IMPROVEMENTS IN GAS BURNERS
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Joseph, of Grosvenor House, South
Place, Kennington Park, in the County of Surrey, for the Inven-
tion of "IMPROVEMENTS IN GAS BURNERS." -A communication from
abroad by Frederick Charles Krause, of New York, United States
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Joseph at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and
Declaration, on the 17th June 1870, pursuant to the 9th Section of
the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
JOSEPH, of Grosvenor House, South Place, Kennington Park, in the
County of Surrey, send greeting.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN
GAS BURNERS," and have petitioned Her Majesty to grant unto me, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, Her Royal Letters Patent for
the same, and have made solemn Declaration that it has been com-
WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention for

page_text: York, United States of America.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Charles Joseph, do hereby declare
that the following Complete Specification, under my hand and seal,
fully describes and ascertains the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings, making
part of the description, in which Figure 1 is a central section of a
burner constructed according to my Invention, and of a stand which
supports it in a stove; Figures 2 & 3 are modifications of the burner
without the stand.
The improvement consists in the manufacture of gas burners for
heating purposes, or those parts of them from which the gas is to be
emitted of a composition made by mixing the pulverized burnt fire-
clay with powdered glass, carbonate of soda, or some other flux or sub-
stance of similar character, that is to say, which may be baked with
the fire-clay at a low red or white heat, and by its fusion at such heat
will serve to unite the particles of fire-clay, but yet make with it a
composition of a very porous character, which is sufficiently refractory
to enable the gas to be burnt on its surface, and to bear the repeated
heating and cooling to which a burner is subject. To make the
composition for the burners the fire-clay requires to be first burnt as
for fire-bricks, and to save trouble I generally take for the purpose the
best Stourbridge fire-brick. The burnt fire-clay is then ground to
about the fineness of coarse sand, and when ground is mixed with finely
powdered glass or carbonate of soda in the proportion of one to one
and a half parts by measure of glass to six parts of the fire-clay, or
one part of carbonate of soda to eight parts of fire-clay. I prefer
however to use the glass in all cases. To this mixture a little gum
water is added, as is necessary to make the mass sufficiently cohesive to
enable it to be molded in proper molds into the required forms for
the burners, which may be various, for instance, the burner shown in
Figure 1 has its sides only a, a, made of the porous composition, that
shown in Figure 2, the sides a, a, and top 6, and that shown in
Figure 3 its top b, and the upper part c, c, of the sides; but the burner
in all cases has a chamber within it for the expansion and heating of
the gas before its emission. The burners or portion thereof made of
the porous material after being molded are balsed in a pottery or other

page_text: kiln or suitable oven, in which they are heated so gradually that they
will be about seven (7) or eight (8) hours arriving at a white heat, and
are kept at that heat for about half (1) an hour, after which they are
allowed to lose. The flux or fusible matter when fused runs over
the particles of fire-clay, and shrinks in such a manner as to leave
innumerable fine pores between them for the issue of the gas, but yet
causes the cohesion of said particles, and makes a porous material
having considerable tenacity. The sockets d, d, of the burners or
other parts which are not required to be porous are indicated by a red
tint in the Drawings, are made of fire-clay, and the porous portions
united to them by a cement composed of either of the fluxes or fusible
materials above specified, mixed with finely pulverized fire-clay, but
with a greater proportion of the flux or fusible material than is used
in the porous composition. I generally use for the purpose of equal
quantities (by measure) of the pulverized fire-clay and glass.
The cementing together of the parts may be effected by the first
baking above-mentioned or by a subsequent similar baking.
The great advantage of burners constructed of this porous compo-
sition is their extreme durability, as though when in use the porous
composition becomes heated to a red heat it is not thereby injured, and
I will mention that in my experiments I have used such burners for
two years continually without their having in any degree deteriorated.
I do not claim to be the first Inventor of a porous gas burner, as
I am aware that they have been constructed of wire gauze and by
making beds of such material covered with broken pumice stone, and
of some other substance; but what I claim as my Invention and
desire to secure by Letters Patent is, the manufacture of gas burners,
or those parts of them from which the gas is to be emitted, of the
porous composition produced by the union of the substance specified in
the manner set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Joseph, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and soventy.