Kiln man’s invention aims to increase heat, reduce smoke

Press, 12 May 1979, Page 16

Kiln man’s invention aims to increase heat, reduce smoke

By

GARRY ARTHUR

A fire efficiency device invented by a kiln builder in the Staffordshire potteries during the depression could mean big savings for Christchurch residents. It appears to have the cardinal virtue of many of the important inventions — sheer simplicity. As the photograph shows, it is little more than a second grate inverted over the fire. Mr Bert Lover, who has had a big run of them cast at a Christchurch foundry, foundry, predicts that the Berjan fire arch, as it is

called, will increase the efficiency of an ordinary fireplace by at least 50 per cent — and at the same time reduce chimney smoke by the same amount.

Mr Brian Purcell, the photographer he hired .to take pictures of the fire arch, tried it out in his own home, and was so impressed by it that he has been demonstrating it to friends and neighbours. In effect, the arch achieves secondary combustion of particles and gases which would normally go straight up the chimney. The fire heats the cast iron grid, and from then on the two work in sympathy. As the fire arch gets hotter, it contributes to the heat of the fire. The description in the patent says that “any combustible gases which reach the heated grill before igniting are forthwith ignited, thus causing a great reduction in smoke and soot and an increase in the efficiency of com-

bustion.” It adds that the position of the grid over the fuel prevents cold air from striking the surface of the fuel to lower its temperature — “and thus maximum heat is maintained.” The inventor was Mi Lover’s father. The first Albert Lover lived at Fen ton, Staffordshire, and was a kiln builder and firer in the potteries. He slept on a bench outside the kiln, keeping watch on his handiwork. “Staffordshire is called ‘the black country’ be-

cause of the smoke,” said Mr Lover, “and my father wanted to design something during the depression which would both cut down the smoke and save coal.” Those were hard times for the Lover family. Bert Lover remembers his father being out of work more often than not. They queued for soup, and the eight children had to help scratch a living from the industrial slag heaps. Their father built regular mine shafts, pit props and all, into the heaps and lowered Bert and the other children down on a rope so that they could fossick for bits of coal among the slate and other rubbish.

When Albert Lover could not work at his trade, he took what he could get. Bert remembers that when his father managed to get a navvying job. he was once sent home because he arrived at work with his pick not polished to the degree of gleam demanded by the

foreman. There were plenty more workers waiting to take his place. Clay was Albert Lover’s medium, and he designed his original fire arch in fire clay. He had his own kiln in the garden, cut his own clay from distant clay pits, and “baked” fire arches which he would give away to friends. He obtained a provisional patent in 1927, but was so hard up that he could not raise the necessary £l6 (about $32) to take out a full patent. The depression prevented him from ever developing the fire arch commercially, al-

though the Ministry of Fuel and Power recommended him to do so, after testing it in their laboratories. Now his son is ready to launch the invention in Christchurch. He has renewed the provisional patent. Bert Lover says the effect of the fire arch on an open fire is noticeable immediately. "A smouldering fire just bursts into flames,” he says. As a bonus, the flat top of the fire arch can be used as a hot plate for the kettle or the stewpot.