CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF FURNACES, FOR THE MANUFACTURING OP GLASS
Year: 1851

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, EDWIN
DEELEY and RICHARD MOUNTFORD DEELEY, of the Dial Glasshouses, Stourbridge,
in the County of Worcester, send greeting.
WHEREAS, Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria; by Her Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster; the Sixth day of August, in the fifteenth year of Her reign, did; for
Herself, Her heirs and .successors, give and grant. unto us, the said Edwin
Deeley and Richard Mountford Deeley, Her especial licence, full power; sole
privilege and authority, that we, the said Edwin Deeley and Richard Mount-
ford Deeley, our exors, adñors, and assigns, or such others as we, the said
Edwin, Deeley: and Richard Mountford Deeley, our exors, admňors, 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 niake,
use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, our Invention of CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF
FURNACES, FOR THE MANUFACTURING OP GLASS;" in which said-Letters Patent is
contained a proviso that we, the said Edwin Deeley and Richard Mountford
Deeley, or one of us, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of
the said. Invention, and in what manner the sanie is to be performed, by an
instrument in writing, to be enrolled in Her 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
bad, will more fully and at large appear..

page_text: NOW NOW 1, that I compnance or the said proviso, we, the said
Edwin Deeley and Richard Mountford Deeley, 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 thereof,
reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the figures and
letters marked thereon:-
Our Invention of improvements in the construction of furnaces for the manu-
facture of glass consists in the erection of such furnaces of grates of the form
and description, and arranged as herein-after particularly described. Before,
however, proceeding to describe our Invention, we will describe the mode in
which the grates of furnaces for the manufacture of glass have heretofore been
constructed. The method heretofore practised in constructing furnaces used
in glass-making has been to carry the grate with horizontal bars through the
centre of the seige or bed of the furnace between the pots, or to carry the grate
from each end of the furnace part of the way through the seige, leaving a
portion of the seige called a bridge in the centre. Grates being constructed
horizontally, that is to say, with bars placed in a horizontal position, consequently
the flame ascended in the first instance to the crown of the furnace, and then
being driven down upon the tops of the pots, acted upon the metal contained
therein. In the use of this construction of grate it has been generally found
that the action of the fire upon the seige or bed of the furnace caused great
wear and tear thereof, and consequently great expenses were incurred in repair-
ing or rebuilding. It is matter also of great importance to prevent as much
as possible the destruction of the seige or bed, as such destruction is attended
with the breaking of the pots and other damages, as is well known to parties
in the trade. In furnace grates of the construction above described it has not
been usual to use small fuel or slack. Now, our Invention, in addition to its
other advantages, will enable the manufacturers to burn such small fuel or
slack on inclined bars. We will now proceed to describe in what manner our
Invention may be carried out.
Figure 1 represents a plan of a furnace used in the manufacture of glass,
with the grates attached, shewing our Invention. a, a, a, a, is the glasshouse
floor; b, b, b, b, is the seige or bed of the furnace; c, c, c, c, are the pots in which
the glass is melted, placed upon the seige b, b, b, b. The mode of placing these
pots in the furnace is so well understood as not to need description. d, d, d, d,
form the walls of the furnace; e, e, are the tunnels or chimneys, which are used
to create a draught for the purpose of acquiring a better combustion, and of
drawing the flame around the bottoms of the pots; f, f, are horizontal bars;
19, 9, are the inclined bars forming the grate of the furnace, the positions
and

page_text: and fixings of which will be explained in Figure 2; h, h, are the hoppers into
which the coal is placed, as herein-after described, for the purpose of feeding
the grate.
effect of causing. c, c, are
Figure 2 is a sectional view of the furnace complete, with the Invention
applied; a, a, is the floor of the glasshouse; b is the seige or bed of the furnace,
which, as is shewn, is bevilled off next the grate. The advantages of this bevill
are obvious, as saving the wear and tear of that part of the seige next the
grate which abrupt or acute edges would have the
the pots; & is the wall of the furnace, with the working holes d', d', over each
pot. e, e, is the tunnel for causing draught, as explained in Figure 1. fare
the horizontal bars forming the bottom of the grate, and which horizontal bars
are sustained by two cross bars or sleepers f, f, as shewn in Drawing. gare
the inclined bars, the upper part of which may be made with a hook, as
shewn in Drawing, and by which means they hang to or are suspended on a
cross bar i, which cross bar may be either fixed into the wall on each side of
the fire-place, or may be placed in slots fixed at each side, as shewn. Various
modes of suspending this bar may be adopted, and as it is moved higher or
lower in the slots, a greater or less inclination of the bars 7 would be the conse-
quence; but we prefer to have the upper cross bar fixed as first mentioned, taking
care to have the bars g placed at a proper inclination, and which we prefer
to range from thirty-five degrees to fifty-five degrees. The lower parts of the
inclined bars g are sustained by or rest upon the cross bar or sleeper i, each
end of which cross bar is also fixed into the side walls of the fire-place; or such
lower cross bar i may, if desired, be made to work, or be placed in slots fixed
at the sides of the fire-place, in a similar manner to the above description of
the upper cross bar. If desired, the cross bar i may be made with grooves
upon it corresponding to the number of inclined bars used in constructing the
grate; and such inclined bars, instead of being hooked at the upper end, as
shewn in Drawing, may be straight, and rest in the grooves, such inclined bars
being sustained either by having a hook to catch on the lower cross bar i¹, as
shewn; or, if preferred, instead of being so suspended, it may be made to clip
the cross bar or sleeper f¹ which supports the horizontal bars f, as before men-
tioned, such clip being made to act upon the said cross bar f¹ between each of
the said horizontal bars. h is the hopper into which the slack or fuel is placed,
and which slack or fuel descends through the opening on the inclined bars,
thus affording a regular supply of fuel to the grate. We prefer to use the
hopper for that purpose, but at the will of the manufacturer it may be dispensed
with, and the inclined bars may be kept continually fed with fuel by a boy at
each end of the furnace placed, there for that purpose. The hopper above

page_text: described may be built of brick, or may be formed of iron, as may be found
most convenient. j,j, is the cave or ash-pit which passes under the whole
length of the furnace, and communicates with the open air outside the cave,
and by means of which cave sufficient draught is obtained for the due combus-
tion of the fuel. The inclined as well as the horizontal bars herein-before
described may be either of round, square, or other shaped iron, or may be made.
of flat plates perforated with holes, so that such perforations: be sufficiently
numerous to admit sufficient draught, and also 'the grate be constructed so as
to admit of the cleansing of the grate from burrs or clinkers; or instead of the
bars or perforated plates forming the bottom or lower part of the grate being t
placed horizontally, as above described, they may be placed at a slight inclina-
tion either way, so as to form an acute or obtuse angle with the larger or upper
inclined bars. We do not confine. ourselves to the relative lengths which the
lower (firstly herein described as the horizontal) part of the grate bears to the
upper or inclined part of the grate; but care should-be taken to have the top
part of the bars g about a foot or fifteen inches. above, the level of the seige or
bed of the furnace, as by this means the flame acts directly upon the pots.
Although in the foregoing description and the Drawings hereunto annexed
we have shewn our Invention as in the construction of a four-pot oblong furnace
with two tunnels and two grates, as shewn, yet our improvements may be.
applied, to all forms and descriptions of furnaces which may be used in the
melting or manufacture of glass, as, for instance, oblong furnaces, oval or round
furnaces, and in the latter cases double grates, that is to say, grates placed at
certain anglés may be used with tunnels properly placed, so as to draw the
flame. around the furnace at the bottom of the pots: It may be as well to
observe, that although we have described. tunnels as being used to create
draught in connection with our Invention; yet tunnels are not absolutely
necessary, as a draught may be created without their aid; as is well understood
by glass makers. Furnaces constructed as above described possess many
advantages, as the application of the incline bars of the grate in the manner
described places the fire in such a position (a portion of such fire being raised
about a foot higher than the seige). as to cause the flame to play more directly
upon the pots. The seige itself is not so woried or destroyed by the action of
the fire, as it is in the furnaces of the old construction, consequently the
.furnace and pots stand longer; 'more particularly, we are not only enabled to
burn in our improved furnace grates small coal, or slack, but a considerably
less quantity of fuel is consumed, and thus we effect a considerable saving in
the cost of fuel. Other advantages will result from the use of our Invention,
but which it is needless to mention here. We have not mentioned. measure-

page_text: ments in our foregoing description, but the size of the grates to be used in the
construction of furnaces will be regulated by the number of pots to be used,
and the size of the furnace, but will depend principally on the whim of the
manufacturer. We prefer, for a four-pot furnace, having a seige of about
eleven feet six inches by ten feet, to have the grate about five feet wide, the
inclined bars about two feet six inches long, the horizontal or lower bars about
eighteen inches long, and the seige about eighteen inches deep; but we do not
confine ourselves to these proportions, which may be made to vary to suit
circumstances.
Having now described the nature of our Invention, and the manner in which
the same is to be performed or used, we would wish it to be distinctly under-
stood that we do not claim any of the parts of the furnace separately as our
Invention; but what we do claim as our Invention is, the construction of
furnaces (for the manufacture of glass) with grates having inclined bars or
perforated plates situate and arranged as herein-before described, so that the
flame may play directly upon the pots.
In witness whereof, the said Edwin Deeley and Richard Mountford
Deeley, have hereunto set our hands and seals, the Fourth day of
February, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
fifty-two.