IMPROVEMENTS IN FURNACES USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF GLASS
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Walter Swinburne, of South Shields, in the
County of Durham, Plate Glass Manufacturer, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN FURNACES USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF GLASS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Walter Swinburne
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the.
17th November 1855.
I, ROBERT WALTER SWINBURNE, of South Shields, in the County of Durham,
Plate Glass Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN FURNACES USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF GLASS " to be
as follows:-
My said Invention consists in a mode of constructing or arranging furnaces
used in the manufacture of glass, and the various parts, for the purpose of
causing the heat evolved by the burning fuel to act better upon the cuvettes
or pots placed within the furnaces and the metal or materials contained in
them. For this purpose, I place openings from the furnace into flues at the
side of each siege, opposite to the fire or fire grates, near to or a little above
the level of the siege, for the purpose of causing the current of heated air or
heat proceeding from the fire to be drawn across the siege in such a manner
as to act upon the lower parts of the cuvettes or pots in a greater degree than

page_text: in furnaces of the usual construction. The flues into which the openings are
made are ascending flues, which convey the gaseous products of the com-
bustion into any chimney sufficient to produce the requisite draught, which
may be either of the ordinary conical shape, or any other which may be
deemed most convenient.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Robert Walter Swinburne in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 17th May 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
WALTER SWINBURNE, of South Shields, in the County of Durham, Plate Glass
Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in' the nineteenth year of Fler
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Robert Walter Swinburne, Her special licence that 1, the said Robert
Walter Swinburne, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Robert Walter Swinburne, 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 FURNACES USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF GLASS," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Robert Walter Swinburne,
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 Robert Walter Swinburne, 'do' hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the sanie is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings, and.
to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say:
My said Invention consists in a mode of constructing or arranging furnaces.

page_text: used in the manufacture of glass, or certain parts thereof, for the purpose of.
causing the heat evolved by the burning fuel to act better upon the cuvetts or:
pots placed within'.the furnaces and the metal or materials contained in them.
For this purpose, I make outlets or openings in the sides or ends of a furnace,
or in both the sides and the ends thereof, near to or a little above the level of
the siege or floor of the furnace, upon which the cuvetts or pots are placed for:
the purpose of causing the heat or the current of heated air proceeding from the,
fire or fires to be drawn across the siege, in such a manner as to act upon the
body or upon the lower parts of the cuvetts or pots in a greater degree than
in furnaces of the usual construction. . These openings may be made in. fur-
naces having their fire grates. constructed or placed' in the usual manner, or
may be used in furnaces having their fires placed in any other position; thus;?
instead of constructing a furnace to be used according to my Invention, with
the fire or fires in the middle of the furnace, and with the sieges for the cuvetts
or pots at each side of it as at present, the fire or fires may be at one or both
of the ends or sides of the furnace, and may be on the outside of it. These
openings in the sides or ends of a furnace may be made to communicate
immediately with a chimney or chimneys, or may be connected with a flue or
flues of any convenient description, so as to convey the gaseous products of
the fire into any suitable chimney. These lateral openings in a furnace, or the
flues connected with them, may be furnished with dampers or other convenient
means for regulating their action.
In the accompanying Drawings, I have, by way of example, shewn the
application of my Invention to an ordinary plate glass cuvett or cistern
furnace.
In these Drawings, Figure 1 is a plan or horizontal section of the furnace,
taken immediately above the two sieges, and shewing plans of those sieges,
and of the two fire-places; Figure 2 is a longitudinal section, and Figure 3
a transverse section of the same furnace; and similar parts in these Figures
are marked with similar letters of reference. Figure 4 shews another form of
plate glass furnace. The parts marked A are the fire-places; B, the bridge
or block of masonry between the two fire-places; C, the sieges upon which
the cuvetts or pots are placed; D, the exterior walls of the furnace; E, the
side openings made in the exterior walls according to my Invention; F, the
ordinary doors or openings of the furnace; and G, the arch or crown of
the furnace. The side openings are in these Figures shewn as communicating
immediately with ascending flues; but, as I have before stated, the openings
may communicate with a chimney or chimnies in any other convenient manner.
I have not deemed it necessary to give Figures shewing the modes of con-

page_text: structing furnaces for making crown glass, flint glass, or bottle glass, because
any competent workman may construct any description of glass furnace.
according to my Invention by means of the description and the example above
given.
Having now ascertained and described the nature of my Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim as
of my Invention the construction of glass furnaces with outlets or openings for
the gaseous products of the fire, near to or a little above the level of the sieges
or floors of such furnaces, for the purpose of causing the heat or heated air
proceeding from the fire or fires to be drawn across the sieges or floors, in such
manner as to act upon the bodies and lower parts of the cuvetts or pots therein
in a greater degree than in furnaces of the usual construction.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Walter Swinburne, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of April, One thousand eight
hundred and fifty-six.
ROBERT WALTER SWINBURNE. (L.S.)