IMPROVED CARBON POINTS OR CANDLES FOR THE PRODUCTION OF THE ELECTRIC LIGHT AND APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Robert Punshon at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 13th December 1878.
ROBERT PUNSHON, of 16, St. Michael's Place, Brighton, in the County of Sussex,
Civil Engineer. "IMPROVED CARBON POINTS OR CANDLES FOR THE PRODUCTION OF
THE ELECTRIC LIGHT AND APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH,"
My Invention has for its object the manufacture of candles or carbon points for
the electric light, and the apparatus or machinery to be used in connection
therewith.
For the purpose of my Invention I use an amalgam of mercury with silver or
other suitable metal forming an amalgam with mercury, and then mix it in certain
proportions with ground or finely divided carbon and asbestos. The carbon and
asbestos are reduced to as fine a powder as can be conveniently made before being
mixed with the amalgam, the cohesion of the ingredients for the candles is caused
by the addition of albumen, gum, and treacle. The candles can then be formed the
required shape under pressure. By means of this composition I get a steady and
continuous light. The candles can be made of any shape, round, square, cylindrical,
or as discs, wheels, rollers, or sheets. Although the composition of my candles is
very lasting, the materials are slowly volatilized in time at the point of combustion,
so I provide means by the aid of friction rollers to carry the candles forward or
onward. It is not always necessary to use all the before mentioned ingredients
in the manufacture of the candles, as one form or shape of candle which I have
invented and is hereinafter described can be made of pure carbon without the
adition of the other mentioned materials. The shape or form of these candles is by
preference cylindrical, but may be of any other convenient form or shape to suit this
part of my Invention. I form the candles in portions of about one inch in length
by about three sixteenths in diameter. Any number of these one inch portions
of the candles are placed end to end, and a length of tape previously saturated
with tungstate of soda to prevent its burning down the candles is gummed along
one or two sides of the candles lengthwise and continuously, so as to form a
jointed and continuous candle of any required length. The ends of each portion
of the candle may be covered with an adhesive mixture, made so that it will
[Price 2d11

page_text: The
only cause the portions of the candle to adhere slightly together without forming
a rigid candle. The purpose of inventing a jointed candle made either of the
before mentioned composition or of pure carbon is, that it may be rolled round
a drum in a compact form and carried by friction rollers or wheels to discs of
asbestos or carbon, where it my [rest during the progress of combustion.
friction wheels are grooved round the periphery with grooves, the exact size of the
candles being used, the distance between the grooves being the exact spaco
required for the electric arc to pass, this depending upon the power used and what
amount of light is required. By means of these friction rollers I do away with the
necessity of an insulator between the two candles while they are being carried
forward to the point of combustion. If necessary I can use a single jointed candle
or carbon point as the positive pole, and the candle is carried on by my friction
rollers with one groove only to the negative pole, which may be of a larger size
and made of my composition, or amalgamated carbon, or of pure carbon. The
friction wheels or rollers are made to rotate slowly at required speed by means of
simple clockwork, coiled springs, or an ordinary weight and block or pully. To
produce an electric light by incandescence with my Invention of amalgamated or
mixed metals, the candles can be made either with an amalgam of metals with
mercury, or I can use suitable metals divided chemically or mechanically into a
very finely divided condition, and then mix the finely divided metals with asbestos
and carbon, or with asbestos alone, or carbon alone, the mixture and cohesion of
the component parts is effected under pressure as hereinbefore described with the
aid of albumen, gum, treacle, or other binding adhesive substances or materials.