IMPROVE- MENTS IN SHIPS' FIRE HEARTHS
Year: 1845

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
BOWSER, of Parsons Street, Saint George's in the East, in the County of
Middlesex, and WILLIAM BOWSER, junior, of the same Place, Engineers, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-seventh day of March, in the eighth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said "
William Bowser and William Bowser, junior, our exors, adññiors, and assigns,
Her especial license, full power, sole privilege and authority, that we, the said
William Bowser and William Bowser, junior, our exors, adiñors, and assigns,
or such others as we, the said William Bowser and William Bowser, junior,
our exors, aditiors, or assigns, 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,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, our Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN SHIPS' FIRE HEARTHS;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a
proviso, that we, the said William Bowser and William Bowser, junior, or one
of us, shall cause a particular description of the nature of our said Invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in Iler said
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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
William Bowser and William Bowser, junior, do hereby declare that the
nature of our said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be
performed, are fully described and ascertained in and by the following state-
ment thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to
the figures and letters marked thereon, that is to say :-
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
No. 1 is an elevation in front, shewing the combination of the boiler, hot
plate, and oven, as also that part of the top of the cap or chimney of the fire
hearth which we propose to convert when desirable into a hot closet; No. 2,
transverse section through the plan in the line C, D; No. 3, ditto, ditto, in
the line A, B; No. 4, horizontal plan, shewing the line C, D, A, B, and E, F;
No. 5 section of the back part of the fire hearth, through the line E, F, on
the plan, No. 4, shewing the boilers with front of the safety pans; No. 6,
section through the line G, H, in the plan, No. 7, shewing the construction
of the fire hearth with a hot plate; No. 7, horizontal plan, shewing the
construction of the fire-place, corrugated roasting surface, and flues when the
hot plate alone is desired; No. 8, section of the boiler and steam chest; No. 9,
section of the condenser; No. 10, transverse section of the condenser; No. 11,
section of the condensing surfaces, No. 1; the range I, hot plate K, and front,
with doors for feeding the fire and clearing the ashes; oven L, with the door
to clean the ashes from the basket n, formed by the bottom bars of the range.
The top of the cap me which we propose to cover in and convert into a hot
closet when required. No. 2, transverse section through the plan in the line
C, D; the hot plate K with a fire-place a underneath to heat it when the
boilers are not in use; the oven L, with cast wings d, d, No. 4, conducting the
heat and forming part of the back of the range space c for heating the two
ovens from the fire in the range; the boilers O, P, Q, being constructed in one,
two or three, as most convenient for the size required; the furnace e, the fire
passing under the whole of the bottom of the boilers, as shown by the arrows;
the furnace bars f; the safety boxes g made to draw out; holes k provided in
the upper bottoms to facilitate the supply of air to the furnace cocks 6 to draw
off the boilers. No 3, section through the line A. B, on the plan, Figure 4.
Range I, oven N, space c for heating the bottom of the oven, as in No. 2; cast-
iron box h to receive the flue from under the ovens; flue conveying the
smoke, &c. away from the furnace e, as shown by the arrows; the regulating
damper to the chimney with a division to it, common to the range and
boilers. No. 4, plan; the range I, ovens L and N, right and left the boilers

page_text: O, P, Q; the furnace f, cast-iron box h, at the end of the furnace, forming the
flue from underneath the ovens L, N; the chimney R containing a regulating
damper i, the hot plate k, with the fire-place a, the draught holes m', m'.
No. 5, section through the line E, F, the boilers O, P, Q, the safety boxes
9, 9, 9, shewing the holes for admitting a continuous draught to the whole
length of the furnace bars; No. 6, section through the line G, H, on the
plan No. 7, the hot plate K being heated from the fire-place R; the fire then
passes into the flue T, T, down the corrugated roasting surface S under the
bottom of the oven te, when it returns up again in the corners of the cor-
rugated surface into the flues U and X, and thence into the cap or chimney,
the protector or bastener V to the roasting surface, which is made with joints
to fold or roll up when not in use, either perpendicular or horizontally.
No. 7, the plan; the boilers O, P, Q, the fire-place R, the corrugated roasting
surface S, S, the flue T, protected by a wide grating, by which the fire passes
through the flues T, T, T, T, under the oven W, and is made to return up
again into the flues U, U, and X, X, into the chimney or cap R. No. 8,
section of the boiler for generating steam. The fire-place a, the flues for using
the heat D, D, D, the door for feeding the ash-hold D, steam chest E, into
which the steam from the boiler first passes by the pipe a, and also the steami
from the cooking boilers at pleasure, pipe b to return any water that may
arise with the steam from the boilers. No. 9, a cold air and condensed water
receiver. B, nest of firmly-grooved condensing surfaces; C, C, steam entrances
to the condensing surfaces; D, pipe, the inner part pierced with holes to bring
the cold air from above in contact with the drops of condensed water; E, the
pipe to convey the steam from the steam chest or ship's cooking hearth into
the condenser; F, F, pipe surrounding the steam pipe to create a rapid
draught of cold air through the receiver A; G, pipe to convey condensed
water away.
No. 10, D, D, pipe to bring the cold air from above;
B, the finely-grooved condensing surfaces; J, K, pipes to fix the condenser by
Ilearle's or other proper cocks to the hold or side of the ship below the water
line. No. 11, section of condensing surfaces.
Our improvements consists in the following particulars:-
First, in the general arrangement of our fire hearth: we provide for using it
either with a range or open fire in front, or with an horizontal hot plate with
vertical corrugated surface for roasting, &c. In constructing the fire hearth
to be used with an horizontal hot plate and vertical couugated roasting surface,
I claim the adoption of vertical corrugated surfaces with the protector or
hastener made to roll or fold up either vertical or horizontal to fire hearth for
the purpose of roasting, baking, or boiling, thereby we are enabled to do

page_text: all the parts of cookery, viz, baking, boiling, roasting, and other cookery
purposes, occupying less space for the same number of men.
Second, in the construction of the fire-place and draught for the boilers. The
intensity of the fire is brought into direct action on the whole surface of the
bottoms of the boilers, whereas in fire hearths heretofore in use the direct
action of the fire is in some partial, and permitted to expand itself in flues, or
in others confined simply to passing ouly underneath, without any direct or
vertical action impinging upon the bottom of the boilers. Thus we effect a
considerable saving in fuel.
Third, in the form of the boilers, consisting of the rounding of the angles
at the bottom and sides, by which is produced a more regular and uninter-
rupted surface to the direct action of the fire, and a considerable improvement
is thus effected in the keeping them clean more perfectly and with less labour,
and they discharge their contents through the cocks with greater facility.
Fourth, we claim the arrangement of oven with oven doors of fire hearths
capable of being used with an open range, or with an horizontal hot plate, or
with vertical corrugated surface.
Fifth, we construct our ovens with hollow bottoms, by which we obtain
flues connected with the fire-places of the range and boilers, whereby we
obtain a heated surface over the whole of the bottoms of the ovens.
Sixth, we retain a sufficient length of range for every purposes where a
range is required, and occupy a part of the front with increasing the size of
one of the ovens in front, and place thereon a hot plate, which may be used
separately when required independent of the range or boilers by means of a
fire-place provided for that purpose.
Seventh, the cap or chimney we construct to answer the purpose of a
general flue for all the fires, whilst a portion of it is formed so that it may be
converted into a hot closet, or used to warm dishes or plates, or for many
purposes to which it is conveniently adapted, being provided with a guard rod
to keep things from falling off.
Eighth, this improved construction of the cap or chimney we use when we
make our fire hearth with a hot plate and roasting surface, for the important
purpose of protecting the deck or covering above the fire hearth from being
exposed to the violent heat given out from the heated surface of the hot plate.
This improved adaptation of the cap, now first used for the purpose, also
prevents the excessive heat to which the ship's company and the timbers of
the ship generally are exposed to in fire hearths without this improvement.
Ninth, underneath the fire-place of the boilers we introduce safety boxes
made to draw out at pleasure, with air apertures in front for a more perfect and

page_text: equal distribution of the cold air to the fire; by this improvement we avoid
the inconvenience and danger of the hot ashes falling on or being raked out
upon the deck, and the ashes are removed with greater ease.
Tenth, we introduce immediately contiguous to the internal side of the fire-
place for the boilers air apertures in the upper bottoms, affording a further
supply of cold air underneath the fire-place, by which means and through the
apertures in the safety boxes a more perfect state of combustion takes place,
and the fire bars and space underneath are kept much cooler, thus more
safety from fire is obtained, and the bars will wear longer.
Eleventh, we claim the arrangement of boiler shewn at No. 8 of the
Drawing when combined with a ship's hearth, and apparatus for condensing
steam by the action of the water of the sea.
And we also claim the mode of introducing air into the condenser, as
described in respect to Figures 9, 10, and 11.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Bowser, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of September, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-five.