AN IMPROVEMENT WHICH PREVENTS THE ILL EFFECTS TO VEGETATION AND ANIMAL LIFE THAT HAS HITHERTO BEEN OCCASIONED BY THE NOXIOUS FUMES AND PARTICLES THAT ARISE PROM SMELTING OR CALCINING LEAD ORE AND OTHER PERNICIOUS MINERALS
Year: 1822

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPHI
WASS, of Lea Wharf, in the Parish of Ashover, in the County of Derby,
Millwright and Lead Smelter, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of that part of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland called England, bearing date at Westminster, the
Fifteenth day of June, One thousand eight hundred and twenty-two, in the
third year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said Joseph Wass, my
exors, adiñors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said Joseph Wass, my exors, admors, and assigns, during
the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick upon
Tweed, my Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT WHICH PREVENTS THE ILL EFFECTS TO
VEGETATION AND ANIMAL LIFE THAT HAS HITHERTO BEEN OCCASIONED BY THE NOXIOUS
FUMES AND PARTICLES THAT ARISE PROM SMELTING OR CALCINING LEAD ORE AND OTHER
PERNICIOUS MINERALS;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso
that if I, the said Joseph Wass, shall not particularly describe andas certain
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the
same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, that
then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby
granted, shall utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in and by the same,
relation being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Joseph Wass, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described and
ascertained in and by the Drawings hereunto annexed, and the following de-
scription thereof (that is to say):-
'
My improvement for preventing the ill effects upon animal and vegetable
life which have hitherto been experienced from the noxious fumes and particles
emitted in the smelting or calcining of lead ore and other minerals, consists in
an improved mode of consuming the smoke and ventilating the flues of smelt-
ing furnaces, by which the heavier particles of the noxious efflusia will be
arrested and the lighter parts or mere vapour be conducted into the atmosphere,
at a sufficient height and under such circumstances as will cause it to rise and
mix with the air, so as to produce iio deleterious effects. These objects will be
fully accomplished by a contrivance similar to that shewn in the Drawing hereto
annexed, in which Fig. 1 is a plan or horizontal section of a building, wherein
the site of four lead smelting furnaces are shewn at a, a, a, a. In the center
of the building the horizontal-flues and- chimneys b; b, b, b, from the several
furnaces are intended to meet and-pass into a circular tower. Fig. 2 is a vertical
section of the tower taken througli tlie-middle, and in which two of the smelt-
ing furnaces are shewn with their, flues and chimneys passing into the tower.
In the construction of these furnaces I claim no improvement (except in the
introduction of dampers O); but consider the combining of several together to
be-new. A,, A, are the external walls of the tower, which must be lofty and
capacious, its suitable dimensions depending upon the number of furnaces and
flues intended to be connected thereto. Under the circumstances of four fur-
naces, as shewn in the plan, its internal diameter may be about thirteen feet,
and its height, commencing at the top of the chimney at about thirty-six feet
from the ground, not less than twenty-four feet, but higher would answer better.
b, b, as aforesaid, are the flues and chimneys, extending from the smelting fur-
naces a, a, and rising up into the central passage at any desired height, as slewn
by the dotted lines. It is found that lead smelting furnaces in general consume
a great part of their smoke (except at the first igniting, before the furnace has
arrived at a smelting heat), but from the powerful draft much of the noxious
and pernicious particles have hitherto been found to pass through the flues and
chimneys and escape into the air. To prevent this, I have contrived a cap B
which I suspend over the throat C, under which a part of the smoke will be
consumed and the heavier particles of the efflusia be impeded in their progress
and prevented from passing up the tower. G, G, is the lodge floor, upon which
a great portion of the heavy particles deposit themselves, and from whence they

page_text: are occasionally collected and conveyed to a wasting furnace. The cap B is
suspended by a perpendicular rod D, which passes up the center of the tower';
this rod is supported by a sort of stirrup iron E, áttached to the beam F, which
is placed across the tower. At the upper end of the rod D there is a 'screw
nut for adjusting the height of the cap B above the throat C of the chimney;
and H, H, are three or more upright bars or standards, passing through the matrice
holes in the cap B, upon which, by means of bolts or pins, it is supported. By
these means the cap having become a fixture, in order to regulate the width
of the opening or passage between it and the throat of the chimney, a rim ör
hoop I, I, is attached to the cap, which is made capable of adjustment in order
to contract the passage to any desired dimensions. The lighter particles and
the vapours which pass through this opening from the flues ascend into the
upper part of the tower, which, as aforesaid, is high and capacious. An hori-
zontal section of the tower is shewn at Fig. 3, cut through a little above the
cap B, the top side of which is seen, and also the lodge floor G. The top of
the tower is covered with a flat roof J; J, which assists in driving back any of
the smoke and dence vapour which may have passed the cap, and also excludes
the rain, hail, or snow from the tower and the chimney. Through this roof the
shaft K of a vane passes and rests upon the cross beam F. A number of vent
holes or openings L, L, L, are made through the walls of the tower at its uppèr
part for the purpose of allowing the light vapours to escape from the inside;
but to prevent stormy gusts of wind from driving back the vapour into the flue
and obstructing the working of the furnaces, all the holes on the windward sidė
of the tower are kept continually closed by a semicircular shutter M. This
shutter is supported by arms attached to the shaft K, and is more perfectly seen
in Fig. 4, the horizontal section of the tower, cut through at the vent holes near
the top. At the top of the shaft K, on the outside of the tower, a vané N is
attached, which, being acted upon by the wind, swings as the wind changes and
turns the shaft round, carrying with it the semicircular shutter, by which it
will be seen that from whatever point the wind blows, the vent holes on that
side of the tower next to the wind are closed by the shutter, and the holes on
the leeward side being unobstructed, the vapour from the smoke or steam, which
is lighter than the common atmospheric air, will then escape, leaving the
and more pernicious particles deposited in the chimney below or upon the lodge
floor, as above said. Besides preventing the nuisance occasioned by smelting
or calcining furnaces of the old construction to the neighbourhood in which
they may be erected, the heavy particles thus retained are extremely valuable;
and hence, when the deposition has sufficiently accumulated, it is removed from
the lodge floor and carried to the wasting furnace. This is done at a time when
grosser

page_text: the smelting furnaces are not at work, by a man entering at the door below and
passing up the winding staircase shewn at d in the plan, Fig. 1, which conducts
to the lodge floor, above, when, by a shovel, the deposited matter is thrown down
the well of the chimney and thence drawn off by barrows to be roasted and
afterwards smelted. The flues of the furnaces must be supplied with dampers
or shutters, as shewn at O, O, Fig 2, in order to cut off the communication
with the chimney of any one of the furnaces which may not be at the time in
use. By the employment this improved apparatus smelting and calcining fur-
naces are divested of their pernicious effects, and such works may in future be
erected in any convenient situation, either near to dwelling-houses or by the
sides of public roads, on the banks of navigable rivers or canals, and thus, in
many, cases, produces a very great economy in the expence of carriage. The
saving effected by this apparatus in preserving a quantity of valuable matter
which would otherwise, as heretofore, escape, to the injury of the neighbourhood,
would of itself amount in one year, where four lead furnaces are employed, as
described in the plan, to a sum.equal to the entire cost of the improved appa-
ratus, that is, of the upper part of the tower, with its roof, cap, vane, shutters,
and appendages. Among other advantages, I propose that the tapping sides
of my furnaces shall be opposite to each other, as shewn at e, e, and e, e, Fig. 1,
so that, when required, the hot lead from both may be run into pigs or conveyed
into one receiver, and from thence into a mould, so as to be formed into thick
sheets ready for milling or rolling, by which a great saving of labour and ex-
pence will be effected, and the trouble and waste of remelting the lead avoided.
I have, for the better understanding of my improvement, described many parts
(as the furnaces) which are not new, but I wish it to be clearly understood that
my. Invention consists simply of the apparatus described as placed above the
ordinary chimney of the smelting furnace, and the various parts of which are
marked in the Drawing and referred to by capital letters, which apparatus I
believe to be perfectly new as applied to that object, and therefore claim under
my Patent the sole and exclusive right of employing the same.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Wass (party hereto), have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Eighth day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and twenty-two.
JOSEPH (L.S.) WASS.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Eighth day of October, in the year
of our Lord 1822, the aforesaid Joseph Wass came before our said Lord the
King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid, and all
and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above written. And
also the Specification aforesaid was stampt according to the tenor of the Statute
made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Fourteenth d