IMPROVED MEANS OF LIGHTING GAS FOR ILLUMINATING
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Edward Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, for the
Invention of "IMPROVED MEANS OF LIGHTING GAS FOR ILLUMINATING AND
Sealed the 25th September 1857, and dated the 14th April 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Edward Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
14th April 1857.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVED MEANS OF LIGHTING GAS FOR ILLUMINATING
AND OTHER PURPOSES," to be as follows
The principal object of this Invention is to light the whole or any number
of the gas lights employed in a public or other building or district simul-
taneously, or without the necessity of lighting each separately by hand,and to
enable the gas chandeliers and other suspended gas lights in theatres and other
places, and other lights in positions not easily reached by hand or mechanical
agency, to be lighted without difficulty.
The Invention consists, firstly, in effecting the lighting of the gas by the
heat generated or developed by an electric current in a number of conductors
of fine platina or other wire, curled up and arranged one near the orifice of
each of the burners to be lighted, the said conductors forming connections
[Price 8d1

page_text: between breaks in a conducting wire of much larger capacity, connecting the
poles of a battery or other apparatus for generating a current of electricity.
In applying this mode of lighting gas the current of electricity is only
required in the aforesaid platina conductors till the gas is lighted, after which
the electric circuit may be broken; but by arranging the platiua conductors
in such manner that they shall stand within the flame of the burners, they
will be kept heated to such a degree that if the flame should be accidentally
or inadvertently blown out they will serve to effect the instantaneous re-
ignition of the gas issuing from the burner; and hence platina wires coiled so
as to present a considerable heating surface may be attached to gas burners
which are to be lighted by hand in the usual way so as to stand in the flame
to be heated thereby, for the purpose of re-igniting the gas in case of the
light being accidentally blown out.
Another object of the Invention is to bring the service or supply cock by
which the gas is supplied to a number of burners that are to be lighted by
electricity to be opened or closed or made to regulate the supply to the said
burners under the control of a person at a distant part of a building or other
distant place; and to this end, the second part of the Invention consists in
furnishing the service or supply cock with a ratchet wheel, or its equivalent,
to be engaged by a pawl or dog, or the equivalent thereof, attached to one end
of a lever whose opposite end has attached to it the armature of an electro-
magnet, which is made to attract the said armature by an electric current.
By closing and opening the circuit in which the magnet is placed by means of
the key, the armature is alternately attracted towards the magnet by the
attraction produced therein by the current, and drawn away therefrom by a
spring, and by that means motion is given to the pawl to operate the ratchet
or other wheel and turn the cock.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Edward Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 14th October 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand, eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her

page_text: reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Edward Newton, Her special license that I, the said William
Edward Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said William Edward Newton, my executors, administrators, and 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
"IMPROVED MEANS OF LIGHTING GAS FOR ILLUMINATING AND OTHER PURPOSES,"
being a communication from abroad, upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said William Edward Newton, by an instrument in writing under
iny baud 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,
NOW KNOW YE, that 1, the said William Edward Newton, 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 Drawing hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say):-
Theprincipal object of this Invention, of "Improved Means of Lighting Gas
for Illuminating and other Purposes," is to light the wholo or any number of
thegas lights employed in a public or other building or district simultaneously,
or without the necessity of lighting each separately by hand, and to enable the
gas chandeliers and other suspended gas lights in theatres and other places,
and other lights in positions not easily reached by hand or mechanical agency,
to be lighted without difficulty.
The Invention consists, firstly, in effecting the lighting of the gas by the
heat generated or developed by an electric current in a number of conductors
of fine platina or other wire, curled up and arranged one near the orifice of
each of the burners to be lighted, the said conductors forming connections
between breaks in a conducting wire of much larger capacity, connecting the
poles of a buttery or other apparatus for generating a current of electricity.
The above-named platina or other conductors should have the form of coils,
or be crimped, curled, or tangled, so as to present a considerable amount of
heated surface near the orifice of the burner, to ensure the speedy ignition of
the gas.
In applying this mode of lighting gas the current of electricity is only

page_text: required in the aforesaid platina conductors until the gas is lighted, after
which the electric circuit may be broken; but by arranging the platina con-
ductors in such manner that they shall stand within the flame of the burners,
they will be kept heated to such a degree that if the flame should be acci-
dentally or inadvertently blown out they will serve to effect the instantaneous
re-ignition of the gas issuing from the burner; and hence platina wires coiled
so as to present considerable heating surface, or curled, may be attached to
gas burners which are to be lighted by hand in the usual way so as to stand
in the flanie to be heated thereby, for the purpose of re-igniting the gas iu
case of the light being accidentally blown out.
Another object of the Invention is to bring the service or supply cock by
which the gas is supplied to a number of burners that are to be lighted by
electricity to be opened or closed or made to regulate the supply to the said
burners under the control of a person at a distant part of a building or other
distant place; and to this end, the second part of the Invention consists in
furnishing the service or supply cock with a ratchet wheel, or its quivalent,
to be engaged by a pawl or dog, or the equivalent thereof, attached to one
end of a lever whose opposite end has attached to it the armature of an
electro-magnet, which is made to attract the said armature by an electric
current, which may be generated by the same battery or generating apparatus
employed for the purpose of generating the current by which the lighting is
effected, requiring only a change of circuit effected by a proper arrangement
of conductors and a key. By closing and opening the circuit in which the
magnet is placed the armature is alternately attracted towards the magnet by
the attraction produced therein by the current, and drawn away therefrom
by a spring, and by that means motion is given to the pawl to operate the
ratchet or other wicel and turn the cock.
In the accompanying Drawing, Fig. 1 is an elevation, shewing a gas pipe
with several burners attached, together with the service pipe and cock for
supplying the same, the lighting conductors, and the wires connecting the
same with the battery, and the electro-magnet and branch of the circuit for
operating the same to open and close the service cock; Fig. 2 is a plan of
the same. Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in both
Figures. a, a, are the burners attached to the pipe A; B is the service pipe,
and C is the cock; D is a table, to which are attached the wires which con-
stitute the two branches of the circuit for opening the cock and lighting the
gas, the two keys for opening and closing the circuit in either branch at
pleasure, and the electro-magnet and its armature and lever for operating the
cock; 6, 6', are two screw bolts, secured to the table D for the purpose of

page_text: receiving the ends of the two wires cand d,which constitute the terminal poles
of the battery or other generating apparatus. That apparatus is not shewn
as it may be of any known character, and its nature is supposed to be suf-
ficiently well understood without explanation. From the bottom of the clamp b
a wire e, (Fig. 2,) runs under the table 1) to the fixed end of the key E, and
from a plate of metal i, (Fig. 1,) attached to the upper surface of the table D;
under the kuob of the key E is attached one end of the conducting wire f, in
which the platina lighting conductors g,g, are placed, the other end of the
said wire being connected with the clamp 6'; the direction of that branch of
the circuit between the wires c, d, of which the wire f and lighting con-
ductors g, g, form parts, is indicated in Fig. 2 by red arrows. The wire f,
which should be of copper, leads to all the burners to be lighted by the
current, but opposite to each buruer it has a short piece cut out or omitted
to make room for the fine platinum wire conductor g, which is suldered or
otherwise attached to it, so as to stand above and nearly close to the burner
for the purpose of lighting the gas. It is preferable in some respects to make
the lighting conductors g, g, in the form of coils, as shewn, but they may be
crimped, curled, tangled, or otherwise formed, so as to make a small bunch
near the orifices of the burners for the gas to pass through as it issues from
the burners. The conductors should be placed a little on one side of the
orifices of the burners, as shewn in Fig. 2, in preference to immediately
over thein; for if placed immediately over them the issuing streams of gas
blowing upon them are liable to cool them without being ignited, which is
not the case when they are placed so far aside that the gas has an opportunity
to expand and become mixed with a certain proportion of atmospheric air
before coming in contact with them. h, h, are small posts of insulating
material attached to the pipe A to support the wire f. The branch of the
circuit through the wire f and conductors is closed by depressing the knob of
the key E to bring its point into contact with the plate i, but when the pres-
sure of the hand is removed from the key E, the said key springs up so as to
break the contact between its knob and the plate i and thus open the circuit.
F is the electro-magnet for operating the cock C to turn off and on and
regulate the flow of the gas; G is its armature; H, the lever to which the
armature is attached; I, a standard supporting the lever H; J, a pawle
attached to the lever H; and K, a ratchet wheel on the cock C with which
the pawl J engages; j is a spring to remove the armature from contact with
the poles of the electro-magnet when the branch of the circuit in which the
magnet is placed is open; k is an adjustable stop screw to regulate the move-
ment of the armature. The branch of the circuit, in which is the magnet F;

page_text: consists of a wire a, a key M, a plate m, and a wire 7, the wire n running from
the screw clamp 6 to the fixed end of the key M, and the plate m being
secured to the surface of the table D below the knob of the key, and having
attached to it one end of the wire l,which forms the coil of the electro-magnet,
the other end of the said wire being connected with the screw clamp 6. This
branch of the circuit between the wires c, d, (whose direction is indicated by
the dark arrows in Fig. 2) is closed by depressing the knob of the key M into
contact with the plate m, and opened by the elasticity of the key when the
knob of the key has the pressure removed from it.
The operation of turning on the gas is effected by playing with the finger
on the key Mto open and close the branch of the circuit through the magnet F.
Every time the circuit is closed the armature is attacted by the magnet, and
every time the circuit is opened the armature is drawn away by the spring,
thus giving motion to the lever H and causing the pawl J to operate the
ratchet K and turn the cock; a very few strokes of the key M will be
sufficient to turn on the gas full. When the gas is thus turned on, the branch
of the circuit through the magnet is allowed to remain open at the key M,
and the other branch through the wire and lighting conductors g.g,isclosed
by depressing the key E. The platinum conductors g, g, owing to the resist-
ance they offer to the passage of the current, both by reason of their being of
a size so very much less than the wire f, and of the inferior conducting power
of the platinum, will almost instantly become of a bigh red or almost a white
heat, and will cause the ignition of the gas. Other metal might be used
temporarily in place of platinum for the conductors, but there is no other
metal of which they could be casily constructed but that would be soon de-
stroyed by the heat. When the burners are all lighted, the key E is allowed
to rise, and the circuit through the wire f and conductors 9, g, may remain
broken, but as, has been before stated, the conductors remain heated by the
flame of the gas to such a degree, that if the flame of any burner is blown
out, it will be instantly re-ignited by the conductor above it. It may be here
remarked that in applying platinum wires to burners lighted by hand for the
re-ignition of the gas when blown out, the best way to attach them is to secure
the two ends of the piece of wire to the tip of the burner, as shewn in
Figures 3 and 4, the former of which is a section, and the latter a side view
of burners; this may be effected by drilling small holes in the tip and simply
inserting the ends of the wire tightly therein. When it is desired to turn off
the gas, the key M is played upon as in turning it on to make the magnet
operate the pawl to turn the cock. The wheel k may be marked or graduated
in any way to show when the cock is open or closed, and how far it is open.

page_text: Having now described this Invention of "Improved Means of Lighting
Gas for Illuminating and other Purposes," and having explained the manner
of carrying the same into effect, as communicated to me by my foreign
correspondent, I claim, as the Invention secured to nie by Letters Patent as
aforesaid,-
First, the lighting of illuminating gas by the heat generated or developed
by an electric current in conductors of fine platinum or other wire arranged
substantially as herein described, one conductor being near the orifice of each
of the burners to be lighted, and forming connections between breaks in a
conducting wire of larger capacity connecting the poles of a battery or other
apparatus for generating a current of electricity. I also claim the employ-
ment of platinum wires arranged substantially as herein described near the
orifices of gas burners in general, for the purpose of being kept heated by the
flame from the burners and reserving sufficient heat to re-ignite the gas if the
light should be accidentally blown out or otherwise extinguished.
Second, I claim the opening of the cock to supply a number of gas burners
that are to be lighted by electricity by the movements of the armature of an
electro-magnet connected with the same battery, by which the current to light
the burners is generated, but placed in a different branch of the circuit to the
lighting conductors, such movements being produced by opening and closing
the circuit through the magnet, and acting upon the cock through the agency
of a pawl and ratchet, or their equivalents, substantially as herein set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Edward Newton, have horeunto
set my hand and scal, the Fourteenth day of October, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
W. E. NEWTON. (L.S.)