IMPROVEMENTS IN LAMPS FOR BURNING COAL OIL AND SIMILAR FLUIDS
Year: 1861

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Davies at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 24th October
1861. A communication from abroad by Joseph Thomas, of New York
and Joseph Tindall Van Kirk, of Philadelphia, in the United States of
⚫ America.
I, GEORGE DAVIES, of No. 1, Serle Street, Lincoln's Inn, in the County of
Middlesex, and No. 28, St. Enoch Square, in the City of Glasgow, Civil
Engineer and Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN LAMPS FOR BURNING COAL OIL AND SIMILAR FLUIDS,"
(a communication to me from abroad by Joseph Thomas, of New York, and
Joseph Tindall Van Kirk, of Philadelphia, in the United States of America,)
to be as follows:-
These improvements relate to a peculiar construction of the burners of
lamps for consuming coal oil and other like fluids, the burners being so
arranged as to direct currents of heated air to support combustion, and to
spread the flame, and thus effectually to prevent the smoke which usually
accompanies the flames of this class of lamps, so that the usual glass chimney
may be dispensed with.
The improvements further relate to a mode of attaching the burner to the
reservoir of the lamp without the aid of the usual screw, and to a means of
replenishing the reservoir without detaching the burner therefrom.

page_text: In one arrangement of the Invention the body of the lamp is of a conical
form, and it is provided with an ordinary wick tube.containing a flat wick, and
having a button and spur, as usual, for raising and lowering the same. On
each side of the wick tube is a rectangular tube of metal open at both ends,
and bent inwards at the top, so that their upper extremities are presented at
right angles or thereabouts to the opposite sides of the exposed part of the
wick. The exterior casing of the lamp is also conical, and has a hemispherical
top, in which is an oblong opening the same length as, but somewhat wider
than the wick tube, and two other openings, one at each end of the oblong
opening; the lower end or edge of the casing also being provided with a
number of other openings, through which the external air passes into the
interior of the casing where it becomes heated, and is supplied to the flame
by the tubes and openings above named.
In a modification of the above a burner similarly constructed to supply
heated air to the flame is adapted to the upper end of a flat wick tube, the
lower end of which is connected to a tube which passes through the neck of
an oil reservoir somewhat in the form of a bottle. This tube is severed or
split vertically, and is expanded or enlarged at the bottom to a diameter
greater than that of the interior of the neck of the reservoir, so that as the
tube is passed into the neck it will contract, and will expand when it has
passed down the neck to its proper distance into the reservoir, and thus main-
tain the burner in its proper position on the reservoir without the aid of
screws. An opening is formed about midway in the tube, so that upon raising
the tube a sufficient distance the spout of a can or vessel can be inserted, and
the oil or other fluid thus supplied to the reservoir without entirely removing
the burner.