AN IMPROVED METHOD OR METHODS OF CONSTRUCTING OR MANUFACTURING FIRE OR FURNACE BARS OR GRATINGS
Year: 1818

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
IKIN, of William Street, in the Parish of Christchurch, in the County of
Surrey, Mechanist, do send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-seventh day of January,
in the fifty-eighth year of His reign, did give and grant unto me, the said
James Ikin, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His special licence,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said James Ikin, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, 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, my Invention of
"AN IMPROVED METHOD OR METHODS OF CONSTRUCTING OR MANUFACTURING FIRE
OR FURNACE BARS OR GRATINGS;" in which Letters Patent there is contained a
proviso obliging me, the said James Ikin, under my hand and seal, to cause
a particular description of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within two calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, relation being thereunto
had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
James Ikin, do hereby declare that my Invention is described as follows (that
is to say):
My method of constructing the bars or grating is in leaving a channel or
passage through each bar longitudinally, so that water or any other fluid may

page_text: be passed through in order to keep the grating cool, and this may be done as
follows: In the first place, by connecting the several bars of the grating
together, which may best be done by casting it of iron in one piece, joined at
the ends, and having open spaces between the bars for the admission of the
air, as represented by the plan of a set of bars or grating in the Drawing.
Fig. 1, the number, length, and depth of the bars, and the width of the
spaces between them, and the shape and size of the grating being regulated by
the size & form of the fire place where it is to be placed; and, in the second
place, in forming a hollow cavity, passage, conveyance, or channel, which,
entering at one end of one of the bars of the grating, and being continued
through the body of each several bar turning for this purpose at the ends of
the grating, where the bars are united, finishes or ends at another opening;
the channel thus formed through the grating is for the conveyance of a current
of water or other fluid, which may be brought from any convenient reservoir,
(it being necessary only that it be sufficiently elevated to enable the water or
other fluid to force its way through the grating,) by means of a tube made of
copper, lead, iron, or other material, to be attached to one of the openings,
while another tube fixed to the other will carry off the water or other fluid
that has passed through the grating.
Fig. 2 represents a cross section of the grating at A, B, shewing the hole,
passage, or channel, which runs thro' its several bars.
Fig. 3 gives an end view of the grating, and also represents one of the
ways in which it may be supplied with water. A cistern or cock C is placed at
a certain height above the grating; to a hole in or near the bottom of this a
tube is fastened, which has its other end fixed to the orifice D of the grating,
while another tube, having one end fixed to the orifice E of the grating, has
its other end bent over the top of the cistern or cask. The water or other
fluid with which the cistern or cask is then to be supplied will descend by the
tube fixed in its bottom or side, will fill the channel in the grating, and by the
heat of the fire thereon will be carried up the other tube into the same vessel
again, while the first tube, keeping up the supply, a current of water will be kept
flowing through the grating, it being needful only occasionally to make up in
the vessel the quantity of water or other fluid used or wasted. But the success
of this improvement depending on the circumstance of the channel in the
grating being constantly filled with water or other fluid, it is not necessary
that the stream be always reconducted into the vessel from whence it came;
where water is abundant it may be suffered to go to waste, or where hot
water is useful it may be conveyed away and applied. It is immaterial what
shape the holes or passage through the bars are made, also of what metal or