A NEW AND PECULIAR ART OR METHOD OF MANUFACTURING IRON, COPPER, AND OTHER METALS, BY A NEW-INVENTED PROGRESSIVELY MULTIPLYING AIR FURNACE
Year: 1788

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
GARDNER, of the City of London, Iron Master, do send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by His
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Fourth day of March, in the twenty-eighth year of His reign,
give and grant unto me, the said Robert Gardner, His especial licence, sole
privilege and authority, that I, the said Robert Gardner, during the term of
fourteen years therein expressed, should and lawfully might use, exercise,
and vend, within that part of the Kingdom of Great Britain called England,
the Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of
"A NEW AND PECULIAR ART OR METHOD OF MANUFACTURING IRON, COPPER, AND
OTHER METALS, BY A NEW-INVENTED PROGRESSIVELY MULTIPLYING AIR FURNACE;"
in which Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said
Robert Gardner, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, par-
ticularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, and cause the same to be inrolled
in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar month next
and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, reference being
thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said provisoe, I, the said
Robert Gardner, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described and
ascertained as follows, that is to say :-

page_text: The first object of this furnace is the doing a greater quantity of work with
the same coals as are used in furnaces upon the old plan, and in a shorter time,
by conveying the flame from one compartment of the furnace to another, each
having separate doors for putting in and taking out the metal, vide A, eleva-
tion. By this means the division B next to the fire being the hottest, gives the
iron (if iron be the metal worked) what is termed a welding heat (if so great a
heat is wanted), for either rolling or hammering, whilst the second division C
brings the iron to the highest degree of a red heat for the purpose of moving
the various pieces in succession into the first, B; in doing of which a vast deal
of time is saved, and great waste prevented, by avoiding the old method of
putting a large quantity of cold iron into the furnace and waiting until the
whole is got up to a welding heat; which pieces being only worked off one by
one, those that continue whilst the others are working waste in proportion to the
time they remain in the fire. The flame, after leaving the second division, heats
a third, D, or any number in progression, according to the degrees of heat
which may be wanted, either for iron, copper, or any other metal; but should
the manufacturer wish any of the successive divisions to be brought up to the
first degree of heat, for a refinery, chafery, or any other purpose, an additional
fireplace must be made like the first, E, and the flame from the other carried
over it by means of a flue into the division where the greater degree of heat is
so required, as in the plan marked F. And having to every such additional
fireplace, or more frequently in the range of furnaces, if required, a separate
chimney to convey away the flame, or regulate its effects by new registers or
dampers. These registers or dampers are enclosed in the chimney to a suffi-
cient depth from the top, so as to prevent the ill effects of high winds blowing
against them, which has proved a great obstruction to the drawing of the fur-
naces upon the old method. By this means any certain part of the range may
be at work whilst another is under repair, and whenever any of the fireplaces
are not used they are to be shut up, each by an iron door, or pair of doors,
at G, which prevents the cold air from chilling the flame, as it passes above,
as at F, and enters the furnace D. And also to shut the whole up when the
work ceases, which retains the heat until it begins again, and tends also greatly
to preserve the furnace.
The second object of this Invention is to prevent the destruction made
in furnaces worked upon the old plan, in taking out the bottoms, by the means
of a cast-iron floor for laying the sand bottom upon; and which floor is left
hollow underneath, as in the section H, to prevent its melting, having a passage
at the side I for the discharge of scoria or dross, the floor being inclined that
way to facilitate such discharge. By this method the sand bottom, when worn
out, is easily taken from off the iron floor, without injury to the furnace.

page_text: Lastly, where steam or fire engines are made use of, the flame, having per-
formed its office in the furnaces, may be conveyed through, under, or round
the boiler of such engines for the purpose of raising steam, and will produce
the effect in whole or in part, in proportion to the degree of heat in the
furnace, and which, if insufficient, may be supplied by a fireplace E, as shewn
in the plan of the furnaces. The whole is to be used, put together, fixed, and
applied in the manner particularly mentioned and described in the Drawing
or Plan subjoined, and the explanation by the above references thereto, and
corresponding with the same.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Gardner, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Second day of April, in the twenty-eighth year
of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Third, by the grace of
God of Great Britain, France, and Ireland King, Defender of the
Faith, &c., and in the year of our Lord One thousand seven hundred
and eighty-eight.
ROBERT (L.s.) GARDNER.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Third day of April, in the
year above mentioned, the said Robert Gardner came into the Court of our
Sovereign Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and every matter and thing therein contained and specified, and
that the Specification aforesaid was duly stampt according to the tenor of the
Statute in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the Third day of April, in the twenty-eighth year of the reign
of our Sovereign Lord King George the Third, and in the year of our
Lord One thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight.