IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS AND APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN ILLUMINATING BUOYS, BEACONS, LIGHTHOUSES, AND OTHER ESTABLISHMENTS OR LOCALITIES, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE PARTLY APPLICABLE TO OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Richardson Wigham, of Albany House,
Monkstown, in the County of Dublin, Ireland, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS AND APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN ILLUMINATING
BUOYS, BEACONS, LIGHTHOUSES, AND OTHER ESTABLISHMENTS OR LOCALITIES,
WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE PARTLY APPLICABLE TO OTHER PURPOSES."
Sealed the 25th February 1870, and dated the 27th September 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Richardson
Wigham at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 27th September 1869.
I, JOHN RICHARDSON WIGHAM, of Albany House, Monkstown, in the
County of Dublin, Ireland, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS AND APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN
ILLUMINATING BUOYS, BEACONS, LIGHTHOUSES, AND OTHER ESTABLISHMENTS OR
LOCALITIES, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE PARTLY APPLICABLE TO OTHER PURPOSES,"
to be as follows:
My Invention consists, firstly, in the employment of wrought-iron
retorts for the manufacture of illuminating gas for use in buoys, beacons,

page_text: and lighthouse, as also in other localities, such retorts being made of
sheets or plates of wrought iron bent into the requisite form and welded
at the joints.
Another part of my Invention has for its object to allow of the pipes
conveying illuminating gas from works on land to buoys, beacons, or
lighthouses, or to other places to be laid along undulating ground or
declivities under or above water without having an accumulation of
water (resulting from the condensation of the watery or other vapour
in the gas) at the lowest points of the various undulations or declivities,
resulting either in the entire interception of the flow of gas or in the
production of a "jumping" of the gas flames. For this purpose I cause
the gas before entering the gas mains to be passed through chambers or
vessels either containing bichloride of calcium or other suitable sub-
stance having a great affinity for water; or the vessel may be provided
with pipes, tubes, or passages cooled externally or internally by the
application of a cooling medium at a low temperature, through the
interior or against the exterior of which tubes the gas is made to pass,
whereby all aqueous or other vapour capable of condensing and stopping
up partly or wholly the gas pipes is condensed, and therefore removed
from the gas or neutralized,
Another part of my Invention consists in the employment of an
electric current for igniting illuminating gas in buoys, beacons, and
lighthouses, such electric current being either produced by ordinary
batteries, magnets, electric machines, or electro-magnetic machines
situated at convenient places on land, and conveyed to the buoys,
beacons, or lighthouses by means of a submerged insulated conducting
wire, the current being there intercepted in close contiguity to the gas
burner or burners, so as to produce electric sparks at such points; or I
employ for this purpose a system of electric batteries laid on the bottom
of the sea, constructed in a similar manner to the ordinary voltaic pile,
by which from the action of the sea water a constant current of
electricity may be obtained. This system of submarine electric batteries,
owing to the almost unlimited extent to which it can be applied, I also use
for illuminating buoys, beacons, and lighthouses, as also establishments
on land by means of the light from the electric currents produced; and
I also employ the same for any other purposes requiring a large quantity
of electricity.
Another part of my Invention consists in the amplovment of rover

page_text: of any suitable known construction for the purpose of rendering the
pressure of the gas itself available for extinguishing, raising, or lowering
gas flames on buoys, beacons, and lighthouses, for which purpose I
connect the valve or other moving part of such governors by means of
rods, links, chains, or equivalent appliances to the cocks or valves
admitting the supply of gas to the burners, so as to cause the motion of
such valve or other moving part of the governor to effect the opening or
closing of the said cocks or valves.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Richardson Wigham in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 26th March 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
RICHARDSON WIGHAM, of Albany House, Monkstown, in the County of
Dublin, Ireland, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of September, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the
thirty-third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said John Richardson Wigham, Her special
licence that I, the said John Richardson Wigham, my executors, ad-
ministrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Richardson
Wigham, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS AND APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN ILLUMINATING
BUOYS, BRACONS, LIGHTHOUSES, AND OTHER ESTABLISHMENTS OR LOCALITIES, WHICH
IMPROVEMENTS ARE PARTLY APPLICABLE TO OTHER PURPOSES," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said John Richardson Wigham, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or
their, or one of their hands and seals, 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

page_text: Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Richardson Wigham, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had to the
accompanying Sheet of Drawings, and to the figures and letters marked
thereon, that is to say :-
56
One part of my Invention has for its object to allow of the pipes
conveying illuminating gas from works on land to buoys, beacons, or
lighthouses to be laid along. undulating ground or declivities under or
above water without having an accumulation of water (resulting from
the condensation of the watery or other vapour in the gas) at the lowest
points of the various undulations or declivities, resulting either in the
entire interception of the flow of gas or in the production of a
"jumping" of the gas flames. For this purpose I cause the gas
before entering the gas mains to be passed through chambers or vessels
either containing bichloride of calcium or other suitable substance
having a great affinity for water; or the vessel may be provided with
pipes, tubes, or passages cooled externally or internally by the appli-
cation of a cooling medium at a low temperature, through the interior
or against the exterior of which tubes the gas is made to pass, whereby
all aqueous or other vapour capable of condensing and stopping up
partly or wholly the gas pipes is condensed, and therefore removed from
the gas or neutralized.
Another part of my Invention consists in the employment of an
electric current for igniting illuminating gas in buoys, beacons, and
lighthouses, such electric current being either produced by ordinary
hatteries, magnets, electric machines, or electro-magnetic machines
situated at convenient places on land, and conveyed to the buoys,
beacons, or lighthouses by means of a submerged insulated conducting
wire, the current being there intercepted in close contiguity to the gas
burner or burners so as to produce electric sparks at such points; or
I employ for this purpose a system of electric batteries laid on the
bottom of the sea, constructed in a similar manner to the ordinary
voltaic pile, by which from the action of the sea water a constant
current of electricity may be obtained. This system of submarine
electric batteries, owing to the almost unlimited extent to which it

page_text: can be applied, I also use for illuminating buoys, beacons, and light-
houses, as also establishments on land by means of the light from the
electric currents produced; and I also employ the same for any other
purposes requiring a large quantity of electricity.
Another part of my Invention consists in the employment of governors
of any suitable known construction for the purpose of rendering the
pressure of the gas itself available for extinguishing, raising, or lowering
gas flames on buoys, beacons, and lighthouses, for which purpose I
connect the valve or other moving part of such governors by means of
rods, links, chains, or other equivalent appliances to the cocks or valves
admitting the supply of gas to the burners, so as to cause the motion of
such valve or other moving part of the governor to effect the opening or
closing of the said cocks or valves.
On the accompanying Sheet of Drawings is shewn one of the various
arrangements of governors by which the last described part of my
Invention may be carried into effect.
Figure 1 shews a sectional elevation of the apparatus, and Figure 2
shews a sectional plan of the same on line X, X, Figure 1.
A is a small gas holder fitting into the annular trough B, containing
mercury or any suitable fluid, into which gas holder the gas is introduced
from the main through the inlet pipe C, and from which the gas passes
to the burners through the central outlet pipe D. This central pipe is
provided with a valve E connected by a rod F to the gas holder A, so.
that it is caused to rise and fall with the latter. The gas holder is so
weighted that when the gas is at the normal pressure at which it. is
required to pass to the burners the valve E is held open in the position
indicated in red lines in Figure 1, but when the pressure of the gas rises
above that point the rising of the gas holder effects the partial or entire
closing of the valve E, and thus cuts off or regulates the supply of gas
to the burners. When the valve is entirely closed the gas jets are pre-
vented from being entirely extinguished by allowing cither a small
quantity of gas to pass
into the outlet pipe D through a small aperture e
in the valve, or by providing the inlet pipe C with a small branch G
communicating with the outlet pipe, through which branch the requisite
small quantity of gas passes directly to the burners.
Having thus described the nature of the several parts of my Inven-
tion, and in what manner they are to be performed, I wish it to be
understood that I do not claim the above described construction of

page_text: governors otherwise than for regulating the supply of gas to buoys,
beacons, and lighthouses, as described, nor do I claim any particular
construction either of voltaic or galvanic batteries, or of apparatus for
effecting the ignition of gas by an electric current, as any suitable
known construction of batteries or apparatus may be employed for the
purposes of my Invention; but what I claim is,-
First. Depriving illuminating gas for buoys, beacons, and lighthouses
of moisture and other condensible vapour by passing the same before
entering the supply pipes in contact with bichloride of calcium or other
suitable substances having great affinity for moisture or other con-
densible vapour, or by passing the gas in contact with surfaces that are
rendered cold by the application of a cooling medium, substantially as
herein-before set forth.
Second. Igniting gas jets on beacons, buoys, and lighthouses by means
of an electric current, substantially as herein-before set forth.
Third. The employment of submarine voltaic batteries for producing
electric currents for igniting gas jets for producing electric lights or
for other purposes on buoys, beacons, and lighthouses, and other
localities.
Fourth. Regulating the supply of illuminating gas to the burners of 2
buoys, beacons, and lighthouses by means of governors, so arranged as
to effect the closing or opening of the inlet valves to the supply pipes
according as the pressure of gas increases or decreases.
In witness whercof, I, the said John Richardson Wigham, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of March, 2
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy.
TOTIN D