AN IMPROVED DORMARE AAAMW HAD THRO WHANG OF GLD
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Girdwood, of Edinburgh, in the County
of Mid Lothian, North Britian, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED
DORMARE AAAMW HAD THRO
WHANG OF GLD"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Girdwood at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 27th January 1873.
I, ROBERT GIRDWOOD, of Edinburgh, in the County of Mid Lothian,
North Britain, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"AN IMPROVED PORTABLE APPARATUS FOR ILLUMINATING BY MEANS OF GAs,” to be
as follows:-
This Invention has for its object the construction and application of
an improved portable apparatus, for illuminating by means of gas in
circumstances wherein the ordinary portable gas lamps or stands are not
so convenient as might be wished.
The ordinary portable gas lamps or stands referred to are made with
bases often of considerable weight, for being set upon tables or other

page_text: horizontal surfaces. The improved apparatus however which is com-
paratively light and convenient to handle, consists mainly of a short metal
tube fitted with a burner, and having connected to it a pair of claws
hinged together and pressed together by a strong spring so as to act as a
clip. With this arrangement the light can be fixed on any sufficiently
narrow object, and in whatever position may be most convenient for
illuminating an object.
The improved apparatus will be of great utility in the dwelling house,
in the workshop, and in many other situations. It will enable a work-
man, or artist, to direct his light more conveniently than heretoforc
upon the work in hand; and it will be applicable in many cases in
which a stand requiring a horizontal surface for its support could not be
used. Flexible tubing is used for supplying gas to the apparatus, as with
ordinary gas apparatus, whilst as a precaution against accident the
spring clip may be connected to a stop cock on the burner tube, so that
whenever the clip closes (from not being fixed on anything or not
being held open by the hand) thic stop cock will also close and shut off
the gas.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Robert Girdwood in the Great Scal Patent
Office on the 25th July 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
GIRDWOOD, of Edinburgh, in the County of Mid Lothian, North Britian,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of January, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in
the thirty-sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Robert Girdwood, Her special
licence that I, the said Robert Girdwood, my executors, administrators
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Robert Girdwood, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during
the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and

page_text: Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for “Iм-
PROVED PORTABLE APPARATUS FOR ILLUMINATING BY MEANS OF GAS," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Robert Girdwood, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or
their, or one of their hands and scals, should particularly describe and
ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great
Scal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Robert Girdwood, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement in writing, reference being had to the
accompanying Drawings, that is to say :-
My said Invention has for its object to contrive improved portable
appliances for illuminating by means of gas in circumstances wherein
the ordinary portable gas lamps or stands are not so convenient as might
be wished.
The ordinary portable gas lamps or stands referred to are made with
bases often of considerable weight for being set upon tables or other
horizontal surfaces. My improved appliance however is comparatively
light and convenient to handle, and can be fixed on any sufficiently
narrow object, and in whatever position may be most convenient for
illuminating an object.
My improved appliance will be of great utility in the dwelling house,
in the workshop, and in many other situations. It will enable a work-
man or artist to direct his light more conveniently than heretofore upon
the work in hand; and it will be applicable in many cases in which a
stand requiring a horizontal surface for its support could not be used.
And in order that my said Invention and the manner of performing
the same may be properly understood, I hercunto append a Sheet of
explanatory Drawings to be herein-after referred to, and representing
an illuminating appliance as made with my improvements. In these
Drawings the same reference numerals mark the same or like parts
wherever they are repeated.
Figure 1 is a side elevation of the gas light clip, as my improved
appliance may be termed, as set or temporarily fixed on the back 1 of

page_text: a chair, the latter being shown as in section. The appliance consists of
a metal tubo 2, fitted with a burner 3, and having soldered or otherwisc
attached to it onc, 4, of a pair of clip blades or claws 4, 5, which are
connected together by a hinge joint 6. A strong tendency to close on
any object, such as the chair back 1, placed between them is imparted
to the clip blades 4, 5, by a spring 7 applied between them as in a
common letter clip. A. flexible tube 8 of vulcanised rubber or other
suitable material is fixed on the tube 2 to supply the gas to it from any
convenient fixed gas pipo. In some casos when desirable as a precaution
against accident the tube 2 is fitted with a stop cock 9, and a small
lover 10 on the cock plug is connected by a link 11 to the movable clip
blade 5. Figures 2 and 3 are sections of the stop cock 9, and show the
relations of the passage 12, through the cock plug to the movable clip
blade 5. Figure 2 corresponds to Figure 1, and shows the open
position of the cock whenever the clip is open in consequence of being
fixed on any object or of being held open by the hand. When the clip
closes, however the cock becomes closed also, as shown in Figure 3, and
shuts off the gas from the burner, so that the light will become
extinguished whenever the clip becomes detached or is laid down, or is
otherwise allowed to close.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention and the manner
of performing the same, I have to state that I do not restrict myself to
the precise details herein described or delineated, but that what I believe
to be novel and original, and claim as the Invention secured to me by
the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the combining of a
gas pipe and burner with a spring clip, substantially as and for the
purposes herein-before described.
In witness whercof, I, the said Robert Girdwood, have hereunto
set my hand and scal, this Twenty-fourth day of July, in the
ycar of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-