|
Description: |
| Most of the patents prior to 1836 were lost in the Dec. 1836 fire. Only about 2,000 of the almost 10,000 documents were recovered. Little is known about this patent. There are no patent drawings available. This patent is in the database for reference only.
“For an improvement in the method of Heating Rooms and Houses, by means of a furnace called the “Cylindric Air Heater;" Charles Fowler, Hartford, Connecticut, July 10.
This Cylindric Air Heater consists of three concentric cylinders placed vertically, one within the other, with spaces between them for the passage of air. The inner cylinder is the stove to contain the fuel, the second or middle cylinder is to be made of tin plates, and the outer, of sheet iron. A large tube passes from the outer to the inner cylinder, through which the fire is to be fed. This opening is at about the middle of the cylinder and is closed by a door. A pipe to convey off the smoke runs directly up from the stove, through openings in the tops of the two outer cylinders. Air is freely admitted below, which is to pass up, become heated, and be conveyed by pipes wherever it is wanted. These air pipes pass from the spaces between each of the cylinders, and form a connection with each other.
For a stove so constructed, the patentee claims a decided superiority over all that have preceded it. He states that it is cheaper, requires less fuel, can be easily removed and also in this, that the interior (middle) cylinder being constructed of bright tin, is by no means a good conductor of heat, so that comparatively very little heat is absorbed by, or escapes from, it, and, consequently, the air between it and the stove becomes more readily heated, and, therefore, a greater quantity of it must pass off through the flues; and also in this, that it has two cylinders, the exterior of which being of sheet iron, retains all, or nearly all, the heat that escapes from the interior, &c.
Now it unfortunately happens that all this is very bad philosophy, which, however, would be of little importance in the present instance, if it had not led to a gross error in practice. It is assumed that tin is a bad conductor, and that the black sheet iron will retain nearly all the heat; whilst the fact is, the tin is considerably the best conductor of the two, whilst the sheet iron will part with its heat by radiation, at least six times as rapidly as the tin. The latter, to have answered the design of the inventor, should have formed the outer cylinder, whilst the inner might have been made either of sheet iron, or of tin.
We cannot here discuss the subject of the two modes by which neat is distributed, namely, conducting power and radiation; a knowledge of them, however, is very important in its practical applications, and ought to be acquired by those who undertake to economize heat. The subject is by no means intricate and is explained in every elementary book upon chemistry.”
Journal of the Franklin Institute Vol. 7, Oct. 1829 pgs. 254-255
|
|
