CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN STOVES OR APPARATUS FOR ROASTING, BAKING OR COOKING, WHICH I INTEND TO DENOMINATE A PLANETARIUM ROASTER
Year: 1839

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
CALDER, of Fen Court, Fenchurch Street, in the City of London, Merchant,
send greeting.
four.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at. West-
minster, the Twenty-second day of June, in the third year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said George
Calder, Her special licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I,
the said George Calder, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said George Calder, my exors, admors, 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, use, exercise, and
vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, the Inven-
tion of CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN STOVES OR APPARATUS FOR ROASTING, BAKING
OR COOKING, WHICH I INTEND TO DENOMINATE A PLANETARIUM ROASTER," com-
municated to me by a certain foreigner residing abroad; in which said Letters
Patent is coutained a proviso that I, the said George Calder, shall cause a
particular description of the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
'the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's. High Court
of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in 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 I, the said
George Calder, do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact
deverintion thereof.

page_text: The main object of my improvement is to combine together a number of
spits or jacks, each of which is to sustain a joint of meat, a fowl, or other
article to be roasted, and each of which spits is to be suspended by a hook
over its appropiate dripping pan; the whole of which spits or jacks may be
made to revolve simultaneously by wheelwork properly geared, either before
an ordinary fireplace, or more perfectly by being placed around a stove con-
stituted for the purpose, in which latter case, the spits not only revolve on their
own axis, but have an orbicular revolution round the stove, whence the name
of planetarium cooking stove. The effect of heat in either case to be promoted
by means of reflectors, in a way to be presently described when the planeta-
rium stove is complete and in operation, its external appearance is that of an
ordinary cylindrical stove of large diameter; the external cylinder being a
case (usually made double) which surrounds the stove, and which also
surrounds the system of spits which revolve around said stove.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 is a vertical section of the whole apparatus through the middle.
The cylindrical stove A, A, occupies the centre, and this has its feeding door,
ash-pit, and other appurtenances necessary to its effective operations, not
differing in any essential point from ordinary cylindrical stoves, its whole office
being to contain the burning fuel and to diffuse the heat around it. B, B, is
an external double cylinder, the inuer portion of which should be of bright tin
plate, or other good metallic reflector; the space between the two cylinders is
to be inclosed, so as to retain the included air, and thus prevent the waste of
heat. Through this extreme case there are one or more doors to give access
to the roasting chamber. There must also be a door or doors in the stove for
the supply of fuel. I usually construct two such doors, one just above the fuel
chamber, and the other in the pipe above the exterior case, through the latter
of which fuel may be supplied, without having: access to the stove through the
roasting chamber; C, C, is the space within which the wheelwork is con-
tained, by which the revolution of the spits or jacks is to be effected. In the
roasting apparatus here represented, there are eight spits or jacks, but of course
this number may be varied to any convenient extent; D, D, are two of the spits
or jacks suspended from the centres of the revolving wheels E, E; F, F, are
dripping pans, which are placed on.a revolving circular shelf G, G, which is
suspended by rods G, G, attached to the revolving framework above, and of
course keeping each of the dripping pans in its proper place under the spit to
which it appertains; H is a winch, carrying a pinion. H, which takes into
teeth on the under side of a revolving rim or wheel I, I, by means of which

page_text: the individual spits are made to revolve on their axes, and the whole system
to revolve around the stove by gearing to be now described. Figure 2 is a top
view of the case C, C; Figure 1 containing the wheelwork, the whole of
which, excepting the centre wheel, is sustained by the arms of the toothed rim
of wheel I. The centre wheel surrounds and is attached to the smoke pipe or
flue of the stove; K, K, K, are pinions, which mash into the centre wheel
and revolve on pivots fixed in the arms I, I, of the wheel I. These pinions
also mash into the spit wheels E, E, which are also sustained by the arms of
wheel I. The pinions of these spit wheels pass through and revolve in holes
in the said arms, and to them the respective spits are attached by hooks or
otherwise, so that they may be readily unhung. It will now be evident that
by turning the winch H, the wheel. I being made to revolve, the stationary
centre wheel J will cause the pinions K and the spit wheels E, E, to revolve
also. It will not be necessary to keep up this revolution continuously, it being
sufficient in general to turn the winch by hand occasionally; but if desired,
the revolution may be kept up by a weight, as in the common English roasting
jacks, or it may be communicated by means of a smoke jack, or in any other
known mode of obtaining such motion. The invention of causing a number of
vertical or suspended spits to revolve simultaneously by the aid of suitable
gearing, may be in part applied to the purpose of roasting before an open fire
in an ordinary fireplace or grate; a semicircular reflector, or a reflector which
is a less segment of a circle, or which may be straight, may be made to stand
before. the fire, and have the necessary apparatus for revolving the spits
attached to it; such reflectors may be made double, as proposed, for the
exterior case of the planetarium stove above described. This apparatus will
resemble a vertical segment of such a roaster, as is above described; the forming
the reflector of double sheets, however, is not an essential point, nor does it
make any part of the Invention. Figure 3 inay represent the upper part of
such an apparatus, shewing the manner in which the spit wheels may be
geared, which gearing in this case is less complex than that which is necessary
for the complete planetarium stove; E, E, E, are three spit wheels, which
gear into each other, and to which spits are suspended in the manner formerly
described. To turn these simultaneously, all that is necessary is to apply a
winch E', and to turn one of them by hand, or in any other convenient way,
and the whole will be made to revolve upon their axes, which is all that is
required under this modification.
I have thus given a full description of my improved roasting apparatus, and
explained the manner in which it operates; and in so doing, I have described
the mode in which the wheels and pinions may be arranged, and so geared as

page_text: to produce the intended effect; but every person familiar with this subject will
at once perceive that various other modes of gearing may be adopted for pro-
ducing the desired motion; that which I have given therefore is to be received
"as designed for exemplification merely, and not as intended to limit me to this
particular arrangement of wheelwork in carrying the Invention into effect, as
it is my intention to resort to others, which are amalogous to that described.
What I claim as the Invention, and wish to secure by Letters Patent, is the
constructing of a cooking apparatus having any convenient number of spits
suspended vertically, and made to revolve simultaneously round their own axes
and round a common centre, by means of suitable geared wheels, the whole
constructed and operated upon substantially as herein described. I also claim
the giving of a simultaneous revolution to a number of such spits combined,
with a reflector placed before an open fire in the manner or upon the principle
herein set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Calder, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Sixth day of September, One thousand eight
hundred and thirty-nine.
GEORGE (L.s.) CALDER.