CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF FIRE-PLACES, APPLICABLE FOR GENERAL PURPOSES, WHEREBY COMBUSTION IS RENDERED MORE PERFECT AND CAPABLE OF REGU- LATION OR CONTROL, SMOKE THOROUGHLY CONSUMED, AND THE DRAUGHT IN OPEN FIRE-PLACES MUCH INCREASED
Year: 1856

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Frederick Cornwall at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 2nd December
1856.
I, FREDERICK CORNWALL, Builder, of Birmingham, in the County of.
Warwick, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention for "CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF FIRE-PLACES, APPLICABLE FOR GENERAL
PURPOSES, WHEREBY COMBUSTION IS RENDERED MORE PERFECT AND CAPABLE OF REGU-
LATION OR CONTROL, SMOKE THOROUGHLY CONSUMED, AND THE DRAUGHT IN OPEN
FIRE-PLACES MUCH INCREASED," to be as follows, that is to say:-
My Invention consists in constructing open fire-places in such a way that a
strong current of air may be induced direct through the fire, escaping through
vertical or horizontal slots or openings in the back, and conducted to the
chimney by an auxiliary flue, and which flue may be kept under regulation by
valves. This contrivance may be formed in the grate itself, or partly in the
grate and partly in the brickwork necessary for setting such grates; and in
some instances I form the backs of such grates (whether made of cast iron or
fire clay) with vertical airways through them, the air being admitted into the
fire from small holes in the front of the backs, the holes being connected with
the airways. Backs of this kind may be made of fireclay or iron in one or
more parts, as most convenient. By this means, the smoke generated in

page_text: applying fresh coals, or the burning of coals in grates where there is an imper-
fect draft, the whole will be taken through the back and carried away through
the auxiliary flue, or ignited before it escapes through the back, for it is evident
that the smoke which is generated on the top will be carried down by the
current of air directly into the body of the fire to be ignited or consumed before
escaping, thus forming an infallible cure for smoky chimneys.
In constructing fire-places that are usually closed up, such as are generally
used for heating steam boilers, furnaces, and other such like purposes, I formi
my fire bars hollow and with irregular projections on their internal surfaces,
for the purpose of causing an agitated action in the current of air passing
through them, by which means the air will become heated. The back of the
fire-place is built up with corrugated fire bricks close up around the boiler or
crown work, and behind which is a hot air chamber supplied with air from the
tubular bars; the farther wall forming the chamber is also built with corru-
gated bricks, having a solid wall built close behind it, carried up within a short
distance of the boiler or crown work. The opening between the solid bridge
and the wall of corrugated bricks forms an airway connected with some por-
tion of the tubular bars, and should any smoke escape through the openings
formed by the corrugated bricks in the first division, it will be consumed in
escaping through the corrugations of the second division before passing over
the crown of the bridge built close against it, or within the hot air chamber
itself. The front end of the fire bars I propose to make of a kind of bell-
mouth form, for the purpose of collecting the air, or to unite them all in the
front to a kind of air box protected with a grating, so that the tubes shall not
be liable to choke up.
And in applying my improvement to the flues of japanners' stoves, I so form
the bricks necessary for the same, that the airway or flue shall be formed out of
the same, and strengthened by projecting parts, which, fitting in corresponding
cavities or recesses, will render such flues strong and secure, and yet be very
thin in their substance.