IMPROVE- MENTS IN GENERATING, INDICATING, AND APPLYING HEAT
Year: 1848

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wc, THOMAS
JOHN KNOWLYS, of Heysham Tower, near Lancaster, Esquire, and WILLIAM
FILLIS, of Shirley, in the County of Hants, Mechanician, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Fifth day of April,
One thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, in the cleventh year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said Thomas John Knowlys and William Fillis, our exors, adñiors, and assigns,
Her especial license, full power, sole privilege and authority, that we, the
said Thomas John Knowlys and William Fillis, our exors, adññiors, and assigns,
or such others as we, the said Thomas John Knowlys and William Fillis,
our exors, adñiors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, usc, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick upon Tweed, our Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN GENERATING, INDICATING, AND APPLYING HEAT," in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso that we, the said Thomas John Knowlys and
William Fillis, or one of us, shall cause a particular description of the nature
of our said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by
an instrument in writing under our hands and seals, or under the hand and
seal of one of us, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within six calendar months next and inmediately after the date

page_text: of the said in part recited Letters Patent, asvin and by the same, reference
being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
Thomas John Knowlys and William Fillis, do hereby declare that the nature
of our said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
are fully described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof,
reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the figures and
letters marked thereon, that is to say :-
Our Invention consists, first, of improvements in generating heat, and in
applying heat to ovens, drying, and other chambers, and to steam and other
boilers and vessels containing fluids.
Secondly, our Invention consists of applying pyrometers to ovens used for
baking bread and other food; and, thirdly, our Invention consists of a mode of
constructing and working what are called roasting jacks. And in order that
our Invention may be most fully understood and readily carried into effect, we
will proceed to describe the means pursued by us.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 shews the front view of a kitchen range, having our Invention
applied thereto. Figure 2 is a longitudinal section of Figure 1, and Figure 8
is a transverse section thereof. Figure 4 is a front view, with the front plate
removed. Figure 5 is a plan, and Figure 6 is a plan with the top plate re-
moved. In each of these Figures the same letters are used to indicate similar
parts.
a is the fire-place, the fuel in which burns from the surface without
having any air passing up through the bottom, which may be a fire-tile; or it
may be a grating of bars, in which case the ash-pit would be made to close,
and only so as to be opened to remove the ashes, the object of the arrangement
being such that the burning of the fuel should be from the upper surface, the
heat and products from the fire being then conducted away laterally, and
caused to descend so as to pass under the oven and thence away into a chimney,
by which the oven 6 will be heated from above, then on the sides, and then at
the bottom by a downward draft; and the peculiarity is in the placing of the
fire above the oven, as explained, and we would state that the use of a down-
ward draft to heat ovens is not new. The oven 6 we prefer to be made of
fire-tiles or fire-clay, but-other material may be employed; the arrows show
the direction of the flame and heated products from the upper surface of the
fire. In front of the fire there is a grating or fire bars, so that the fire may be
used for roasting.
. The upper part of the fire is covered at c, as shown, and the whole of the

page_text: upper surface may be used as a hot plate to receive culinary vessels; d, d, are
doors to the oven, the handles of which we prefer to be of glass, as they will
not become so hot as when of iron.
It is well known that ovens used for baking bread and other articles of food
often become too hot, and there is no ready method of ascertaining when an
oven is at the desired temperature; now another of our improvements consists
of applying a pyrometer, in combination with an oven used for baking bread
and other articles of food, with a dial and pointer, or other means of indicating
the degree of heat at which an oven may be, by which means the person using
an oven may take means of cooling the oven, should it be found to be rising
too high in temperature. Any convenient construction of pyrometer may be
employed, and to which separately we make no claim, but we believe that the
most simple for the purpose will be found to be those made by combining two
different metals, as the extent of heat required for baking is not great, but
tubes or other vessels containing metal which will fuse at the desired tempe-
rature for baking, and others which will fuse at some degrees higher tempera-
ture may be resorted to in place of the pyrometers above mentioned, by which
it will be known that the oven is getting too hot if the higher metal is found
to melt, and the proper heat will be indicated when the other metal keeps
melted, and so long as the higher melting one remains unmelted.' e, e, is a
boiler for heating water, such boiler forming part of the range, and to this
boiler I apply a separate compartment f, having within it a wheel (formed like
that of a gas meter) revolving in water contained in the compartment f, kept.
at a proper level as in a gas meter, the level of the water being kept up from
the boiler. The steam rising in the boiler is caused to pass through the wheel,
ás gas passes from the gas main through the meter wheel of a meter, by which
the wheel in the compartment f will receive motion, and from the axis of the
wheel, motion is to be communicated to a spit by any suitable 'mechanical
nieans. We have not thought it necessary to show the arrangement of the
roasting jack, as it is like a gas meter, which is well known. The steam
passes away from the compartment f of the boiler, after having acted on the
wheel, as steam has heretofore passed from boilers of kitchen ranges. Figure 7.
shows a section of an oven separately, the cover of the fire at c being the
means of admitting air for the supply of the furnace, which is necessary when
there is no admission at the front. In this manner may heat be applied to
chambers for drying various matters, and such chambers may be built of brick
or other suitable material, the fire being on the upper part, and the flues so
arranged as to conduct off the products laterally, then downwards, and then
away to a chimney, such" mode of burning fuel and applying heat being very

page_text: advantageous. Figure 8 shows a section of a steam boiler suitably arranged
for applying parts of our Invention thereto. The fire-place in this arrangement
is within the boiler, the fire being made in the trough a, which like the fire-
place before described for the oven, does not require to have a grating at the
bottom for the passage of air up through the fuel, but should a grating be used,
then we have a closed ash-pit, simply to receive the ashes; the ash-pit being
kept closed when the fire is in use, the flames and heated products from the
fire pass off laterally and descend, as is indicated by the Drawing, and then
pass away to the chimney, as shewn. The space above the fire is open, and
there is an opening through the boiler at either end for the passage of air
above the fuel, hence it will be evident that in addition to the heat of the fire
acting on the water in the boiler, which is directly above the fire, the flames
and heated products will descend, and offer as it were a thin film of heat to
the water in all directions.
We would remark, that although we have shewn a steam boiler, it will be
evident that this mode of constructing and applying apparatus for burning fuel
will be equally applicable to open boilers for boiling or evaporating fluids, and
such boilers may be made of any suitable material, and the flues having passed
down from the fire may again ascend and pass through the fire, so that the
exterior of the flue or flues may be acted on by the fire, by which means the
draft through the flues may be rendered more powerful; in which arrangement
we recommend that the flue or flues when passing through the fire should be
protected by an external coating of fire-brick or tile; and such mode of con-
ducting the flue or flues may also be applied when using our Invention to heat
other places or chambers as well as for boilers.
In order that there may be no black smoke issue from the chimney when
working according to our Invention, we have found it desirable to introduce
across the descending flues partitions of fire-tile extensively perforated with
holes, the effect of which is that these partitions soon become very hot, so that
the products of combustion in passing down through such partitions cause the
black unconsumed carbon to be burned by contact with the highly heated fire
tiles. We would remark that we are aware that open brickwork has before
been built up in flues of furnaces for a like purpose, but perforated fire-tiles
are more suitable for such purposes. In all cases we prefer to have the sur-
faces on which the fuel is burned to be of fire-clay, but this is not absolutely
essential, and although we have shown the flame and heated products passing
off on either side of the fire, this may be varied and pass off only on one
side.
Having thus described the nature of our Invention, and the best means we

page_text: are acquainted with for carrying the same into effect, we would remark that
we do not confine ourselves to the details as herein given, so long as the pecu-
liar character of either part of our Invention be retained; but what we claim
is, first, the improvements herein described for generating heat and applying
heat to ovens, drying and other chambers, and to boilers and other vessels
containing fluids. Secondly, we claim the applying a pyrometer to ovens used
for baking bread and other articles of food; and, thirdly, we claim the mode of
constructing and working roasting jacks herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Fillis, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fifth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-eight.