APPLYING FIRE TO THE COPPERS OF BREWERS AND DISTILLERS AND OF MANAGING THE SAME IN SUCH MANNER AS THAT VERY CONSIDERABLE EXPENCE WILL BE SAVED IN THE ARTICLE OF FUEL, AND OTHER MATERIAL ADVANTAGES GAINED THEREBY
Year: 1794

page_text: TATE'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
TATE, of Tottenham Court Road, in the Parish of Saint Pancras, in the
County of Middlesex, Ironmonger, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date the Seven-
teenth day of June now last past, did give unto me, the said James Tate, His
special licence that I, the said Jaines Tate, during the term of years therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick upon Tweed, my Invention of
"APPLYING FIRE TO THE COPPERS OF BREWERS AND DISTILLERS AND OF MANAGING
THE SAME IN SUCH MANNER AS THAT VERY CONSIDERABLE EXPENCE WILL BE SAVED
IN THE ARTICLE OF FUEL, AND OTHER MATERIAL ADVANTAGES GAINED THEREBY ;" in
which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said James
Tate, under my hand and seal, to cause a particular description of the nature
of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar
month next after the date of the said Letters Patent, as in and by the same
(relation being thereunto had) may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
James Tate, do hereby declare that my said Invention of applying fire and
of managing the same to brewers' and distillers' coppers or vessells consists
of the following improvements:-First, for the application of two, three,

page_text: or uoro separate fires to each copper or vessel, with a separate and dis-
tinct fluo to each fire. Secondly, for the application of a door or register to
shut off the communication of each fire with the copper, when necessary.
Thirdly, of an improved method of constructing the flues. Fourthly, for the
application of bellows or other machines to force fire in particular cases; and,
fifthly, for an improved method of constructing the coppers or vessels, in order
that the fire may be applied to more advantage, with sundry other improve-
ments, which are more particularly explained and described as follows, that is
to say):-
That part of the furnace usually called the ash-pit cause to be made or
carried up in three separate divisions from the bottom of the ash-pit up to the
bottom of the copper; to each of these separate divisions is applied a door and
frame with furnace bars; the copper then being applied to its sent, the doors.
bars, and partitions, or divisions from three separate fire-places or furnaces.
I then cause a flue to be taken in the following direction from either of the
outside furnaces, which is to be carried up nearly one-third the height of the
copper, then to be turned and continued all round the lower part of the copper
from the leg, butt, or lower edge, about one-third up the side, till it comes
round, and is stopped by a flue taken in like manner from the other outside
furnace to be hereafter described. It is then to be turned up and conducted
into the main shaft of the chimney. 1 then cause a like flue to be continued
or taken from the middle furnace; this is to be carried up by the side of the
first flue, and about one-third the height of the copper above it. It is then
turned and carried round the copper over the first flue until stopped by the
upright part thereof, when it is turned up and conducted into the main shaft
of the chimney. I then cause a like flue to be taken from the last furnace.
which is carried up by the side of that last mentioned, and the usual height
above it, from thence carried round the upper division of the copper, and then
conducted into the main shaft of the chimney, as before mentioned. When
this Invention is to be applied to coppers or vessels that have been already in
use, it will not always be necessary to carry up the divisions from the bottom
of the ash-pit, but to build the divisions or partitions on the furnace bars,
which will answer the same purpose. The registers or doors are for the purpose
of preserving the coppers from the intense heat of the fire, by shutting the fire
entirely from the copper when necessary; these I cause to be done in the
following manner: when to be applied, there must then be prepared a ledge
for each side of every furnace; this may be done of the materials the furnace
is made of, but a hollow trunk of cast iron will be better, both ends of which
to have communication with the open air in the front and behind the furnace;

page_text: the end behind the furnace had better be turned up for some distance in the
manner of a flue, which will cause a circulation and draft of cold air continually
to enter and pass through the cavity or hollow part of the trunk, by which
means it will be preserved; the different doors or registers are then put upon
these ledges; they may be mounted on wheels or rollers, or may be made to
draw as a common register, or be moved by means of rack and pinion, so as to
answer the purpose already mentioned; but as the mode of applying the fire
by many furnaces necessarily lessens the quantity of fuel, as well as the intense-
ness of the heat to the bottom of the copper, there will be less danger of the
vessels being injured by this than the former mode, and therefore the appli-
cation of these registers or doors will not in all cases be necessary. For a
small or middle sized copper or still two furnaces, in the manner before described,
will be sufficient, and in that case the fire may be extended to further use in
particular cases, as it might not be necessary at all times to have a fire equally
intense, nor to have the said coppers or vessells boiled or heated in equal spaces
of time; therefore when it may be necessary to have any of these operations
performed in a slower manner than usual, I cause the following additions to
be made to and in the flues already described, in order to take advantage of these
circumstances when they occur, that is to say, I cause to be put in the flue
belonging to the furnace first mentioned, in the upright part before it enters the
chimney or main shaft, a register to shut up or off' the said flue. I then cause
a register to be put in the flue belonging to the second furnace, just above
where the flame comes from the furnace into the flue. I then cause another
register to be put in the upright partition or division that seperates the two
flues; the two first mentioned of those registers being then shut, and the last
left open, it will then be necessary to light only the fire in the first furnace, the
draft from which by means of the registers as described will be prevented
voiding itself into its proper flue after passing round the copper, but will be
conducted into the flue of the second furnace, and thence conducted a second
time round the copper or vessell before it can enter the chimney. This also
may be done where there are three or more furnaces; but when the coppers are
very large the flame will be so much exhausted in the one flue as not to be
very serviceable if conducted into a second; the three registers already described
for the purpose of causing the draft of one of the fires to pass twice round the
copper before it enters the chimney, and also to be used and applied with more
registers when necessary to cause the draft of the second and third fires to pass
into the flue of the first fire, so that no more than the space of the first circular
flue may be heated when necessary; there will also be a particular advantage
gained from the application of many furnaces to a copper, namely, that of

page_text: boiling or heating any given quantity of liquor in a large vessell, such,,,
and so on with a proportionable quantity of fuel; for by lighting only one fire
the copper will boil one-third full of liquor in equal time as three fires would,
if quite full, and so in proportion to the number of fires, which cannot be
done by the old method. As the great object of this my Invention is the
saving of fuel or to obtain the greatest quantity of heat from the smallest
quantity of fuel, to obtain this end it will be necessary, first, to expose the
greatest possible part of the external surface of the vessels to be heated to the
action of the fire, and next to press the fire or flame as close as possible to that
surface; for if the flues are to wide the fire passes to the chimney without
being exhausted on the object, and if two small the fuel will not be sufficiently
inflamed; therefore, in order to explain the benefit to be obtained by the
improved flues hereafter to be described, it will be necessary to consider
the effect produced by the same quantity of fuel conveyed in different sized
flues to the object to be heated: for instance, let a given quantity of fuel be
put in a furnace, and a vessell or copper set at the distance of five feet from
the fire, that only the flame might act upon the vessell, let the heat from this
fire be conveyed round the copper in a flue eight inches high by four wide;
then let the same quantity of fuel be put in such another furnace, and a copper
of the same size set at the same distance, only the flue to be eight inches high
by two wide; on lighting both fires it will be found that the one with the small
flue will boil nearly as soon again as the other. I mean these coppers to be
about the size of twenty gallons. Now if this last flue was yet diminished in
width the copper would still attract a greater proportion of the passing heat.
It thence follows that the heat communicated to coppers by flucs is in a great
measure in proportion to the width of the flue from the side of the copper;
therefore to obtain the benefit of narrow flues and to confine the heat as much
as possible to the side of the copper, and to render these flues not liable to
choak up, is the object of my improvement on flues, which is performed in the
following manner. I causo the bottom of the flues to be made much about
the usual width or a little wider; from thence to about a fourth part of the
whole height, to be tapered or drawn in a little; from thence to the top then
again to be tapered or drawn in till it terminates at about one and half or two
inches wide at top, tho' from ten to twelve inches wide at the bottom more or
loss. This will be better understood by referring to the Drawing, Figure 4,
which represents both the old and the improved flues, and which on a due com-
parison between them it will be evident, first, that the surface of the copper
exposed in each is equal; secondly, that the quantity of flame suflicient to fill
the improved flue would do little more than half fill the other; thirdly, that

page_text: the quantities of flame necessary to fill the old flue about seven inches would
fill the improved one about eighteen inches, consequently expose so much
more surface to the action of the fire. I also manage and conduct one single.
fire to brewers' and distillers' coppers or vessels in the following manner (that
is to say)-I conduct from the fire or furnace the different flucs I have
already described from the three furnaces, and then there will be no partitions
or divisions in the furnace, but the different flues each have a separate opening
into tho back part of the furnace. To either of these methods, in order still to
exhaust the fuel more on the object to be heated, I make the said flues with
respect to their dispositions or situations in the same manner as already men-
tioned; but I cause them to be made narrow and confined to the side of the
coppers, so as to obstruct and prevent the natural draft from the chimney
operating to inflame the fuel in the usual way. I then cause to be applied
bellows or any other instrument for the purpose of forcing air into furnaces, by
the use of which the fuel will be inflamed, and the flame and vapour forced
thereby through these narrow flues, which otherwise would not be sufficient to
admit it without such force. I also cause steam to be applied for the same
purpose, namely, of forcing the flame and vapour through these narrow flucs;
so far as described and explained, all these applications, or any of them, or as
many of them as may be thought necessary, may be applied either to old or
new coppers or vessels made in the usual shape or mode. But as there is a
further advantage to be obtained from the same quantity of fuel, if the coppers
or vessels were made on a different or improved construction, I cause new
coppers or vessells to be constructed in the following manner, in order that they
may receive the additional benefit from the fire or fires, which the construction of
common coppers will not admit, that is to say, according to the number of fires
to be used or the number of flues taken from one fire. I cause the copper or
vessell to be made of so many different widths or diameters at different heights,
the bottom division to be the least, the next division to overhang the first, and
the third division to overhang the second, each division to overhang the other
from six to twelve inches more or less; the inside of the copper or vessell will
then contain three different circular steps or stairs one above the other, see the
Drawing, Figure 5; it will then be evident that the bottom of each step in the
inside of the copper will form the top of each flue on the outside of the same,
and that by this means two sides of each flue will be formed by the copper
itself, and consequently near twice as much surface exposed to the flame and
heat as before, everything else being equal. To this improved copper it will
be necessary in some measure to reverse the flues, and to make these as wide
at the top as the step or projection, and to contract them from thence to the

page_text: bottom, but not in the same proportion that the first-mentioned flues are con-
tracted from bottom to top, as these may be left wider in order to leave rooni
for the lodgment of the ashes at the bottom of the flue.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Tate, have hereunto set my hand
hand and seal, this Twelfth day of July, in the thirty-fourth year of the
reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Third, by the grace of God
of Great Britain, France, and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith,
and so forth, and in the year of our Lord One thousand seven hundred
and ninety-four

page_text: Fig the 2nd. The Seat, or Ground of the
Furnaces before the Copper is set on,
Fig the 3rd The Section of the back part
of the Copper shewing the different entrances,
from the Furnaces into the Flues & the dispositions
of the said Flues up and round the Copper
Fig the 4th is a representation of a commen
Flue with the improved Flue taken out of it!
Fig the 5 is the improved Copper
CCCCCCC in Fig the 1st 2nd and 3rd is the
Ash pit Turnace, Passage to the Thie, and the Flue
round and up the Copper, of the First Furnace or
Fire Place
BBBBBBBB in Fig the 1st 2nd & 3rd is the same
belonging to the second Furnace.
AAAAAAAA in Fig. the 1st, 2nd & 3rd is the -
same belonging to the last Furnace.
ABD. Fig the 4th is the improved Flue, sometimes
made wider at the Top D and sometimes contracted-
from E to E.
G. is the side of the Copper:
H. Fig the 2nd is one of the doors or Registers to
draw over the Fire!