IMPROVEMENTS IN AND APPARATUS FOR GAS FIRES
Year: 1882

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George William Wigner at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 4th February 1882.
GEORGE WILLIAM WIGNER of 79 Great Tower Street in the City of London
Analytical and Consulting Chemist. "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND APPARATUS FOR
GAS FIRES."
My Invention relates to that class of gas fires which are used for warming rooms
or buildings and especially gas fires which are constructed to burn in ordinary fire
places or open stoves as distinct from closed stoves.
The Invention consists of an improved mode of constructing the gas burner or
burners for such stoves and of improvements in filling the stoves with non com-
bustible radiating material of a special kind.
According to the method in general use for constructing a gas fire or as it is often
called an asbestos fire a series of Bunsen gas burners are arranged below the
bottom bars of the grate or a jet of gas is allowed to mix with air in a bell shaped
air mixer below the grate, generally in the centre and the mixture of gas and air
issues and is burnt from some kind of burners terminating on the upper side of the
bottom bars of the grate the stove itself being entirely filled with lumps of some
burnt material generally consisting of a mixture of clay and asbestos.
According to my Invention I construct the burners in an entirely different way-I
take a piece of copper or iron or other suitable metal pipe of a suitable size which
is generally, to 3%, of an inch internal diameter according to the size of the grate
to be fitted, and having stopped up one end of the pipe with a metal plug I bend the
pipe if necessary to the same curve as the lowest front bar of the grate and then if
necessary to suit the form of the grate bend the open end of the pipe which has not
been plugged so that the open or unplugged end shall project from the grate either
before the front of the grate or behind the mantel for a sufficient distance say
2 inches to 4 inches or thereabouts.
At the open end of the pipe which projects from the grate I provide a metal
casting or other appliance to carry a jet through which the gas issues. This jet is
affixed to and connected with a gas supply pipe in such a way that the gas escaping
opposite the open end of the pipe which projects from the grate thus draws with it
a large and suitable volume of air from lateral or other openings or from pipes
provided to supply either cold or heated air.

page_text: I drill the portion of the aforesaid pipe which is inside the grate with holes of a
suitable size for the combustion of the gas and air and fix the pipe to the grate at
a very short distanco within the inside of the lowest front bar.
This constitutes the burner
I cover the bottom of the grate with a flat sheet of iron or other suitable metal
or fire clay and instead of filling the grate with the usual lumps of clay mixed with
asbestos I proceed as follows.
-
I make a mixture of clay and sawdust with water in suitable proportions and if
necessary some silicate of soda to increase its strength and I partially fill the grate
with this mixed clay and sawdust &c. while it is in a plastic state so as to form what
is ordinarily called a back to the fire but differing from ordinary backs in this respect
viz. that at the bottom of the grate the mixed clay and sawdust is brought so far
forward that it actually touches the gas burner and that it slopes gradually upwards
and backwards so that at the level of the top bar it may be 2 or 3 inches away from
the inside of the top bar thus reducing the fire space to a very small proportion of
that which is ordinarily used in stoves
-
I fill the space which is left between this backing and the bars loosely with small
lumps of a radiating material. These lumps are made by mixing some of the plastic
clay and sawdust before referred to with fibrous matter and if necessary with a larger
proportion of sawdust or in some cases with bran or asbestos and moulding small
lumps of irregular shape from this material. These lumps may be dried and baked
in a kiln or furnace or in the fire itself.
When the fire space is filled with these lumps the gas is lighted and during the
first few minutes it bakes and burns the front surface of the plastic backing which
then becomes converted into a very porous brick which may be stained or coloured
if desired.