IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS OR APPLIANCES FOR AUTOMATICALLY LIGHTING ELECTRIC CANDLES
Year: 1881

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Edward Griffith Brewer at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 5th August 1881. A communication
from abroad by Auguste Guilbert Desquiens, of Paris, France.
EDWARD GRIFFITH BREWER, of 33, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS OR APPLIANCES FOR AUTOMATICALLY LIGHTING
ELECTRIC CANDLES." A communication from abroad by Auguste Guilbert
Desquiens, of Paris, France.
The apparatus is composed of a platform which may be of onyx, marble, or other
transparent material, on which a series of candle burner supports, positive and
negative, is mounted; the electric candle is firmly held between two of these
supports, one for the positive, and the other for the negnative; each positive
support is constructed as follows:-
This support, which is the principal object of the Invention, carries on its
external face a lever provided with a hollow axle, in the interior of which there is
a spiral spring mounted on an axis rivetted to a plate screwed on the support
which carries a conducting arm, which serves to put each of the supports in
communication the one with the other by means of the levers which come in
contact with the arms when an electric candle is consumed.
.
OPERATION OF THE-LEVER.
The lever is provided at its upper part with a small eye, in which passes a brass
spindle or pin which touches at the base of the first candle, called the arrival or
positive; when the electric candle is consumed to the level of the spindle or pin,
the latter becomes heated and expands under the pressure of the spring contained
in the hollow axle of the lever, and finishes by giving way; the spring having
nothing which retains it, relaxes and pushes the lever, thereby putting it in direct
communication with the conducting arm of the adjacent support; the electric
current then lights the next candle and so on, until all the successive candles are
consumed. By this system the commutator being placed under the apparatus, does
not require to be continually examined in order to replace it under a new candle
[Price 2.1.1

page_text: when the preceding one is consumed; the commutator, once put in communication
by means of the contact piece with one of the electric candles of the apparatus, is
sufficient to light all the others, one after the other, in consequence of the automatic
communication obtained by means of the levers, spindles, and connections, and
taking advantage of the period during which the last candle is burning to refill all
the other supports, and thus obtain a light which lasts indefinitely, only touching
the apparatus every 12, 18, or 24 hours, according to the number more or less of
the electric candles which comprise the apparatus or lamp. The return or back
(negative) supports which maintain the electric candle on the internal face are
mounted on a metal. crown which holds between them; the said crown is put in
communication by a screw with a return terminal placed under the apparatus as
the commutator, and serving to carry to the other lamps the electric agent of light
in such manner that with a single commutator several lamps may at one and the
same time be worked, provided that the latter are provided with a system of
carrying lever spindles before described. The contact piece is kept pressed on a
crown divided into as many parts as there are copper supports, screwed by a nut
which traverses the marble, onyx, or other plate, and which is in communication
with the foot of the positive support.
The advantages are,-First. Dispensing with a man employed.specially for lighting
and replacing and for looking after the electric candles, an advantage much greater
when it is taken in connection with the number of lamps employed. Second. The.
possibility of having a good light during 12, 18, or 24 hours, without looking after
it in any way, and that with several lamps at a time. Third. The facility of
regulating the light, and without intermittance during a number of successive
hours. Fourth. The simple and cheap mechanism employed, easily applicable to 1
certain systems of electric lamps in use.