IMPROVEMENTS IN PURIFYING THE VAPOURS ARISING FROM SMELTING AND OTHER FURNACES, AND IN RECOVERING THERE FROM THE USEFUL MATTERS WHICH MAY BE INTERMIXED THERE WITH
Year: 1845

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES STOKOE,
of Newton, in the County of Northumberland, Millwright, 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 Twenty-fifth day of July, in the ninth year (1845) of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs, and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said James Stokoe, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, Her especial licence, full
power, sole privilege, and authority, that I, the said James Stokoe, my exors,
admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said James Stokoe, my exors,
adñiors, and 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 make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales,
and the Town of Berwick upon Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
PURIFYING THE VAPOURS ARISING FROM SMELTING AND OTHER FURNACES, AND IN
RECOVERING THERE FROM THE USEFUL MATTERS WHICH MAY BE INTERMIXED THERE
WITH;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said
James Stokoe, shall cause a particular description of the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled
in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months

page_text: 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
James Stokoc, hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, are fully described and set forth
in and by the present Specification thereof, reference being had to the Drawings
hereunto annexed, that is to say :-
Whereas one of the most approved methods now in use for purifying the
vapours arising from smelting and other furnaces, and in recovering therefrom
any useful matters which may be intermixed therewith, consists in giving such
a direction to the vapours that they may by virtue of their own moving force
pass through a filter or series of filters filled with stones, gravel, or other like
materials, having water constantly passing through them, but that the said
method is often found to fail or to answer but imperfectly in practice, owing in
part to the sluggishness of the vapours, to their lingering at the entrance to
the filters, and to their producing a consequent reaction more or less prejudicial
to the working of the furnace.
Now the nature of my said Invention consists in combining with such filters
as aforesaid certain other means by which the ascent of the vapours is
accelerated, and as fast as they issue from the furnace are drawn along the
fluo and driven rapidly into and through the filters; and the manner in which
the same is carried into effect is shewn in the Drawing hereunto annexed,
which represents a side view in section of the combination of means aforesaid.
A is the top of a flue leading from the smelting or other furnace; B, an
exhausting and forcing apparatus attached to A, and worked by a driving belt C
from a steam engine or other first moving power, which serves at once to draw
the vapours with an increased degree of velocity out of the flue, and to drive
them forward into and through the filtering and recovering box or case F, F.
The shape of this box F, F, is rectangular; it is divided longitudinally at
about three eighths of its height from the bottom, by a horizontal perforated
partition a, a. The space above that partition is filled to near the top with
stones, gravel, small pieces of wood, brushwood, heath, or other suitable filtering
material, and the part below (W) is filled with water to the level indicated
by S, S, leaving an open space between the partition a, a, and the surface of
the water where the nozzle of the apparatus B is introduced. The portion of
the box appropriated to the filtreing materials is further divided vertically into
compartments D, D, by partitions b, b, which are prolonged alternately

page_text: upwards and downwards in the manner shewn, three of them as in the
annexed Drawing, or any other number, being carried to the top of the box
while the others stop short of it, and the latter being carried down through the
partition, a, a, into the water beneath. M is a long open trough the whole
length of the recovering box F, F, and divided crossways by partitions imme-
diately above D, D, into compartments E, E, each of which is again divided
by four or more low parallel divisions; the bottoms of those cisterns E, E,
have perforated metallic plates fixed in them on the top of the case, one over
each of the filtering. compartments D. G, is a close trough or pipe, which
extends along and immediately above the trough M, and serves to keep the
compartments E; E, supplied with water. The current of vapours being
driven with great force by the apparatus B into the box takes of necessity the
course through the filtering compartments indicated by the arrows passing
over and under the partitions 6, 6, alternately until it reaches the outlet pipe H,
terminating in the chimney L, and while making this circuit comes into
contact with the water which is being continually dispersed in showers from
E, E, and which keeps percolating through the filtering materials into the
receiving pool beneath, carrying down with it all the heavier matters contained
in the vapours or that have been deposited from them in their progress through
the filters. K is a trap door through which the water and deposit in the
receiving pool is drawn off as often as necessary, and t, t, taps for letting on
and shutting off the water from the trough or pipe G as required.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is performed, I declare that I lay no claim to the purifying
of the vapours of furnaces by passing them through filters filled with stones,
gravel, and other like materials having water constantly percolating through
them, being as before signified well aware that the same or similar methods
have been already in use; but that what I claim as of my Invention is the
application as before described of an exhausting and forcing apparatus to
increase the velocity of draught in the flues of smelting and other furnaces,
and to drive the vapours rapidly through filters of the above or of any
other suitable description, for the purpose of purifying such vapours and
recovering therefrom any useful matters which may be intermixed therewith.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Stokoe, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-six.
°

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-third day of January,
in the year of our Lord 1846, the aforesaid James Stokoe came before our said
Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and everything therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Twenty-fourth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-six.