AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR CONSUMING SMOKE
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Brewster Parker, of Deptford, in the County
of Kent, Chemist, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR
CONSUMING SMOKE."
Sealed the 6th June 1854, and dated the 13th April 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Brewster Parker
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 13th April 1854.
I, SAMUEL BREWSTER PARKER, of Deptford, in the County of Kent, Chemist,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED APPA-
RATUS FOR CONSUMING SMOKE," consists of a moveable air chamber of clay
or metal, open at bottom and perforated at top, to be placed upon the fire
bars next to the bridge of the furnace. Air entering from the ash pit
passes up between the fire bars into this air chamber, and becoming heated
escapes through the perforations into the furnace, where, meeting with the
unconsumed carbon and other combustible gases passing from the fuel to
the bridge of the furnace, it causes them to ignite and be consumed, instead of
passing off to the chimney in the form of smoke.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed by
the said Samuel Brewster Parker in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
13th October 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
BREWSTER PARKER, of Deptford, in the County of Kent, Chemist, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most-Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord

page_text: One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the seventeenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Samuel Brewster Parker, Her special licence that I, the said Samuel
Brewster Parker, my executors, administrators, and "assigns, or such others
as I, the said Samuel Brewster Parker, 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 thercin 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 Inven-
tion for "AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR CONSUMING SMOKE," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Samuel Brewster Parker, 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 was to be per-
formed, 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 Samuel Brewster Parker, 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 of "An Improved Apparatus for Consuming Smoke," consists
of a moveable air chamber of clay or metal, open at bottom and perforated at
top, to be placed upon the fire bars next to the bridge of the furnace. Air
entering from the ash pit passes up between the fire bars into this air chamber,
and becoming heated escapes through the perforations into the furnace, where
meeting with the unconsumed carbon and other combustible gases passing from
the fuel to the bridge of the furnace, it causes them to ignite and be consumed,
instead of passing off to the chimney in the form of smoke...
And in order that the same may be more fully understood, reference is had
-to-the-Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked
thereon.
Figure 1 is a front elevation; and Figure 2, a cross section of an air
chamber, suitable for the furnace of a wagon-shaped or other flat-bottomed
boiler, or for an oven. Figure 3 is a front elevation of an air chamber, con-
cave on its upper surface, suitable for the furnace of a cylindrical boiler. The
air chamber being placed upon the fire bars of the furnace immediately in front
of and with its upper part a little higher than the bridge of the furnace, the hot
air from the ash pit passes up between the fire bars and enters the air chamber
at a, and being highly heated in its passage, escapes through the holes b, b, which

page_text: may be either on the upper surface, or at the back of the air chamber. On
issuing from the holes b, b, the heated air comes into contact and mixes with
the unconsumed carbonaceous gases of the fuel, by which means they become
ignited and are consumed. When the furnace has a powerful draught, the
interior of the air chamber, instead of offering a free and straight passage to the
air, as shewn in Figure 2, may be furnished with stops or checks, by which
the air will be detained a longer time in its passage, and be made to traverse
the chamber in a circuitous direction, for the double purpose of checking its too
rapid admission, and also to ensure its being sufficiently heated. Figure 4 is a
longitudinal section of so much of a furnace as is necessary to shew the appli-
cation of one of these air chambers. A is the ash pit; B, the fire bars; C,
the air chamber; D, the bridge of the furnace; and F, the furnace door. The
hot air from the ash pit A, passing up between the fire bars B, enters the air
chamber C at a, and is made to traverse round the passages formed by the
alternating projections e, as shewn by the direction of the arrows, and escapes
over the bridge of the furnace at b, where it mixes with the carbonaceous
gases from the fuel, and effects their combustion. The number and position
of the projections e can be regulated to suit the peculiar character of the furnace
to which the apparatus is to be applied. Note, I am aware that the consump-.
tion of carbonaceous gases or smoke, by the admission of air at or near the
bridge of the furnace, has long been known and practised in furnaces peculiarly
constructed for the purpose. Now my improvement consists in making the
smoke consuming apparatus a separate instrument, portable, and easily renewed
from time to time, without requiring any preparation whatever in the furnace.
What I claim as new and of my Invention is, the use of a portable moveable
chamber or vessel, through which heated air is admitted to the furnace, in the
manner and for the purpose herein-before described, without requiring any
alteration or preparation in the furnace for its reception.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Brewster Parker, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twelfth day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
SAMUEL BREWSTER PARKER. (L.S.)
Witness,
WILLIAM BADDELEY,
of No. 13, Angell Terrace, Islington.