PROVEMENTS IN LIGHTING OR ILLUMINATING, AND IN APPARATUS TO BE USED THEREFOR."
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Amos Peirce Chamberlain at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 11th December 1878. (A communica-
tion from abroad by Almon Henry Hearington, of Michigan, in the United
States of America.)
"IM-
AMOS PEIRCE CHAMBERLAIN, of Finsbury Street, in the City of London.
PROVEMENTS IN LIGHTING OR ILLUMINATING, AND IN APPARATUS TO BE USED
THEREFOR." (A communication from abroad by Almon Henry Hearington, of
Michigan, in the United States of America.)
This Invention relates to the production of light or illumination by the employ-
ment and use or consumption, in combination, of gas and electricity, and a special
object of the Invention is to produce a portable and simply constructed apparatus
for generating, storing, and utilizing both the gas and the electricity; the parts of
such apparatus being constructed, arranged, and combined in such a manner as to
ensure the insulation thereof from all surrounding objects, and to generate and store
reservoirs of gas and of electricity which can be kept (till required to be used where-
ever required) in the most serviceable and fit condition for use.
The improved apparatus is constructed with a water tight case, within which a
second water case, containing all the generating parts is placed, being suitably insu-
lated from the outer case and capable of being removed therefrom when required,
the space between the cases being filled or nearly filled with water (or with a suit-
able non-conductor of heat) when the apparatus is in use.
The inner case is suitably disposed and arranged so as to contain the separate
means of generating the gas and the electricity, both of which when generated or
produced are kept in the most serviceable condition for use by the agency of the
surplus heat which is the medium of producing the gas and an auxiliary medium in
generating the electricity, and being thus kept in such condition greatly superior
results in the lighting or illuminating power are attained, to any which have been
attained simply by the use of gas or electricity alone according to any known
system.
I will firstly describe the means and the process of generating the gas by the
agency of the heat, and that part of the apparatus with which the heat is a medium
of generating the electricity:

page_text: The heat may be obtained by the use of any ordinary heating medium, but it is
preferred to use ordinary coal gas which may be produced at the ordinary gas works
or elsewhere, and led to the apparatus by flexible or other piping, and led to suit-
able burners in the lower part thereof, and there cousumed so as to produce the
desired heat.
Conveniently near, and above, or otherwise arranged adjacent to the burners are
placed one or a series of closed chambers which contain any suitable oil, liquid, or
composition from which a good and continuous supply of gas or gaseous vapor can
be produced by the evaporation thereof or other effect thereon caused by the heat
produced as above described.
The gas or gaseous vapor as thus generated or produced is led or passes from the
closed chambers within which it is formed to one or a series of receivers, holders, or
accumulators within which it may accumulate, and be stored, and from which it
may be led by piping to the burners where it is required to be utilized in combina-
tion with the.electricity as hereinafter described.
These receivers may be made of any convenient and suitable construction, they
inay be telescopic to a certain extent or they may be made so as to admit of
expanding under the pressure of the accumulating gas, or they may be made
sufficiently strong to withstand a considerable pressure due to a lasting accumu-
lation of gas within them, and they may be fitted with suitable safety or sentinel
valves suitably disposed and arranged as to give an audible or other signal by
which an attendant's or anyone else's attention may be called upon the safe limit of
pressure being reached, so, that the burners producing the heat may be turned down
or the supply of gas thereto regulated, so as to lessen or cease the production or
generation of further gas until the supply or store on hand in the receivers is suffi-
ciently utilized or exhausted, or until the pressure thereof within the receivers
decreases to a safe degree, and to avoid waste of gas and any risk of explosion
from an over accumulation of gas.
After being thus utilized in generating the gas, the heat or surplus heat is further
utilized as an auxiliary medium in the generation of electricity, thus,-
The upper part of the inner case is fitted with one or a series of thermopiles made
preferably of bundled wire, these thermopiles are preferably made in the form of
rings or of nearly complete circles, their ends being united by wires, and the bundles
of wire composing them are suitably insulated from the surrounding case, and their
arrangement is such as to form a continuous zig-zag or circuitous passage or flue
(terminating in a dome) along which the surplus heat traverses in such a manner
as to be utilized in warming the thermopiles, and generating electricity within
them, The waste portion of heat then escapes through the dome into a central
chimney or flue.
In the passage of the heat all the surrounding parts are warmed by it, and this
is found to be very instrumental in rendering the gas and electricity generated
within the apparatus more serviceable when required for use, considerably aug-
menting and improving the result, that is, the light or illumination obtained. The
water between the said cases is also heated in the passage of the heat, and tends to
keep the interior arrangement in the desired condition of temperature.
Within the second case is a third case which contains the batteries or any suitable
arrangement thereof by which the chief supply of electricity is generated.
The second and third cases slide in and out of their surrounding cases in the
manner of drawers, and the innermost or third case is provided with a number of
shelves or brackets which support the batteries which generate, and the coils which
store up the electricity in such a manner as that they can be removed when
requiring renewal of their elements or exciting liquids.
It is preferred to construct the batteries of outer strong glass vessels within
which the cells are disposed as follows:-The cells are made of glass tubing cach
end being provided with a screw cap to keep the exciting liquid within them, and
with squared ends by which the zinc, copper, or other elements are carried, the
square ends of the tubes also serving to keep the cells in the desired position. Each

page_text: cell or vessel is or may be provided with a safety valve so that the heat of the
surrounding apparatus shall not cause the exciting liquid to unduly expand and
fracture the cells. The zinc and copper elements of the batteries are also made of a
peculiar form, that is, of such a form as the exciting liquid would in its action soon
reduce them to, as it is found that the action of such batteries is more intense as
the exciting liquid gradually wears the elements away to certain and peculiar curves,
and therefore the elements are formed with these curves in the first instance so
that their action is at all times as intense as is possible with the arrangement.
There is a main battery composed of such cells arranged in the lower part of the
case the upper part of which is adapted with smaller auxiliary batteries of
some what the same or of any usual construction.
Dry piles or batteries can also be used in the generation of the electricity.
The electricity generated by these batteries is collected by wires, and conducted
to conveniently arranged coils composed of bundles of wire placed in any convenient
positions and properly insulated, and from these conductors other wires lead to a
common centre or focus which also receives the electricity generated by the
thermopiles.
The electricity is conveyed thence to where it is required to produce the light or
illumination by wires which are insulated by passing through the tubing which
conducts the gas to the burner.
The burner is formed with an annular outer chamber through which the gas
passes_to_the_point_of_eduction, whilst the wires which convey the electricity_pass
centrally up the burner, and at the point of eduction the resistance to the current
is caused by a piece of platinum or other suitable metal, which, being thus heated
ignites the issuing gas, the result being the production of light of an intense brilliancy
but which can be suitably moderated to any desired degree by regulating the flow
of the gas by a tap or cock or of the electricity by disconnecting some of the wires
which convey the clectricity to the said centre or focus.