IMPROVEMENTS IN VENTILATING WINDOWS AND WINDOW BLINDS
Year: 1868

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Robert Lake at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 19th March 1868.-A communication from abroad by William
Pitt Hoffman, of San Francisco, California, United States of
America, Gentleman.
I, WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the "International Patent Office,"
No. 8, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the County of
Middlesex, Consulting Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN VENTILATING WINDOWS AND WINDOW
BLINDS," a communication, to be as follows:-
The object of my Invention is to provide an improved window or
ventilator, which may be either transparent or opaque, but which while
allowing free access to the air will effectually prevent the passage of
all dust, and is especially adapted to be used in railway carriages.
To effect my object I provide a window frame of any suitable
construction, and having the space ordinarily occupied by plain glazing
filled with V-shaped troughs, formed either of transparent or opaque
material, extending from side to side and partially filled with water
supplied from above so as to intercept and absorb the dust, while the

page_text: air is allowed to enter the carriage or building fresh and cool from its
passage over the water.
The window frame may be constructed of wood in the ordinary way.
The V-shaped troughs extending across the interior space of the frame
are so placed that the apex of each trough extends a sufficient distance
down into the trough next below. These troughs are higher on the
inside than on the outside of the window, so that the water with which
they are to be supplied shall never flow over and wet them on that side.
The water may be brought to the upper trough by a flexible or telescopic
tube passing through a pipe in the upper sash and conveyed away
from the lower one in the same manner through another pipe, the
object of this arrangement being to allow the blind to be raised or
lowered when desired. Through the front or outside of each trough
are pierced two or more small holes at such a height as to allow the
surplus water from each trough to run into the next lower one, and
at the same time to wash off the dust which may collect on the surface.
This front is also made slightly concave, so that as the dust strikes
against the face it will be thrown downward into the water and absorbed,
while the air passes through the space between the bottom of the
trough and the surface of the water in the one below entirely freed
from dust and cooled by its contact with the water. The water is
constantly changed in each trough, rumning at last into the lower one,
from which it is conveyed away through the waste pipe wherein it
enters by an opening in the bottom of the trough.
When my Invention is used in railway carriages partitions may be
placed across each trough to keep the water from all running to one
end in ascending or descending an incline, one or more of such partitions
being placed in each trough as may be found necessary. Rubber or
other linings are fixed inside each frame, against which linings the
ends of the troughs are pressed sufficiently hard to make them water-
tight. The troughs are made of glass for transparent windows, and
of opaque material for shades.