AN APPARATUS TO BE APPLIED TO THE CHIMNIES OF GAS AND OTHER BURNERS AND LAMPS TO IMPROVE COMBUSTION
Year: 1839

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
WALTON FAXON, of Park Village, East, Regent's Park, in the County of
Middlesex, Surgeon, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Sixteenth day of December, in the third year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Samuel Walton Faxon, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said Samuel Walton Faxon, my exors, adññiors, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Samuel Walton Faxon, my exors,
adñiors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to
time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales,
and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, the Invention of "AN APPARATUS TO
BE APPLIED TO THE CHIMNIES OF GAS AND OTHER BURNERS AND LAMPS TO IMPROVE
COMBUSTION;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that I,
the said Samuel Walton Faxon, shall cause a particular description of the.
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said

page_text: in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being there-
unto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Samuel Walton Faxon, do hereby declare that the said Invention of a
new apparatus to be applied to the chinnies of gas and other burners and
lamps to improve combustion, consists of the application of a concave disc or
cup of copper or other metallic substance, suspended at a short distance above
the chimney of the argand or table lamp, gas, or other burner to which it is
applied, suflicient to allow a current of air to pass freely between the chimney
and the metallic disc or cup above the flame of the gas, oil, or other light
to which it is intended to be adapted, and which distance should generally be
from 2 tenths to one-half of an inch, according to the length of chimney
employed. The diameter of the disc or cup should exceed the diameter of the
chimney only in a slight degree, about a quarter of an inch, so that the flame
of the gas, oil, or other light may speedily heat such disc or cup by means
of a solid cylinder of about 2 inches in length, and about ths of an inch
in diameter, composed of porcelain or other clay, or silicious carth, suspended
by a chain, wire, or other convenient supporting apparatus according to the
relative form and position of the lamp or other lighting apparatus to which
it is to be applied. The effect produced by this arrangement of materials is,
that the non-conducting substance from which the metallic disc or cup depends,
affording no means of escape for the heat produced by the intense action of
the flame on such metallic disc or cup, the disc or cup becomes shortly raised
to and kept at such a high degree of temperature as, by the concave form of
the disc or cup, completely to collect, concentrate, and decompose, and thereby
effectually destroy all such smoke, gas, or other unconsumed particles as
would otherwise escape and become noxiously disposed in the surrounding
atmosphere. The mode by which I attach the non-conducting body of clay,
porcelain, or other silicious earth as aforesaid, is by passing it through and
fitting it (but not so lightly as to prevent its expansion by the effect of the
heat, whereby it might crack or split,) like the head of a common skrew, to
a grooved orifice in the centre of the metallic disc or cup, and thereby support-
ing it in any situation which may be required.
And whereas various materials, such as iron, brass, copper, and other
metallic substances, glass, &c., may have been used for the purpose of collecting,
confining, and preventing the dispension in rooms of heat, smoke, and other
noxious particles, arising from the burning of gas, oil, and other lights and
burners. Now I do hereby declare that I do not claim as the substance of my

page_text: Invention, the application of non-conducting materials in connection with
metallic or conducting substances merely, nor the application of any apparatus
for the purpose of merely collecting, confining, or preventing the escape of the
heat, smoke, or other gascous or noxious particles arising from the burning
of gas, oil, or other lights or burners; but I claim only as my Invention, the
application of a non-conducting material of clay, porcelain, or other silicious
earth, or any other non-conducting material, capable of bearing the action of
intense heat in connection with a metallic disc or cup for the purpose of pre-
venting the escape of the heat, and thereby keeping the metallic disc or cup
at such a high temperature as wholly to decompose and destroy the uncon-
sumed gaseous and carbonaceous matters passing off from the gas, oil, or other
lights or burners, and exposed by its juxtaposition to the direct action of such
heated metallic disc or cup in the manner above described.
It remains only to state the material and the mode of preparing the same
which I have found the best for the non-conducting cylinder to which the
metallic disc or cup is to be attached. After various experiments with glass,
ivory, hard wood, potters' clay, porcelain earth, and Devonshire clay, I found
the latter material, the Devonshire clay, to be met with at Newton Bushel,
Teignmouth, and elsewhere, to be the best as the most plastic and least
friable material. I mould it whilst in a state of softness to the desired form
and length, and then bake it in a potter's or tobacco-pipe maker's furnace or
kiln for the space of eight or ten hours.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Walton Faxon, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this First day of June, in the third year of
the reign of our Sovereign Lady Victoria, by the grace of God, of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Queen, Defender of
the Faith, and in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twelfth day of June, in the
year of our Lord 1840, the aforesaid Samuel Walton Faxon came before
our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specifica-
tion aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.,