IMPROVEMENTS IN BISCUIT OVENS
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Lange, of 56, Tachbrook (Street, in the
"County of Middlesex; Merchant, forithe, Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
BISCUIT OVENS."-A communication from John Länge; of: Altona, near
Hamburg.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Lange at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 29th
December 1855.
ད་་
I, WILLIAM LANGE, of 56, Tachbrook Street, in the County of Middlesex,
Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN BISCUIT OVENS," a communication to me from John Lange, of Altona,
near Hamburg, to be as follows:-:|
This Invention relates to an improved system or mode of heating biscuit
ovens, whereby the biscuits are prevented from burning, and an economy of
fuel effected.
The, improvements consist in the employment of a number of small fire-
places, the heat from which is conducted by metal tubes or pipes over and
under the upper-portion or web of an ordinary endless travelling wire cloth,
which is carried by large drums at each extremity of the oven. The dough
5 is laid on this cloth and traversed slowly through the oven, between the several

page_text: heating pipes herein-before referred to, and issues from the other end of the
oven completely baked. The biscuits, during the process of baking, may be
subjected to the action of steam blown through the oven, for the purpose of
improving their color or appearance. Suitable heat indicators and regulators
are also adapted to each of the several fires, for the facility of observing and
regulating the heat of the oven.
The speed of the travelling cloth may be regulated according to circum-
stances, by suitable cone pullies and driving belts, and one of the drums is
fitted with an arrangement, whereby the cloth may be traversed through the
oven by hand, in case, by any accident, the usual driving power might become
deranged.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Lange in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
28th June 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
LANGE, of 56, Tachbrook Street, in the County of Middlesex, Merchant, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said William Lange, Her special license that I, the said William
Lange, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said William Lange, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter
during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
BISCUIT OVENS," & communication from John Lange, of Altona, near Hamburg,
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Lange, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal
Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said Letters Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Lange, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say:-
The said Invention relates to an improved system or mode of heating biscuit
ovens, whereby the biscuits are prevented from burning, and an economy of
fuel is effected.
The improvements consist in the employment of a number of small fire-
places, the heat from which is conducted by tubes or pipes over and under the
upper portion or web of an ordinary endless travelling wire cloth, which is
carried by large drums at each extremity of the oven.. The dough is laid on.
this cloth and traversed slowly through the oven, between the several heating
pipes herein-before referred to, and issues from the other end of the oven
completely baked..
The biscuits, during the process of baking, may be subjected to the action.
of steam blown through the oven, for the purpose of improving their color or
appearance. Suitable heat indicators and regulators are also adapted to.
each of the several fires, for the facility of observing and regulating the heat
of the oven.
>
The speed of the travelling cloth may be regulated according to circum-
stances, by suitable cone pullies and driving belts, and one of the drums is
fitted with an arrangement, whereby the cloth may be traversed through the
oven by hand, in case, by any accident, the usual driving power should become.
deranged.
And in order that the said Invention may be fully understood, I shall now.
proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose I shall
refer to the several Figures on the Sheets of Drawings hereunto annexed,
the same letters of reference indicating corresponding parts throughout all the
Figures.
Figure 1, on Sheet 1 of the Drawings, represents a side elevation of the
improved biscuit-baking oven, the central portion of the building being broken
away; Figure 2 is a corresponding horizontal section of the same, taken
along the range of fire-places.
.. Figure 3, on Sheet 2 of the Drawings, represents a longitudinal section of
the oven, with the central portion broken away; and Figure. 4 is a transverse
vertical section of the same, taken through one of the several fire-places.
Figure 5, on Sheet 3 of the Drawings, represents a front elevation of the

page_text: delivery end of the oven; and Figure 6 is a similar view of the feeding. end of
the same.
.
The baking space of the oven is heated by a number of separate and dis-
tinct fire-places A, A, the attendant fireman standing at B, where the fire-
places are supplied with fuel. The heat and flames rise from the several
fire-places and enter the several inclined combustion chambers C, C, whence
they pass into the vertical flues D, D. From these flues the heat' and flames
pass through a series of pipes E, E, as shewn by the arrows; and after passing
along these pipes transversely across the heating space or body of the oven F,
they enter the second series of flues G, G. From these flucs the heat and
flames enter the upper series of pipes H, H, and after again crossing the oven,
'finally escape by the flues I to the main chimney. The first or lower series of
pipes E has a gradual upward incliuation of about four inches in ten feet,
whilst the second or upper series has a corresponding downward inclination.
The hearth or baking floor of the oven consists of an endless wire cloth J,
stretched over and running on 'two wrought-iron rollers or cylinders K, L,
placed either internally or externally at each extremity of the oven, and turning
in suitable bearings at M, M. One of these rollers or cylinders L is driven
or rotated from the main driving shaft N, which carries a set of cono pullies
O, so that its speed may be regulated at pleasure, according to the heat
required by the quality of bread to be baked, by shifting the driving belt
on to one or other of the driving 'pullies. A bevil pinion P is keyed on to
one end of this shaft, and gears into the bevil wheel Q on the vertical
shaft R., working in a footstep at S. Near the lower end of this shaft is
an endless screw T, which gears into and drives the worm wheel U fast on
the shaft of the roller L. By this means. a slow rotatory motion is in-
parted to the roller, and consequently the endless wire cloth will be caused
to travel slowly and continuously through the front opening V of the oven,
the upper part of the endless web being covered with the pieces of dough
or paste to be baked, such piecos being laid on by attendants.as fast
as the cloth enters the oven. These pieces of dough or paste, by passing
slowly along the oven (which I prefer to be about. fifty feet in length,
more or less,) and between the upper and lower series of heating pipes H,.E,
are thoroughly baked by the time they have reached the other end of the
oven, where they pass through the discharging opening V', and fall off into a
suitable receptacle.
.:
The wire cloth re-enters 'the oven by a suitable opening at W;;and continues
its uninterrupted movement, the upper and lower webs being respectively sun-

page_text: ported by the two-sets-of-rollers X, Y.. If necessary, the propelling roller or
cylinder Lemay be worked by hand, a hand lever Z, and pall and ratchet
movement Z', (Figure 5,) being employed for that purpose. This will be found
particularly servicablo in cases of accident to the driving mechanism.
a is a perforated copper pipe, which serves to admit steam into the vault: of
the oven; which steami is, necessary (when the baking: first commences. The
iron box:b, with its escape) pipe c on the vault of the oven, serves to allow
the superabundant steam to escape during the process of baking. At each
end of the oven or baking vault is an iron box d, d, above and below which
the wire cloth or web traverses; a number of thermometers are employed at
different parts of the oven to indicate the degrees of heat at those parts, tho
thermometers-being graduated up to two hundred and eighty degrees. The
several openings e, e, which communicate between the flues and the outside of
the building, are for the purpose of facilitating the cleaning of the series
of pipes H and E, and for removing soot or other deposit from the flues.
The position, as described, of the series of pipes H and E, in relation to that
portion of the endless web which carries the dough or paste, is of great
importance, as on this depends the required evenness and equality of the
baking.
.
Although I have herein-before described and referred to an endless travelling
web or cloth passing continuously through the oven, yet I wish it to be dis-
tinctly understood that I do not make any special claim to this arrangement
in itself, as I am aware that the same has been previously known and adopted;
but I claim the combination of such an arrangement with the improvements
herein-after set forth in my claims.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of the said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried
into effect, I would observe, in conclusion, that I do not confine or restrict
myself to the precise details or arrangements which I have had occasion
to describe or refer to, as many variations may be made therefrom without
deviating from the principles or main features of the said Invention; but what
I consider to be novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention
secured to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, is,- ·
.
First, the general combination and arrangement of parts forming a con-
tinuous biscuit-baking oven, as herein-before described.
Second, the herein-before described system or mode of heating continuous
biscuit-baking ovens by means of two, three, or more small fire-places, instead
of having a single fire-place only.

page_text: Third, the application and use of tubes or pipes for conducting heat from
the several fire-places across the oven, above and below the articles to be
baked, as herein-before described.
Fourth, the admission of steam into the oven during the process of baking,
for the purpose of improving the color and appearance of the biscuit.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Lange, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Sixteenth day of June, One thousand eight hundred
and fifty-six.
WILLIAM LANGE, (L.S.)
PATENTEE.