IMPROVEMENTS IN HEATING AND VENTILATING CHURCHES, HOTHOUSES, AND OTHER . BUILDINGS AND STRUCTURES, AND IN APPARATUS TO BE EMPLOYED FOR THOSE PURPOSES
Year: 1872

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Edward Housman at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 20th June
1872.
I, EDWARD HOUSMAN, of Bromsgrove, in the County of Worcester,
Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN HEATING AND VENTILATING CHURCHES, HOTHOUSES, AND OTHER
. BUILDINGS AND STRUCTURES, AND IN APPARATUS TO BE EMPLOYED FOR THOSE
PURPOSES," to be as follows:-
My improvements in heating and ventilating the said buildings and
structures consist in circulating through the said buildings and struc-
tures a current of heated air, the motion of which is produced by the
ascending force of a column of hot air impelled by the pressure of the
outer atmosphere and delivered from a hot air shaft or chamber situated
below the level of the building. The said column of heated air ascending
into the building determines the expulsion of a like quantity of interior
air through apertures provided for that purpose and situated at or near
the floor of the building. I cut off as far as practicable all communica-
tion between the interior of the building and the outer air, excepting by
"

page_text: the openings herein-before referred to, by which the current of heated air
enters and passes out of the building. In this way descending currents
entering the building from the external atmosphero are prevented,
and a uniform displacement and renewal of warm air in the building
effected.
The apparatus whereby the method of heating and ventilating described
is carried into effect is constructed and arranged substantially in the
following manner:-I construct an air chamber or shaft, the bottom of
which is situated as far as conveniently may be below the floor of the
building to be heated and ventilated. At the bottom of the said shaft I
place a stove or some other source of heat, such, for example, as pipes
or plates heated by steam or hot water. The lowest point of the said
shaft communicates with the outer air by means of an opening or
openings, the area of which exceeds the area of the opening or openings
at the top of the shaft through which the heated air has access to the
building. The communication between the top of the said shaft and the
building may be made through one or more openings; the said openings,
when more than one are used, being all at the same level and on or
above the level of the floor of the building. This opening or these open-
ings, which I will call supply orifices, are provided with valves or like
closing appliances, whereby their acting arca can be regulated so as to
reduce the current of air passing through them to any required extent.
The openings by which the air passes from the building, and which I
will call escape orifices, arc somewhat less in area than the supply
orifices, and the said escape orifices are also provided with valves or like
closing appliances for regulating the passage of air through them. I
prefer so to construct the appliances by which the opening, closing, and
regulating of the supply and escape orifices are effected, that they may
be, connected together and simultaneously worked, but I do not limit
myself thereto. The opening by which air is supplied to the bottom of
the shaft as well as that by which the combustion in the stove (where a
stove is used) is regulated, may also be connected with the appliances
by which the supply and escape orifices are worked. In putting the
apparatus into action I proceed as follows:-The stove or other source
of heat in the shaft having been previously put into operation so as to
heat the air in the shaft, and the escape and supply orifices being closed,
I first gradually open the supply orifices and allow the heated air from
the shaft to ascend into the building. When it appears that there is
any orifice from which the heated air no longer ascends from the shaft,

page_text: I gradually open the escape and supply orifices equally, and the valves
or other closing apparatus of the said supply and escape orifices which
up to this point had been disconnected may now be connected together,
so that their acting arcas may simultaneously expand or contract to the
same extent.
When the shaft containing the stove or other source
of heat cannot be sunk sufficiently below the level of the floor of the
building to supply a current of heated air of sufficient ascending power,
I connect the escape orifices with the bottom of an ascending shaft,
and apply the means of regulating the escape orifices at the top of
the shaft.