CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN HEATING, LIGHTING, AND VENTILATING
Year: 1847

page_text: BRAITHWAITE'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
BRAITHWAITE, of 39, Bedford Square, in the County of Middlesex, Civil
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-eighth
day of January, in the tenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs
and successors, give and grant unto me, the said John Braithwaite, my exors,
adñiors, and assigns, Her especial licence, full full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said John Braithwaite, my exors, admors, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said John Braithwaite, my exors, admors, or assigna,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England and Wales and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark,
and Man, and also in all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my
Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN HEATING, LIGHTING, AND VENTILATING;"
in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said John
Braithwaite, should cause a particular description of the nature of my said

page_text: Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after
the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same,
reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Braithwaite, hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, are fully described in and by
the present Specification thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto
annexed, that is to say:-
My said Invention consists in certain improved arrangements of mechanical
and pneumatic means, either new in themselves or employed in a new state
of combination, which have for their object,-
Firstly, to render gas and other lamps self-preventive of noxious exhalations,
or, in other words, to cause them to consume their own smoke and noxious
exhalations; and,
Secondly, to effect the better heating and ventilating of buildings, apart-
ments, and other confined places.
In Figures 1 and 2 of the Drawings hereunto annexed I have exemplified
the manner in which the first branch of my said Invention is to be carried
into effect, by showing how it may be applied to or embodied in a gas lamp
of one burner, either suspended from the ceiling of a building or apartment,
as in Figure 1, or attached by a bracket to a wall, as in Figure 2. In
Figure 8 I have exemplified the manner in which both the first and second
parts of my said Invention may be carried unitedly into effect, by showing
their application to a pendant lamp of two, three, or any greater number of
burners. Each of these Figures (1, 2, and 3) is a sectional elevation of the
particular apparatus which it represents. A, Figure 1, is the burner. B, the
chimney, and C, a globular shade. (The burner A is separately represented
of its full size in the two sectional views, Figures 4 and 5.) It consists of
three concentric tubes a, b, c, which are respectively appropriated to the
passage of the air, gas, and smoke. The innermost or air tube a terminates
at bottom in a flange or ring, which is screwed or otherwise fastened to the
two other tubes b and c (which are cast in one piece), as shewn, and at top
it is made of a bell-mouthed or other suitable form, so as to overlay to a
considerable extent the top of the next adjacent or smoke tube c. The burner
with its chimney and shade is kept suspended by means of two tubes d and e,
the under ends of which are connected to the burner, and the upper ends to
a two-way piece D, attached to the gas supply pipe. The tube d serves for
E

page_text: .
the supply of gas, communicating through the passage f, of the two-way
piece D, with the gas main, and opening at bottom into the outermost tube
of the burner, thence it flows to the apertures of ignition. E is a receiver or
collector, which is suspended from the two-way piece D, immediately over the
chimney B, and communicates by a hollow shank with one end of tho
passage 9 of the piece D. The tube is attached to the other or opposite
end of the passage g, and serves to lead the smoke and noxious exhalations
which collect in the glass E back to the burner, in order to be there consumed.
The smoke and noxious exhalations being conducted into the central tube or
compartment c of the burner, ascend till they encounter at top the overlaying
part of the tube a, and are deflected and thereby caused to impinge against
the flame, as indicated by the arrows at h, h. In the wall lamp, Figure 2,
the gas supply tube e is connected at right angles to the gas main m, and
the tube n, after passing parallel to e, as far as it extends, is carried upwards
in a straight line, and then curved over, as shewn, holding suspended from
its beak the receiver E. In Figure 3, M represents a portion of the side
wall of a house or other building, and N a portion of the flooring and ceiling
between two apartments of such house or building. L is a gas lamp, suspended
from the ceiling of the under apartment by means of a tubular pillar %, from
the bottom of which two tubular arms &, F, branch off at right angles, each
terminating in a burner A, of the same construction as that before described,
a chimney B, and shade C. The gas is supplied to the burners through the
tubular pieces, l', P, the main piece being connected at top to a feed pipe P,
which runs between the ceiling and floor, and communicates with a gas main in
the usual manner. From the burnrs A, A, and from the compartments of these
burners (which compartments are not seen, however, in the. Figure now in
course of description), two smoke pipes (e, e) are carried upwards in the curved
direction shewn, and hold suspended from their beaks (immediately over the
burners) two receivers E, E, exactly similar to those employed in Figures }
and 2, and before described. W, W, is an outer casing which encloses, but
without touching, the greater part of the central tubular pillar 2, also the
upper portions of the smoke pipes e, e, each branch terminating at its lower
end a, a, in a mouthpiece, which immediately surrounds the neck of the
smoke receiver E. The central branch of this outer casing is prolonged
upwards through the ceiling, and there joined to a tube Y, which passes
horizontally along under the floor of the upper apartment, and enters a vertical
Blue W', W', in the side wall of which it is carried to the top of the
building, or any other convenient point of exit into the atmosphere. X, X is
an air passage, which is carried from the outside of the building at y beneath

page_text: the flooring of the upper apartment. It encloses in its progress the horizontal
pipe Y, and terminates in an aperture 5, which opens into the upper apartment.
Figures 6 and 7 are plans of the outer casing W, and gas tubes 17, as seen
from above. The gas, smoke, and other tubes are made of copper, iron, or
tin, as usual. The operation of the apparatus just described, in so far as
regards the consumption of the smoke and other noxious exhalations arising
from the burner, is precisely similar to that of the apparatuses represented in
Figures 1 and 2, but it is attended with this further advantage, that the
greater part of the heat which radiates from the gas and smoke tubes, and
also all the lighter and more vitiated portions of the atmosphere of the
apartment, are intercepted by or drawn into the outer casing W, and carried
off through it into the external atmosphere, while in their progress through
the horizontal pipe Y they impart a degree of heat to the supply of fresh air
flowing in through the surrounding pipe X, X. Where the apartment or
place to be lighted has no connection with any other apartment or place above
or below it requiring to be warmed or ventilated, as, for example, the interior
of a railway carriage, the cold air pipe would of course be dispensed with.
The aperture 2, which opens into the upper apartment in Figure 3, may be
covered with a fixed perforated plate, as is usual with such apertures in floors
and walls. I regulate the flow of air by means of a throttle valve or damper,
acted on by what I term a thermostatic lover, through the medium of or by
wooden connecting rods. I construct the thermostatic lever as follows:-I
take two slips of any metals possessing different degrees of expansibility, such,
for instance, as iron and zinc, of about fifteen inches in length, one inch wide,
and three sixteenths of an inch thick, more or less, and connect them by
soldering and rivetting them together face to face. make this compound
lever fast by inserting one end in the wall or brickwork of the building, and
attach it by the other to a bell crank or lever, and thence by a wooden
connecting rod to the spindle of the valve. The greater the heat, the greater
will be the curvature in the thermostatic lever by the conflicting degrees of
expansibility possessed by the metals of which it is composed, and the greater
consequently the rise or opening of the valve. The valve is thus always most
open when a supply of fresh air is most wanted; and when the general
temperature falls so low that no further influx of fresh air is desirable, it
becomes, as it should be, closed altogether. In Figure 8, I have shewn the
connection between the thermostatic lever and the valve.
A is the lever, one
of which, a, is fixed in the wall B. C is the floor of the apartment.
The other end (6) of the lever is connected to a bell crank D, beneath the
floor, by means of a wooden rod c, and from the bell crank D by another

page_text: wooden rod d, to the lever e, attached to the spindle of the valve E. The
valve is represented open; the dotted lines show the position of the respective
parts when closed. In all the preceding exemplifications I have supposed
gas to be used, but the same arrangements will be equally applicable whether
gas, oil, tallow, or any other combustible material be employed, or with such
obvious modifications only as will readily suggest themselves to any workman
of ordinary skill and intelligence.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that the improvements which I
claim as constituting my said Invention are as follows:→
First, I claim the several arrangements of apparatuses represented in
Figures 1, 2, and 3, and before described, whereby the smoke and other
noxious exhalations arising from gas and other lamps are conducted back to the
burners, and caused to pass through the flame or flames in order to their being
consumed; that is to say, I claim the said arrangements in the general and
peculiar combination of parts, partly new and partly old, of which the same
-consists.
Second, I claim the united system of heating, lighting, and ventilating,
represented in Figure 8, and before described, by means whereof not only the
smoke and other noxious exhalations arising from gas and other lamps are
conducted back to the burners to be consumed as before said, but the radiated
heat and vitiated air are at the same time (wholly or partially) carried off into
the external atmosphere, and in some cases also heat is imparted to an
unflowing supply of cold or fresh air; that is to say, I claim the said system as
being in its entirety new and original, and essentially different from any other
heretofore in use.
Third, I claim the burner of the peculiar construction represented in
Figures 4 and 5, and before described, whether employed as a part of any of
the arrangements before claimed, or employed in any other way to effect a
more complete combustion of the noxious exhalations given out from the
inflammable materials ordinarily employed for lighting purposes. And,
Fourth, I claim the thermostatic lever before described, as applied to tho
regulation of valves for heating and ventilating purposes generally.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Braithwaite, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-seven.
JN° (Ls.) BRAITHWAITE.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-sixth day of July, in
the year of our Lord 1847, the aforesaid John Braithwaite came before our
said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Twenty-eighth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-seven.