A SMOKE-CONSUMING ROTARY GRATE
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Woodford, of Hatton Garden, Watchmaker,
..for the Invention of "A SMOKE-CONSUMING ROTARY GRATE."
Sealed the 8th September 1854, and dated the 14th March 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Woodford at the
"Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 14th
March 1854.
I, JAMES WOODFORD, of Hatton Garden, Watchmaker, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "A-SMOKE-CONSUMING ROTARY GRATE" to be
as follows:-
I construct the said grate on a rotary principle; so as to turn upon two
centres or studs in the centres of the ends or cheeks of the said grate, which
may be of a circular, square, or other form. The studs run in sockets in the
sides of the stove in which the said grate is to be fixed, the form of the stove
being adapted to receive the same; the stud at one end of the grate passes
through the side or cheek of the stove, behind which it carries a toothed
wheel; this toothed wheel gears with and is turned by a pinion at the back of
the face plate of the stove; this pinion is mounted on a stud which is fixed in
the face plate. In front of the face plate a handle is attached to the stud by
means of which the grate is turned round, and is supplied with fuel as here-
after described.
The rotary grate is fitted with bars. All round the ends or cheeks are solid
plates without apertures. The grate is divided into compartments by perforated
plates of iron or dividing grates, which plates or grates radiate from the

page_text: centre or axis of the grate. In each compartment provision is made for
supplying the fuel by moveable bars, by which each compartment can be
opened and closed independently of each other. At the back and partially
under the grate there is an outer case which fits nearly close to the grate and
keeps the fuel or fire from falling out.
I divide the said rotary grate in the manner above mentioned, with the
means of supplying each compartment with fuel separately, for the purpose of
causing a more perfect consumption of the products of combustion, by placing
the fuel with which the fire is supplied in one of the compartments, and then
by adjusting the position of the grate so as to cause the products of combus-
tion (produced by the action of the fire in the adjoining compartments) to pass
through the fire in the other compartments of the grate and be wholly or
partially consumed thereby. The position of the grate is regulated or adjusted
by turning the handle at the side of the stove as before mentioned, and is held
in the required position by a catch or other suitable contrivance.
This grate may be applied to boiler and other furnaces, and also to ordinary
stoves of suitable form.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Woodford in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
14th September 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
WOODFORD, of Hatton Garden, Watchmaker, send greeting..
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, and in the seventeenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said James Woodford, Her special licence that I, the said James Wood-
ford, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
James Woodford, 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 "A SMOKE-CONSUMING
ROTARY GRATE," upon the condition, amongst others, that I, the said James
Woodford, should, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, par-
ticularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what

page_text: 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 James Woodford, 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 state-
ment and description thereof, together with the accompanying Drawings and
the explanation applying thereto herein contained, that is to say:-
My Invention consists of a rotary fire-grate, which is constructed and fitted
in the following manner:-I construct the said grate in a cylindrical or other
form, with plain or perforated ends, and openings and bars round the peri-
phery. I divide the grate into a number of compartments by placing bars
across the interior, and make the bars on the periphery of each compartment
moveable for supplying the same with fuel. In the centre of each end a stud
or axis is fixed, and upon these studs or upon a bar running through the
grate, the same is mounted between the cheeks of the stove, or on suitable
supports in a furnace, and upon these studs or bar the grate rotates. On the
stud or bar at one end of the grate a wheel is fixed; this wheel may be either
a toothed wheel or a perforated plate, and turned by another wheel or plate
with pins on the edge, to fit into the perforations in the iron plate as the case
may be, and fixed on a stud or shaft in the side of the stove or at some con-
venient place in the side or end of the furnace, at an angle with the wheel
or plate fixed to the stud or bar at the end of the grate, and turned by a
handle in front of the stove or at the side or end of the furnace. At the back
and partially under the grate I fix a shield or covering plate. The grate may
be mounted without the wheels, and turned by any other suitable means. I
divide the said grate into separate compartments, and mount the same as
above described, for the purpose of causing a more perfect consumption of the
products of combustion, by placing the fuel by which the fire is supplied in
one of the compartments, and then by adjusting the position of the grate so
as to cause the products of combustion from the fuel last supplied to pass
through the fire with which it is placed in contact.
EXPLANATION OF THE DRAWINGS.
The Drawings are laid down to a scale of 3 inches to a foot, and in
referencing the different Figs. the same letters are repeated in the same parts
of the grate, so that one reference applies to the whole. Fig. 1 is a front
elevation of the grate. Fig. 2 is a section through the same on the line A, B,
Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a plan of the grate. Fig. 4 is a plan of the end plate where

page_text: the wheels and handle are placed. a, a, are the fire bars on the periphery of
the grate; b, b, the dividing bars in the interior of the grate, and which divide
it into the compartments 1, 2, 3, and 4; c, c, side frames' in which the ends
of the bars that are moveable are fitted so as to form a door, & open on the
joints-k, k, and are fastened at 1, 1; 'd, d, the studs or ends of the bar d', which
runs: through the centre of the grate; e, e, the shield or covering plate for
"keeping the fire from falling out, and for confining the heat at the back and
partially under the gráte; f,f the cheeks or sides of the casing;
$9.9 the
end plates of the grate; h, h, the wheel or plate by which the grate is turned;
the other wheel fixed on a shaft j, which passes through the side plate
in front of the grate;k, the handle for turning the same.
I have now to the best of my ability described and ascertained' the nature
of my Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed; but I do
'not confine myself to the particular grate shown on the Drawings, as the form
may be varied.
I claim the grate divided into compartments, and constructed so as to rotate
úpon an axis, as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Woodford, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of September, A.D. 1854.
JAMES WOODFORD. (L.S.)