CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN VENTILATING HOUSES AND OTHER BUILDINGS
Year: 1843

page_text: WATSON, junior, of Leeds, in the County of York, Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Eighteenth day of October, in the seventh year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Ier heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
William Watson, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said William Watson, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
and such others as I, the said William Watson, my executors, administrators,
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 mentioned, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN
VENTILATING HOUSES AND OTHER BUILDINGS;" in which said Letters Patent is
contained a proviso, obliging me, the said William Watson, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
and to cause the same to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within two 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
had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Watson, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and

page_text: the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference being
had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked
thereon, (that is to say):-
My Invention of improvements in ventilating houses and other buildings
may be briefly explained in the following manner, that is to say, instead of
supplying air for the ventilation of buildings from the level on which such
buildings are built, as is commonly the case, my Invention consists in procuring
it from an elevation considerably above them, by means of a high shaft, pipe, or
other tubular column. In other words, the air for ventilation is to be supplied
from a higher region than that in which the buildings to be ventilated are
situated. As I do not intend to claim any particular arrangement of machinery
or apparatus for drawing or bringing down the air from above through the
column before mentioned, I shall simply say that any contrivance for effecting
this object may be used, such, for example, as rotary fanners, bellows, or air-
pumps; nor do I intend to describe or claim any particular method of diffusing
the air through the buildings or apartments of buildings, but shall content
myself by saying that the air when procured may be conveyed to the buildings
by pipes or tubes, in the same manner as gas, and diffused throughout the
several parts of such buildings in any manner or by any means that are now
employed or may be hereafter devised for ventilating buildings. From this it
will be seen that, although the principle of my Invention does not interfere
with any of the many present plans of ventilation, it may be applied to any or
all of them, but it is especially applicable to cases where the air required for
the ventilation of any building or buildings is taken from one point. The
annexed Drawing will better illustrate my meaning and point out the superiority
of my plan over those at present in use:-Let A be supposed to represent a
building that requires ventilation, and for which purpose a chamber B of
masonry or brickwork is elevated a few feet from the ground. The chamber
being open at the top, the air is drawn from the surrounding atmosphere, by
means of fans or in any other convenient manner, and afterwards distributed
through the adjoining buildings. This plan has, I understand, been employed
in some instances, but it will be seen that if the building A is situated in a
densely populated neighbourhood or in an impure atmosphere little benefit, if
any, can be derived from obtaining and distributing the impure air which
surrounds the building; my plan, therefore, of obviating this objection would
be to build or construct a column or shaft of considerable altitude, say from
two hundred to four hundred feet in height, or any other height, more or less,
according to locality and other circumstances, as shewn by dotted lines in the

page_text: Drawing; and down this column pure air from a higher region than that in
which the building is situated may be drawn, by any convenient apparatus
before mentioned. It must be evident to the most cursory observer that this
improved method of ventilation may be varied in detail and application almost
without end, but still the principle will always remain the same; I will therefore
make a few remarks which I consider necessary for the proper elucidation and
application of my Invention.
In the first place, I will remark that in order to procure a sufficient supply
of air a fan or bellows as above mentioned should be used, so that the air may
not only be drawn down the shaft but it may be propelled by an increased
pressure to a greater distance through small pipes into the several apartments
of the buildings with such a force and in such a quantity as to cause at all times
a stream of air to be passing outwards through the crevices of the doors and
windows, so that the apartments would be entirely filled with the pure air that
is brought down the shaft.
Secondly, this plan of ventilation will be found exceedingly useful to all
shop-keepers who deal in goods that are liable to damage by dust or are
inconvenienced by its presence, as by the erection of a pipe or tube fifty or
sixty feet in height above the tops of the houses and keeping up a constant
blast or rush of air down the same into the apartments, the dust and foul
air, which always exist in considerable quantity in the streets of large towns,
could not possibly enter, and the dust occasioned by any movement or opera-
tion carried on within them would to a great extent be driven out.
Thirdly, the adoption of my Invention will be very advantageous for hospitals,
infirmaries, and all institutions for the recovery of health, as there can be but
one opinion as to the value of pure air and the beneficial effect it has upon the
human system when it has become weakened by sickness or fatigue.
Fourthly, when a number of good houses congregated together require
ventilation, as is the case in many manufacturing towns, where squares,
streets, or other plots of buildings consisting of large, well-built houses, have
become nearly abandoned by their original inhabitants in consequence of the
bad state of the air which surrounds them, I recommend that a hollow
column, shaft, or pillar should be built in the middle of the square or plot,
or other convenient situation, and raised to a considerable altitude above.
the tops of the houses, and by causing a large fan or bellows to rotate with
considerable rapidity at the bottom of the shaft or column, and which may be
easily effected by means of a small steam engine, pure air may be drawn in
large quantities down the shaft into a chamber below, where it may be warmed
or cooled, according to the state of the weather and other circumstances.

page_text: This warm or cold air may then, by means of the aforesaid rotary fan or
bellows, be propelled along pipes and conveyed to the several apartments of
the surrounding houses.
Having now described and explained my improved plan of ventilation, and
the manner in which it is carried into effect, I wish it to be particularly under-
stood that I do not claim the application of this mode of ventilation to ships,
as a plan in some respects similar is adopted to carry down fresh air into the
holds and engine rooms of steam vessels; nor do I intend to claim the ventila-
tion of mines, pits, or buildings below the surface of the earth, as, although
the air for ventilation is brought from an altitude considerably above, yet it
will be observed that this air is brought from or near to the earth's surface,
and therefore may from that cause be in an impure state; and, furthermore,
I do not consider that when houses are ventilated by means of windows or
openings in the sides or even on the roof of buildings that my Invention is
infringed upon; but what I claim as the Invention secured to me by the
herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is ventilating houses or other
buildings by means of a column, shaft, tube, or pipe raised to an altitude con-
siderably above the tops of the surrounding houses, whereby air of a purer
quality may be drawn down the said column, shaft, tube, or pipe, from a
higher region than that in which the houses are situated, and distributed
throughout the several apartments in any mode now adopted for this purpose.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Watson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty thron