AN IMPROVED SYSTEM OF VENTILATION, APPLICABLE TO EVERY DESCRIPTION OF DWELLING PLACE AND BUILDING
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Boyle, of 31, Gray's Inn Road, London, in
the County of Middlesex, Lighting & Ventilating Engineer, for the
Invention of "AN IMPROVED SYSTEM OF VENTILATION, APPLICABLE TO EVERY
DESCRIPTION OF DWELLING PLACE AND BUILDING."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Boyle at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 1st July
1868.
I, THOMAS BOYLE, of 31, Gray's Inn Road, London, in the County of Mid-
dlesex, Lighting & Ventilating Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED SYSTEM OF VENTILATION, APPLICABLE TO
EVERY DESCRIPTION OF DWELLING PLACE AND BUILDING," to be as follows :—
My Invention consists generally of openings made in the glass both across
the top & bottom of a window, in which wire gauze or other suitable perforated
material is fixed, thus affording means of securing with incontestable certainty
the admission of pure air through the openings at the bottom and the expelling
of vitiated air through those at the top without perceptible draughts or cur-
rents. The openings in the glass may be of any size, any number, and any
shape that circumstances may render desirable, or they may consist of one
oblong opening of any desired depth made between the glass and the top &
bottom frame of any window.
Coverings for the above may be made of slips of glass, either plain or colored

page_text: ground or ornamented, cut to the width of the panes to which they are to be
fitted, and so fixed on pivots, hinges, or otherwise, that by means of a line and
pulley or with the hand they may be capable of closing up or opening at one
movement any number of apertures over which they extend; or they may be
made-of a size and shape to cover each opening separately, and thus by admit-
ting of any number of apertures being opened or closed at a time afford the
means of regulating the temperature at pleasure.
A definite example of the arrangements here pointed out would be a row of
circular holes cut in the glass across the top & bottom part of a window
about one & a quarter inches in from the edge of the panes, two inches in
diameter, and two inches apart, filled with wire gauze and furnished with a
cover or covers of any suitable construction.
Where uniformity of appearance is desired, additional openings, as above
described, may be made at the sides of the windows as well as at the top &
bottom.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Boyle in the Great Seal Patent Office. on the
1st January 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
BOYLE, of 81, Gray's Inn Road, London, in the County of Middlesex, Lighting
and Ventilating Engineer, send greeting..
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the First day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-seventh year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Thomas Boyle, Her special licence that I, the said Thomas Boyle,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas
Boyle, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the
term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and.vend,
within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands,
and Isle of Man, an Invention for "AN IMPROVED SYSTEM OF VENTILATION,
APPLICABLE TO EVERY DESCRIPTION OF DWELLING PLACE AND BUILDING," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Thomas Boyle, my exe-
cutors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their,
or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain

page_text: 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 immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thomas Boyle, 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:
The main objects of my Patent, are, firstly, to provide a more convenient
and effective method than has hitherto been adopted of applying to windows,
doors, partitions, walls, ceilings, or roofs any ventilating medium of suitable
material perforated so finely as to be incapable of allowing air to pass
through it otherwise than in finely divided streams or jets, and so forming a
draughtless aperture for the admission of air; and secondly, to introduce
and apply a new material for this purpose, more especially adapted to windows,
or wherever any obstruction to the light would be of consequence, namely,
finely perforated talc or mica...
In practice I use either this new meterial or finely woven copper gauze.
Discs or other shapes of such perforated materials being provided, they are
set in suitable rings or other frames corresponding to the discs or shapes,
which rings or frames are then set in appropriate apertures cut in the glass
of windows, in the woodwork of doors or partitions, in walls, in ceilings, or in
roofs.
Air admitted to the interior of apartments through suitable media of this
character cannot enter in such a manner as to be sensibly felt beyond a few
inches from the material composing them. Hence such apertures are
called "draughtless," in contradistinction to apertures, of the ordinary open
character which admit air in force and volume sufficient to constitute the pre-
valent well-known nuisance called a draught.
.
My Invention also comprises the combination of one or more distinct
and separate draughtless ventilators in suitable positions for constituting a
system of ventilation, appropriately providing both for the admission of pure
and the escape of vitiated air. In consistently carrying out this purpose of the
Invention, the ventilators are fixed. at one or more points, both high up and.
low down in any apartment, thus forming so many draughtless points of com-
nunication with the open air. Heated. vitiated air is thus provided with
means of escape at the top, instead of being retained and accumulated
in the apartment, while cool pure air in corresponding quantity comes in
at the separate and independent openings situated! at the bottom. The ven-

page_text: tilators for forming these two necessary levels may be fixed in the windows
only, in the walls only, or in the doors only of any aparment, or in any of these
places combined, according to circumstances, but the glass of windows and the
woodwork of doors offer usually the most convenient situations for applying
them in houses already built.
Having thus explained the general scope and objects of my Invention, I
shall now particularly describe, first, the precise manner of construction and
method of application of my improved ventilators for windows, thin doors
and partitions; and secondly, the modifications of the same which are neces-
sary in applying them to walls, thick partitions or thick doors; and from
these two instances all other possible applications of my Invention can readily
be inferred.
Assuming that I use copper gauze as the medium for window ventilation, I.
cut the gauze into a disc of the requisite size, and solder it all round the edge to
a ring of brass or other suitable material. This ring is formed of two parts, a
perpendicular neck or collar all round the inside of the same depth as the
thickness of the glass into which it is to be inserted, and a flange thrown out-
wards therefrom at a right angle to the perpendicular part, and forming a flat
or curved ring to rest on the surface of the glass when the ventilator is fixed
in its place.
I now cut a circular hole in a sheet of glass, in the ordinary manner known
in the trade, of sufficient size to admit the neck or collar of this ring, and
placing putty underneath the flanged part, I insert the neck or collar in the
hole, and press the ring down close upon the glass, squeezing out as
much of the putty as possible, and thereby causing the ring to adhere
firmly to the glass. I then take another ring formed in the same manner
as that just described, but without any gauze, the neck or collar of which
is slightly smaller, so as to allow it to enter the neck or collar of the first
ring, and I insert the neck of this. in the opposite side of the same hole in the
glass. Placing putty underneath the flange, as in the case of the first ring, I
press this ring also down upon the glass with the neck part entering the neck
part of the other. In pressing those rings down upon the glass, the putty.
is not only forced outwards all round, but inwards also, and this getting between.
the two rings, together with the putty underneath the flanges, bind the two rings
firmly together on opposite sides of the sheet of glass. Thus is formed my
improved ventilator without a cover.
If I use finely perforated talc or mica as the draughtless ventilating medium,
the process is precisely the same, the disc of mica being held between two
open brass or other suitable rings, which are soldered together and attached in

page_text: the same manner to the glass. I fix to such ventilators, where necessary, glass
covers of various kinds, according to circumstances. The covers have invariably
a circular sliding movement round an excentric centre situated at the bottom.
of the ventilator.
The following is my method of practically carrying out this movement. The
covers are of course upon the inside of the ventilators. On the flanged part of
the inner one of the two rings above mentioned I fix at the top and bottom, in a
central perpendicular line, two brass pins, one to serve as a centre on which
the cover is to turn, the other as a catch to keep the cover in place when.
closed. I next frame a disc of glass of corresponding size to the ventilator in.
a ring of brass or other suitable material. In this ring I make at one part à
hole to correspond with one of the pins just mentioned, and at another part a.
slot to correspond with the other pin. I now join the cover to the ventilator
by passing the bottom pin of the latter through the hole in the former, and
secure them together by means of a screw nut and washer at that degree of
tightness that ensures the working of the cover on this pin with the requisite:
degree of ease and firmness. When the cover so attached is moved round on
its pin as a centre till the slot in the cover arrives at the top of the ventilator,
it there comes in contact with the other pin intended to form the catch. A
slight projection on this pin enters the slot, and so catches and retains the
cover in the position to close the ventilator. When open, the cover hangs
perpendicularly on the pin on which it rotates, and is seen against the light of.
a window in the form of a ring of clear or ornamental glass falling below the
ring of the ventilator proper. When I use plate glass for the covers, I do
not need to frame them, merely bevelling or otherwise shaping and polishing
the edges, and by means of holes drilled through the edges of the discs, in the
same positions as in the framed covers, obtaining both a means of attachment
and a catch in a nearly similar manner. When ventilators with covers are.
situated high up in windows or elsewhere, the covers are moved by means of
lines and pulleys, as shewn in Fig. 5 of the engravings, and its corresponding:
explanation; when low down and within reach, they are opened and closed by
means of a small button and the hand, as shewn in Fig. 7.
In order to apply my improved ventilators to walls, I embed a tube of
iron or other suitable material of any requisite diameter, and of the length
of the thickness of the wall, crosswise in the masonry, so that one end of
it shall point outwards and the other inwards. I next prepare a second'
tube, which may be composed of zinc. or any other less oxidisable and other-
wise suitable material, open and having a screw thread at one end and a fixed
perforated cap on the other.. This cap is made wide enough to project beyond.

page_text: the diameter of the tube all round; its end may be either formed flat or raised
into a boss, and the perforations in it may be of any desirable size, and of an
ornamental or any ordinary character, according to fancy. This second tube
is intended to be inserted into and through the tube embedded in the masonry,
and to be secured there by means of a detached cap similar to that on the
other end, screwed on to the open end of it, and drawing the two caps as
closely together as the surfaces of the intervening wall will allow. To answer
this purpose, this detached cap is made with a tubular part fitting the end of
this second or inner tube; and with: a corresponding female screw thread of a
sufficient depth. It also contains depth enough to accommodate within it a disc
of finely perforated material to serve as a draughtless ventilating air medium,
together with a protecting washer, if needed. I now insert this second tube
within the first, and push it through to the inside. I screw the detached cap,
containing within it the finely perforated material, into the projecting inside end
thereof, and. thus drawing both the caps .closely up to the inside and outside
surfaces of the wall complete.the fixing of my improved draughtless -ventilator
for walls.
B
.
This. same method is also applicable to thick doors, partitions, or analagous
places. The air once admitted into the building by this means may be deflected
in various directions, or conducted by extension tubes or air passages, and if
necessary through additional screens of draughtless media to any part or parts
of a building. Of course this method of forming a ventilating aperture may
be adopted without the introduction of the finely perforated air medium, or a
modification of it may be made without the inner tube, by fixing caps on
the ends of the first tube capable of opening outwards and inwards in the
manner, of doors, or by various other contrivances for opening and closing
the ends of the tube; but the above is the method that I prefer as offering
the greatest security, while presenting. superior facilities for being detached
and put together again when. dusting, cleaning, or repairing operations are
needed.
Fig. 1 shews a section of the two rings of which a ventilator without a cover
is composed. A is the ring within which the gauze represented by the dotted
line is fixed; B, the corresponding open. ring intended to fit into it from the
other side of the. glass.
Fig. 2. shews such a ventilator without a cover fixed in a sheet of glass.. A
is the flanged rim resting on the edge of the circular hole on the glass; B, the
wire gauze. through which the air passes.
Fig. 3 shews a disc of glass embossed with a star prepared as a. cover.
A, is, the glass; B, the metallic rim in. which it is framed; C, the hole

page_text: intended to receive the brass pin on which the cover is to turn; D, the
slot which receives the pin, which operates as a catch.
•
Fig. 4 shews Fig. 2 prepared with the two pins B, by which the cover is.
attached, and A, by which it is held closed.
Fig. 5 shews the cover attached to the ring Fig. 4, movable by line and
pulleys, and hanging down open. A is the attachment pin whereon the cover
is secured by a nut and washer; B is the pin corresponding with the slot
shewn in Fig. 3, which slot being situated at the back of this view is not
shewn in this Figure; C, C, are pulleys over which travel the line D, attached
to the cover at the point E; F is a groove all round the periphery of the cover,
in which the line runs as the cover turns round.
Fig. 6 shews the same ventilator with the cover closed.
Fig. 7 shews a similar ventilator with cover movable by a button and the
hand. A is the button.
Fig. 8 shews the tube intended to be embedded in the masonry of walls or
thick doors or partitions.
Fig. 9 shews the second tube intended to be inserted in the former. A is
the perforated cap or boss; B, the screwed end to receive the inside cap.
Fig. 10 shews the cap or boss intended for the inside. A is the wire gauze
disc with protecting washer; B, the tubular screwed part to fit on to the end
of the tube, Fig. 9, when pushed through.
Fig. 11 shews the two tubes put together and screwed up tightly by means of
the inner cap.
I do not confine myself to the precise details here shewn, as circumstances
may occasionally cause slight modifications of them to be necessary.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim,-
First, the manner herein described of fixing wire gauze or other similar
perforated material in glass, thin doors, or partitions.
Second, the method described whereby covers, whether composed of glass or
any other suitable material, are fixed to the ventilators, and moved for the
purposes of opening and closing.
Third, I claim the combination of ventilators of the character described, in
upper and lower situations in the same apartments, whether the same be fixed
in the glass of windows, in walls, doors, or partitions, or any combination of
those situations, excepting only the wooden sashes along the top, bottom, and.
sides of windows.
Fourth, I claim the use of perforated talc or mica as a medium for the
passage of air into and out of rooms and buildings.

page_text: Fifth, I claim the manner described of ventilating through the masonry of
walls, or through thick doors or partitions, whether with or without the intro-
duction of any finely perforated air medium.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Boyle, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this First day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
THOS. BOYLE. (L.B.)