IMPROVEMENTS IN PETROLEUM LAMP BURNERS
Year: 1881

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Bruno Schwarz and Richard
Huppertsberg at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 1st October
1881.
BRUNO SCHWARZ and RICHARD HUPPERTSBERG, both of Berlin, Germany.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN PETROLEUM LAMP BURNERS."
Lamp burners as hitherto in use cannot be applied for burning heavy hydro-
carbon oils of a specific weight of 0-820 to 0.900, not even when choosing the best
constructions for this purpose. Owing to insufficient supply of oxygen the flame
cools too rapidly, expels carbon, and the absorbing power of the wick is not
sufficient, in consequence the flame grows dim and weak, and begins to smoke.
For utilizing such heavy hydro-carbon oils various lamps have been constructed
with perforated burner-discs, or with arrangements for supplying air into the
wick-tube, but all these systems are more or less subject to the following
inconveniences :-
1st. In consequence of the burner-disc being in immediate contact with the
flame it grows hot, and communicates the heat to the oil-receptacle and the oil
therein, thereby causing explosive gases to be accumulated, which may lead to
explosions in case of the lamp being upset.
2nd. The disc restrains the flame into a narrow lighting ring.
3rd. Such lamps need continual supervision to prevent smoking and the exhalation
of noxious vapours; moreover, in case of the wick being unevenly cut, or the
burner-disc bent, the flame is liable to become irregular and pointed, thereby
causing the chimney-glass to burst.
In order to do away with all these inconveniences we have constructed a lamp
which does not require the usual widened or bulged brittle glass-chinneys, and
has the advantage, amongst others, that varlous kinds of burners may be easily.
[Price 6d1

page_text: adapted to it. The accompanying Drawing will serve to illustrate our Invention.
Between the wick-tube D (Fig. 1) of an ordinary petroleum-burner and the lamp-
glass, and at a suitable distance from both, is inserted a high conical ventilator or
casing V (Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5) of metal, glass, or china, which may be fastened to
the chimney-holder or loosely placed on it.
This ventilator-casing projects vertically beyond the wick tube from 1 to 5 m/m
according to the diameter of the burner.
The surface of the ventilator is provided with slits or holes; if intended for
burning very heavy oils, helical slits are preferable, V (Fig. 1). One longside of
each slit is bent inward like a screw (Figs. 1 & 2). Owing to the construction of
the draughts or slits in the walls of the ventilator, the entering air receives a
helical or spiral upward motion, and supplies the necessary amount of oxygen to
the flame, while surrounding it spirally on all sides and imparting a partial
rotation to it.
For burning oils of a specific weight of 0.840 to 0.900 the upper edge of the
ventilator may be toothed (Figs. 1 & 3), the teeth being arranged obliquely to each
other like the blades of a screw-propeller. For lighter oils up to a specific weight
of 0.840, ventilators with simple longitudinal slits will suffice, their edges being
either smooth (Fig. 4), or pointed (Figs. 2 & 5), or bent inward (Fig. 4); or
ventilators with helically arranged round boles may be used (Fig. 4).
The height of the ventilator, respectively the distance of its upper edge from the
wick tube (at I, Fig. 1) on one side, and from the narrow portion of the chimney
(at r, Fig. 1) on the other, is so calculated as to leave only two small ring shaped
_spaces (Fig. 1, at 1' and 7) between the edge of the ventilator and the neck or
narrow portion of the chimney.--
The air, energetically.compressed into two strong currents, reaches-the-flame,-
and the effect is still increased by the toothed upper-edge-of-the-ventilator.
The flame is thus supplied with oxygen by means of three air currents (an inner
and two outer ones), while in ordinary burners there are only two air-currents to
feed the flame (an inner and an outer one).
The chief lighting power is thus obtained by the outer part of the flame, contrary
to the ordinary petroleum lamps, where the attention was chiefly directed to the
inner air-currents.
A very perfect combustion of carbon is thus obtained, which excludes the
formation of smoke or vapors.
For keeping the chimney in the right position we have made a new and very
efficient arrangement.
In ordinary lamps the chimney was placed air-tight upon the bottom of the
holder (at m, Fig. 1), and air-ingress into the space between the wick-tube and
the chimney entirely prevented.
In our system, on the contrary, the chimney is held from 10 to 20 / over the
bottom of the chimney-holder by means of hooks, pins, rings, or such like, or by
making the holder tapering (as indicated at a in the accompanying Drawing), in
order to leave the openings o of the holder free for air-ingress.
This abundant air-supply keeps the wick-tube cool, even if the lamp is kept
burning for many hours successively.
It is necessary to observe that the ring-shaped space between the neck of the
chimney and the ventilator should not be too large, but must remain narrow;
therefore the base of the chimney is made shorter in proportion to the elevation
of the whole chimney, or the chimney-holder may be lengthened (downward as
shown in Fig. 1, from a to b) in order to admit of the usual chimneys being used.
For giving a firm position to the chimney the holder, besides being lengthened, is
made tapering at a. By these arrangements the ring shaped space at r is kept as
narrow as necessary, and the air-ingress at o is not interfered with.
The advantages of our Invention are:-Utilization of the cheap heavy mineral
oils; bright light of greater power than the light usually produced by such lamps,
producing the principal combustion in the outer part of the flame; coolness of the

page_text: apparatus, even when the lamp has been burning for hours; suppression of all
formation of explosives, and consequently protection against fire (the heavy oil
contributing to extinguish the flame if the lamp is upset); coolness of the chimney,
even after long use, so that it can be taken off with the unprotected hand; no
formation of smoke and vapors, even when the lamp burns low; finally, its easy
adaptation to every other system of lamps, and economy of fuel.
CLAIMS.
First. A ventilator or casing for use in petroleum-lamps with its edge bent out
or inward, toothed, pointed, or smooth, projecting over the wick tube, and provided
with longitudinal slits or spirally arranged round holes, substantially as
described.
Second. Lengthening chimney-holders and narrowing them towards their base
for providing a third current of air entering underneath the chimney through
perforations or apertures in tho chimney holder, substantially as described.
In witness whereof, we, the said Bruno Schwarz and Richard Huppertsberg,
have bereunto set our hands and seals, this 29th day of September,
A.D. 1881.
BRUNO SCHWARZ.
(LS.)
RICHARD HUPPERTSBERG. (LS.)