IMPROVEMENTS IN FIRE LIGHTERS
Year: 1885

page_text: I PHILIP MIDDLETON JUSTICE of 55 and 56 Chancery Lane in the County of
Middlesex Fellow of the Institute of Patent Agents do hereby declare the nature of
said invention for IMPROVEMENTS IN FIRE LIGHTERS a communication to me
from abroad by Antoine Riboulet of Paris in the Republic of France and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement:—
This invention relates to the manufacture of fire lighters, which can be readily
ignited,and are suitable for lighting fires in a grate or elsewhere.
The materials from which such lighters are made are
1. Wood saw-dust, pulverized charcoal and cork either separately or together.
2. Resin, Bitumen and Tar with or without the addition of a small quantity of
Petroleum.
The first named materials form the base of the fire lighter, as by themselves they
burn for a long time and slowly, whilst giving out considerable heat.
The second named materials, ignite with great ease and serve to produce an
immediate flame. The materials and the proportions in which they are mixed
may however be varied according to the quality of fire lighter it is desired to
obtain. Thus cork may be substituted for sawdust or for one part of sawdust
when it is necessary to have a very light product which will be easily transportable
when in bulk or otherwise. The cork will also absorb the fatty or resinous
materials, and thus make the product cleaner to handle. The charcoal is employed
for the purpose of increasing the time of combustion. A few drops of petroleum
hastens the firing, its smell being hidden by the more agreeable odour of the resin,
the bitumen and tar dissolved in petroleum being used to bind the mass.
Amongst the various mixtures which may be employed, the following I have
found by experiment to give good results Resin 50 grammes. Sawdust 50 grainmes
Charcoal 10 grammes Bitumen and Tar 1 gramme each. A fire lighter composed
as above weighs therefore but 82 grammes, which may be still further decreased
by the substitution of one part of cork to one of Saw dust.

page_text: The materials are intimately mixed while in a heated state, and until the
bitumen and resin are melted, when I mix a few drops of Petroleum with them,
and then mix all together, and turn the mass out on to a suitable plate provided
with projections, forming moulds of the desired shape. I next place on this a
frame formed of vertical plates, which cut the entire mass into triangles, and with
a small scraper remove all the material projecting above the top of the frame. In
putting these fire lighters on the market it will be preferable to give them the
form of a hollow right angle triangle, the hypotheneuse of which is at an angle of
45 degrees, said hypotheneuse being divided near its centre while a point or
projection extends from opposite the right angle, almost to such opening, the three
points being thus brought so close to one another, that the flame of a match will
simultaneously light all three. The triangular form without being indispensable
has the advantage of offering two acute angles for combustion, and offers no
trouble in packing or storing, since two of them laid together, with their hypo-
theneuse touching form a square.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of said invention
and in what manner, the same is to be performed as communicated to me by my
foreign correspondent 1 declare that what I claim is
1. For fire lighters a mixture composed of saw-dust and charcoal, with or without
the addition of cork, mixed with resin, bitumen and tar, with or without a small
quantity of petroleum, substantially as described.
2. A fire lighter composed of the before named materials in the form of a hollow
right angle triangle, the hypotheneuse being divided and from opposite the right
angle, a projecting piece being extended toward such hypotheneuse, substantially
as described and for the purpose set forth.
D 1 11
201
1
CT11000
PHILIP M. JUSTICE.