A NEW PLAN FOR FIRE-PLACES OR FURNACES FOR HEATING OVENS AND BOILERS, AND THE WATER OR OTHER LIQUIDS CONTAINED IN SUCH BOILERS, AND FOR CONVERTING SUCH WATER OR OTHER LIQUIDS INTO STEAM FOR THE PURPOSE OF WORKING ENGINES, AND FOR OTHER USES IN MANUFACTURE
Year: 1815

page_text: LOSH'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I; WILLIAM
LOSH, of Point Pleasant, in the Parish of Wallsend, in the County of
Northumberland, Iron Founder, 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 Eighth day of April, in the fifty-
fifth year of His reign, did give and grant unto me, the said William Losh,"
my exors, admors, and assigns, His especial license, full power, sole privilege-
and authority, that I, the said William Losh, my exors, adñiors, and assigns,
and every of them, during the term of fourteen years therein expressed, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within that part of the'
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England; the Dominion
of Wales, and Town of Berwick upon Tweed, in such manner as to me, the said-
William Losh, my exors, admors, and assigns, or any of them, should seem meet,
my Invention of "A NEW PLAN FOR FIRE-PLACES OR FURNACES FOR HEATING OVENS
AND BOILERS, AND THE WATER OR OTHER LIQUIDS CONTAINED IN SUCH BOILERS, AND
FOR CONVERTING SUCH WATER OR OTHER LIQUIDS INTO STEAM FOR THE PURPOSE OF
WORKING ENGINES, AND FOR OTHER USES IN MANUFACTURE;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said William Losh, by
an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to cause a particular descrip
tion of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be inrolled in His said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within
two calendar months after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in
and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Losh, in compliance with the
said proviso, do hereby describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, as follows, reference being
had to the Drawings in the schedule hereunto annexed, that is to say:-
The principles upon which I ground my improvement consist in the applica-
tion of the caloric and heated gases evolved during the combustion of any
substance free from admixture with and free from the cooling influence of any
cold undecomposed atmospheric air, or any other air which has not passed
through the ignited fuel, to such parts of the vessel and material required to be
heated as I wish to expose to the undiminished action of such caloric and
heated gases, and the more equable and sudden application of such caloric and
heated gases to such parts of the vessel as are intended to be submitted to their
influence; and also in the case of large boilers, salt pans, &c., in the facility
which the arrangement of my fire-places or furnaces afford of giving an
effectual support to the bottom and such parts of the vessel as require it
without lessening the action of the heated air. The plan upon which I proceed
in the case of boilers is to place the furnace or bars on which the fuel is burnt
nearly under the centre or middle of the boiler bottom, provided I only employ
one fire, or provided I think more than one furnace or fire more efficacious, in
such other situations as that the heated gases shall act as equably as possible
on the surface to be heated, and to have the aperture or apertures for the
escape of the rarified air, smoke, and gases from the grate room or space in
which they are generated at or above the door or aperture through which the
fuel is put in, or so near to it as that the heated air and gases, by their expansive
force and diminished specific gravity, shall prevent the cold air of the atmo-
sphere from penetrating beneath the bottom of the boiler or to such parts of
it as are required to be exposed to the action of the heated air and gases alone,
and so that, provided a chimney be required to produce a more rapid combus-
tion, any cold air that may penetrate at the door or aperture through which the
fuel is introduced, either when open or closed, shall, in its passage to the chimney,
have no tendency to mix with the heated gases until after they have ceased to act
on such parts of the boiler and other substances as are required to be subjected
to their action alone. A division of cast metal plates or other convenient
substance, extending from the ends of the bars or furnace next the door,
separates the grate room or space containing the heated gases from the ash-
hole and air duct, and prevents any air from penetrating into the grate room
which does not pass through the ignited fuel. To prevent the cooling influence
of the air passing under these plates they may be covered with fire-brick or any fit
substance which is a bad conductor of heat, or which transmits it slowly. In

page_text: heating common vaulted ovens the grates or furnaces are placed a little below
or on a level or nearly so with the bottom, and the ash-hole through which
the air enters to keep up the combustion of the fuel may proceed from any side
of the oven most convenient, but it must be so covered by the bottom of the
oven that no air can enter by it which does not pass through the burning fuel, and
the heated air and gases, after having acted on the roof, sides, and bottom of
the oven free from admixture with and free from the cooling influence of any
other air, are allowed to escape into the atmosphere in the manner described
above, either by the door through which the fuel is put in or through apertures
sufficiently near it to prevent the penetration of cold air into the body of the
oven. When the oven is sufficiently heated the ash-hole leading to the grates
must be closed either by a door made air-tight by a luting of clay and loom, or
any other fit substance, or by any other method, and the fire must be drawn off
the bars, which may be covered with a plate or flag to increase the capacity of
the oven for holding bread, &c., and the ignited fuel being drawn out, the
remainder of the process of baking is managed as usual. When it is required to
heat a cylindrical, square, or other shaped oven, either for the purpose of baking
and cooking food or for the purposes of manufacture, such as those used for
calcining coal into coak and for obtaining coal tar and the inflammable gases
used for the production of light, the gases evolved from the fuel employed to
heat such ovens are allowed to pervade every part of them, or nearly so, except
the mouth or part at which they are charged with the material required to be
baked, cooked, or calcined, after which they are allowed to escape only at the
aperture through which the fuel is introduced, or so near to it that no air which
has not passed through the burning fuel shall have any tendency to enter the
grate room, or come in contact with such parts of the oven as are required to
be exposed to the action of the heated gases alone. In applying my principle
to the small vaulted brick ovens used almost by every family in the northern
counties of England, and to the large vaulted ovens of bread bakers, my objects,
added to the saving in quantity of fuel, and to enable them to be heated with
small or refuse coals, and to produce that effect in a very short time and with
little trouble. The chamfer used by the bakers in Edinburgh is an engenious
contrivance, but is troublesome on a small scale, and the tube which conveys a
constant succession of cold air through the body of the oven to keep up the
combustion has a considerable influence in retarding its heating; besides it
requires large coals.
The advantages resulting from my arrangement are,
first, the saving of the boilers and ovens themselves, and the iron and other
metals employed in their erection; and, secondly, the saving of the fuel em-
ployed for heating them; and, thirdly, a more constant and steady evaporation

page_text: of any fluid, and consequently a more regular and constant supply of steam for
giving motion to machinery, or for the supply of heat, or for any other purpose.
The first object. is attained by preventing a current of cold undecomposed
atmospheric air from penetrating along with the heated gases beneath the
boilers or other vessels, or to such parts of "hem as are required to be exposed
only to the heated gases, or in the case of alum pans, &c., beneath the plates
-on which they rest; for, on the usual principle, where a current of cold air is at
intervals, if not constantly, mixing with the heated air and gases employed to
heat any boiler or other vessel, in order to supply the loss or diminution of heat
occasioned by this admixture of cold air, it is necessary, in order to produce
a given effect, to generate a much greater quantity of heat, or, in other words, to
have a much larger fire than is required according to my principle, where the
heated A gases act with uniform and undiminished intensity; thus the bars' are
continually exposed to a much more intense heat when the fire-places are
constructed on the usual plans than is necessary when my principle is
adopted, and the known effect of this excessive heat is the speedy destruction
of the bars and other materials used in the construction of the fire-places
or furnaces. The irregular action of the heated gases and their very unequal
diffusion over the surface of the boiler have also a great tendency to destroy
the material of which it is composed. On the usual plan of heating a steam-
engine boiler, for instance, in order to maintain the steam at a sufficient degree
of expansive force or power to work an engine on Messieurs Boulton and Watt's
principle, the fire which is requisite is so intense as to flux much of the incom-
bustible matter of the fuel into slags or large masses of scoria, and frequently.
to fuse the bars on which the fuel burns even under the management of a careful
fireman, and where engines are used which require the steam at a much higher
temperature of course these evils are increased, but where my principle is adopted
these disadvantages are avoided. When undecomposed atmospheric air comes
in contact with iron and some other metals at a high degree of heat it has the
effect of oxidating their surfaces both by its own decomposition and by that of
the water, which it always carrys with it, and these oxidated surfaces seperate
in successive coats of scales till by degrees the metal is entirely corroded away;
thus I gain another advantage by the exclusion of the undecomposed air of the
atmosphere. By the position of my furnaces I am also enabled to give a more
effectual support to the bottoms of the boilers than is practicable in the usual
modes of heating them (as is shewn in the annexed plans), and thus I prevent
their yielding to the weight of water and other fluids and to the pressure of the
steam, which in steam-engine boilers particularly often occurs, and is attended
with much expence in the repairs and with great risk to the people who work

page_text: them. The more equable distribution of heat, and particularly the impossibility
of a sudden access of cold air to the heated vessels on opening the fire door to
add fuel or to check the ebullition, also tends much to lessen the liability
of cracking in cast metal boilers, which is generally the effect of a sudden
variation of temperature. The steady and regular action of the heat when
boilers are placed on my principle gives so uniform a degree of elasticity to the
steam that an engine with such a boiler will never miss a stroke for want of
steam of sufficient expansive power. The action of the heated gases is so
powerful when boilers are placed on my plan, and the steam is generated with
such rapidity, that a boiler which was calculated to work a large pumping engine
at Wallsend Colliery, in the County of Northumberland, on the usual plan, having
been put up under my direction, not only works the engine with facility, with an,
immense saving of fuel, but seems to be capable of supplying steam to work
another engine of equal power. Thus it appears that the saving in the boiler
and materials connected with its erection is not alone confined to the wear and
tear of such boiler and materials, but that boilers of much less dimensions than
those usually employed to produce a given effect will answer the purpose when
placed on my construction. The second intention (the saving of fuel) I accom-
plish by a more regular and sudden distribution of the caloric and beated gases
generated by the burning fuel over the surface to be heated, and by preventing
their admixture with cold atmospheric air, which in the usual modes of placing
boilers always takes place, and from the known law of the equal distribution of
caloric, considerably weakens their effect by combining with and carrying of a
part of that substance which otherwise would be, and according to my plan is,
transmitted through the boilers, &c., and to the liquids or other substances they
contain. According to iny plan, the caloric and heated gases ascend and radiate
from the burning fuel, and impinge against the boiler or other substance required
to be heated with extreme velocity and intensity, as they meet with no substance
to direct them from their course, or to which they can impart a portion of their
heat. In the common plans, on the contrary, where a current of cold air is
forced through the grate room in its passage to the chimney, the heated gases
are not only bent from their course but deprived of a considerable portion of
their heat, and as they do not come in contact but with a small proportion of
the boiler until they have been forced over an area of brickwork or other
substance and through a long extent of flues, much more of this most active
and penetrating substance must be lost to the vessel intended to be heated and
expended in the tendency which the gases have to raise to their own tempera-
ture the substances with which they come in contact. It is obvious that in the

page_text: usual plans of placing boilers, &c. the admixture of cold air with the heated
gases must occur during each fresh supply of fucl, and even while the doors are
shut it does not cease to go on, to a greater or lesser extent, as from the nature
of things it is next to an impossibility to make a fire door air-tight, and if that
were possible, the heat to which they are exposed would by warping and twist-
ing them soon destroy their accuracy. Fire mouths or hopper-shaped apertures,
which are closed with coal after each supply of fuel, also allow the air to
penetrate through thousands of interstices between the fragments of coal with
which they are filled. The time necessarily allowed between the granting
of a Patent and preparation of the Specification does not allow of many experi-
ments on a great scale, from which alone accurate results can be given, but I
have reason to believe that the saving of fuel when boilers, &c. are placed on
my construction, compared with boilers, &c. placed on the most approved plan
hitherto suggested, will be found to exceed one half, and I think the saving of
the boilers, bars, &c. will be nearly in the same ratio. I do not speak from
small experience of former plans, for in a chemical work of which I have had
the management for upwards of fifteen years, and where more than thirty
boilers of different dimensions, including salt pans and steam-engine boilers,
are employed, and where there are a variety of calcine ovens, retorts, furnaces,
&c., it has of course been an object with me to economise fuel, and I have in
consequence tried a variety of schemes which have been suggested to me for
that effect, both in this country and in most of the large towns on the Continent,
where I have occasionally resided. As instances of the steady, rapid, and intense
action of furnaces on my construction, a round boiler of thirteen feet diameter,
without any tubo through it, was not only brought to boil but furnished steam
of sufficient power to work a machine of twenty horses power, put up by
Messieurs Boulton and Watt, in eight minutes from the time that it was filled
sufficiently high with water, the fire being put in when the bottom was covered,
and which engine was at work. within the space of seventeen minutes from the
time of its being filled with water. A similar boiler placed on the usual con-
*struction required an hour and a quarter to raise the steam to the same degree
of elasticity as a boiler of my construction produced within eight minutes after
it was filled above the flues, the fire being put in when the bottom was covered,
and as it was a competition of skill every possible exertion would be used on
both sides. A vaulted brick oven of five feet four inches diameter, con-
*structed according to my principle, was from a cold state brought to a sufficient
heat to bake bread in one hour and a quarter with four shovels of small coals.
An oven of the same kind, on the common plan, of three feet ten inches diameter

page_text: only, required five hours, kept the whole time full of wood and round coals.
As the fuel required to heat any vessel on my principle is less than half of what
is employed to produce the same effect in vessels placed on the usual plans, and
as a much greater proportion of the smoke arising from a given quantity of fuel
is consumed by furnaces constructed on my plan, the quantity of that substance
thrown into the atmosphere is exceedingly diminished, and by the introduction
of a small cinder fire in the flues leading to the chimney, the black matter of
the smoke, which is very inflammable, might be nearly wholly consumed. In the
annexed schedule I have delineated eighteen Drawings of the fire-places or
furnaces for heating ovens and boilers. Figure 1 represents a vertical section
of an engine boiler and furnace where the cold air is entirely prevented from
mixing with the heated gases until after they have ceased to act in the
boiler. Figure 2 represents an horizontal section of the same taken at the
line B, B. Figure 3 represents another horizontal section of the same taken
at the line A, A. a, a wall which extends from the bottom of the ash-hole
to the bottom of the boiler and to the top of the flues or space for con-
taining the heated air round the sides of the boiler. This wall cuts off all
communication between the two furnaces and. grate rooms or spaces for con-
taining the heated gases, and gives support to the bottom and sides of the
boiler. 6 shews the grates or bars on which the fuel is burnt; c, a plate of
metal or other fit substance which seperates the ash-hole and grate room, and
prevents the ascent of the atmospheric air from the former to the latter; d, the
door frame; e, the door; f.f, pillars on which the boiler rests, with a bearance
of nine inches (more or less according to the size of the boiler) within the
extreem periphery of the bottom; 9, caps or covers of cast metal for the
pillars; h, the boiler; i, i, the spaces round the sides of the boiler into which
the heated 'air ascends from the grate room through the opening between
the pillars ff; j, a wall surrounding the spaces i, i; k, spaces through which
the heated gases after acting on the boiler take their exit from the grate room
to the chimneys, which may rise immediately above each fire door, or the
heated gases and smoke may be conveyed through flues to one chimney placed
in any convenient situation, as shewn on the plan, Figure 8. Figure 4 repre-
sents a vertical section of a steam engine boiler, where the cold air of the
atmosphere is prevented from mixing with the heated gases until after they
have ceased to act on the bottom of the boiler. a, b, c, d, e, are explained in
Figures 1, 2, and 8; f, a wall on which the boiler bottom has a bearance of
nine inches, more or less; i, i, i, i, flues, into which the heated air, smoke, &c.,
ascend from the grate room at 9, 9, 9, 9, in Figure 5; j, outside wall. Figure 6

page_text: represents a vertical and longitudinal section of a boiler and furnace for a
locomotive or travelling engine, or for any engine on Mr Trevithick's principle,
in which my plan of applying the heated gases free from mixture with the
'cold atmospheric air is adopted. Figure 7 represents a transverse section of
the same;: a, a, a, a, shew the exterior of the boiler; b, b, b, b, the tube in
which the furnaces are placed; c, c, c, are the furnace bars; d, d, plates or
divisions which prevent the penetration of the air from the ash-hole and
air duct into the grate room; e, a partition between the two furnaces;
ff, chimneys; g,g, fire doors. Figure 8 represents a longitudinal and ver-
tical section of an alum pan where the penetration of cold air into the
grate room is prevented during the process of working. Figure 9 repre-
sents a plan of the furnaces, &c., of the same. Figure 10 represents a
transverse section of a alum pan; a, a, a, a, shew the pan; .b, b, b, b, the
plates on which the pan rests; c, c, c, c, the grate bars; d; d, the plates
between the ash-hole and grate room; e, e, the doors; f. f. walls which
-seperate the furnaces; g, g, the chimneys. On this plan, salt pans, cop-
peras boilers, and other similar boilers may be constructed, varying the
-size and number of the furnaces according to the area of the bottom of the
boiler, and the degree of heat required to be generated. A parellellogram-
shaped or an oblong steam engine boiler, the bottom of which, at its corners
for laggons, or the curved plates which connect the sides with the bottom,
should be supported on pillars, with openings between them to admit the
ascent of the heated gases from the grate room to the space for containing
the heated air in contact with the sides of the boiler (as shewn in Fig. 1)
placed above. Such an arrangement of furnaces would have a very powerful
effect in raising steam, and if a tube was introduced in such a boiler, it would
add much to the surface on which the heated air would act, and of course,
much to its effect in generating steam. Figure 11 represents a vertical
section of a bleacher's or calico printer's boiler, where the cold air is entirely
prevented from mixing with the heated gases until after they have ceased to
act on the boiler. Figure 12 represents an horizontal section of the same
at the line A, A. Figure 18 represents a transverse section of the furnace
of the same, &c.; a, a, a, a, a, a, shew the boiler; b, b, the grates or bars on
which the fuel is burnt; c, a plate or partition which separates the ash-hole
from the grate room; d, the door frame; e, the door; f.ff.f.f, the pillars on
which the boiler rests with a bearance of six inches less or more; g,g,g,g, the
space surrounding the sides of the boiler, into which the heated air ascends
from the grate room through the openings between the pillars; h, the chimney.

page_text: .
On the above plan all manner of small boilers and pans may be placed which
require the heat to be applied to the sides as well as the bottom'; also all
kinds of stills, sugar pans or boilers, soap pans, and. boilers for evaporating
alkaline, and other saline solutions, and for precipitating the salts they contain,
&c., it being understood that the dimensions of the plan must be adapted to
the boiler or pan to be placed upon it. Steam-engine boilers and other large
boilers may also be placed on this plan, but the application of two furnaces
has the advantage of diffusing the heated gases more equally over the surface
to be heated, and the seperation wall is of great use in supporting the bottom
of the boilers. By dividing the grate room into three or four or more spaces,
seperated from each other by walls, and each space containing a furnace, the
advantages of a still more equable diffusion of the heated gases, and of a
more effectual support to the boiler would be obtained, and in placing very
large boilers I mean to adopt that arrangement. In that case the form of
the area occupied by the bars of the furnace, in place of being a square or
parellelogram, may be a trapezoid, a triangle, or any other convenient figure.
Fig. 14 represents a vertical section of a vaulted oven, into which the cold air-
of the atmosphere cannot penetrate during the process of heating. Figure 15
represents an horizontal section of the same at the line A, A.
oven;
a, a, a, in the
two Figures shew the bars on which the fuel burns; b, b, b, the ash-hole and
air duct; c, the door which shuts out the air when the oven is sufficiently
heated, but which is open during the heating; d, d, d, d, the floor or bottom of
the oven; e, the door through which the fuel is introduced, and through which
the heated gasses have their exit after acting on the bottom, sides, and top of the
this door is open during the process of heating, and closed after the
bread, &c. is introduced; f, a door through which the fuel is also introduced,
and which is kept closed during the greatest part of the process of heating, in
order to cause a stronger current of air to penetrate through the burning fuel.
Figure 16 represents a vertical section of a coal tar or gas light or calcining
oven, where the cold air is prevented from mixing with the heated gases until
after they have ceased to act on the oven. Figure 17 represents an horizontal
section of Figure 16 taken at A, A. Figure 18 represents a transverse section
of Figure 16, taken at B, B. a, a, a, a, in Figures 16, 17, and 18, shew the
oven; b, b, b, b, grate or furnace bars; c, flooring plate, or plate between the
ash-pit and grate room; d, fire door; e, e, fire door frames; f, grate room;
9, 9, 9, space for heated air, nearly enveloping the oven; h, the chimney;
i, the ash-pit; j, j,j, in Figures 16 and 18, shew where a plate of cast
metal or other substance on an arch might be introduced, if found neces-

page_text: sary, to prevent the intense action of the heated gases immediately above
the fire from injuring the oven or retort; k, k, flanches, upon which the
mouth piece of the oven may be fixed or a door put on. On this principle
ovens for cooking food, calcining wood into charcoal, bones for making ivory
black, and various other purposes, may be constructed.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Losh, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifteen.
WALTERS, Extra.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-seventh day of May, in the
year of our Lord 1815, the aforesaid William Losh came before our said Lord 1
the King in His Chancery, and acknowleged the Specification aforesaid, and
all and everything therein contained and specified, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt according to the tenor of the
Statute made for that purpose
Inrolled the Thirty-first day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifteen.