IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR VENTILATING
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Roebuck, of the City of Manchester,
Builder, and John William Lamb, of the same Place, Brass-
founder, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR
VENTILATING."
Sealed the 20th October 1873, and dated the 30th August 1873.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Roebuck and
John William Lamb at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 30th August 1873.
We, THOMAS ROEBUCK, of the City of Manchester, Builder, and JOHN
WILLIAM LAMB, of the same Place, Brassfounder, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR
VENTILATING," to be as follows:-
Our improved.apparatus for ventilating consists of a stationary vessel,
which is in communication with a steam pipe, and within which is a
movable pipe with a conical nozzle placed within a conical nozzle on the
stationary vessel. The movable pipe is in communication with the mine"

page_text: or other place to be ventilated, and with the upcast shaft or flue by
which the vitiated air is carried off. The lower end of the upcast shaft
is shaped in the form of a double parabolic curve to convey the vitiated
air to and from the point where the steam escapes between the nozzles.
When the steam is turned on it rushes through the annular space left
between the two conical nozzles, and passes into the upcast shaft or flue,
carrying with it the vitiated air from the mine or other place to be
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thomas Roebuck and John William Lamb in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 25th February 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, THOMAS
ROEBUCK, of the City of Manchester, Builder, and JOHN WILLIAM
LAMB, of the same Place, Brassfounder, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her |
Letters Patent, bearing date the Thirtieth day of August, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the thirty-
seventh year of the reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto us, the said Thomas Roebuck and John William
Lamb, Her special licence that we, the said Thomas Roebuck and John
William Lamb, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as we, the said Thomas Roebuck and John William Lamb, our
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
“IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR VENTILATING," upon the condition.

page_text: (amongst others) that we, the said Thomas Roebuck and John
William Lamb, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under our, or their, or one of our or 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 we, the said Thomas Roebuck and John
William Lamb, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement (that is
to say) :-
Our improved apparatus for ventilating consists of a stationary vessel,
which is in communication with a steam pipe, and within which is a
movable pipe with a conical nozzle placed within a conical nozzle on the
stationary vessel. The movable pipe is in communication with the mine
or other place to be ventilated, and with the upcast shaft or flue by
which the vitiated air is carried off. The lower end of the ventilating
shaft communicating with the upcast shaft is shaped in the form of a
double parabolic curve to convey the vitiated air to and from the point
where the steam escapes between the nozzles. When the steam is
turned on it rushes through the annular space left between the two
conical nozzles, and passes into the upcast shaft or flue, carrying with
it the vitiated air from the mine or other place to be ventilated.
We also convey the exhaust steam from the pumping or other steam
engine into the interior of the movable pipe to assist or to induce the
current in the vitiated air.
Our Invention may be used for ventilating coal and other mines,
railway and other tunnels, public buildings, ships, and other structures.
And in order that our Invention may be fully understood and readily
carried into operation, we will proceed to describe the accompanying
Sheet of Drawings, reference being had to the figures and letters marked
thereon.
Fig. 1.is an elevation partly in section of our improved apparatus as
applied for ventilating a mine; Fig. 2 is a plan in section of the upper
end of the ventilating shaft; Fig.. 3 is a plan in section of the lower end

page_text: of the same; and Fig. 4 is a section on an enlarged scale of the improved
ventilating apparatus.
a is the ventilating shaft, which is in communication with the upcast
shaft of the mine to be ventilated, and b, b, are ordinary boilers for
generating the steam required for creating the draft in the ventilating
shaft.
Our improved apparatus consists of the stationary vessel c, which is
supported by four regulating screws d to the floor e at the lower end of
the ventilating shaft. Within (the vessel c is the movable pipef; this
pipe is made to work through the stuffing box in the lower end of the 1
vessel c, and it is supported in trunnions in the regulating lever g, one
end of which is connected to the screw h, on which is the nut and hand
wheel. The upper end of the vessel c is tapered to form an internal
conical nozzle, and a corresponding external nozzle is made on the
movable pipef, consequently the annular orifice between the two nozzles ]
can be varied by raising or lowering the pipe f.
The steam from the boilers 6 is conveyed through the pipes ; to the
socket k, into which fits the vertical arm of the elbow pipe c¹, the other
end of which is fixed to a branch on the vessel c, the pipe c¹ fits in a
stuffing box in the socket k to allow for the adjustment of the vessel c. 2
The nozzle of the pipefopens into the lower part of the parabolic curved
cone 7, which is made by preference of cast iron, with its lower end
secured to the floor e, and the upper end opens into the inverted
parabolic curved cone m, which is bell-mouth d above where it debouches
into the ventilating shaft. This upper part of the double parabolic curve 2
is made of brickwork or cast iron or sheet metal, and it is stayed to the
inside of the ventilating shaft by six or other convenient number of
midfeathers, as shewn in Fig. 2. The pipe n is for conveying the
exhaust steam from the pumping or other steam engine into the interior
of the pipe to assist or induce the current in the vitiated air, and g
o, o, are flues for carrying the products of combustion from the furnace
of the boilers b, b, into the spaces between the cone m and the inside of
the ventilating shaft a.
The mode of operation is as follows:-The steam from the boilers b, b,
passes through the pipes ; to. the socket k, and thence through the g
pipe c¹ into the space between the inside of the vessel c and the outside
of the pipe f, and it issues between the nozzles above described, as shewn

page_text: by the arrows in Fig. 4, the lower end of the cone'l and pipeƒ being
open to the lower end of the ventilating shaft, which is in communication
with the mine to be ventilated.
It is evident that the rarefaction of the air at the lower end of the
ventilating shaft causes a partial vacuum, which is instantly filled up
by the air in the mine, and this current of air increases in force as the
steam rushes through the nozzles, thereby drawing the vitiated air from
the workings of the mine and causing it to flow in an uninterrupted
stream up the ventilating shaft so long as the steam is supplied.
We prefer to use steam at about from sixty to eighty pounds
pressure, but the pressure may be considerably varied.
Our Invention may be applied for ventilating railway and other
tunnels, public buildings, ships, and other structures..
Having thus stated the nature of our Invention, and described a
convenient manner of carrying the same into operation, we wish to
remark that we do not intend to limit ourselves to the details given, as
the same must be varied or modified according to the particular purpose
for which it is intended; we claim, the improved mode of ventilating
by means of the apparatus shewn and described or any modification
thereof