Improvements in and relating to Tops or Cowls for Chimneys, Ventilators, Lanterns, and the like.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 11th Aug., 1896-Accepted, 21st Nov., 1896
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in and relating to Tops or Cowls for Chimneys,
Ventilators, Lanterns, and the like.
We, GUSTAV PLATNER, Medician, and AUGUST MÜLLER, Merchant, both
residents of Witzenhausen-on-the-Werra, in the Province of Hessen-Nassau,
Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire, do hereby declare the nature of this
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
There exist a good many useful devices for making the wind exert a sucking
action upon the smoke within a chimney, provided, the wind has an upward
direction; but if the direction of the wind is opposite, then a statement like the
above cannot be maintained. There does not exist, as far as known to us, a con-
struction of chimney-top or -cowl that in the case of a downwardly directed wind
works in a really satisfactory manner, although the respective constructions may
have been devised with a view to obtaining such a result.
The purpose of our invention is to do away with the unsatisfactory working of
the present devices, and we attain that object by combining in a device of the kind
in question two parts that are singly known in such devices, but have never,
according to our knowledge, been combined heretofore. We shall more fully refer
to said parts in the further course of this specification.
Our invention is based on the physical fact, that a current of air streaming forth
from a narrow aperture under a certain pressure produces, in consequence of the
air diffusing in space, a sucking action the direction of which is rectangularly to
the direction of that current; said sucking action appears at all sides. If, now,
the direction of the sucking action is to be not rectangularly but reversely to the
direction of the current of air, this inversion may easily be produced by arranging
a plate at a short distance from the orifice from which the air streams forth; the
latter is diverted to all sides by means of said plate, and in consequence of the
sucking action of said diverted air there results on the other side of the plate a
current flowing in a direction opposite to the current first mentioned.
The principle revealed in the second half of the foregoing paragraph has been
made use of in our invention, and in order to make the latter more clear, we refer
to the accompanying drawing, in which similar letters denote similar parts
throughout the different views and in which :-
Fig. 1 is a longitudinal section through a top or cowl constructed according to
the above principle, and
Fig. 2 is a horizontal section taken on line 3-4 of Fig. 1.
The upper end of the chimney proper c is surrounded by a cylinder d; about
the upper half of the latter is situated above the plane of the orifice of the chimney
proper c, and an annular space is left between the lower half of said cylinder and
the opposite portion of the chimney. The cylinder d is held from the chimney c
by the mediation of suitably shaped pieces of hoop-iron that extend upwards above
the chimney and the cylinder, and serve for holding a plate b having about the
diameter of the chimney e, as well as a plate a having about the diameter of the
cylinder d. The central portion of the plate a is provided with an aperture a¹,
and we prefer to let each of said plates represent an inverted hollow cone, or

page_text: similar hollow body. The plate a may be combined with an open hood f, as
shown.
The wind coming from above (may be, in an oblique direction) is caught up by
the plate a, and escapes through the aperture a¹ of the same. The air pushes then
upon the plate b, and is diverted to all sides, and leaves the apparatus through the
annular space between the edges of the parts a and d, or d and respectively.
Said diversion to all sides causes the sucking action mentioned in the preamble,
and the smoke present within the chimney e is thus sucked out of the latter, and
carried away together with, and by, the air.
This action is entirely independent of the presence of the cylinder d; the latter
serves merely for catching up a wind of an upward direction, and for causing that
wind to exert in known manner a sucking action upon the chimney c. We prefer
to widen the cylinder d at its upper end, and, may be, at its lower end, too. The
subject matter of the invention resides in the combination of the plate a with the
plate b. The latter serves also for catching up any lateral puff of wind, and each
such action results in a sucking action with regard to the chimney c.
We are well aware of an older construction in which there is a circular plate
arranged above the chimney. Said plate hinders the wind against blowing from
above into the chimney, but the conical shape of the mantle causes the wind to be
directed in such a manner as to assume a downward direction. This is, therefore,
contrary to what is produced in our construction. There cannot arise a sucking
action in said older construction, because there is not such a plate as a a', Figure 1,
of the annexed drawing. There is a similar plate in another older construction
which we are also well aware of, but there is not such a plate as the plate 6 of our
construction. The wind blowing from above upon the plate of the older con-
struction just mentioned caunot, therefore, produce the sucking action required,
and there are not any means provided for doing away with the noxious effects of
said wind; but this is just what has been most considered in our construction.
We wish it to be understood, that we do not restrict ourselves to the mode of
connecting the several parts of the apparatus by pieces of hoop-iron, such as e, but
we reserve to ourselves the right of employing any other means desired; and, in
fact, we prefer to connect said parts in such a manner, that they may easily be
separated so as to allow of cleansing the device.
We call, finally, special attention to the fact, that the cylinder d does not form
an essential part of our invention. Said cylinder serves merely for catching up a
wind of an upward direction, and for causing that wind to exert in known manner
a sucking action upon the chimney, as has already been mentioned in the preceding
main part of our specification. Said cylinder may, therefore, well be replaced
by any other known part or device having the same object in view. We prefer,
however, to use our invention not alone, but in combination with such a part or
device.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is :-
1. In a top or cowl for chimneys, ventilators, lanterns and the like, the com-
bination with the exhaust portion of either of said subjects, of a plate or shallow
body arranged in some distance above the orifice of said portion; another plate or
shallow body arranged in some distance above said first body or plate, and having
a central aperture or apertures; and means for supporting said two bodies or plates,
for the purpose as described.
2. In a top or cowl for chimneys, ventilators, lanterns and the like, the com-
bination with the exhaust portion of either of said subjects, of a plate or shallow
body arranged in some distance above the orifice of said portion; another plate or
shallow body arranged in some distance above said first body or plate, and having
a central aperture or apertures; a cylinder surrounding said exhaust portion as

page_text: well as the said first body or plate; and means for supporting said two bodies or
plates as well as said cylinder, for the purpose as described.
Dated this 10th day of August 1896.
F. BOSSHARDT & Co.,
4 Corporation Street, Manchester, Agents for the Applicants.