IMPROVEMENTS IN STOVES AND FIRE-PLACES
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Goodchild, of Guildford, in the County of
Surrey, Architect and Surveyor, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
STOVES AND FIRE-PLACES."
Sealed the 26th February 1858, and dated the 7th September 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Goodchild at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
7th September 1857.
I, THOMAS GOODCHILD, of Guildford, in the County of Surrey, Architect
and Surveyor, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for. "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN STOVES AND FIRE-PLACES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in stoves and fire-places, and
consists in combining the following parts:-Below the ordinary bottom grating
or fire bars of a stove or fire-place a drawer or pan is applied, suitable for
preventing air passing up through the grating at the bottom and amongst the
fuel thereon, and also suitable for receiving any dust and ashes which may
descend through between the bottom bars, or an ordinary "false bottom." is.
put into the grate, and the original bottom made air-tight, or the .ordinary
bottom is made air-tight only. The front fire bars as well as the bottom
grating are fixed and stationary as heretofore, they, in fact, constituting an..

page_text: ordinary stove or fire-place. The sides and back of the fire-place are fixed
and solid, so that no air may pass through them to the fuel. In front of the
front fire bars is a sliding guard or screen, which by preference has openings in
it glazed with pieces of talc, or it may be entirely closed. In using such stove
or fire-place the same is filled with coal, and the upper surface thereof is
lighted, the upper edge of the screen or guard having been brought below the
top fire bar of the stove or fire-place, and the guard is to be lowered from
time to time as the upper surface of the fuel consumes away. By these
means the fuel is economised to a very considerable extent, and the smoke or
products produced from the fuel below (by the highly heated fuel above) will
pass up through and amongst the well-ignited fuel on the upper surface, and
the giving off of smoke to the chimney will be for the most part prevented.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Goodchild in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
26th February 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
GOODCHILD, of Guildford, in the County of Surrey, Architect and Surveyor,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twenty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Thomas Goodchild, Her special licence that I, the said Thomas Goodchild,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas
Goodchild, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the
term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN STOVES AND
FIRE-PLACES," upon the condition, amongst others, that I, the said Thomas
Goodchild, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under
my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and
ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was
to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent
Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of
the said Letters Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thomas Goodchild, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say:
This Invention has for its object improvements in stoves and fire-places,
and consists in combining the following parts-Below the ordinary bottom
grating or fire bars of a stove or fire-place a drawer or pan is applied, suitable
for preventing air passing up through the grating at the bottom and amongst
the fuel thereon, and also suitable for receiving any dust and ashes which may
descend through between the bottom bars, or an ordinary "false bottom" is
put into the grate and the original bottom made air-tight, or the ordinary
bottom is made air-tight only. The front fire bars as well as the bottom
grating are fixed and stationary as heretofore; they, in fact, constituting an
ordinary stove or fire-place. The sides and back of the fire-place are fixed
and solid, so that no air may pass through them to the fuel. In front of the
front fire bars is a sliding guard or screen, which by preference has openings
in it glazed with pieces of talc, or it may be entirely closed. In using such
stove or fire-place, the same is filled with coal, and the upper surface thereof
lighted, the upper edge of the screen or guard having been brought below
the top fire bar of the stove or fire-place, and the guard is to be lowered from
time to time as the upper surface of the fuel consumes away. By these
means the fuel is economised to a very considerable extent, and the smoke or
products produced from the fuel below (by the highly heated fuel above) will
pass up through and amongst the well ignited fuel on the upper surface, and
the giving off of smoke to the chimney will be for the most part prevented.
And in order that my said Invention may be most fully understood and
readily carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the Drawing hereunto
annexed.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 shows a front elevation of a stove arranged. according to my
Invention Figure 2 is a plan, partly in section; and Figure 3 is a vertical
section of the same through 1, 2, Figure 1. The back and sides of the fire
grate A, A, are by preference composed of fire brick; the bottom B is an
ordinary stove grating. The stove front C and bars D, shewn by dots in the
elevation, are those of an ordinary register stove, (except that I prefer the fire
bars to slope up, as shewn in the section, Figure 2, to prevent the dust and

page_text: a groove; and at the back of each groove an iron box or case G, G, is cast to
contain a weight H, H, to which is attached a chain I, I, which chain runs
over a pulley K, K, fitted into the upper part of the stove front at the back of
the grooves, and the other end of the said chain, on each side, is attached by
an eye or other means to the guard L, which is made of wrought or cast iron,
and slides down in front of and close to the ordinary bars D, as shewn in the
section, Figure 2; or the guard L is made to slide up and down by means of
springs M, M, attached to the sides, as in Figure 4, and which, pressing
against the groove front F, keep the guard in its place wherever required, or
is made to hook on to the bars by two iron hooks rivetted to the back of the
guard, as at R, Figure 4; but I prefer the arrangement shown at Figures 1
and 2. The front of the guard may be pierced and have talc introduced, as
shewn at N, N, in Figure 1, in many patterns. Underneath and close up to the
ordinary grating I place a sliding tray O, of wrought or cast iron, or of both,
to receive the dust which falls through the grating B above, and which being
removed from amongst the fuel above, allows a more perfect and complete
combustion; the said tray or receptacle is made to slide upon flanges (in the
manner of a drawer) cast on to the sides of the stove, or in a frame or box
fitted to the under side of the stove for that purpose, the tray to be air-tight
when in its place; but in the front of the tray I fix a moveable ventilator P, P,
to give a little air if required; or the tray O may be dispensed with by intro-
ducing a false bottom into the grate, and making the original bottom air-tight,
and closing the space in front between the original and the false bottom by a
door which opens to allow the dust to be removed; or the result may be
attained, though not so efficiently, by simply rendering the bottom of the stove
air-tight.
The method of using the improved stove is as follows:-I raise the guard
up to the top bar, then I fill the grate with coals, and either light by throwing
on to the top of the said coals some ignited fuel, or with wood and paper at the
top. The fire lighted, will burn equably and surely for many hours, or until
the whole of the fuel is consumed. As the fire burns down, the smoke
evolved from the black coals below passes into the burning fuel above, and is
consumed. I keep the top edge of the guard about three or four inches below
the top of the fuel, and as the fire burns down I lower the guard as may be
necessary, say once in four or five hours, to expose more fuel to the air, and so
continue the combustion, which, if I wish to increase and hasten, I do by
using the poker as in ordinary fires.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention and the manner of per-
forming the same, I would have it understood that I do not confine myself to

page_text: the exact details described, but what I claim is the air-tight guard L, capable
of being raised and lowered so as to expose, as may be required, a larger or
smaller quantity of fuel at the upper part of the grate, in combination with a
stove or fire-place, the fire grate of which is closed at the bottom by means of
a sliding tray or otherwise, as herein described, so as to exclude the air.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Goodchild, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of February, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
Witness,
SAMUEL JOHN ALGAR,
Guildford.
THOMAS GOODCHILD. (L.S.)