IMPROVEMENTS IN LAMP AND GAS BURNERS
Year: 1846

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, L, ETIENNE
ABRAM MACCAUD, of No. 1, Place de la Madeleine, Paris, Mechanician, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-second day of
October, One thousand eight hundred and forty-six, in the tenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Etienne Abram Maccaud, my exors, admors, and assigns, Her especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Etienne Abram
Maccaud, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I; the said Etienne
Abram Maccaud, my exors, admors, 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, my
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN LAMP AND GAS BURNERS;" in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said Etienne Abram
Maccaud, shall cause a particular description of the nature of my said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in
writing under my hand and seal, 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 in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference
being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Etienne Abram Maccaud, do hereby declare the nature of my said Inven-
tion to consist in surrounding the lower part of the burner from the gallery
or glass carriage downwards with a jacket or casing having numerous very
minute apertures, or made of suitable open textures, whereby all the air
by which the combustion is supported-both that which passes through the
centre of the flame, and so acts upon its interior surface, and also that which
acts upon its exterior surface is compelled to pass through the same
apertures in the jacket or casing. By this arrangement no jets or partial
currents of air affect the flame; but the air is drawn in by the operation of
the flame in a minutely and uniformly diffused state from all parts of the
circumference of the jacket or casing during its passage, through which its
temperature becomes raised, so that the casing becomes a reservoir or chamber
charged with hot air. The combustion of the gas being thus supported by the
air of the reservoir only, which, by being free from jets, is calm and hot, a
steady white flame is obtained. I prefer constructing the jacket or casing of
fine wire gauze of the gauge of one thousand meshes to the square inch or
thereabouts; but it may be made of other tissues or other materials adapted
to allow the passage of the air in a very minutely subdivided or diffused state,
in order that all external draughts or jets may be intercepted; but at the
same time the apertures should not be so small as to be liable to become
clogged with dust, &c. And in further compliance with the said proviso, I,
the said Etienne Abram Maccaud, do hereby describe the manner in which
my said Invention is to be performed, by the following statement thereof,
reference being had to the Drawing annexed, and to the figures and letters
marked thereon, that is to say :-
u is the
Figure 1 represents in section an ordinary Argand gas burner with my
jacket or casing forming a reservoir or air chamber applied thereto; and
Figure 2 is a plan, and Figure 3 is an elevation of the same.
burner, and the jacket or casing composed of woven metallic wire. It is
attached at the upper edge to the ring or gallery c, which supports the chimney,
and it has a ring d at its lower edge, which is inserted in a cup e attached to
the stem of the gas burner. An annular passage is formed in the plate of
the gallery upon which the chimney rests (and which forms the upper side or
top of the air chamber) for the passage of air between the chimney and the
outer surface of the flame. The chimney is fitted accurately into the gallery,
so that no air may pass between its edges and the plate upon which it rests;
and the contact between the ring d and the cup e in like manner is sufficiently
accurate to prevent the passage of air at that part. In lieu of the solid plate,

page_text: with an annular aperture which supports the chimney, and constitutes the top
of the air chamber or reservoir, an annular plate of wire gauze covering the
entire space between the exterior circumference of the burner and the upper
edge of the jacket or casing may be substituted.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be carried into effect, I declare that what I claim in
respect thereof is the application to lamp and gas burners of the kind called
"Argand," (that is, burners having a channel for the passage of the air to the
interior of the flame) of a hot-air chamber or reservoir composed of wire
gauze (or of other tissues, or of other materials adapted to allow the passage
of air to the flame in a minutely subdivided or diffused state, as herein-before
described), through which chamber all the air is compelled to pass that acts
upon the flame, both on its interior and exterior surface. The improvements
being,
First, the inclosing the whole of the space between the outer rim of the
gallery or glass carriage and the bottom of the forked stem, so as to form but
one chamber or reservoir for the supply of air to the burner; and,
Secondly, the admitting of the air through wire gauze or otherwise in so
minutely or subdivided or finely-diffused a state into the said chamber as to
prevent any air in the form of a jet acting upon the flame.
In witness whereof, I, the said Etienne Abram Maccaud, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-seven.
ETIENNE ABRAM (L.s.) MACCAUD.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fifteenth day of April, in the
year of our Lord 1847, the aforesaid Etienne Abram Maccaud came before
our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery and acknowledged the Specification
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.
Enrolled the Nineteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-seven.