Patent GB-404302-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in electric and other imitation fires
IPC: F24C7/00
Filed: 1932-07-09
Abstract: 404,302. Imitation fires. PREMIER ELECTRIC HEATERS, Ltd., and NEWTON, A. E., Keeley Street, Birmingham. July 9, 1932, Nos. 19498, 22512, 30201, and 30202. [Class 126.] In an imitation fire comprising a flicker device transmitting light to imitation fuel or to a screen to produce on it an effect of flames and smoke, one or more reflecting surfaces are provided which change the movement of the moving light beams before they fall on the screen &c., so as to produce images on the latter moving in the desired direction. The imitation fire shown, Fig. 3 being a rear view, comprises a lamp 23 with a flicker device 14 illuminating both artificial fuel, which rests on a translucent plate 19, and also an inclined screen 22 behind it. The flicker device comprises an inverted cup-shaped member supported on a pivot 27 carried on a cap 24 secured on the lamp, and is rotated by the action of the rising air currents on bent-up vanes 33 on the top. The light passes up between the vanes, through slots 36 in the upper part of the sides, and through curved apertures 38, a part 35 of the cap being cut away to allow the light to pass to the upper part of the imitation fuel. Parts of the interior of the cup 14 may be bright, and parts dull, black, or coloured, and a part of the lamp may be darkened or coloured. Extending laterally and upwardly on each side of the flicker device are reflectors 15, 16 which reflect the light upwardly on to the screen 22. These reflectors may be curved in the direction of their length, as shown, or straight, and one of them, 15, is of concave cross-section whilst the other, 16, is of straight cross-section. The beams falling on the two reflectors are moving in opposite directions to one another, but the reflected beams from the reflector 15 are, owing to the concave cross-section, reversed as regards their angular movement; the images reflected on the screen 22 from the two reflectors therefore all move in the upward direction. The reflectors are carried by a U-shaped bracket 40, on which also is mounted the lamp-holder. The bracket 40 is carried by a plate 42 sliding in guides 47, allowing the lamp, flicker-device, and reflectors to be removed as a unit through the back of the fire. In the fire shown, a horizontal reflector 49 reflects non-flickering light on to the underside of the fuel. In front of the fire is a rolled or embossed glass sheet 53 backed by colouring material 54, behind which is an apertured plate 55 the rear face of which may be polished. The plates 18, 19 closing the top of the lamp chamber consist of two thicknesses of rolled or embossed glass with one or more sheets of colouring material between. The screen 22 may be ribbed or embossed, matt or polished, and of plane, paraboloidal, undulating, or other shape. Electric heating elements 57 may be provided. In a modification, screens of rolled or embossed glass are mounted above the reflectors 15, 16, and above the flicker device 14. Other constructions referred to comprise a single flicker device towards one-end of the fire, with a single reflector at one side, or two flicker devices at each side of, and equidistant from, the centre of the stove, each having a reflector at each side.