Third. The application of the coil of pipe or pipes to gas cooking
apparatus for the purpose of warming and ventilation.
Fourth. The shape of the gas apparatus for the purpose of warming
and ventilation. -
Fifth. The apparatus in connection with the fire box, and its use for
domestic purposes, such as boiling by-it..
Sixth. The hob in connection with the fire box.
Seventh. The combination of ventilation with the same gas apparatus,
apart from the air carried away from the room by combustion..
Eighth. The combination of warming and lighting rooms or places
by one and the same apparatus.
Ninth. The introduction of the recess or of recesses to the gas stove
or to gas stoves:
Tenth. The application of charcoal fire to the apparatus in question.
My new patent coal or coke. fire grate presents in front the usual
appearance of an. ordinary fire grate, to which I also apply my Inven-
tion, the principle of which consists in giving the fire grate a hollow
back and top, and though similar things have been attempted, yet
nothing of the same kind has been done.
The fire grate may consist of exactly the same shape and make as the
gas apparatus above described, with this difference, that there are no
pipes inside the warm air chamber, and that instead of the fire box a
circular or other fire basket is placed into the niche or recess c, as near
to the bottom as possible, the smoke 'passing into the chimney at the
top of the niche or recess c, and the ash pit being entirely shut off from
the air chamber. By this means an immiense. body of air will be
warmed in the chamber, and pass into the room on each side of the
niche or recess fill the room, and pass 'ont again with the smoke
from the fire.
The apparatus may also be constructed in such a manner that the
hollow top projects over the fire box, in which case the smoke pipe has
to pass through the two plates forming the projecting part of the

page_text: chamber into the chimney, making every aperture round the said smoke
pipe quite air-tight. The roof of the air chamber may be quite
horizontal, though I claim it as my Invention to have it incline towards
the back.
Into the chamber, behind and above the fire; the cold air is admitted,
the same as in the gas apparatus before described, and instead of passing
out at the sides of the niche c, as is the case in the said gas apparatus,
it escapes into the room in the present instance at the front of the
top of the chamber, which front for this purpose is perforated; and
which may consist of a separate perforated plate, to be put on and
taken off at pleasure. Means are to be taken with this as well as the
gas apparatus that the warm air be shut off from the room altogether,
and the cold air from the warm air chamber, if required.
In applying this principle of a warin air chamber to present fire
grates the space at the back of the grate must of course' be made
hollow, and may be formed into a chamber by any means, metal, stone,
or any other material, taking care that the smoke pipe to be attached
to the fire grate be made air-tight as well as the fire grate itself, so as
not to allow any smoke to enter the chamber, and that the said smoke
pipe fit air-tight into the aperture of the roof of the chamber through
which it emerges into the chimney.
In this case new fire grates must either be cast with perforated top
fronts, so that the grate fills up the whole front of the chamber, or a
fire grate must be chosen in the ordinary way, too low for the recess, or
the place so arranged that between the top of the grate and the top of
the chamber in front there be a clear space of about two or three
inches to allow the air to escape from the chamber into the room, and
this clear space may be provided or filled up with the separate perforated
plate of zinc, or any other material as mentioned before.
The same arrangement holds good with regard to the admission of
the air into the chamber. If this takes place from soine exterior source,
or within the room through the bottom of the floor, the grate may be
placed right on the hearthstone or flags as at present, but if the air is
to enter the chamber from the room, as in the case of the gas apparatus,
then the grate must be elevated about-three inches from the ground

page_text: upon brickwork, stone, or a piece of iron or other metal made for the
purpose, yet so as to shut off the ashpit entirely from the chamber,
leaving the aperture on each side of the ashpit open, or provided with
perforated plates of some kind or another, so as to allow the air to pass
on each side of the ashpit, and unconnected with it into the said warm
air chamber. The fronts of new fire grates may also be manufactured
with open work on each side of the ashpit. The ashpit in all cases
may also be elevated with the grate, and cold air pass underneath it
into the chamber.
The circular fire basket which I apply to my new fire grate is per-
fectly perpendicular all round, and the bars forming the basket may
either be upright or horizontal, or any other way. The bottom of the
basket may either have regular fire bars and a plate block or nut with
a hole in it in the centre, or it may only have a bar across in the shape
of an S, videlicet, having the same nut with a hole in the centre.
The fire basket is intended to be turned round on a pivot or other
wise, and the fire bars and the sweeping bar must be fixed in such a
manner that the said sweeping bar rests upon the fire bars, in order
that it may sweep the ashes into the pit whenever the basket is turned,
or the basket may be fixed and the bars be made to turn below the
sweeping bar; this will not only prevent poking the fire and creating
dust, but tend to make the fire burn more brightly. Any other fire box
or basket for the use of coal, coke, or other fuel may, however, be
applied to my warm air chamber.
The sweeping bar may be applied to any other fire, and be in any
other shape, according to the place it has to sweep. If it will not do to
keep it fixed, or move round about its own axis, it will have to be
moved backward and foreward by hand or machinery, and in that case
it may be perfectly straight, and when not in action remain at rest
quite in front of the of the fire close to the bottom of the feeding
door, or wherever it will be least exposed to the heat.
The sweeping bar may be of iron or steel, or any other material
answering best for the purpose.
I claim as my Invention in this second part of my Patent,-
First. The warm air chamber forming the whole back part of the

page_text: fire grate in connection with the perforated front on each side of the
niche, as in the gas apparatus.
Second. The continuous air chamber formed of the whole back and
top part of my fire grate, the top part projecting over the fire with the
whole top front perforated above the fire and perforations at the bottom.
Third. The whole space behind the present fire grates being formed
into one great chamber.
Fourth. The front of present fire grates being manufactured with
perforations or apertures at the top in connection with apertures on
each side of the ashpit.
Fifth. The mode of setting present fire grates into the recesses of
chimmies, leaving clear spaces at the top and bottom or at the top only.
Sixth. The application of a separate perforated plate before the open
top and bottom front of my warm air chamber.
Seventh. The inclined roof of the air chamber.
Eighth. The passage of the smoke pipe through the roof of my air
chamber.
Ninth. The S shaped cross bar, which may also have any other
shape, for the purpose of sweeping the fire bars.
Tenth. The said cross bar fixed to the circular basket.
Eleventh. The sweeping bar applied to other fire-places, steain
boilers, &c., where it will prevent opening the feeding door for raking
the fire.
Twelfth. The arrangement of putting my new grates upon casters
for the purpose of rolling them in and out of the recess when required.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Adolph, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of March, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.
Witness,
FRED HARRIS.
W ADOLPH. (L.S.)