Improvements in and relating to Incandescent Mantles for Gas Burners.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 5th June, 1899-Accepted, 8th July, 1899
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION...
Improvements in and relating to Incandescent Mantles for Gas
Burners.
I, CHARLES FULLER ARMINGTON, Hotel Dale, Roxbury, Boston, Massachusetts,
Gentleman, 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:-
My invention consists of certain improvements in incandescing mantles for
gas burners, whereby I can prolong the life of the mantle and secure a higher
illuminating power than heretofore.
The material of which the mantle is made is the same that is commonly
employed for the purpose, namely, a textile fabric chemically treated to give it
incandescent properties.
One distinctive feature in making a mantle according to my invention con-
sists in so folding the fabric as to expose the greatest practicable surface com-
pletely to the direct action of the flame, yet without interfering with the free
passage of the flame into the interior of the mantle and out through the top.
Another important feature consists in so supporting the folded mantle as to
minimize or deaden the transmission of jarring vibrations through the means
of support, yet without obstructing the free passage of the flame through it.
This is accomplished by supporting it with a loop of soft incombustible material
such as asbestos, passed directly through the folds near the top.
Others have heretofore proposed forming a mantle by folding the fabric in
certain ways, but such mantles were so formed that only a small portion of the
entire surface of the material could be acted upon by the flame and made
incandescent, the result involving a considerable waste, both of material and
gas, and a consequent loss of light. Moreover, those mantles were so folded
and supported as to strain the fabric and lessen its durability.
Referring to the accompanying drawings.
Figure 1 is a side elevation of one of my mantles hung upon a suitable burner.
Fig. 2 is a plan view of the same as it appears when suspended for use.
Fig. 3 is a cross section on line 3-3 of Fig. 1.
Figs. 4, 5, 6, and 7 indicate the successive stages in folding the blank to
make the mantle.
A piece of the material of substantially rectangular form may be laid flat as
shown in Fig. 4. Its lateral edges are then folded over toward the middle line
of the piece about as indicated, leaving a middle portion a and two infolded
portions b. The piece is once more folded along the middle line, so that one
infolded portion lies upon the other. A supporting loop of soft flexible cord of
incombustible material, such as asbestos, is then passed through the four thick-
nesses, near the top. The open edge of the mantle may be caught together by
a loop of the same material, as shown at d.
A series of such mantles may then, by means of the loops c, be hung upon the
radial arms of a suitable burner, care being taken to hang them with the open
sides toward the radial holes f through which the gas flame escapes.
That part of the mantle below the loop will then assume about the form

page_text: indicated in Fig. 3 forming two longitudinal compartments open at top and
bottom, the inside walls being completely bathed in the flame passing in at
the bottom and open side.
A large number of mantles can be hung about such a burner and it will be
found that each mantle so constructed will become incandescent throughout its
whole surface, while the light obtained, owing to the complete incandescence
of both the outside and inner walls, much exceeds, both in quantity and quality,
that of any incandescent mantle heretofore known.
Having now particularly described. and ascertained the nature of my said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is
1. A mantle formed of a single piece of incandescing fabric whose lateral edges
are infolded to form two longitudinal compartments open at top and bottom to
permit the free passage of the flame up through the mantle in contact with sub-
stantially the entire surface of the outer and inner walls, thereby rendering the
whole mantle incandescent and utilizing the whole volume of gas without waste,
substantially as described.
2. A mantle formed of a piece of incandescing fabric, whose lateral edges are
infolded to form interior compartments and having a supporting loop of soft
incombustible material passed through the several thicknesses of the fabric
near the top, whereby the transmission of jarring vibrations injurious to the
fabric is minimized, substantially as described.
3. So folding and supporting a piece of incandescent material as to form a
mantle for a gas burner open along the side toward the flame, and having its
interior divided into compartments open at top and bottom for the free passage
of the flame, substantially as described.
Dated this 5th day of June 1800
HERBERT HADDAN & Co.,
Agents to Applicant,
18, Buckingham Street, Strand, London, W.C.