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DESCRIPTION 
 
 PATENT 
 
 FOR THE 
 
 CHIMNEYS 
 
 OF 
 
 DWELLING AND OTHER HOUSES 
 ^, AND BUILOTIVGS, ^ 
 
 Mr. SETH smith, 
 
 OF 
 
 WILTON CRESCENT, BELGRAVE SQUARE. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY ENGRATINGS. 
 
 ^ LONDON : 
 
 LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, AND GREEN; 
 
 AND 
 
 CARPENTER & SON, OLD BOND STREET. 
 
Specimens of the Patent Metallic Lining and Damper may be 
 seen, and the prices of the several sizes and forms, and particular 
 directions obtained, at the Large Rooms, Halkin Street West, Bel- 
 grave Square. — All communications to be addressed to Mr. Smith'' s 
 
 C. Richards, Printer, 100, St. Martin's-lane, Charing-cross. 
 
 THE GETTY CENTER 
 LIBRARY 
 
PATENT METALLIC LINING AND 
 DAMPER FOR CHIMNEYS. 
 
 It has by some been considered doubtful whether the 
 Greeks and Romans, during the period of their greatest 
 eminence for architectural productions, had any chimneys 
 in their dwelling houses ; but as Homer, Aristophanes, 
 Virgil, and Appian are supposed to mention or make al- 
 lusion to them, it has been inferred by other writers that 
 they were not wholly unknown to those ancient builders. 
 
 The oldest certain account of the use of chimneys is 
 stated to be 1347, and it is conjectured they were in- 
 vented in Italy. Smoke Jacks, which must have been 
 invented subsequently to chimneys, are supposed to be 
 of German origin, and from a painting which is known 
 to be older than 1350, it is supposed they were in use 
 before that period. 
 
 In the houses discovered at Herculaneum and Pompeii, 
 there are it is said, no chimneys, but they appear all to 
 have been warmed by means of flues and a subterraneous 
 
 A 2 
 
4 
 
 furnace. Stoves and flues, it is thought probable, were 
 introduced about the time of Nero. Seneca relates that 
 in his time there were invented certain tubes, which were 
 placed in the walls, by which the heat of the fire was 
 made to circulate and warm equally the upper and lower 
 apartments. These observations have been quoted as 
 proofs that chimneys were unknown at those periods, 
 but have they not a contrary tendency ? It appears 
 more probable that a chimney should furnish the idea 
 for such stoves, than that the use of stoves should be 
 known before chimneys. 
 
 In the Old Testament there are several allusions to fur- 
 naces for the smelting of iron and other metals, which would 
 appear to leave no doubt of the use of chimneys being 
 known at a very early period, especially to the Egypt- 
 ians. ( See Gen. 15. xvii. Deut. 4. xx. ^ Ezekiel 22. xx.J 
 In Nehemiah the towers of the furnaces are spoken of. 
 In the 1st Book of Samuel, 30. xxx. a city is called the 
 smoking furnace, (Chor Ashan ) probably from the num- 
 ber of chimneys erected in it. The Arabic root renders the 
 word round ; they were, no doubt, built in the form of a 
 round tower of lofty height, like some of the chimneys of 
 manufactories at the present day. 
 
 Although the antiquity of chimneys should be satis- 
 factorily proved, all accounts, if any there be, of their 
 form or material, would probably, on close examination, 
 turn out mere conjecture, and consequently it would re- 
 
5 
 
 main uncertain to what degree of perfection the ancients 
 attained in this part of domestic architecture. The research 
 would be much less difficult, and probably the time 
 might be correctly ascertained, when the present 
 ordinary prismatic chimney began to be used, instead of 
 the broad pyramidal form, which is still found in many 
 of the old houses in this country. An inverted pyramid 
 has by some been recommended ; but although such a 
 shape may have cured a smoky chimney, it is in general 
 altogether inapplicable, and in any case would be attended 
 with greater inconvenience than advantage. Since the 
 introduction of the prismatic form (in consequence of the 
 great number of smoky chimneys which are every where 
 to be found) much has been said in favour of, and many 
 attempts have been made to introduce German, and other 
 stoves, into English dwellings. But the open grate, 
 which is emphatically called the '^'English Fire-side,"is still 
 undoubtedly the favourite method with the bulk of the 
 populationof this country ; and the late Mr. Tredgold has 
 pointed out that it is more agreeable to nature, and better 
 for health, than any other by which our dwelling houses 
 can be heated. 
 
 If the antiquity of chimneys be satisfactorily proved, 
 possibly the following train of reasoning may show the 
 probability that the ancients were not altogether unac- 
 quainted with the use of the damper, and that they knew 
 that damp air or vapour, which is specifically lighter than 
 
6 
 
 dry air, is the vehicle or medium by which smoke ascends.* 
 The bottle in the smoke referred to in Ps. cxix. 83. 
 might have been used for this purpose, and probably 
 gave the idea of hanging a blown bladder in the chimney, 
 which has frequently been used, either to increase the 
 draft, or to prevent the return of the smoke. The blad- 
 der has been applied at different heights in the chimney, 
 even at the top of the flue ; but whether water has ever 
 been used in the bladder or the leathern bottle, or where 
 the latter was suspended, is perhaps uncertain. In the 
 Builder's Dictionary (Edit. 1726.) is the following ac- 
 count of a method used to increase the rate of the ascent 
 of smoke in a chimney. 
 
 " Philippe de I'Orme proposes to provide a hollow brass 
 ball of a reasonable capacity, with a little hole on one 
 side for the reception of water. I think it were better 
 made with a short nose, to screw off when it is filled with 
 water ; and then the hole at the end of this nose needs 
 not to be bigger than at the small end of a tobacco pipe. 
 This ball being filled with water, it is to be placed with 
 the hole upwards, upon an iron-wire, that shall traverse 
 
 * It is indeed said that steam, admitted into a flue, destroys the 
 smoke. The ancients, according to Pliny, anointed their wood 
 intended for fuel with the lees of oil, in order to mitigate the 
 nuisance which they experienced from smoke. If charcoal were 
 saturated with oil, it would perhaps as fuel for locomotive steam 
 engines, be found to be an improvement. 
 
7 
 
 the chimney a little above the mantel-tree, at the ordinary 
 height of the greatest heat or flames ; and when the wa- 
 ter is hot it will be rarified, and break out of the hole in 
 a windy vapour, which will force up the smoke, that 
 might linger in the tunnel by the way, and oftentimes 
 revert. It were better to have two of these balls, one of 
 them may supply the place of the other when it is ex- 
 hausted ; or for a need, blow the fire in the mean time."* 
 
 Here we have a description of a real damper, and as 
 this, by the space it occupied, contracted the chimney, 
 hence probably the term damper has been since applied 
 to other methods of contraction. Certainly the term 
 damper conveys no idea of the use of the contrivances 
 known by that name. The facts contained in the above 
 observations did not, however, suggest the idea of the 
 patent damper, for they were not known to the inventor 
 until after the patent was obtained, and it will be observed 
 that the means of regulating the draft and securely clos- 
 ing the chimney are not here adverted to. 
 
 The imperfections of the present chimneys have been 
 long known, and so much importance has been attached 
 
 * If the bottle in the smoke was not suspended in a chimney, 
 as the ball and the bladder have been used, perhaps it might have 
 been suspended over a stove. If so, it might have led to the idea 
 of placing an open vessel of water on the head of a stove, which 
 it is said, will prevent headaches and other ills, that, without this 
 precaution such methods of heating apartments are liable to pra 
 duce. 
 
to their perfect construction in this metropohs, that we 
 can only account for the fact that a nearer approximation 
 to perfection has not long ago been attained, by the con- 
 viction, that man hath no control over the time when any 
 particular improvement is to be made. Why one gene- 
 ration is favoured with greater inventive powers than an- 
 other, or why the most simple and most obvious conclu- 
 sions are not always drawn in the first instances, can only 
 be known to the Almighty Governor of the universe. 
 
 To make the ordinary chimneys as perfect as possible, 
 in an Act of Parliament called the Building Act, for the 
 more effectually preventing mischief by fire, within the 
 Cities of London and Westminster, &c. &c. particular di- 
 rections are given for their construction ; but notwith- 
 standing these injunctions, which have been in force for 
 sixty years under the superintendence of district surveyors, 
 and even where the most vigilant attention on the part 
 of architects, master-builders, and foremen, has been 
 added, there is no certainty that every part of every 
 chimney is perfectly constructed, or that timber is not 
 frequently placed too near them. 
 
 From the forgetfulness or want of thought in workmen, 
 the lining of chimneys, commonly called pargeting, is 
 perhaps seldom completely performed, and not unfre- 
 quently holes are left in flues for the scaffolding. When 
 this is the case, the lining cannot be made good, and the 
 holes are seldom if ever perfectly filled, perhaps only stopped 
 
9 
 
 by dry bricks. Besides this uncertainty of having ordi- 
 nary chimneys properly built in the first instance, they 
 may be rendered imperfect by settlements producing 
 fractures, and by various artificers cutting into the walls, 
 and driving into them, plugs, spikes, wall-hooks, &c. for 
 fixing joiners', plumbers', and other works. The pargeting 
 is also much injured by every operation of sweeping the 
 chimney, and will be still more so with the use of ma- 
 chinery. In the event of a chimney having been on fire, the 
 pargeting will be entirely destroyed in a short time. Any 
 of these circumstances, which occur more or less in every 
 building, and render the chimneys imperfect, are the 
 cause of much annoyance from smoke ; and when the im- 
 perfections are near wood-bricks,bond-timbers, battening, 
 laths, skirting of rooms, or any of the various thin 
 wooden linings, or the shelves of cupboards, or the tim- 
 bers and boards of the floors, they greatly increase the 
 risk from fire, and are, no doubt, frequently the cause of 
 houses being burnt, and occasion thereby so much loss of 
 property, so much anxiety of mind, so many painful acci- 
 dents, and so many dreadful deaths.* 
 
 An extensive practical experience in building for many 
 years, and with some of the consequences resulting from 
 
 * It has been estimated that in London there is an annual loss 
 of five lives, and of property to the amount of £100,000 by fire, 
 and that the average number of fires in a year, is thirty-five. 
 
10 
 
 the defects in ordinary chimneys, which are here perhaps 
 imperfectly enumerated, continually before him, the Pa- 
 tentee saw the necessity for, and was thus led to the in- 
 vention of, his metallic fire-proof lining, for the chimneys 
 of dwelling, and other houses and buildings. 
 
 The accompanying Engravings, with the annexed ex- 
 tracts from the specification, will fully explain the nature 
 of his invention, and the method of its application. 
 
 The simplicity and great importance of this invention 
 will be at once perceived by every person who has been 
 the occupier of a house, but more particularly by archi- 
 tects, surveyors, and builders. The Patentee, therefore, 
 indulges a sanguine expectation that it will receive from 
 them and the public in general, its fair testimony of ap- 
 probation. Besides forming a complete fire-proof lining to 
 chimneys, the metallic lining has the additional advantage 
 of suppressing the odious, painful, and sometimes fatal, prac- 
 tice of climbing boys, and on this account will no doubt re- 
 ceive the cordial approbation of the Society formed for 
 that purpose, and from all friends of humanity. The form 
 and size of the ordinary chimney, has long been retained 
 for no other purpose than to admit climbing boys, al- 
 though both have been condemned by scientific men. 
 Indeed, how frequently do we find that a chimney re- 
 quires contraction ; and the late Mr. Tredgold, who has 
 perhaps treated this subject with more practical and sci- 
 entific knowledge combined, than any other writer, says, 
 
11 
 
 " that most of our smoky rooms are in consequence of the 
 flues being too large/' and the same intelligent author 
 who well knew their defects, recommends the circular 
 form for their transverse section, which indeed has long 
 been considered the best by other writers, architects, and 
 builders, who have thought upon this subject. 
 
 The metallic tubular linings may be made of any form, 
 and the sizes may vary with the sizes of the fires and the 
 lengths of the flues. The circular form is however at 
 present for most purposes preferred. 
 
 The following sizes are now in use : — viz. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 
 and 10 inches inside diameter respectively. 
 
 The Patentee considers that stove manufacturers may 
 easily adapt their register stoves to his metallic tubes, so 
 as to make a metal chimney from the fire upwards, while 
 such as prefer more open grates, and object to much 
 metal about the fire-place, may without difficulty make 
 their contractions to accord therewith. 
 
 Besides the application of the metallic tubes to chim- 
 neys in new houses, they may also be introduced into, 
 and form perfect linings to the flues of old or imperfect 
 chimneys in any other building.* This may be done by 
 making openings into the flues, on each floor, and putting 
 in, up, or down, the necessary lengths and forms of 
 
 * The employment of climbing boys to sweep chimneys is 
 deemed odious : — How then must it be designated, when for hours 
 together, they are shut up in a chimney, repairing, or reparget- 
 ing old and imperfect flues ? 
 
12 
 
 tubing. In general the openings for putting in the tubes 
 may be made within the several fire-places. The expense 
 of doing this, it must be manifest, will be trifling com- 
 pared with the rebuilding of a party wall, and the atten- 
 dant work which such rebuilding would occasion. 
 
 These metallic chimney linings will also be found par- 
 ticularly useful in those parts of the country where stone 
 is used for building, especially where it is flinty, or of a 
 cold and damp nature. In such houses smoky rooms are 
 more frequent than in brick buildings. And it may also 
 be used to very great advantage in the cobbwalls, (of 
 which houses are frequently built) in Devonshire, &c.* 
 
 In order that architects and builders may be enabled 
 to calculate the exact quantity of the several shapes of the 
 metallic lining required for any building, moulds have 
 been made of the various forms to different scales, and 
 models of particular parts, which it is presumed will ma- 
 terially assist in determining the best method of turning 
 the direction of a flue under any circumstances. 
 
 No particular termination at the top of the chimney is 
 recommended, but caps and contracting pieces of various 
 descriptions will be prepared to fit the tubing ; indeed 
 
 * The duty on brick and tiles, which adds comparatively but 
 little to the revenues of the country, is considered the means of 
 entailing much of the discomfort and misery arising from damp 
 houses, especially to the poor ; while the removal of this duty (for 
 bricks are better than any other material for the inside of dwell- 
 ing houses) would produce a great increase of employment to the 
 labouring: population. 
 
13 
 
 this is an interesting field for design, in which it is ge- 
 nerally allowed there is abundant room for improvement. 
 
 Having, however, obtained in the metallic tubes a perfect 
 fire-proof lining for chimneys, which cannot be injured 
 by the sweeping machine, and which is also a strong bond 
 to the brick or other material in which it may be imbedded, 
 it will, no doubt, lead to many other improvements in 
 buildings, which it will be the object of the Patentee to 
 effect. Indeed, it has long been an object with him, by 
 using stone staircases, to render his buildings more se- 
 cure from fire. On the whole, it is presumed that the 
 metallic chimney lining will be considered an important 
 improvement in Domestic Architecture, whether regarded 
 in reference to security from fire, the suppression of 
 climbing boys, the prevention of houses being entered by 
 descending the chimney, the annoyance from smoke, or 
 the strength of the building ; in short, it will, without 
 doubt, be found to add much to the comfort, cleanliness, 
 and safety of our dwellings, and the cheerfulness of an 
 English fire-side : it will also have a tendency to increase 
 the consumption of iron, one of the staple commodities of 
 the country, and thus produce an increase of labour, 
 which, at this time, is so much required. 
 
 In many places where the metallic lining may be used, 
 there may be a considerable reduction in the brick work 
 in the chimney breasts : in such cases the cost of the 
 tubes will make but an inconsiderable addition to the 
 cost of a first-rate house ; and of course, to all houses it 
 
14 
 
 will be found to be generally proportionable. If, how- 
 ever, the cost of the metallic lining were much greater 
 than it will be in any case, the advantages which will 
 result from it, would be found an ample equivalent ; and 
 perhaps it seldom happens but that there is some expense, 
 and frequently as much, in endeavouring in vain to cure 
 smoky chimneys, while many of the bad effects and dan- 
 gers arising from the imperfections of the present method 
 of pargeting remain and must be endured. These ob- 
 servations, therefore, clearly make it appear that a small 
 additional cost in the building of a house, by making all 
 the chimneys perfect, is not an object worthy of the least 
 consideration. 
 
 Mr. White, the eminent Architect and District Surveyor 
 for St.Mary-le-bone, who has been particularly consulted 
 upon the details of the Bill now before Parliament for 
 amending the Building Act, having alluded to the extreme 
 thinness of party walls where the fire places are back to 
 back, which circumstance frequently occasions the sound 
 in one house to be heard distinctly and unpleasantly in 
 the other, it w^as pointed out to him that it would not 
 be the case where the metallic lining is used, for without 
 any increase in the projection of the chimney breast, the 
 party wall will in the part complained of, be double the 
 thickness. And as the chimneys in the one house 
 (except those in the attic) it is recommended, should be 
 kept at a distance from those in the other, the sound 
 would, by that means be still more effectually prevented. 
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 Plate I. — Fig. 1 . is an elevation in section of a stack of chim- 
 neys, in a dwelling house, lined with metal tubes, and thus show- 
 ing my first improvement. 
 
 Plate II. — Figs. 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, are drawings to a larger 
 scale, showing the several pieces of tubing by which I obtain the 
 various directions and turns in the chimneys, necessary for such 
 a stack as aforesaid. 
 
 Fig. 7 is a plan of the general tubing. The tubes here repre- 
 sented are supposed to be made of cast iron, and fitted together 
 by means of a flange lip or rim as shown in the drawing. 
 
 Plate III. — Fig. 8 is a front view in section of my damper or 
 draft regulator in its position in the chimney and fire-place. A, 
 B, are two cones, united by flanges at their bases ; the upper one 
 being furnished with a lip or gutter, C C, for the bottom of the 
 chimney lining to shut into. D is a circular ring or plate of iron, 
 on which I raise the first piece of metal tube or lining, and which 
 I therefore call the starting plate. E is a bar of iron, furnished 
 with two pulleys, FF, over which pass the two chains G G; thus 
 supporting the double cone by one end, and by the other the ba- 
 lance weight H. It will be seen by this arrangement, that when the 
 balance weight H is raised, the double cone or damper will de- 
 scend, thus opening a greater or less passage for the air up the 
 chimney ; while, on the contrary, if kept in the position shown 
 in this figure, and fastened there by the nut K, no air can pass 
 up or down the chimney. When the passage for the draft is 
 opened to its greatest extent, the damper will assume the position 
 shown by the dotted lines in this figure. 
 
 Fig. 9 is a side view in section of my damper or draft regulator 
 in its position in the chimney and fire-place. In this figure it is 
 shown open, while the dotted lines show its closed position. 
 
16 
 
 Fig. 10 is a plan of the starting plate J), and jfigure 11 is its 
 section. 
 
 Fig. 12 is the plan of the cross or supporting bar E, and figare 
 13 is its section. 
 
 It will be observed, that when the damper is used it is necessary 
 to cast a recess in the first piece of tubing or lining above the 
 starting plate, to receive the ends of the cross bar, as at J J, figure 
 14. Of this first piece of tubing figure 15 is the plan. 
 
 Fig. 16 is the plan, and figure 17 the section of the double cone 
 damper. 
 
 Fig. 1 8 is a section of the nut K. 
 
 Fig. 19 is a separate drawing of the balance weight H, and the 
 rod by which it is connected with the chains G G, shown within 
 the nut K. 
 
 The several pieces, as they are drawn separately, are each 
 marked with a letter which refers to the piece, as it is united 
 with others in figures 1, 8, and 9. 
 
 Figure 20 is a plan of a fire-place or opening for a grate or 
 stove prepared to receive the damper. 
 
 The stack of chimneys represented in Plate I. is given with the 
 view of showing several pieces of pipes rather than to recommend 
 the directions in which the chimneys proceed from the several 
 fire-places. It will be generally desirable to make the distances 
 between the centres of the several flues equal when they reach 
 the top of the building, and as it is considered that it will check 
 the ascent of the smoke, if the direction of a chimney cross the 
 same vertical line more than once, it will probably be generally 
 best to make all the flues to turn to the same hand, from a little 
 above the several fire-places. Separate flues should also be intro- 
 duced for any oven, hot-plate, or boiler, that maybe required in the 
 kitchen, scullery, &c. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
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