IMPROVEMENTS IN DOMESTIC FIRE-GRATES OR STOVES, AND IN APPLIANCES CONNECTED THEREWITH FOR HEATING OR WARMING ROOMS OR APARTMENTS
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Brandreth Gibbs, of Queen Street
Chambers, Exeter, in the County of Devon, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN DOMESTIC FIRE-GRATES OR STOVES, AND IN APPLIANCES
CONNECTED THEREWITH FOR HEATING OR WARMING ROOMS OR APARTMENTS."
Sealed the 19th November 1872, and dated the 14th September 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Brandreth
Gibbs at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 14th September 1872.
I, THOMAS BRANDRETH GIBBS, of Queen Street Chambers, Exeter,
in the County of Devon, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN DOMESTIC FIRE-GRATES OR STOVES, AND IN
APPLIANCES CONNECTED THEREWITH FOR HEATING OR WARMING ROOMS OR APART-
MENTS," to be as follows:-
This relates to improvements in domestic fire-grates, and to
appliances connected therewith for utilizing the waste heat, and for
economizing fuel.
The Invention consists in so arranging the back and the side cheeks
10

page_text: any convenient shape, into which cold air can be led and become heated
previous to its being distributed through pipes or chambers to various
parts of a room or apartment.
In the case of existing grates a casing of sheet iron will do, but in
making new grates it can be cast in a piece with the other portion.
The casing is made more or less to conform with the exterior part of
the grate or stove with one or more openings at or near the bottom for
cold air to enter, and with a series of pipes or tubes attached or
formed in a piece therewith at or near the upper part for the heated air
to leave, the pipes or tubes being connected to other pipes, tubes, or
chambers arranged round the room at the upper part, as also at the
lower part (exposed or not).
The outlet tubes may in some cases terminate over or near the pro-
jecting or other wall in which the grate or stove is fitted, and the outlets
can have valves in them to regulate the quantity of heated air passing
into the appartment.
I provide one or more additional pipes fitted with valves for leading
the heated air directly into the flue or chimney when desired. The
casing or hot air or radiating chamber can be rivetted to the grate or
stove, and set in the brickwork, or be fastened to the back of the stove,
or it may be cast in a piece with it.
The main feature in the Invention is to arrange or fit suitable
appliances to the backs of domestic fire-grates or stoves for utilizing the
spent heat, and for economizing fuel, substantially in the manner
described.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thomas Brandreth Gibbs in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 14th March 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, Thomas
BRANDRETH GIBBS, of Queen Street Chambers, Exeter, in the County of 30
Devon, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of September, in the

page_text: year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the
thirty-sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Thomas Brandreth Gibbs, Her special
licence that I, the said Thomas Brandreth Gibbs, my executors, ad-
ministrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas Brandreth
Gibbs, 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 "In-
PROVEMENTS IN DOMESTIC FIRE-GRATES OR STOVES, AND IN APPLIANCES CONNECTED
THEREWITH FOR HEATING OR WARKING ROOKS OR APARTMENTS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Thomas Brandreth Gibbs, 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 Brandreth Gibbs, do hereby
declare the nature of my 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, reference being had to the Drawings
hercunto annexed, that is to say :—
This relates to improvements in domestic fire-grates, and to appliances
connected therewith for utilizing the waste heat, and for economising
fuel.
The Invention consists in so arranging the back and the side checks
and wings, or a portion of them only, as to receive an iron casing
or casting of a convenient shape, into which cold air can be led and
become heated previous to its being distributed through pipes or
chambers to various parts of a room or apartment.
In the case of existing grates with fire-clay backs a casing of sheet
iron will do, but in making new grates it can be cast in a piece with the
other portion, the fire-clay back piece being put in place from below.
The casing is made more or less to conform with the exterior part of
the grate or stove with one or more openings at or near the bottom for

page_text: cold air to enter, and with a series of pipes or tubes attached or formed
in a piece therewith at or near the upper part for the heated air to leave,
the pipes or tubes being connected to other pipes, tubes, or chambers
arranged round the room at the upper part, as also at the lower part
(exposed or not).
The outlet tubes may in some cases terminate over or near the pro-
jecting or other wall in which the grate or stove is fitted, and the outlets
can have valves in them to regulate the quantity of heated air passing
into the apartment.
I provide one or more additional pipes fitted with valves for leading 1
the heated air directly into the flue or chimney when desired. The iron
'casing or hot air or radiating chamber can be rivetted to the grate or
'stove, and set in the brickwork, or be fastened to the back of the stove,
or it may be cast in a piece with it.
In the cases of existing grates it is well to block up the bottom bars of 1
the grate with a sheet of wrought iron, so as to prevent too quick a
combustion, as I find the slower the combustion the greater the amount
of heat thrown out of the chamber.
In the case of new grates the bottom should be cast solid with the air
chamber extending under such bottoms, and being part and parcel of the 2
air chamber at the back and sides. By this means a much larger heating
surface is secured, as then the fire would be almost, so to speak, in the
centre of the air chamber (see Figure 2).
The manner of carrying my Invention into effect is represented in
the annexed Sheet of Drawings, in which Figure 1 shows in section an
ordinary domestic stove A with a firc-clay back, and fitted in an aper-
ture in a projecting wall of a room; the back ash plate B is formed
with holes C, through which cold can enter the chamber D for becoming
heated therein by the radiated heat thrown from the moulded fire-clay
back E, and the metal at the sides. The chamber is closed in at the 3
top by a plate F forming part of the additional back G, which is vertical,
and bears against the wall H to protect the back exterior from the effect
of cold air upon the outside. The air which becomes heated in the
chamber is led away by one or two pipes I, the upper ends of which bend
inwards, and terminate in a rosate or perforated plate fitted into the 3
wall at the upper part of the room, from which rosates the heated air

page_text: from the chamber is permitted to enter the room, and diffuse the heat
therein.
In some cases I carry the pipes I round the room in an exposed state,
or behind the top skirtings or panels, and then lead them into the stair-
case well, or into an uptake terminating above the house top, where a
cowl is fitted for creating a draft or suction for drawing the heated air
from the stove chamber D, the air in its passage communicating its
caloric to the pipes in transit, and from them into the room.
In other cases I carry the skirting pipes from the stove chamber down-
wards, and perforate them here and there, so that the heated air can
escape into the room at the lower part, and thereby warm the apartment,
other pipes or terminations of those described being used for carrying off
the vitiated air from the apartment at the upper part.
My apparatus can also be fitted with an additional pipe with valves,
&c., so that other rooms above can be heated by the same; this is done
by shutting the pipes opening into the room, where the grate is as also
the waste pipe, up the chimney, and opening the additional pipe, when
the hot air will flow into the room so desired to be heated.
It is not essential for the back ash plate to be perforated, as pipes
can be led into the chamber from the outside of the house in any con-
venient manner.
In order to regulate the heat of a room I fit an additional pipe J to
the top of the chamber, this pipe being provided with a throttle valve to
be opened when desired by turning a knob K, the stem L of which
passes through the top front plate M of the stove. When this valve is
fully open the uprush of draught in the chimney sucks the heated air
from the chamber into it, and very little if any finds its way into the
pipes I, I, but in order to compel the heated air to follow the proper
course valves can also be fitted to the pipes I; and on these valves being
shut and the throttle valve open all the heated air must pass into the
chimney N. It will be easy to connect the stems of, say, the three
valves so that the partial or complete opening or closing of the throttle
partially or completely closes or opens the other two.
In the form of stove shown in Figure 1 the back wall plate and top
plate are cast in a piece with the stove back, so that they form part of
the stove when in its complete state, but the back wall plate and the top

page_text: plate may be separate pieces, as I have shewn in Figures 2, 3, 4, which
are respectively a front side elevation and back views, the edges of the
back plate being formed with lugs to enable the side cheeks or end
plates to be secured, or the back plate can be first placed in the wall
aperture, and the edges dabbed with fire-clay, against which the back 5
of the stove front plate bears when the stove is pushed into its place.
By this means a hermetic closing of the meeting edges is secured.
By my plan all the cold air is quickly sucked from the room, and hot
air is thrown out in its place, this continuing to be done as long as the
valves are open to such room or apartment.
My Invention is applicable for refitting existing grates with an
apparatus where waste caloric can be utilized at a small outlay, so
that at the present exorbitant price of coal my plans must be of great
public use.
1
I am aware that Letters Patent have been granted to the Inventors 1
for appliances fitted on or to the backs of domestic grates for the same
purpose as that of my Invention, but the appliances have been provided
with fins or blades, which, not only partly filled up the chamber without
offering any additional medium for distributing the heat from the fire,
but also occupy a portion of the space or chamber, as well as increase 2
the cost of manufacture. I therefore lay no claim to the Invention of
fitting a casting or chamber to the back portions of domestic stoves or
grates in its broad sense; but what I do consider novel and desire to
claim as my Invention is, fitting an iron casing or casting in one or
more pieces to the backs of domestic stoves or grates in combination 2
with the appliances for distributing the heated air therefrom into the
room or apartment in which the stove is fitted, as described and shown in
the annexed Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Brandreth Gibbs, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twelfth day of March, 3