Improved Devices for Supporting Earthenware while being Fired.
Year: 1890

page_text: Date of Application, 16th Sept., 1890-Accepted, 1st Nov., 1890
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improved Devices for Supporting Earthenware while being Fired.
I, JAMES SHERWIN, of Hanley, Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire, Manufacturer,
do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
A special object of this invention is to economise space in kilns, ovens or the like
in baking, hardening-on, fusing or otherwise firing tiles or earthenware, and con-
sequently to lessen the cost of conducting such operations.
To this end, the invention consists in a self-supporting pillar or prop adapted to
be set in any required part of the kiln or firing chamber, and made integral with
supporting shelves or projections adapted to support the ware, two or more of such
pillars being used conjunctively in supporting the ware and being arranged according
to the shape or formation of the article or articles being fired, all substantially
as hereinafter more particularly described with reference to the accompanying
drawings.
On the accompanying drawings,
Fig. represents a perspective view of a self-supporting ware-supporting pillar
formed in accordance with the present invention.
Fig. 2 is a like view, partly in section, of a modification thereof.
The pillar, 3, is made with a base sufficiently wide to be adapted to support the
pillar and any ware (which it may be adapted to support) it may be aiding in
supporting, and may be made of any convenient height. It may be made of a square
form, as represented in Fig. 1 or of a cylindrical form, as represented in Fig. 2,
or of a square or rounded oblong form, or of a triangular form, or of any other
suitable shape or form in sectional plan view. The pillar is made integral with
supporting shelves 4, which may be made on one or more of its sides, or all around
it depending upon its formation. In Fig. 1. the shelves are represented as on opposite
sides of the pillar, and in Fig. 2 as extending around it. The shelves, 4, may be
made of any required width and thickness, and at any required intervals apart
according to the requirements of the ware they may be adapted to support. Or, in
lieu of the shelves, the pillar may be formed integral with narrower supporting
projections of any desired shape, size and arrangement. The top and bottom of the
pillar may be either flat, ribbed or fluted.
i
In using the improved pillars or props, (say) three of them are placed in a triangular
form for every "stock" ог bung" of tiles or earthenware which it is desired to
place for firing, the distance of the pillars or props from each other being governed
by the size of the article to be placed. The article to be fired is supported or
suspended inside the triangularly arranged pillars on the shelves thereof. On the
top of each triangular set of pillars or props a setter" (a bat or tile of any
ordinary formation) is or may be placed, and this "setter" may vary in size as
required according to the size of the article placed on the shelves of the props; and
on the top of this "setter" another triangular set of pillars or props is or may be
fixed, surinounted, if required, by another "setter," and so on to any required height.
The improved pillars or props may, however, be set for use in any other form or
arrangement to suit the size or shape of the article to be fired.
With the use in such manner of such improved ware-supporting device, a much
greater quantity of articles may be fired in a given space than can be fired in the
same space by the methods and means now in use.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said iuven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is:
The hereinbefore described improved self-supporting pillars made integral with
shelves or equivalent projections adapted to support tiles or earthenware while being
fired in kilns or ovens.
Dated this 13th day of September 1890
DAY, DAVIES & HUNT,
321, High Holborn, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.