Im- PROVEMENTS IN MARINE STEAM BOILER FURNACES AND FLUES
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Symes Prideaux, of Willow House, Hamp-
stead, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer, for the Invention of "Im-
PROVEMENTS IN MARINE STEAM BOILER FURNACES AND FLUES."
Sealed the 29th February 1856, and dated the 1st September 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Symes Prideaux
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
1st September 1855.
I, THOMAS SYMES PRIDEAUX, of Willow House, Hampstead, in the County
of Middlesex, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention of "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN MARINE STEAM BOILER FURNACES AND FLUES" to be as follows: —
The object of this Invention is to reduce the temperature of the engine and
boiler rooms of steam boats and vessels; for which purpose, in place of employ-
ing the description of doors heretofore used for the smoke boxes or flues, such
doors are made with hollow compartments (divided by thin sheet metal), to be
filled with atmospheric air or other imperfect conductors of heat, and the ash-
pit doors are made with parallel strips, or narrow plates of sheet metal, on axes
or hinges, which are capable of being closed or retained at any angle, such
apparatus preventing radiation of the heat outwards, whilst the air has a free
passage inwards.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Symes Prideaux in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 29th February 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
SYMES PRIDEAUX, of Willow House, Hampstead, in the County of Middlesex,
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the First day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Thomas Symes Prideaux, Her special licence that I, the said Thomas
Symes Prideaux, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Thomas Symes Prideaux, 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 MARINE STEAM BOILER FURNACES AND FLUES," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said Thomas Symes Prideaux, 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 Thomas Symes Prideaux, 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:--
The object of this Invention is to reduce the temperature of the engine and
boiler rooms of steam boats and vessels; for which purpose, in place of
employing the description of doors heretofore used for the smoke boxes or
flues, such doors are made with hollow compartments (divided by thin sheet
metal), to be filled with atmospheric air or other imperfect conductors of heat,
and the ash-pit doors are made with parallel strips, or narrow plates of sheet
metal, on axes or hinges, which are capable of being closed or retained at any
angle, such apparatus preventing radiation of the heat outwards, whilst the air
has a free passage inwards.

page_text: Having thus stated the nature of my said Invention, I will proceed more
fully to describe the manner of performing the same.
•
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 shews the inside view of a smoke box or flue door, and Figure 2
shows a transverse section of a smoke box or flue door, according to my
Invention. The door 6 has fixed on its interior surface three parallel thin
metal plates a, a, by which hollow spaces or chambers c, c, c, are produced,
which being simply filled with air (or it might be other non-conductive matter),
prevent the radiation of heat from the door into the engine room; Figure 3
shows a front view, and Figure 4 a transverse section, of a door consisting of
a series of plates on axes; these are capable of being opened more or less,
and of being retained in any desired position, and it is the application of such
construction of doors to the ash-pits of furnaces which constitutes the second
part of my Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Symes Prideaux, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Eleventh day of February, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
0
Witness,
GEO. PITT,
4, Old Square.
THOMAS SYMES PRIDEAUX. (L.S.)