IMPROVE- MENTS IN FIRE-PLACES OR STOVES
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Billing, of Abingdon Street, Westminster, in
the County of Middlesex, Architect, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN FIRE-PLACES OR STOVES."
Sealed the 31st December 1858, and dated the 3rd July 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Billing at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
3rd July 1858.
I, JOHN BILLING, of Abingdon Street, Westminster, in the County of
Middlesex, Architect, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN FIRE-PLACES OR STOVES," to be as follows:-
I
In ordinary fire-places or stoves placed in rooms with close fitting doors and
windows, the supply of air to the fire is often insufficient, and a portion of the
smoke escapes into the room. If air is allowed to enter at the doors or
windows injurious cold draughts are produced.
I obviate these incon-
veniences by conducting a supply of air from the exterior of the room to the
fire by means of a passage in the wall or floor, or other convenient place.
cause this passage to communicate with an aperture or apertures on one side
of the fire-place or stove, and I conduct a pipe or passage over or round the
fire-place to another aperture on the other side of the fire-place. These
apertures supply the air to the fire and to the room. The apertures are pro-
vided with valves or regulators, and may be adjusted to direct the air in such

page_text: a manner as to counteract accidental draughts in the room. The air which
escapes at the second aperture, after passing through the pipe or passage over
or round the fire, becomes warmer than that escaping from the first aperture,
and thus the temperature of the room may be raised or lowered by opening
one aperture and closing the other, or by adjusting the respective apertures.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Billing in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
1st January 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
BILLING, of Abingdon Street, Westminster, in the County of Middlesex,
Architect, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Third day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-second year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said John Billing, Her special licence that I, the said John Billing,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
John Billing, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS
IN FIRE-PLACES OR STOVES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said John Billing, 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Billing, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say:-
In ordinary fire-places or stoves placed in rooms with close fitting doors and
windows, the supply of air to the fire is often insufficient, and a portion of the
smoke escapes into the room. If air is allowed to enter at the doors or

page_text: windows, injurious cold draughts are produced.
I obviate these incon-
veniences by conducting a supply of air from the exterior of the room to the
fire by means of a passage in the wall or floor, or other convenient place. I
cause this passage to communicate with an aperture or apertures on one side
of the fire-place or stove, and I conduct a pipe or passage over or round the
fire-place to another aperture on the other side of the fire-place. These
apertures supply the air to the fire and to the room. The apertures are pro-
vided with valves or regulators, and may be adjusted to direct the air in such
a manner as to counteract accidental draughts in the room. The air which
escapes at the second aperture after passing through the pipe or passage over
or round the fire, becomes warmer than that escaping from the first aperture,
and thus the temperature of the room may be raised or lowered by opening
one aperture and closing the other, or by adjusting the respective apertures.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawing is an elevation or front view, and
Figure 2 is a back view, of a stove or fire-place constructed according to my
Invention; Figure 3 is a horizontal section of the same. The same letters
refer to similar parts in each Figure.
A is the front plate of the stove, which, in this case is bevilled at a, a, but
which may be made flat, or of any other suitable form; B, B, B, are the fire-
bars, and C is the back; D, D, is a pipe or passage, which may be made by
rivetting sheet or cast iron to the front plate A, or may be cast with the front
plate, or may be a separate pipe placed behind the front plate, as shewn in
the Drawing. This pipe D passes up one side of the fire-place and across the
top, and down the other side, and communicates with two chambers or boxes
E, F, which are rivetted to the front plate A. One of these boxes F is closed
at bottom, and the other E communicates with the atmosphere on the exterior
of the room or building, by means of a pipe or passage G, which may be
placed under the floor, or in the wall or skirting. e, f, are two openings or
gratings in the plate A, provided with valves or sliding gratings, or other means
of closing or adjusting the openings. When the pipe D is rivetted to or made
in one piece with the front plate A, the separate boxes or chambers E, F, are
not required. When the fire-place or stove is in use, the air flows through
the pipes and boxes G, E, D, F, and escapes at the openings e, f, passing into
the room or into the fire and up the chimney. If the air escaping at e is
found to cool the room too much, that opening may be wholly or partially
closed, and all or part of the air may be forced to pass out at the opening f,
becoming warmed in its passage. On the other hand, if the room should
become too hot, the opening f may be wholly or partially closed, and the
opening e may be opened more or less. In this manner the temperature of

page_text: the room may be regulated, and the fire obtaining a free supply of air from.
the external atmosphere, the escape of smoke into the apartment is prevented,
and the disagreeable and injurious cold draughts from the doors and windows,
which are ordinarily necessary to supply the fire, are avoided.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that I do
not claim generally the application of air-heating passages to stoves or fire-
places, but what I claim is, constructing stoves or fire-places with the peculiar.
arrangement of air-passages herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Billing, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
Witness,
J. R. JEKYLL.
JNO. BILLING. (L.s.)