IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF APPARATUS FOR LIGHTING, EXTINGUISHING, AND REGULATING GAS FLAMES
Year: 1876

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Theodore Dann, of 1, Crawshay Road, North
Brixton, in the County of Surrey, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF APPARATUS FOR LIGHTING,
EXTINGUISHING, AND REGULATING GAS FLAMES." A communication from
abroad by Michael Flürscheim, of Gaggenau, in the Empire of Germany.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Theodore Dann at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 7th June 1876.
JOSEPH THEODORE DANN, of 1, Crawshay Road, North Brixton, in the County
of Surrey, Civil Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF APPARATUS
FOR LIGHTING, EXTINGUISHING, AND REGULATING CAS FLAMES." A communica-
tion from abroad by Michael Flürscheim, of Gaggenau, in the Empire of Germany.
This Invention has for its object to secure increased efficiency to the working of
such diaphragms or floats as are applied or applicable to various descriptions of
apparatus for the automatic lighting, extinguishing, and regulating of gas flames,
thereby rendering the use thereof practicable in cases in which such apparatus have
hitherto proved inefficient.
The first part of my Invention consists in connecting a ratchet wheel or equivalent
mechanical organ with the diaphragm or float alluded to in such a manner that
upon the diaphragm or float rising the ratchet wheel is acted on by its pawl or the
other mechanical organ by its corresponding ancilliary link, and thereby part of a
revolution effected or a certain angle described by such ratchet wheel or other
mechanical organ. I further provide a series of radial or segmental arms, separated
from each other by deep angular grooves or interspaces, and so connected with
the ratchet wheel or equivalent mechanical organ as to be actuated by the motion
thereof. also provide a pin or other kind of stop fixed to or connected with the
diaphragm or float in such a manner that upon the diaphragm or float redescending
a certain distance sucli pin or stop comes to rest upon one of the radial or segmental
arms, or one of these arms comes to rest upon the pin or stop, thereby preventing
the diaphragm or float from continuing its downward motion. Upon the pressure
increasing the diaphragm ascends again, and in doing so causes both the ratchet
wheel, or equivalent mechanical organ, and the radial arms to perform such a part

page_text: of a revolution, or describe such an angle, as to bring the pin or stop within the
groove or interspace between the radial arms as soon as the diaphragm or float
descends again, thus admitting of the diaphragm or float going to the extreme limit
of downward motion. By this means I am enabled to ignite the main burner at a
certain increase of pressure, then to prevent its extinction at any fall of the pressure,
and to cause it to be extinguished only after the pressure has been raised and
lowered a second time. It is obvious that when the diaphragm or float is acted
upon by the pressure of gas coming from above instead of from below the action of
the organs herein alluded to is necessarily reversed.
The second part of my Invention consists in providing a hollow prismatic slide
working upon or within a guide piece, or being worked upon by a guide piece of
corresponding angularity and fitted to or connected with the diaphragm or float.
This prismatic slide and its guide piece I furnish with channels or orifices com-
municating with cach other in such a manner as to cause the main flame and an
auxiliary flame to be lighted reciprocally and alternately in accordance with the
requirements of the consumers.
The third part of my Invention consists in preventing the overflow or spilling of
the mercury or other liquid in the groove within which the float acted on by the
pressure of gas is dipped in some self-lighting gas apparatus. To this effect I so
indent the inside of such groove with a recess as to compel the mercury or other
liquid on rising to enter this recess and in its natural course drop again into the
groove instead of overflowing the top edge thereof.
The fourth part of my Invention consists in coiling a platina thread or wire
around an auxiliary burner, constructed so as to vary the size of its flame in
accordance with the shifting positions of a hollow slide or tube, so that by the heat
preserved within such platina coil the auxiliary flame may be re-lighted after being
extinguished through some accident.
The fifth part of my Invention consists in fitting a hood or globe made of glass
or other suitable transparent material upon or over the whole or part of a self-lighting
gas apparatus for the purpose of guarding or protecting such parts or organs thereof
as might otherwise be exposed to the injurious effects of atinospheric or other
external influences.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Joseph Theodore Dann in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 7th
December 1876.
JOSEPH THEODORE DANN, of 1, Crawshay Road, North Brixton, in the County of
Surrey, Civil Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF APPARATUS
FOR LIGHTING, EXTINGUISHING, AND REGULATING GAS FLAMES." A communication
from abroad by Michael Flürscheim, of Gaggenau, in the Empire of Germany.
This Invention has for its object to secure increased efficiency to the working of
such diaphragms or floats as are applied or applicable to various descriptions of
apparatus for the automatic lighting, extinguishing, and regulating of gas flames,
thereby rendering the use thereof practicable in cases in which such apparatus have
hitherto proved inefficient.
The first part of my Invention consists in connecting a ratchet wheel or equivalent
mechanical organ with the diaphragm or float alluded to in such a manner that
upon the diaphragm or float rising the ratchet wheel is acted on by its pawl.or the
other mechanical organ by its corresponding ancillary link, and thereby part of a
revolution effected or a certain angle described by such ratchet wheel or other
mechanical organ. I further provide a series of radial or segmental arms separated
from each other by deep angular grooves or interspaces, and so connected with the
ratchet wheel or equivalent mechanical organ as to be actuated by the motion
thereof. I also provide a pin or other kind of stop fixed to or connected with the

page_text: diaphragm or float in such a manner that upon the diaphragm or float re-descending
a certain distance such pin or stop comes to rest upon one of the radial or segmental
arms, or one of these arms comes to rest upon the pin or stop, thereby preventing
the diaphragm or float from continuing its downward motion. Upon the pressuro
increasing the diaphragın ascends again, and in so doing causes both the ratchet
wheel, or equivalent mechanical organ, and the radial arins to perform such a part
of a revolution, or describe such an angle, as to bring the pin or stop within the
groove or interspace between the radial arms as soon as the diaphragm or float
descends again, thus admitting of the diaphragm or float going to the extreme
limit of downward motion. By this means I am enabled to ignite the main
burner at a certain increase of pressure, then to prevent its extinction at any fall of
the pressure, and to cause it to be extinguished only after the pressure has been
raised and lowered a second time. It is obvious that when the diaphragm or float
is acted upon by the pressure of gas coming from above instead of from below the
action of the organs herein alluded to is necessarily reversed.
The second part of my Invention consists in providing a hollow prismatic slide
working upon or within a guide piece, or being worked upon by a guide piece of
corresponding angularity, and fitted to or connected with the diaphragm or float.
This prismatic slide and its guide I furnish with channels or orifices communicating
with each other in such a manner as to cause the inain flame and an auxiliary flame
to be lighted reciprocally and alternately in accordance with the requirements of
the consumers.
The third part of my Invention consists in preventing the overflow or spilling of
the mercury or other liquid in the groove, within which the float or diaphragm,
acted on by the pressure of gas, is dipped in some self-lighting gas apparatus. To
this effect I so indent the inside of such groove with a recess as to compel the
mercury or other liquid on rising to enter this recess, and in its natural course drop
again into the groove instead of overflowing the top edge thereof.
The fourth part of my Invention consists in coiling a platina thread or wire
around an auxiliary burner, constructed so as to vary the size of its flame in accord-
ance with the shifting positions of a hollow slide or tube, so that by the heat
preserved within such platina coil the auxiliary flame may be relighted after being
extinguished through some accident.
The fifth part of my Invention consists in fitting a hood or globe, made of glass
or other suitable transparent material, upon or over the whole or part of self-lighting
gas apparatus, constructed according to my Invention, for the purpose of guarding
or protecting such parts or organs thereof as might otherwise be exposed to the
injurious effects of atmospheric or other external influences.
DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS.
In the accompanying Sheet of Drawings I have shewn the various parts of my
Invention which are applicable to and may be connected with the diaphragm or
float of any apparatus for the automatic working of gas flames, but with a view to
exemplify the use thereof, are in the present instance shewn as fitted to an apparatus
for lighting, extinguishing, and regulating gas flames, constructed in accordance
with the Invention, for which I hold Her Majesty's Letters Patent, Number 1983,
dated June 8, 1874.
In this Sheet of Drawings Figure 1 is a front view of an apparatus furnished
with the improved appliances, constructed according to my Invention; Figure 2 is
a similar elevation, partly in section, showing the apparatus fitted with a hood, con-
structed according to my Invention; and Figure 3 is a side view of the apparatus,
as shewn in Figure 2. In Figure 1 the moveable parts are shewn in the position
they occupy while the main flame is extinguished, whereas in Figures 2 and 3
the same parts are shewn in the position they hold when the main flame is lighted.
With the diaphragm or float D, worked upon by the rising and falling of the gas
pressure I connect the hollow prismatic slide a. shewn in a partial longitudinal

page_text: section in Fig. 2, and which, being furnished with suitable channels or orifices,
works within the guide piece f, and by its motion effects the alternate lighting and
extinguishing of the main and auxiliary flames, in accordance with the require-
ments of the service. The hoop or circular lever 7 is likewise connected with the
diaphragm, and by the weights attached thereto the admission and exclusion of
gas is regulated in accordance with my former Invention, herein-before alluded to.
To this hoop, or to any organ discharging identical functions in apparatus of different
construction, a bracket bis attached, and upon this bracket the pawl a is fitted,
with a free motion upon the screw c¹, this motion being limited by the plug a
working upon or within the bracket b. The ratchet wheel is in the present
instance fitted to the guide piece f, but may in apparatus of other configuration he
fitted to any other suitable part thereof. When the lever q rises the pawl & comes
to bear upon a cog of the ratchet wheel, and in doing so causes this wheel to
describe the aliquot part of a revolution which is the reciprocal of the number of
cogs of which such wheel is formed, so that if there be twelve cogs to the ratchet
wheel the rising motion of the diaphragm causes the wheel to describe one-twelfth
part of a revolution, or an angle of 30 degrees, and upon the completion of the
upward motion of the diaphragm the pawl remains within the angle formed by the
space between the one cog it bears upon and the next in succession. Upon the
surface of the ratchet wheel the radial arms or stops 7, 7, are fixed at equal
distances from one another, and upon the extension 2 of the bar or rod p con-
nected with the hoop or lever q a pin x is fixed, which passes through the spaces or
interstices between the armis or stops 7, 7, whenever the diaphragm rises. Thus,
when the main flame is extinguished, and the lever 7 at its lowest point, as shewn
in Figure 1, the pin is within the space between two stops, and as the
diaphragm and the lever q rise this pin x rises with them until it reaches the position
shewn in Figure 1. By this time the ratchet wheel has performed a fractional
revolution, as herein-before explained, and the pin æ is now in a vertical line with
one of the stops 2, but at some distance above it. The main flame is now fully
lighted, and the auxiliary flame extinguished. As soon as the pressure decreases,
and the diaphragm and the lever q or its equivalent descend again in consequence
thereof, the pin x comes to rest upon the stop r beneath it, and the completion of
the downward motion, and the consequent extinction of the main flame and
relighting of the auxiliary flame are thereby prevented. During this descending
motion the ratchet wheel, being securely fitted to the guide f, and hemmed in by
the counter-pawl m, has remained immoveable, whilst the pawla, in consequence of
its free motion, and being guided by the plug d, as aforesaid, has passed along one
cog and slipped beneath the next. Therefore, as soon as the diaphragm ascends
again the pawl pushes this next cog up, and the ratchet wheel perforins a second
partial revolution, corresponding in the case of twelve cogs to an angle of 30
degrees. This being donc, an interspace between the successive stops ? has been
placed beneath the pin a, and as soon as the pressure decreases again and the
diaphragın descends there is no longer any obstruction in the path of the pin a,
which readily resumes its lowest position, and by this means enables the diaphragın
to do likewise, so that the main flame is completely put out and the auxiliary flame
relighted. Instead of the ratchet wheel being fixed, and the pawl and the pin being
moveable, the reverse may be the case under certain circumstances, according as the
different parts of the apparatus are arranged, to which the unprovements con-
stituting my Invention may be applied.
In Figure 21 have shewn the groove or recess c partly filled with mercury, in
which the diaphragm D is dipped. The side of the groove c has a rim or indent s
in it, by means of which the mercury is prevented from overflowing when the
apparatus is shaken.
The platina coil v is intended to relight the auxiliary flame,
if through any accident it should have been extinguished, and such platina coil may
be applied to the auxiliary burner of an apparatus for the automatic lighting of
gas flames, even though such apparatus were actuated by some other agency than
the pressure of gas. In Figure 2 I have also shewn the hood or globe z, placed

page_text: around or upon an apparatus, constructed according to my Invention, for the pur-
pose of protecting the organs from the injuries they might sustain through external
influences.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and illustrated the same
in the accompanying Sheet of Drawings, I wish it to be understood that I do not
claim the use of floating diaphragms generally as agencies for the automatic
lighting of gas flames; neither do I claim the use of hoods or globes for the pro-
tection of the organs of philosophical or horological instruments, but what I claim
is,―
First. The use or employment of ratchet wheels and pawls, together with a
system of radial arms or stops and corresponding checks, connected and working in
consonance with diaphragms or floats, in the manner and for the purpose herein set
forth and illustrated in the accompanying Sheet of Drawings.
Secondly. The use or employment of a hollow prismatic slide, furnished with
channels or orifices, for the purpose of admitting or cutting off the gas required for
feeding the two flames, in the manner horein set forth and illustrated.
Thirdly. The use or employment of a recess or indent for preventing the over-
flow of the mercury in the groove within which a diaphragm or float is clipped,
in the manner described in the foregoing, and illustrated in the annexed Sheet of
Drawings.
Fourthly. The use or employment of a platina coil for relighting the auxiliary
flame in any self-lighting gas apparatus, whether worked by the pressure of gas or
by any other agency, in the inanner herein set forth and illustrated in the accom-
panying Sheet of Drawings.
Fifthly. The use or employment of a globe or hood for protecting the organs of a
self-lighting apparatus, constructed in accordance with my Invention, in the manner
herein-before described and illustrated in the annexed Sheet of Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Theodore Dann, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Sixth day of December, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-six.
Witness,
G. J. MARSHALL,
42, Clapham Road, S.W.
(L.S.) JOSEPH THEODORE DANN.