IMPROVED MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR CONVEYING AND WITHDRAWING FIRE DAMP AND OTHER GASES FROM COAL AND OTHER MINES AND PLACES FOR VENTILATING THE SAME."
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Morgan, Sculptor, and Jacob Morgan, Stone
Merchant, both of Pontypridd, in the County of Glamorgan, for an Invention
of "IMPROVED MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR CONVEYING AND WITHDRAWING
FIRE DAMP AND OTHER GASES FROM COAL AND OTHER MINES AND PLACES
FOR VENTILATING THE SAME."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Morgan and Jacob
Morgan at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 23rd April
1881.
WILLIAM MORGAN, Sculptor, and JACOB MORGAN, Stone Merchant, both of
Pontypridd, in the County of Glamorgan. 'IMPROVED MEANS AND APPARATUS
FOR CONVEYING AND WITHDRAWING FIRE DAMP AND OTHER GASES FROM COAL
AND OTHER MINES AND PLACES FOR VENTILATING THE SAME."
This Invention relates to improved means and apparatus for conveying and
withdrawing fire damp and other gases from coal and other mines and places
for ventilating the same.
For this purpose an inverted syphon is arranged with branches from its main
shaft, tunnel, or pipe to the upper parts of all the workings of a mine to the rise,
and of all goafs and hollows in the roof where inflammable gas may accumulate. The
said branches may be carried up to near the top of the hollows of the goafs and
workings to the rise with an upcast or ascension pipe from the main pipe or shaft
into the upcast shaft of the coal or other mines (or places), or to the surface of the
ground with a chimney where required to discharge the gas at a higher level
than the highest parts of the inlet branches of the said syphon, as the case may
require.
When the outlet mouth of the ascension pipe cannot be placed higher than the
inlet mouths of the branch or branches, or where more power is required than the
air pressure in or on the goafs in the said hollows, we then in such cases apply
steam (or other pressure) from a steam boiler or waste steam from fan engine into

page_text: the upper portion of ascension pipe to increase the current of gas from the said
hollows through the whole of the syphons.
The whole of the syphon from the inlet mouths of branches to the outlet moutli
of the ascension pipe must be made air tight all through, with provision at lowest
levels of branches and main pipe or tunnel to extract from well holes any condensed
vapour from the said syphon.
The syphon may be a pipe carried down the shaft inside or outside of the ring of
the shaft of pit and through the roads or beneath them, or through the old workings
with branch pipes from the same to all goafs or hollows, or it may be a tunnel
into the old workings of the vein being worked, or it can be in some other vein or
rider above into which the branches may be conveyed; the outlet mouth may be
carried from the same into the upcast shaft, to be acted on by the upcast current, or
to the top of the pit, as hereinbefore stated.
Our improved method of ventilating mines may be readily applied to withdraw
vitiated air from theatres, buildings, or other places.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said William Morgan and Jacob Morgan in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 22nd October 1881.
"
WILLIAM MORGAN, Sculptor, and JACOB MORGAN, Stone Merchant, both of
Pontypridd, in the County of Glamorgan. IMPROVED MEANS AND APPARATUS
FOR CONVEYING AND WITHDRAWING FIRE DAMP AND OTHER GASES FROM COAL
AND OTHER MINES AND PLACES FOR VENTILATING THE SAME."
This Invention relates to improved means and apparatus for conveying and
withdrawing fire damp and other gases from coal and other mines and places for
ventilating the same.
Our said Invention consists of a novel system or arrangement of apparatus for
extracting the inflammable and other noxious gases from the workings of coal and
other mines, whereby the danger arising from explosions and the presence of the
gases known as fire damp and choke damp may be obviated.
According to our Invention we arrange a system of pipes in the several workings
of the mine, and connect such pipes with suitable appliances for exhausting the
gases from the said workings.
The gases so exhausted or extracted from the mine are discharged into the
atmosphere or burnt.
For this purpose, what we term an inverted syphon is arranged with branches
from its main shaft, tunnel, or pipe, to the upper parts of all the workings of a
mine to the rise, and of all goafs and hollows in the roof where inflammable gas
may accumulate. The said branches may be carried up to near the top of the
hollows of the goafs and workings to the rise with an upcast or ascension pipe
from the main pipe or shaft into the upcast shaft of the coal or other mines (or
places), or to the surface of the ground with a chimney where required to discharge
the gas at a higher level than the highest parts of the inlet branches of the said
syphon, as the case may require.
When the outlet mouth of the ascension pipe cannot be placed higher than the
inlet mouths of the branch or branches, or where more power is required than the
air pressure in or on the goafs in the said hollows, we then in such cases apply
steam (or other pressure) from a steam boiler or waste steam from fan engine
or other source, into the upper portion of ascension pipe to increase the current of
gas from the said hollows through the whole of the syphons.
The whole of the syphon from the inlet mouths of branches to the outlet mouth
of the ascension pipe must be made air tight all through, with provision at lowest
levels of branches and main pipe or tunnel to extract from well holes any condensed
vapour from the said syphion.
The atmospheric syphon may be a pipe (advantageously made with flexible
joint) carried down the shaft inside or outside of the ring of the shaft of pit, and
through the roads or beneath them, or through the old workings with branch
pipes from the same to all goafs or hollows, or it may be a tunnel into the old
workings of the vein being worked, or it can be in some other vein or rider above
into which the branches may be conveyed; the outlet mouth may be carried from
the same into the upcast shaft to be acted on by the upcast current, or to the top
of the pit, as hereinbefore stated.
Our improved method of ventilating mines may be readily applied to withdraw
vitiated air from theatres, buildings, or other places.
And in order that our Invention may be clearly understood and readily carried
into practice, we will now proceed to describe the same more in detail with
reference to the Drawings hereto annexed.

page_text: Figure 1, Sheet 1, shows a vertical section of a portion of a coal mine having
apparatus arranged therein for withdrawing fire damp and other gases therefrom
in accordance with our Invention; Figure 2 is a plan or horizontal. section of
Figure 1.
A, A, is the shaft of the mine; B, B, the main airway to shaft; C, old workings.
walled off at D, with hollow in roof; D, partition wall; E, goafs with hollow in
top; G, roadway; H, H, syphon main pipe; I, I, branch pipe from syphon main
to goaf; J, J, hollow stone pillar arranged as a branch from syphon or main pipe
to old workings and serving as a support for top or roof; K, K, steam or other
pressure pipe from a boiler, or waste or exhaust steam from fan or other engine, or
other source; L, exhausting chamber; M, blast chimney or air propeller; N, overflow
pipes for condensed vapours.
Figures 3 and 4 (Sheet 2) are enlarged views of the steam pipe K and exhaust
chamber L, M.
In order to extract the light and inflammable gases from the goafs or workings,
ascending branch pipes I are fitted into the main pipes H, such branch pipes I
rising to the top of the goafs or cavities E, or hollow upright stone pillars J may be
used, rising to the top or roof of goaf, so as to be surrounded by the gas with a
stone walled branch way to syphon main, in which case the said pillar J supports the
top of workings as well as being a branch of the aforesaid syphon pipe. But when
choke damp or carbonic acid gas (which is inuch heavier than air) is to be extracted,
the branch pipe I should descend down to the lowest parts of the workings where
the said gas may be found.
It will be evident that the general arrangement of the apparatus previously
described may be considerably varied according to the nature of the mine or
purpose to which it is applied without departing from the true character of our
Invention, at the same time we do not claim any of the parts separately, which are
well known and in common use.
But what we claim is,-
The improved arrangement and application of apparatus for withdrawing fire
damp, foul air, and other gases from coal and other imines and places by means of
inverted syphon pipe or pipes such as H, having branches such as I and J, acting
alone or in combination with an exhaust chamber, and apparatus such as K, L, M,
or its equivalent, arranged to act substantially in the manner and for the purposes
herein before described and represented in the Drawings annexed.
In witness whereof,- I, the said William Morgan, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty first day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and eighty one.
AM MORGAN
(cm)