IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR HEATING GREENHOUSES, HOTHOUSES, CONSERVATORIES, FORCING PITS AND FRAMES, CHURCHES, SCHOOLS, AND OTHER STRUCTURES AND BUILDINGS, WHICH APPARATUS IS APPLICABLE ALSO FOR EFFECTING THE NECESSARY HEATING FOR TURKISH AND OTHER BATHS, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1876

page_text: "
LETTERS PATENT to the Reverend James Benjafield Wenn, of Broome Rectory,
near Bungay, in the County of Suffolk, Clerk, and Arthur Dashwood, of The
Sycamores, Farnham, in the County of Surrey, Esquire, for the Invention of
IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR HEATING GREENHOUSES, HOTHOUSES,
CONSERVATORIES, FORCING PITS AND FRAMES, CHURCHES, SCHOOLS, AND
OTHER STRUCTURES AND BUILDINGS, WHICH APPARATUS IS APPLICABLE ALSO
FOR EFFECTING THE NECESSARY HEATING FOR TURKISH AND OTHER BATHS,
AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES."
aled the 22nd August 1876, and dated the 22nd June 1876.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Reverend James Benjafield
Wenn and Arthur Dashwood at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on
the 22nd June 1876.
The Reverend JAMES BENJAFIELD WENN, of Broome Rectory, near Bungay, in
the County of Suffolk, Clerk, and ARTHUR DASHWOOD, of The Sycamores, Farnham,
in the County of Surrey, Esquire. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR HEATING
GREENHOUSES, HOTHOUSES, CONSERVATORIES, FORCING PITS AND FRAMES, CHURCHES,
SCHOOLS, AND OTHER STRUCTURES AND BUILDINGS, WHICH APPARATUS IS APPLICABLE
ALSO FOR EFFECTING THE NECESSARY HEATING FOR TURKISH AND OTHER BATHS, AND
FOR OTHER PURPOSES."
This Invention of improvements in apparatus for heating greenhouses, hothouses,
conservatories, forcing pits and frames, churches, schools, and other structures and
buildings, which apparatus is applicable also for effecting the necessary heating for
Turkish and other baths, and for other purposes, is designed to dispense with the
use of coal as fuel, and of the flues ordinarily employed in connection with such
apparatus.
66
In the improved apparatus a boiler is used, which may be either a long flat boiler
(it may have concave sides) with a central row of vertical fire tubes passing through
it and fixed into the top and bottom plates of the boiler (herein-after referred to as
the long boiler ") or of an egg-ended boiler with similar tubes arranged in the
form of two crescents (herein-after referred to as the egg-ended boiler). These
tubes are conical, the smaller diameter being at the top. Each tube has a projection
below the underside of the boiler, which projection is so cut or formed as to fit
accurately a correspondingly formed piece of tube encompassing each one of a row
[Price 6d.]

page_text: of mineral oil burners, or the burners may be atmospheric gas burners. When
mineral oil is to be used the burners are screwed into a cistern or carriage of similar
shape to the boilers herein-before described, which cistern or carriage is mounted
on wheels to run on a tramway. On withdrawing this cistern or carriage the
burners with their tubes are freed from the tubes projecting from and passing
through the boiler, and can then be lighted, and on the cistern or carriage being
returned the two sets of tubes, namely, those of the boiler and those of the burners
meet and fit into each other so as to prevent the escape of heat which now ascends
into each of the boiler tubes, which boiler tubes being surrounded by water, as
hereafter described, will cause the water to boil and circulate in and from the boiler
either through coils of pipe attached to each end of the boiler, in the case of the long
boiler, or to the top, in the case of the egg-ended boiler. In the case of the long
boiler the circulation may be through flow and return pipes, or through a large tank
fixed above the boiler with space between it and the boiler for the heat to spread
which escapes from the reduced or upper ends of the fire tubes. By this operation
a sufficient quantity of water for a bath may be heated in the tank with or without
the coils or pipes. These improvements are also applicable to mineral oil cooking
stoves, which, made upon the principle described, can be used for either boiling,
baking, or frying, and at the same time be heating the water in the bath room, a
cylinder being fitted for that purpose in another room and connected with flow and
return pipes. Provision is made to obviate excessive pressure by means of expansion
vases or pipes, as described below. The tank fixed above the boiler, as described, is
connected with it either by (1) a feed pipe fitted with a valve, which, while it allows
water to pass from the tank into the boiler, will also prevent water from returning
from the boiler to the tank, or (2) by a flow pipe having screw plug or tap, which,
when open, allows the hot water to rise from the boiler into the tank and a return
pipe which completes the means of circulation through both the boiler and tank.
The tank is also covered with a close-fitting lid, having three small steam or vapour
chambers, the tops of which are each furnished with valves, so that when required
the vapour may, by opening the valves, be allowed to escape into the house or
apartment, thus furnishing a moist heat in addition to the heat radiating from the
external surfaces of the boiler and tank and of the coils or pipes when such are used.
For attaching these coils or pipes the boiler is fitted with flow and return unions at
either end, when the coils or pipes are removed the orifices are closed by metal caps
screwed on to the union pieces. To allow for the expansion of the water in the
boiler and in the coils or pipes they may be fitted at their highest points with an
ornamental vase, either of metal, glass, or earthenware, which will act as a receiver
for the overflow caused by expansion. These vases being placed at a higher level
than the tank will not receive water from it. In lieu of vases small syphon pipes
turned or bent into the tank itself may be employed. When using round or oval
shaped boilers, in lieu of employing therewith a tank, we provide an upper boiler of
mushroom shape, against the lower surface of which the heated products escaping
from the fire tubes of the main boiler act so as to raise the temperature of the
water on its return from the pipes. The water is made to pass through this
mushroom shaped boiler before returning to the main boiler, into which it is conducted
by means of a descending pipe passing through the crown of the main boiler to its
base. The flow pipe is fixed to the crown of the main boiler, passing between it and
the mushroom shaped or upper boiler. By utilizing the heat that would otherwise
escape to raise the temperature of the returning water before it enters the main
boiler we obtain a more rapid circulation. This boiler is also so constructed that it
may be converted into and used as a high pressure steam boiler by connecting the
upper or mushroom shaped boiler to the lower or main boiler by means of several
short pipes from the crown of the lower to the base of the upper boiler, and
connecting the steam flow pipe to the crown of the latter, which is also fitted with
a safety valve.
By this means a great length of pipe may be heated at a very
small cost, and, when desired, small taps are inserted in the pipe for the escape of
vapour for moist heat. The supply to this steam boiler may be by means of a ball

page_text: tap and small cistern. The pipes attached to the main boiler are either made into
coils and surmounted by an expansion vase, as before described, or are composed of
ordinary flow and return pipes with expansion pipes carried into a cold water supply
cistern, which is to be fixed in some convenient situation at a proper level. With
the coils and vases this supply cistern is not necessary, as the vase in each case
answers as well for feeding as for the expansion. If desired, and the position of
the flow pipes is convenient, then they can be furnished with the vase instead of
the expansion pipes and cistern.
For bath purposes, and to enable water to be drawn off from the coils or pipes,
both the tank and boilers are fitted with cocks; also, when necessary, cocks are fitted
to the flow and return connections of the boilers and pipes, thus rendering it
unnecessary to draw off any portion of the water when it is required to detach the
boiler from the coils or flow and return pipes.
By removing the oil carriage with its burners and substituting gas burners the
apparatus is rendered at once available for using either coal gas or the gas now
produced from mineral oils. In the latter case it is only necessary to place at some
convenient spot a small gas-making machine, connecting it with the heating
apparatus, and the whole is then complete without any further appliance.
For purposes of inspection each burner tube is made partly of glass or other
transparent substance so that the action of the heating apparatus can be seen at
any time. Some of the coils attached to the apparatus may be so arranged that
when used in any ordinary bath room fitted with tiles or glazed bricks, a perfect
Turkish bath is produced, and by means of the regulating taps or cocks the one
room is made to answer to any three different degrees of temperature, so that the
equivalent of an elaborate Turkish bath can be produced on a small scale in a
private dwelling.
The scope of the apparatus can be so varied that by means of different coils or
pipes all the rooms in a dwelling in which it is desired could be moderately heated.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by the
said Reverend James Benjafield Wenn and Arthur Dashwood in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 22nd December 1876.
The Reverend JAMES BENJAFIELD WENN, of Broome Rectory, near Bungay, in
the County of Suffolk, Clerk, and ARTHUR DASHWOOD, of The Sycamores, Farnham,
in the County of Surrey, Esquire. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR HEATING
GREENHOUSES, HOTHOUSES, CONSERVATORIES, FORCING PITS AND FRAMES, CHURCHES,
SCHOOLS, AND OTHER STRUCTURES AND BUILDINGS, WHICH APPARATUS IS APPLICABLE
ALSO FOR EFFECTING THE NECESSARY HEATING FOR TURKISH AND OTHER BATHS, AND
FOR OTHER PURPOSES."
This Invention of improvements in apparatus for heating greenhouses, hothouses,
conservatories, forcing pits and frames, churches, schools, and other structures and
buildings, which apparatus is applicable also for effecting the necessary heating for
Turkish and other baths, and for other purposes, is designed to dispense with the
use of coal as fuel, and of the flues ordinarily employed in connection with such
apparatus.
In the improved apparatus, one arrangement of which is shewn in Fig. 1 of
the Drawings, a boiler is used, which may be either a long flat boiler, as shewn
at a (it may have concave sides), with a central row of vertical fire tubes passing
through it and fixed into the top plate a¹ and bottom plate a³ of the boiler
(herein-after referred to as "the long boiler "), or an egg-ended boiler with similar
tubes arranged in the form of two crescents (herein-after referred to as the egg-
ended boiler) may be employed. The tubes 6 are conical, the smaller diameter
being at the top. Each tube b projects below the bottom of the boiler. The
projection is so cut or formed as to fit accurately a correspondingly formed piece

page_text: boiler
a₂
of tube encompassing each one of a row of mineral oil burners c, or the burners
may be atmospheric gas burners. When mineral oil is to be used the burners
are screwed into a cistern or carriage d, as shewn in Fig. 1, which cistern or
carriage is mounted on wheels to run on a tramway c. On withdrawing this
cistern or carriage the burners with their tubes are freed from the tubes projecting
from and passing through the boiler, and can then be lighted, and on the cistern
or carraige being returned the two sets of tubes, namely, those of the boiler and
those of the burners, meet and fit into each other so as to prevent the escape of
heat which now ascends into each of the boiler tubes b, which boiler tubes being
surrounded by water, as hereafter described, will cause the water to boil and
circulate in and from the boiler through coils of pipe attached to each end of the
in the case of the long boiler, or to the top, in the case of the egg-ended
boiler. In the case of the long boiler a the circulation may be through flow and
return pipes, or through a large tank f fixed above the boiler a with space g
between it and the boiler for the heat to spread,. which escapes from the reduced
or upper ends of the fire tubes b. By this operation a sufficient quantity of water
for a bath may be heated in the tank f with or without the coils or pipes. These
improvements are also applicable to mineral oil cooking stoves, which, made upon
the principle described, can be used for either boiling, baking, or frying, and at
the same time be heating the water in the bath room, a cylinder being fitted for
that purpose in another room and connected with flow and return pipes. Provision
is made to obviate excessive pressure by means of expansion vases or pipes, as
described below. The tank f fixed above the boiler a, as described, is connected
with it either by (1) a feed pipe fitted with a valve, which, while it allows water
to pass from the tank into the boiler, will also prevent water from returning from
the boiler to the tank, or (2) by a flow pipe having a screw plug or tap, which,
when open, allows the water to rise from the boiler into the tank, and a return
pipe which completes the means of circulation through both the boiler and tank.
The tank is also covered with a close-fitting lid, having three small steam or
vapour chambers h, h1, h2, the tops of which are each furnished with valves, as
shewn, so that when required the vapour may, by opening the valves, be allowed
to escape into the house or apartment, thus furnishing a moist heat in addition
to the heat radiating from the external surfaces of the boiler and tank and of the
coils and pipes when such are used. For attaching these coils or pipes the boiler
is fitted with flow and return unions at either end, when the coils or pipes are
removed the orifices are closed by metal caps screwed on to the union pieces.
To allow for the expansion of the water in the boiler and in the coils or pipes
they may be fitted at their highest points with an ornamental vase, either of
metal, glass, or earthenware, which will act as a receiver for the overflow caused
by expansion. These vases being placed at a higher level than the tank will not
receive water from it. In lieu of vases small syphon pipes turned or bent into
the tank itself may be employed. When using round or oval-shaped boilers, in
Lieu of employing therewith a tank, we provide an upper boiler of mushroom
shape, against the lower surface of which the heated products escaping from the
fire tubes of the main boiler act so as to raise the temperature of the water on its
return from the pipes. The water is made to pass through this mushroom-shaped
boiler before returning to the main boiler, into which it is conducted by means
of a descending pipe passing through the crown of the main boiler to its base.
The flow pipe is fixed to the crown of the main boiler, passing between it and
the mushroom-shaped or upper boiler. By utilizing the heat that would other-
wise escape to raise the temperature of the returning water before it enters the
main boiler we obtain a more rapid circulation. This boiler is also so constructed
that it may be converted into and used as a high pressure steam boiler by con-
necting the upper or mushroom-shaped boiler to the lower or main boiler by means
of several short pipes from the crown of the lower to the base of the upper boiler,
and connecting the steam flow pipe to the crown of the latter, which is also fitted
with a safety valve. By this means a great length of pipe may be heated at a very

page_text: small cost, and, when desired, small taps are inserted in the pipe for the escape of
vapour for moist heat. The supply to the steam boiler may be by means of a
ball tap and small cistern. The pipes attached to the main boiler are either made
into coils and surmounted by an expansion vase, as before described, or are
composed of ordinary flow and return pipes with expansion pipes carried into
a cold water supply cistern, which is to be fixed in some convenient situation
at a proper level. With the coils and vases this supply cistern is not necessary,
as the vase in each case answers as well for feeding as for the expansion. If desired,
and the position of the flow pipes is convenient, then they can be furnished with
the vase instead of the expansion pipes and cistern.
For bath purposes, and to enable the water to be drawn off from the coils or pipes,
both the tank and boilers are fitted with taps; also, when necessary, cocks are fitted
to the flow and return connections of the boilers and pipes, thus rendering it un-
necessary to draw off any portion of the water when it is required to detach the
boiler from the coils or flow and return pipes.
By removing the oil carriage with its burners and substituting gas burners, as
in the arrangement shewn in Fig. 2, the apparatus is rendered at once available
for using either coal gas, or the gas now produced from mineral oils. In the latter
case it is only necessary to place at some convenient spot a small gas-making
machine, connecting it with the heating apparatus, and the whole is then complete
without any further appliance.
For purposes of inspection each burner tube is made partly of glass or other
transparent substance x, so that the action of the heating apparatus can be seen
at any time. Some of the coils attached to the apparatus may be so arranged
that when used in any ordinary bath room, fitted with tiles or glazed bricks, a
perfect Turkish bath is produced, and by means of the regulating taps or cocks
the one room is made to answer to any three different degrees of temperature, so
that the equivalent of an elaborate Turkish bath can be produced on a small scale
in a private dwelling.
The scope of the apparatus can be so varied that by means of different coils
or pipes all the rooms in a dwelling in which it is desired could be moderately
heated.
Having described the nature of our said Invention, and the manner of performing
it, we declare that we do not intend to claim any of the parts of the apparatus
herein-before shewn and described when taken separately and apart from the
combination or application thereof in manner and for the purposes herein described,
but what we consider to be novel and original, and therefore claim as of our
Invention, is-
The combination of parts constituting the improved apparatus constructed,
arranged, and operating as shewn in and described with reference to the accompany-
ing Drawings, and also the several modifications thereof herein-before described.
Also we claim the use in combination of the projections of the tubes b, and the
correspondingly formed pieces of tube encompassing each burner, and arranged to
accurately fit the projections of the tubes b, as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Benjafield Wenn, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-six.
JAMES BENJAFIELD WENN. (LS.)