IMPROVEMENTS IN FURNACES AND APPARATUS TO BE Dann 1 BUR MANDRAGENDE OR STAGE
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Bishop and Charles Bishop, both of
Saint Helen's, in the County of Lancaster, Glass Manufacturers;
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN FURNACES AND APPARATUS TO BE
Dann 1 BUR MANDRAGENDE OR STAGE
"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Bishop and
Charles Bishop at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 2nd December 1870.
We, SAMUEL BISHOP and CHARLES BISHOP, both of Saint Helen's,
in the County of Lancaster, Glass Manufacturers, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN FURNACES AND
APPARATUS TO BE USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF GLASS," to be as follows:-
Our first improvement relates to glass-melting furnaces in which the
fuel is ignited in a compartment or furnace more or less separate from
that in which the melting pots stand and in which the flame and smoke
pass over what is called and known as a split bridge through which heated
air is introduced to obtain more perfect combustion in the chamber in
which the pots stand.

page_text: Our improvement consists in erecting in the centre of the furnace
in which the pots stand a brick flue, the passage through which is
carried backwards and forwards and its outlet conducted into the afore-
said split bridge. By this arrangement the air flue is exposed to the
very highest heat obtained in the furnace, and the air entering the
furnace at the split bridge is heated to a high temperature and more
perfect combustion is obtained. In the case of circular furnaces the
additional advantage is obtained of utilizing the central space by filling
it with the mass of flues and thereby driving the flame and heated air
more effectually to the pots, the otherwise large vacant space being
found by experience to be a great disadvantage. We also form below
the brickwork of the flues in the centre of the furnace a receptacle for
such melted glass as may escape from the pots to flow into, suitable
passages being formed through the brickwork below the flues to admit
of this.
Our next improvement relates to the casting of plate or sheet glass.
The casting of plate or sheet glass is at the present time done in two
ways. The largest sheets are made by emptying upon the casting table
the contents of the clay vessel in which the glass has been melted, and
for the casting of large and heavy sheets a crane is employed to lift
and swing the pot full of melted glass over the casting table. For
smaller and thinner sheets the glass is taken out of the melting pots
by means of a ladle, which is carried by three men to the casting table
and the contents emptied thereon.
Our Invention consists in employing a ladle together with a crane, in
the manner herein-after described, to carry the glass from the melting
pots to the casting table, whereby the services of one or two of the men
usually employed in carrying the ladles filled with glass are dispensed
with and a considerable economy of labor effected.
The crane may
either be fixed or moveable on wheels, but must be so adjusted to the
respective positions of the furnace and table as that the end of the crane
may reach or swing from over the mouth of the furnace or melting pot
to the end of the table where it is desired to empty the ladle. The crane
requires no windlass but only a chain at the end of it with a hook at
the end of the chain to be hooked on and off the handle of the ladle.
The ladle is filled by being dipped into the melted glass in the usual
way, but it has a loose collar or ring in which its handle may rest, and
to which ring the chain is hooked by a man or boy when the ladle is

page_text: full, the end of the handle meanwhile being held up as high as possible
so as to allow the chain to be used as short as possible. The man
holding the handle of the ladle extricates the ladle from the furnace
by swaying on the chain as a fulcrum. He then turns himself with
the ladle half round and pushes it towards the table (with or without
assistance in turning the crane) and empties it on the table in the
usual way.
For some situations we find it convenient to use a modified form of
crane, the top consisting of a pair of iron bars or gantrees along which
a pair of small rollers travel, to which rollers the suspending chain is
attached and by means of which motion the ladle of glass is conveyed
from the furnace to the table without moving the crane.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Samuel Bishop and Charles Bishop in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 2nd June 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, SAMUEL
BISHOP and CHARLES BISHOP, both of Saint Helen's, in the County of
Lancaster, Glass Manufacturers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Second day of December, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-
fourth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto us, the said Samuel Bishop and Charles Bishop,
Her special license that we, the said Samuel Bishop and Charles
Bishop, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we,
the said Samuel Bishop and Charles Bishop, our executors, adminis-
trators, 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 FURNACES
AND APPARATUS TO BE USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF GLASS," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that we, the said Samuel Bishop and Charles
Bishop, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under our or their hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one

page_text: of us or them, 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 Samuel Bishop, on behalf of
myself and the said Charles Bishop, do hereby declare the nature of the
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, that is to say :-
Our improvement relates to glass-melting furnaces in which the
fuel is ignited in a compartment or furnace more or less separate from
that in which the melting pots stand, and in which the flame and smoke
pass over what is called and known as a split bridge, through which
heated air is introduced to obtain more perfect combustion in the
chamber in which the pots stand.
Our improvement consists in erecting in the centre of the furnace in
which the pots stand a brick flue, the passage through which is carried
backwards and forwards and its outlet conducted into the aforesaid split
bridge. By this arrangement the air flue is exposed to the very highest
heat obtained in the furnace, and the air entering the furnace at the
split bridge is heated to a high temperature and more perfect combustion
is obtained. In the case of circular furnaces the additional advantage
is obtained of utilising the central space by filling it with the mass of
flues and thereby driving the flame and heated air more effectually to
the pots, the otherwise large vacant space being found by experience
to be a great disadvantage. We also form below the brickwork of the
flues in the centre of the furnace a receptacle for such melted glass
as may escape from the pots to flow into, suitable passages being formed
through the brickwork below the flues to admit of this.
In the Drawings hereunto annexed, Figure 1 shows a horizontal and
Figure 2 a vertical transverse section of a circular glass-making furnace
having our improvements applied to it.
A are the ordinary pillars ranged around the sides of the furnace with
spaces between them of sufficient width for the melting pots to be passed
in and out. One of these spaces is, as shewn by the Drawing, enclosed
by brickwork and converted into a fire chamber or furnace B which is
supplied with fuel through a fire-door C at its front; D are the melting

page_text: pots, and E, the fire-brick flue occupying the central space of the glass
furnace. Air enters this flue from the ordinary cave below the furnace,
and after traversing backwards and forwards through the flue, as shewn
at Figure 2, it passes into the furnace at the bridge F, and having
become highly heated by its passage through the flue, very perfect
combustion is obtained when it mingles with the gases passing from the
fire chamber B; G is a receptacle below the centre of the furnace for
glass escaped from broken pots to flow into, the glass from the broken
pots flows into this receptacle through the openings H. The bottom of
the receptacle G is closed at G¹ by a suitable plug of sand or clay
when the furnace is at work. By removing this plug the melted
glass collected in the receptacle can be drawn off into the cave when-
ever required; K is the ordinary arch or roof forming the top of the
furnace.
Having thus described the nature of our Invention and the manner
of performing the same, we would have it understood that what we
claim is,
1. The filling in of the central space of a glass furnace with an air
flue, through which air is allowed to pass to the interior of the furnace
to mingle with the smoke and gases passing from the chamber or
compartment in which the fuel is ignited, substantially as herein
described.
2. The combined arrangement of glass furnace substantially as herein
described and shewn by the Drawing annexed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Bishop, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of May, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one.