IMPROVEMENTS IN INCUBATING APPARATUS.
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Robert Lake at the Offico
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 30th March 1880. A communication
from abroad by Harris Williams Axford, of Chicago, Illinois, United States of
America, Manufacturer.
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WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co., Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, London. "IMPROVEMENTS IN INCUBATING APPARATUS.'
[A communication from abroad by Harris Williams Axford, of Chicago, Illinois,
United States of America, Manufacturer.]
My Invention relates to improvements in incubators, and comprises an
incubating oven formed of straw-board or like material for ensuring a moro
uniform temperature therein.
The said Invention also comprises a circular oven combined with a turn-table
for supporting the trays on which the eggs are placed, and for permitting the
ready removal of the said trays.
The said Invention also comprises an incubating oven combined with trays for
supporting eggs, and a curtain suspended over the inside of the doorway of the
said oven to prevent the influx of cold air to the interior of the same.
The said Invention also comprises the combination of a peculiarly adapted heater
with the incubating oven.
The said Invention also comprises an electro-thermostat combined with the
heater and incubating oven for controlling the temperature in the said oven.
The said Invention also comprises a peculiarly constructed lamp in combination
with the heater and oven for generating heat.
The said Invention also comprises egg trays placed in the oven between an upper
hot air pipe and a lower perforated bottom, whereby the cooler air is constantly
driven out by the incoming warmer air.
In carrying the said Invention into practice I form the exterior case of the oven
of double walls of straw-board or similar non conducting material, between which
doublo walls is placed any well known non-conducting substance, such as
charcoal.
The bottom of the said oven may be made of wood, straw-board, or coarse fabric,
but if made of the wood or strawboard it should be perforated to permit a free
current of pure air to pass down into and out of the oven as warm air enters at the
top thereof. Within this oven I arrange a turn-table, formed of wood or other
suitable material, and turning on a post, which is secured to the frame of the oven

page_text: bottom, On the said turn-table are placed radially any desired number of trays
to hold the eggs to be hatched, a door being provided on the periphery of the oven
to permit the removal of the same.
The underside of the turn-table is supported near its periphery on three or more
anti-friction rollers of ordinary construction, the said rollers travelling on a track
which has a circular form for that purpose, and is supported on the frame of the
oven. Insido the doorway to the oven is suspended a curtain covering the entire
opening for the purpose of excluding cold air from the oven during the removal of
the trays, said curtain being made of some flexible fabric which will yield to the
movement of the trays when being removed from the tarn-table by drawing them
out at the aforesaid door.
My improved heater consists of a treble-walled case, the inner wall forming a
cylinder, in which are placed a series of vertical pipes communicating with a
bottom plate and an upper plate. Within this cylinder I also arrange a central
pipe which, like the said vertical pipes, opens into a flame-chamber, the said central
pipe being capped over to prevent smoke from entering the hot air chamber
surrounding the said vertical pipes.
The hot air passes into the oven by means of a suitable pipe, and the products of
combustion pass down in the chamber between the aforesaid cylinder and the casing
and out by another pipe.
Surrounding the aforesaid vertical pipes and through the bottom head of the
heater are a series of holes or air-draughts which admit cold air to the hot air
chamber surrounding the vertical and central pipes above referred to. The flame-
chamber, which is below the bottom head or plate has an aperture formed in its
bottom for the lamp-tube to pass up into, and surrounding the said flame-chamber
is an inverted truncated conical plate which forms a cold air-chamber; through
this plate are formed air-draughts which permit cold air to pass round the vertical
and central pipes, as above stated, and be heated in its passage to the oven. A
fountain-lamp is employed to heat the oven, and as a whole it is constructed and
arranged as follows, that is to say-It is provided with a reservoir to hold
the oil, which may be poured therein by removing a screw-plug. In the neck of
this reservoir is placed an ordinary stop-cock to regulate the flow of oil. The
nozzle or lower end of the reservoir reaches to about one half of the depth of an oil-
cup, and from near the bottom of this cup is a pipe communicating with the lamp
below the flame-chamber, and which is of ordinary construction except that the top
of the wick-tube is turned over and outward or or otherwise enlarged to provide a
suitable surface to burn the oil, which would otherwise run over, take fire, and
produce an explosion.
Now if moro oil should flow into the oil-cup than the lamp requires it will rise
above the lower end or nozzle of the reservoir and check tho flow of oil into the
cup until the oil is lowered in the said cup by the consumption of the lamp; then
the oil will again flow from the reservoir, so that an automatic feed for the lamp is
provided.
The mercury-gauge or electro-thermostat is to be placed on a suitable stand in
the centre of the oven, where it will be subject to any change of temperature in the
ovon.
One end of a wire passing through the stopper of the said mercury-gauge is kept
in the mercury, and its other end is connected with a magnet.
Another wire connects with an adjusting screw of the thermostat at one end, and
with an ordinary battery at the other end. A counecting wire passes from one of
the poles of the battery to the aforesaid magnet.
The screw of the thermostat above referred to has a wire terminal, which enters
a small glass tube inserted through the aforesaid stopper.
When the incubator is in operation, and the heat reaches a proper degree the
mercury rises in the glass tube, and makes a connection with the terminal of the
thermostat-screw, and thus closes the circuit, a lever being then attracted by the
magnet so as to close a valve in the pipe conveying the hot air to the oven; when

page_text: by the cooling of the oven the mercury falls away from the wire terminal the circuit
is broken, and the said valve will be opened by a spring. An adjustable serow
made of wood or other suitable material enters a glass tube passing through the
stopper of the thermostat. By turning this screw down its lower end enters tho
mercury and raises it near to the wire terminal of the thermostat screw, and less
heat will then be required to connect the circuit; by turning the screw upwards it
will produce an opposite effect, that is to say, the mercury will fall, and a greater
degree of heat will then be required to close the circuit.
By this means a very simple and effective device for regulating the temperaturo
in the oven is provided.