AN IMPROVED COOKING STOVE
Year: 1811

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
BALL, of Hethersett, in the County of Norfolk, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS I, the said John Ball, did by my petition humbly represent
unto His present most Gracious Majesty that I had invented "AN IMPROVED
COOKING STOVE," that I was the first and true Inventor thereof, and that the
same had not been practised by any other person or persons whomsoever, to my
knowledge or belief, and I therefore humbly prayed His said Majesty to grant
unto me, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, His Royal Letters Patent under
His Great Seal of His United Kingdom for the sole use, benefit, and advan-
tage of my said Invention within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, for the term of fourteen years, pursuant to the Statute in that
case made and provided; and His said Majesty, being willing to give encourage-
ment to all arts and inventions which might be for the public good, was
graciously pleased to condescend to my request, and by His Royal Letters'
Patent, bearing date at Westminster, the Seventh day of May, in the fifty-first
year of His reign, of His especial grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion,
did give and grant unto me, the said John Ball, my exors, adñors, and assigns,
His said Majesty's especial license, full power, sole privilege and authority, that
I, the said John Ball, my exors, adñors, and assigns, and every of them, by
myself and themselves, or by my or their deputy or deputies, servants or
agents, or such others as I, the said John Ball, my exors, admors, or assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all

page_text: times thereafter during the term of years therein expressed, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend my said Invention within that
part of His said Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
called England, His Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in
such manner as to me, the said John Ball, my exors, admors, or assigns, or any
of them, should in my or their discretions seem meet, and that I, the said
said John Ball, my exors, adññors, and assigns, should and lawfully might have
and enjoy the whole profit, benefit, commodity, and advantage from time to
time coming, growing, accruing, and arising, by reason of the said Invention,
for and during the term of years therein mentioned, to have, hold, exercise, and
enjoy the said license, powers, privileges, and advantages therein before granted
or mentioned to be granted unto me, the said John Ball, my exors, adñiors, and
assigns, for and during and unto the full end and term of fourteen years from
the date of the said Letters Patent next and immediately ensuing, and fully
to be compleat and ended, according to the Statute in such case made and
provided; in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that if I, the
said John Ball, should not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be
inrolled in His said 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, should utterly cease, determine, and become void, anything
therein-before contained to the contrary thereof in anywise notwithstanding,
as in and by the said Letters Patent, relation being thereunto had, may more
fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Ball, in compliance with the said
proviso, do hereby declare that the nature of my said cooking stove, and
how the same is to be performed, are fully described and ascertained by the
following explanations of the subjoined Drawings, elucidated by such other
observations as I think may be useful to the subject (that is to say):—
Figure 1 is a perspective view of the stove as seen in use when roasting
with two spits (except that the spit pullies, which in use are visible, are only
represented here by occult lines. Figure 2 is another perspective view of the
stove, rendering its reverse side visible, and shewing a section of the top; the
front of this as well as that of Figure 1 are plain elevations, and are intended,
like the other elevations and ground plans, to agree with the subjoined scale,
Figures 3, 4, 5 are elevation sections of the oven door side of the stove,
displaying three distinct courses of the fire, agreeing with the respective opera-

page_text: tions represented as going forward in the oven of each. Figure 6, 7, 8 are
plain elevations of the spit-hole side of the stove as would be seen in use when
such operations were going forward in the oven, as are represented in each of
the oven door side sections, opposite which these elevations are respectively
placed; these also serve as sections, so far as to express by occult lines the
divisions of the flues and boundary of the oven, more exactly than could con-
veniently be expressed in Figures 3, 4, 5. Figure 9 is a ground plan of
Figure 1. Figure 10 is a ground plan of Figure 2. The Drawings thus
briefly described I shall now endeavour to explain more particularly, but
generally by aid of the letters A, B, a, b, &c., assisted by the auxiliary Drawings
No. 1, 2, &c. It should be observed, the letters uniformly refer to the same
respective parts where visible in each of the foregoing Figures or principal
Drawings; thus, A represents the furnace, a front view of which is given in
Figure 1, a perspective view in Figure 2, a side elevation in Figures 3, 4, 5, a
bird's-eye view in Figure 10; and its parts are laid flat at No. 1, where a, a,
are the cheeks, with groves for the reception of the front, back, and bottom
bar of which the said furnace is composed; b is a wrought-iron strap or kind
of square hoop, as shewn at No. 2; its wings a, a, are rivetted to the front of
the stove, when it becomes a receptacle for the cheeks of the furnace, as shewn
in Figures 3, 4, 5, where C represents one of two small steps, rivetted likewise
to the front of the stove, and become supports on which the cheeks of the
furnace stand. The furnace, thus placed, is attached to the front of the stove
only, and as its parts need be but loosely dropped into their places, they have
not only the convenience of being replaced at pleasure, but may expand freely
when intensely heated without affecting other parts of the stove.
If the strap
or hoop be sufficiently stout to stand stiff in its place it is all that is required,
and the same observation will apply to the two steps; but the cast-iron cheeks,
as well as the front and back of the furnace, should be not less than half
an inch thick, and the bottom bar, which may be made of either wrought
cast iron, should be nearly as stout. B represents the external back; C, the
internal back, a front elevation of which is given at No. 3, 4, 5, where m, m,
and n, n, represent sheet-iron slides, to shut the apertures X, X, and Y, Y, at
pleasure to direct the course of the fire, agreeably to circumstances; the said
slides operate in common sheet-iron grooves. D represents the internal front,
of which a front elevation is given at No. 6, where a, a, are two strap screw
bolts to fasten it to the external bottom of the stove; and k, the handle of a
sheet-iron slide, to be in general shut down to cover the aperture Z, through
which a scraper may be occasionally applied to clean the bottom flues; E
represents the external front, which, together with the external back, internal
or

page_text: back, internal front, and the side of the stove, is composed of cast iron, about
one quarter of an inch thick; f, g, h, h, represent the edges of the sheet iron
composing the top, bottom, back, and front of the oven; e, e, the edge of a
sheet-iron partition or internal bottom, dividing the upper from the lower
bottom flue; and d, d, the edge of the exteral bottom, composed also of sheet
iron; the sheet iron should be about what is commonly called No. 22. r, r, s, s,
are wrought-iron bars, which I call cross bars, about one quarter of an inch
thick, and about half an inch deep or wide, the extreme ends of which are
made to project from shoulders, to form rivets to secure the sides of the stove
to the said shoulders, the length of such bars within the shoulders being the
width of the stove within its sides. Now the parts of the stove already par-
ticularised are thus put together -The cross bars being made to a proper and
equal length, and corresponding holes being made in each of the stove sides
to receive the rivets of the opposite ends of the said cross bars, the said sides
are by this means, when placed, kept at proper distances from and parellel
with each other by rivetting them tight to the cross bar shoulders; this being
done, the sheet-iron part of the oven being previously shaped, is to be placed in
its intended situation between the stove sides, and rivetted to them in the well-
known way in which common sheet-iron ovens are rivetted together; the
internal and external bottoms are afterwards to be placed and secured in like
manner, and the external front and back may then be fixed to their respective
ends of each of the stove sides by strap screw bolts, previously rivetted to the
said sides, the nuts of which are pointed out, where visible, in the Drawings by
the letter V. To prevent confusion, all the Drawings are made to represent
the oven door side as being on the left; but when a stove is making it is
evident the oven door may be fixed on either side, as may best suit the situa-
tion in which such stove is intended to be used, observing that the stove sides
in this case are to be reversed, and the oven door and spit-hole slides fixed
accordingly. The internal front is now to be slidden down immediately behind
the cross bars r, r, when being secured to its external bottom by means of its
two strap screws bolts, its top is kept from falling towards the oven by a piece
of sheet iron, previously rivetted behind its said top, and made to project the
width of the space between the said internal front and the front of the oven;
the internal back is to be slidden down immediately in front of the cross
bars s, s, as far as the internal bottom, and kept in its place by means of a few
stubs or stout rivets projecting from the stove sides, between which and the
said cross bars it will be secured as in a grove.
Having thus particularly described those parts of the stove which require
fixing together, and how they may be so fixed, I shall now proceed to describe

page_text: the remaining parts necessary to complete the said stove, exclusive of the
furnace, which has been already fully described. o represents a cast-iron
plate, about a quarter of an inch thick, of which a ground plan is shewn at
No. 7; this should be loosely placed (forming a kind of saddle to the back
and sides of the furnace) to rest on the square hoop 6 and upper cross bar 1.
F, G, are two cast-iron plates constituting a top or platform, on which boiling,
stewing, &c. may be performed; plate G is about half an inch thick, but
plate F is necessarily somewhat thicker, having a hole in its middle for the
purpose of adding fuel to the fire; this extra thickness, in order that the said
plates may be level on the top, is made to drop within the stove sides, forming
thereby a rabbit to keep the said plate in its place; plate G is kept in its
place by means of four stubs or stout rivets, projecting from its underneath
side, instead of such a rabbit; the hole of plate F is covered by a lid q, fitted
into a rabbit, to be occasionally taken off by means of its sunk eye or ring;
these plates require no other fixing than being laid in their places, from
whence they may be conveniently removed to clean the top and descending
flues. I, I, are two cast-iron slides, half an inch thick, to regulate the draft
of the fire; these are made to slide easily in two sheet-iron grooves, previously
fixed to the internal and external backs, between which the said slides act.
K is a sliding plate, made to stand high or low, at pleasure, in its grooves p, p,
by means of two small springs of its own; L, is a drawer to receive the
ashes from the furnace A; M is the aperture in which the drawer L is placed,
and through which, and the aperture in the internal front, made by drawing up
the slide connected with the handle k, a communication with the bottom flues is
obtained; Q, Q, are the spit-hole sides, covering long mortises, in which the spits,
when projecting through the said slides, may be raised or lowered at pleasure by
lengthening or shortening the jack chains, to agree with the raising or lowering
of the opposite ends of the spits on the spit rack, hereafter described; these
slides operate in common sheet-iron groves, of which material they are also
composed. No. 8 will display one of the above mortises a, a, and shew that by
raising the slide Q sufficiently high its own hole 6 may be shut whilst the
mortise continues to be covered, which should be the case when the oven is
baking, as exhibited in Figure 8, corresponding with the oven Figure 5. U is a.
small hole to admit air into the oven when roasting, which at other times may
be covered with its lid; a similar constructed but larger hole and lid should be
placed near the top of the back of the oven, through which the steam may
pass from the oven into the descending flue, to be opened on like occasions.
R represents a spit rack, on which the ends of two spits working in the oven,
as scen in Figure 3, may be supported, and on which they may be raised or

page_text: lowered, agreeable to circumstances; the rack itself may be supported by two
small hooks rivetted to the stove side within and immediately over the oven
doorway or oven's mouth. To explain this more fully, let No. 9 represent the
spit rack placed on its hooks a, b, when fixed in their proper places over
the oven doorway. c, d, and under the oven top c, f; the spit rack may be then
taken off at pleasure by lifting it from hook a and drawing it from hook b.
No. 9 as well, as No. 8 is intended to be double the proportions of the other
Drawings and scale, and if so considered, the occult lines c, d, will accurately
shew the depth of the top of the oven's mouth from the top of the oven e, f;
and as the other parts of the oven's mouth agree with the bottom, front, and
back of the oven, as shown in Figures 3, 4, 5, I have not deemed it necesary
to draw a plain elevation of the oven door side, particularly as the oven door
I make use of, as seen in perspective in Figure 2, is made and applied in the
common way. 'H represents a sheet-iron 'tube or chimney of an indefinite
length, made to slip moderately tight over the projecting tops of the internal
and external backs, to convey the smoke issuing from the flues into the
common chimney or elsewhere. Lest the various oven operations intended to
be shewn in Figures 3, 4, 5 should not be correctly understood, it may not be
amiss for me to state that Figure 3 represents the oven employed in roasting
with two spits, in which case the fire is directed through the apertures X, X, of
the internal back (as it should likewise be for broiling on a gridiron, occasion-
ally to be placed near the oven's top, resting on such sheet-iron ledges as are
generally fixed in common iron ovens to rest shelves on for baking), to prevent
the gravy in the dripping pans being fried, as would happen if the fire were
directed as displayed in Figure 5, where the oven is supposed to be baking
only. Again, in Figure 4 the oven is represented as employed in roasting and
baking, and it is observable that by shutting the apertures X, X, and opening
those at Y, Y, the fire being made to descend to but not passing under the
bottom, the said bottom will be heated. under the pie, there represented,
without materially affecting the dripping pan. To prevent mistakes in measur-
ing the widths of the material flues represented in the Drawings, the top flue
should be about two inches at its commencement and gradually contract to
about one inch; the descending flue should be about two inches, and the upper
bottom flue should gradually contract from about two inches to about one inch
and a half, and the neuter flue (between the front of the oven and the internal
front) should be about one inch. The subjoined Drawings and the explana-
tions herein-before contained refer to what I consider a stove of about the
average of the various sizes that will necessarily be required in practice, and

page_text: e best rule I have for making larger or smaller stoves is, as far as convenient,
increasing or diminishing the size of each part in due proportion.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Ball, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, the Sixth day of November, in the fifty-second year of the
reign of His Majesty George the Third, by the grace of God of
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland King, Defender
of the Faith, and in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and cleven.
Inrolled the Sixth day of November, in the year of our Lord Onc
thousand eight hundred and eleven.