IMPROVEMENTS IN STOVES
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Hicks, of Piddle, Trenthide, in the County of
Dorset, Clerk, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN STOVES."
Sealed the 26th September 1856, and dated the 31st March 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Hicks at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 31st March
1856.
I, JAMES HICKS, of Piddle Trenthide, in the County of Dorset, Clerk, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for IMPROVEMENTS IN STOVES,
to be as follows:-
My said improvements refer to peculiar arrangements of stoves for heating
and ventilating. I provide a fire box to contain the charcoal or other fuel put
in and lighted at the top; the box is closed at the bottom to catch the ashes,
having air holes to maintain combustion. The whole is surrounded with a
casing provided with suitable apertures to allow the admission and escape of air,
and is placed on a stand raised from the ground, on feet or otherwise, and from
below it may be furnished with a pipe descending through the floor to admit
fresh air if required. The casing is closed at the top, except an aperture for
the passage of the escape pipe or chimney of the fire box, which may ordinarily
be made from one and a half to two inches or thereabouts in diameter. The
top of the escape pipe or chimney may be surmounted with a condenser and a
ventilator, to regulate the heat and prevent sparks escaping, and immediately
below is a warm elbow pipe, with a flange to retain it in its place. This pipe

page_text: may be passed through a wall or partition for the conveyance of warm air, and
I recommend its not being above three inches diameter for common domestic
stoves. It is material also to observe, that under no consideration should char-
coal be used in these stoves for chambers, without the provision of a proper
escape pipe, passed through a chimney board or other partition, to carry off
deleterious gases.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Hicks in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 30th
September 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
HICKS, of Piddle Trenthide, in the County of Dorset, Clerk, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirty-first day of March; in the year of our Lord
One thousand-eight hundred and fifty-six, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said James Hicks, Her special licence that I, the said James Hicks, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said James
Hicks, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should át any time agree
with, and ho others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the
term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, excrcise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for IMPROVEMENTS IN STOVES, upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said James Hicks, 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 inmediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YÉ, that I, the said James Hicks, do hereby declare the
nature of my 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:
My said improvements refer to peculiar arrangements in the construction 'of
stoves for heating and ventilating. And for the better understanding of the
same, I will now proceed to detail the particulars thereof.

page_text: One mode of constructing my improved stoves consists in an arrangement
by means of which it forms a hot chamber within the whole length of the body
of the stove. The fuel box is suspended in such a manner in the centre of the
outer case, that the fresh air, coming through an aperture three inches or there-
abouts in diameter in the base of the stove, passes up between the fuel box
and outer case, discharging itself in a volume of pure fresh hot air at the top
of the stove, having no communication with the escape pipe, which may be one
inch and three-quarters or thereabouts in diameter, and standing six inches or
thereabouts above the opening where the hot air escapes; it should stand
over a hole in the floor not less than two inches in diameter. To promote
ventilation in close apartments, a pipe must be attached which may com-
municate with a chimney or other outlet; also a hot-air elbow pipe may be used
to convey fresh hot air from one room to others, and by means of a ventilator
at the top of the escape pipe the fire can be regulated as required.
Having thus described one mode of arranging the several parts of my said
improvements, I would observe, in relation thereto, that I provide in every form
of stoves constructed according to my said Invention a fire box to contain the
charcoal or other fuel, which is put in and lighted at the top; the box is closed
at the bottom to catch the ashes, but has air holes to maintain combustion in
the grate or fuel box above. The whole is surrounded with a metal or like
casing, provided with suitable apertures to allow the admission and the escape
of air, and it is placed on a stand raised from the ground on feet or otherwise,
and should be placed near a door or over a hole in the floor, admitting fresh
air for warming and ventilating. The external casing of this hot chamber or
body of the stove is closed in at the top, except an aperture for the passage of
the escape pipe or chimney of the fire box, which pipe may ordinarily be made
from one and a half to two inches or thereabouts in diameter. The top of the
escape pipe or chimney is surmounted with a ventilator to regulate the heat
and prevent sparks escaping, and immediately below is attached a warm-air
elbow pipe, with a flange to retain it in its place; this elbow pipe may be
passed through a wall or partition for the conveyance of warm air, and I
recommend its not being above three inches in diameter for common domestic
stoves. It is material also to observe, that under no consideration should these
stoves be used in close chambers without the provision of a proper escape pipe,
passed through a chimney board or other partition, to carry off deleterious
gases; or the stove itself standing so as to allow the fresh air elbow pipe to
throw hot air into the chamber, the escape pipe being situated to send the
escaping products of combustion up the chimney.
My said Invention being capable of modifications, I desire it to be under-

page_text: stood that I do not restrict myself to materials, dimensions, or the precise form
of the several parts, so long as the principle of my said improvements therein
is retained; and I do declare that what I claim as my Invention is, namely,
the peculiar construction of domestic and other stoves for heating and ventilating,
stood that I do not restrict myself to materials, dimensions, or the precise form
of the several parts, so long as the principle of my said improvements therein
is retained; and I do declare that what I claim as my Invention is, namely,
the peculiar construction of domestic and other stoves for heating and ventilating,
as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Hicks, have hereunto set my
band and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of September, in the year of our
Lord 1856.
JAMES HICKS. (L.S.)