CERTAIN IMPROVE- MENTS IN URNS OR VESSELS FOR HOLDING AND SUPPLYING HOT WATER, TEA, Coffee, OR OTHER LIQUIDS, SEPARATELY OR CONJOINTLY, AS ALSO IN THE STANDS PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Simmons, Doctor of Medicine, of Birming-
ham, in the County of Warwick, and Thomas Timmins, General Caster,
also of Birmingham, aforesaid, for the Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVE-
MENTS IN URNS OR VESSELS FOR HOLDING AND SUPPLYING HOT WATER, TEA,
Coffee, OR OTHER LIQUIDS, SEPARATELY OR CONJOINTLY, AS ALSO IN THE STANDS
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Simmons and
Thomas Timmins at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 26th December 1861.
We, THOMAS SIMMONS, Doctor of Medicine, of Birmingham, in the County
of Warwick, and THOMAS TIMMINS, General Caster, also of Birmingham,
aforesaid, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention for "CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN URNS OR VESSELS FOR HOLDING AND SUPPLYING HOT WATER, TEA,
COFFEE, OR OTHER LIQUIDS, SEPARATELY OR CONJOINTLY, AS ALSO IN THE STANDS FOR
THE SAME," to be as follows (that is to say):
Our improvements in urns consist in dividing or arranging the interior,
that tea, coffee, or other fluids or decoctions may be held in separate compart-
ments in the same urn, that is to say, the urn may be so divided that one
portion may be appropriated for hot water, another for tea, and another for
coffee, or otherwise, as may be required, the taps and appliances being so
arranged for applying and drawing off the various contents before named; and
in connection with this description of urn we purpose in all cases applying heat-
from a light suitably placed below, the light of which we appropriate for the
illumination of transparent pictorial designs, suitably placed around the stand
or base, such illuminations forming either fixed or portable transparent panels;

page_text: or the pictorial illuminations may form a continuous series of views or objects,
which by means of suitable mechanism may be made to unroll and
pass
in
review and roll upon another roller, such rollers alternately reversing their
action; the light before referred to may be derived from oil, spirit, tallow, gas,
or otherwise, as may be found most convenient.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Simmons and Thomas Timmins in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 26th June 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, THOMAS
SIMMONS, Doctor of Medicine, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
and THOMAS TIMMINS, General Caster, also of Birmingham aforesaid, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fifth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
us, the said Thomas Simmons and Thomas Timmins, Her special license that
we, the said Thomas Simmons and Thomas Timmins, our executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Thomas Simmons and
Thomas Timmins, our 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 "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS
IN URNS OR VESSELS FOR HOLDING AND SUPPLYING HOT WATER, TEA, COFFEE, OR
OTHER LIQUIDS, SEPARATELY OR CONJOINTLY, AS ALSO IN THE STANDS FOR THE SAME,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Thomas Simmons and
Thomas Timmins, by an instrument in writing under our hands and seals,
should particularly describe and ascertain 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 we, the said Thomas Simmons and Thomas
Timmins, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement (that is to say) :-

page_text: Our improvements in urns consist in so dividing or arranging the interior,
that tea, coffee, or other fluids or decoctions may be held in separate compart-
ments in the same urn, that is to say, the urn may be divided that one portion
may be appropriated for hot water, another for tea, and another for coffee, or
otherwise, as may be required, the taps and appliances being so arranged for
supplying or drawing off the various contents, as before named; and in con-
nection with this description of urn we purpose in all cases applying heat from
a light, suitably placed below the body of the urn, the light of which we appro-
priate for the illumination of transparent pictorial designs, suitably placed
around the base or stand, such illuminations forming either fixed or portable
transparent panels; or the pictorial illuminations may form a continuous circle
or series of views or objects, which, by means of suitable mechanism, may be
made to unroll and pass in review, and roll up on another roller, such rollers
alternately reversing their action. The light before referred to may be derived
from oil, spirit, tallow, gas, or otherwise, as may be found most convenient,
the same being mounted with a glass chimney, properly placed for ensuring
perfect combustion, for the double purpose, namely, the prevention of smoke
and the gathering of sooty matter in or around the bottom or part that contains
the fluid, and, secondly, to thereby increase the brilliancy of the light, in order
that the transparent designs may show more brilliant.
But as our Invention will be best understood by referring to the Drawings
hereunto annexed, we will proceed to describe the same, reference being made
to the figures and letters marked thereon.
DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS.
Fig. 1 represents in section the base or stand, and as much of the bottom
part of the body of an urn necessary for illustrating our Invention, as fitted
and arranged for being heated with gas. a, a, a, a, represents the bottom of
the body of an urn, or the portion that contains the fluid; and b, b, the bottom
of the same part soldered or otherwise united to the same, so as to be made
safe and free from leakage, stamped, spun, or otherwise raised into the shape
here shown, which, by preference, we adopt for inducing a regular and uniform
current, as indicated by the arrows; the air first entering or passing in at the
bottom, around, and through the argand burner up the chimney to escape and
follow the curve of the part b, b, to again descend and escape through the per-
forations surrounding the neck of the base marked c, c, c, c, as here shown.
The part marked b, b, is represented in plan and edge detached views at Figs. 2
and 3, and in a separate sectional view at Fig. 4; but, nevertheless, we do
not purpose confining ourselves to this shape, as the same may be of a regular

page_text: concave form, without the inverted apex, and which latter shape we have
found to answer well; and the application of the chimney marked h, will
insure thorough combustion, increase the heat; as also the brilliancy of the light,
which conduces greatly to the effect of the transparent views, and this will bo
further heightened by a reflector being placed as here shown in section at i, i,
sufficient room being left between the opening of the reflector and the outer
surface of the chimney to admit sufficient air to keep the chimney cool.
When such urns are required for holding more than one description of fluid,
it may be divided by a transverse vertical division, as indicated by the part
marked d, d, or a concentric tube may be formed, as indicated by the vertical
dotted lines marked e, e, forming an interior concentric division, securely
soldered or otherwise united to the bottom b, b, and this concentric divisional
portion may be used for holding the particular fluid that may require to be
kept at the highest state of heat which is required, such as water for making
tea or coffee, and the external portion may form a continuous annular space,
or be radially divided into as many divisions as may be desired, each division
being proportionately heated by the heat arising from the flame below, which
may be supported by oil, spirit, gas, or other suitable combustibles as may be
most convenient; but in this Figure we have represented it as being supplied
with gas, which would be best when convenience permits, not only from the
capability of convenient and simple regulation, but the brilliancy of the
flame will conduce greatly to give effect to the principal feature of novelty as
applied to our improved urns, which is that of so constructing the base that it
may be fitted with pictorial designs, that they may be protected by a trans-
parent medium, as in the Figure here referred to; the four squares forming
the base are intended to be occupied with transparent panels, such as panels
of glass having suitable designs, painted, applied to, or held on their inner
surfaces; or such designs may be produced by photography, or printed in
suitable colours, and on suitable paper or material, in the same way as
chromo-lithographic pictures are produced; or such designs may be placed
between two pieces of glass, which is by far the most preferable way, as the
additional glass thoroughly protects, and thereby insures the brilliancy of the
design. Fig. 5 is a transverse section of the base or stand of Figure 1, as
taken through the centre of the circular transparent panels, as at f, f, the
panels being represented as being protected by two thicknesses of glass
marked g, g, with the exception that the chimney marked h, an important
feature in the former Figure, is omitted in this.
Fig. 6 represents an elevation of a finished urn constructed in the same
way as described in Figures 1 and 5, with the side of the base formed into a

page_text: door, and represented as standing open, for the purpose of showing the con-
venience of such mode of construction for the lighting, trimming, or cleaning
of the lamp, or other means for illumination and heating such urns, with the
exception that we have only represented one tap for drawing off the contents;
which, of course, must be added, and suitably placed when the body of the
urn is required for heating and holding more than one kind of fluid. In some
instances urns constructed according to our improvements may be used in
fixed positions, such as on the counters of refreshment rooms, in which case
they may be illuminated and heated from a gas burner passing through and
fixed to the counter concentrically with the position in which such urns are
intended to be placed; nor are we compelled to adopt any particular shaped
base for giving effect to our Invention, as the same may be made of any
regular or irregular number of sides, or circular, as exhibited! in an elevation
at Fig. 7, broken off for convenience of space, and which same form of base
is represented at Fig. 8, as taken through the dotted line k, k, of the last
Figure. In this case we have supposed the pictorial design to have been first
neatly jointed at the edges, and placed for protection between an outer and
inner cylinder of glass, marked m, n, and m, n, while the lower and upper
metallic portion of the base is united to the standards, which may be cast
solid, or formed in sheet metal, as here-represented marked p, p, p, p.
This
form in some cases may be preferred, as it affords the means, by the slight
addition of suitable mechanism, of causing the illuminating cylinder to revolve:
This may be effected by fitting a suitable cog wheel at the bottom of the
compound glass cylinder, which wheel must work in gear with a pinion, which
may be actuated with a box spring, or other mechanical equivalent, and
wound up so as to cause the pictorial illuminated cylinder to revolve; or the
realization of the application of pictorial designs may be effected by the design
intended to be exhibited being painted, printed, or otherwise produced on
paper or other suitable fabric, the ends of which being secured to suitable
rollers to work vertically in the angle or angles of a square base, as exhibited
at Figures 1, 5, and 6. In this case we purpose using an internal cylinder of
glass, the diameter of which should be equal, the internal square of-the outer
glass panels plus the thickness of the fabric on which the design is printed or
produced, so that by causing the rollers to revolve in alternate directions, a
continuous pictorial subject or series of designs may continue to pass and
repass. in review. The mechanism by which this may be effected we do not
think it necessary to illustrate, as it may be worked in many suitable ways, as,
for instance, the vertical rollers may be finished at the bottom with spur
wheels, the cogs or teeth of which being slightly inclined to take in with a

page_text: worm placed upon an axis or spindle, as at q, q, Fig. 9, which represents this
arrangement in simple outline. It is evident that by turning the worm spindle,
say, from right to left, will cause the rollers to move in the direction of the
arrows, thereby winding the design, which is represented by a red line, off from
the roller r on to the roller s, and by reversing the action of the worm, the
design will be unrolled from s, and wound upon r, means being provided for
compensating for the varying difference constantly taking place in the diameter
of the rollers in the course of rolling on and off the design. And in adopting
this mode of illuminating the bases of urns, the side in connection with the
vertical rollers may be a blank door, or an open non-illuminating light.
Having now given a general description of our Invention, and the way in
which the same may be beneficially carried into effect, we wish it understood
that we do not purpose confining ourselves to the general details as herein
described and exhibited, as the same may be varied and elaborated on without
departing from the spirit of our Invention; but what we claim and wish to
protect by these our in part recited Letters Patent is,-
First, the appropriation of the artificial light, as here arranged and used for
the heating of urns to the illumination of transparent or pictorial designs,
moving or stationary, portable or permanent, placed in or around the base of
such urns within suitable proximity of the light used, whether such light be
afforded from gas, oil, or other combustible matter, burnt with suitable
appliances attached to the urn, as herein shown, or separately arranged for the
convenience of placing the urn over such light.
Secondly, the dividing of the body of such urns when desired into any
required number of divisional parts, so that hot water, tea, and coffee may be
supplied in a heated condition from such urns.
In witness whereof, we, the said Thomas Simmons and Thomas Timmins,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twenty-fifth day of
June, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
sixty-two.
Witness,
JAMES S. COCKINGS,
Patent Agent,
Birmingham.
THOMAS SIMMONS. (L.S.)
THOMAS TIMMINS. (L.S.)