A Process of Producing Pressure in Vessels or Receptacles containing Combustible Liquids intended for Lighting or Heating purposes.
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 19th Jan., 1898-Accepted, 5th Mar., 1898
[Communicated from abroad by LA COMPAGNIE CONTINENTALE D'INCANDESCENCE
ET DE CHAUFFAGE, of 3, Rue de L'Evéque, Brussels, in the Kingdom of
Belgium, Manufacturers.]
A Process of Producing Pressure in Vessels or Receptacles containing
Combustible Liquids intended for Lighting or Heating purposes.
I, HENRY HARRIS LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake & Co., Patent Agents,
45, Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the
nature of this invention 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 a process or method by means of which the combustible
liquids usually employed for lighting or heating purposes may be put under
pressure, such pressure remaining constant during the time the said liquids are
being supplied.
The invention, which is the practical application of a known principle of physics,
is based essentially, in all the applications of which it is capable, upon the arrange-
ment diagrammatically represented in the accompanying drawing.
In this drawing:
a is a wide but shallow reservoir in communication with the atmosphere.
b is a second and closed reservoir arranged below the first.
e is a pipe placing the two reservoirs in communication and almost touching
the bottom of the reservoir b.
d is a cock enabling communication between the two reservoirs to be established
or interrupted at will.
e, e is the liquid contained in the reservoirs, such liquid being of any suitable
description (water, mercury or the like) according to the result which it is desired
to obtain, and being intended to place the combustible liquid under pressure in its
vessel f, which is arranged at any appropriate distance and height, by means of
the pipe or conduit
9.
f is the vessel of any suitable kind containing the combustible liquid.
99 is the air tube terminating above the level of the combustible liquid and
producing in this latter a pressure measured by the liquid column k, which is
practically constant whilst the supply is maintained, if the two vessels a and b are
of sufficient width.
I is the screw-stopper which enables the combustible liquid to be introduced into
the vessel f.
m is a cock through which the liquid ee may be drawn off when it has
completely run down, in order to refill the upper reservoir.
n is another cock arranged upon the lower extremity of the portion g¹ of the
conduit g g projecting from the reservoir f, by means of which cock the pressure
producing apparatus may be momentarily cut off from f or it may be completely
cut off therefrom if the tube g is of india rubber for example, or by means of any
other suitable device.
In the present case we have supposed the apparatus to which the combustible

page_text: liquid is supplied to be a petroleum lamp with vaporizing burner for the production
of the light by incandescence, and this lamp may be rendered portable and
independent of the arrangement a, b by closing the cocks n and d.
It should, however, be understood that our novel arrangement is applicable to
lamps and heating appliances of every kind, which require, in order that they may
act well, a pre-determined pressure, easy to obtain and as nearly as possible
constant during the whole time that the apparatus is acting.
It is specially applicable for standards provided with petroleum lamps having
vaporising burners for the production of incandescence.
When fitted in the kitchen, for example, it would enable the whole of the heating
and lighting appliances in a dwelling house to be placed under pressure at the
required moment. All that is necessary, in order that this may be effected, is that
the air chamber of the reservoir 6 should be placed in communication with all
these appliances by a corresponding number of independent pipes similar to g
These pipes or tubes may be of very small dimensions, and may be fixed in the
same manner as the wires of an electric system. In this case the arrangement a b
must be sufficiently large to contain a volume of liquid (which will ordinarily be
water) adequate to cause the whole of the said appliances to act simultaneously
during a whole night.
I do not wish to confine myself to the precise details herein given as such details
may be varied according to circumstances.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said in-
vention and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me
by my foreign correspondents, I declare that what I claim is:-
An arrangement for producing pressure characterised by two vessels arranged at
different levels, the upper vessel being open and the lower vessel being entirely
closed, containing a liquid of any suitable kind intended to run from the first to
the second vessel through a tube which may be either flexible or rigid and which
almost reaches the bottom of the lower vessel, in combination with one or more
vessels containing a combustible liquid of any appropriate description for either
lighting or heating purposes, and communicating pipes which may be either flex-
ible or rigid enabling the pressure to be transmitted to the combustible liquid and
maintained at practically its initial value in spite of the consumption of the com-
bustible liquid, which tubes may be disconnected momentarily from the appliances
which they supply, after a suitable stoppering device has been brought into action.
Dated this 19th day of January 1898.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, W. C., Agents for the Applicant.