IMPROVED COWL-ARRANGEMENTS FOR VENTILATION
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Fellows Harrington at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 24th September 1883.
GEORGE FELLOWS HARRINGTON, of Ryde, Isle of Wight, Gentleman, in the
County of Southampton, "IMPROVED COWL-ARRANGEMENTS FOR VENTILATION
"
My improvements consist of extending the same kind of Cowl arrangements for
Ventilating Ships, Rooms of Houses, Public Buildings, and other places, as are
specified in my patent, dated January 24th 1883, N° 387 for "Improvements in
Ventilating Sewers," which specified improvements include self-acting, revolving,
lobster back Cowls, trapped with the upcast shafts on which they revolve; which
shafts are made with wicker work lined inside and coated outside with cement, or
lined inside with cement and coated outside with brick-tiles, and arranged to
connect the Cowls with the sewers to convey fresh air into them to ventilate them.
But as my aforesaid patent confines the said invention to sewer ventilation, this
patent is intended to protect me in extending the system to ventilate Ships,
Rooms of Houses, Public Buildings, and other places: And for these purposes I
use self-acting revolving lobster back Cowls, to face the wind, of the same form as
for sewers, that is, they are made with their mouths about double the areas of their
throats, and formed to combine the acting and reacting energy of the wind they
receive to compress it and force it through their throats into the upcast shafts on
which they revolve, and with which they are trapped by means of oil to prevent
the upward escape of such wind. The shafts also being made of wicker work,
cement and brick-tiles, and about double the areas of the throats of the Cowls to
lessen the friction of the currents of air while passing through them to the Rooms
of Houses, Public Buildings, and other places: By this arrangement much larger
quantities of fresh air will be conveyed into Rooms, &c, to ventilate them, than
has hitherto been done by Cowls arranged with shafts of the same areas as their
throats.
But as the rolling and pitching and tossing of Ships would varey the level of
the oil so as to untrap the Cowls and shafts, I make the shafts of metal for ships,
and arrange the Cowls and shafts so that the Cowls can be turned by hand to face
the wind, as is now done. And instead of always using parallel shafts of about
the same areas as the mouths of the Cowls, in cases where it is desirable to

page_text: economise space, I arrange the Cowls on tapering shafts, made either in one length
or divided into sections to slide into each other and lengthen out again when
required. And by having the shafts tapering out from the throats of the Cowls,
the friction of the currents of wind would be much lessened, and larger quantities
of fresh air would be conveyed into Cabins, &c, than could be with parallel shafts
of the same size as the throats of the Cowls: So that, as by my aforesaid patented
Cowl arrangements I convey much larger quantities of fresh air into sewers than
had previously been done, so, in like manner, by the Cowl arrangements herein
Provisionally specified, I shall convey much larger volums of fresh air into Ships,
Rooms of Houses, Public Buildings, and other places, that require ventilation, than
has hitherto been done.