CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING, REGULATING, AND DISPERSING LIGHT AND HEAT
Year: 1842

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GOLDS-
WORTHY GURNEY, of Bude, in the County of Cornwall, Gentleman, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Eighteenth day of August, in
the sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Goldsworthy Gurney, Her especial licence
that I, the said Goldsworthy Gurney, my exors, adññors, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Goldsworthy Gurney, my exors, adiñors, and assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at
all times during the term of fourteen years therein expressed, should and
lawfully might take, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all Her Majesty's Colonies and
Plantations abroad, and in the Isles of Man, Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney and
Sark, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING,
REGULATING, AND DISPERSING LIGHT AND HEAT;" in which said Letters Patent
there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Goldsworthy Gurney, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and
ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, and to cause the same to be enrolled in Her Majesty's

page_text: High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the
same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Goldsworthy Gurney, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement, and the Drawings therein
referred to, and to these Presents annexed.
My improvements in apparatus for producing, regulating, and dispersing
light and heat consist in certain arrangements whereby I am enabled―
First, to disperse the light produced and apply it more advantageously for
the purposes of illumination.
Secondly, to produce the light with greater steadiness and uniformity by
regulating and equalizing the supply of gas from the mains or first supply.
Thirdly, to carry off the heat which attends the production of light and to
economize that heat by applying it to useful purposes.
The first part of my Invention, namely, the arrangements for dispersing or
distributing and applying the light, consists in placing or disposing curved
or plane zones or facits with reflecting surfaces about the light, in such a
manner as to direct the light in certain directions, and to render as much of
the light as possible profitably useful or available for the purpose of illuminat-
ing the required objects. These zones, facits, or reflecting surfaces must be
placed at particular angles, which will depend on the relative situation of the
light, and of the objects upon which the light is to be thrown. The position of
these reflecting surfaces are determined in all cases by the application of the
well-known proposition of geometry and of the law of light, that the angles of
incidence and reflection are invariably equal, as will be at once understood
from the accompanying Drawings, and the description thereof.
The second part of my said Invention consists in the construction of a
governor or apparatus depending for its action on the principle of the equal
transmission or equality of pressure in all directions by fluids, whereby the
pressure at which the gas is to be supplied to the burner having been
determined and adjusted, the same pressure or supply at the burner will be
preserved, notwithstanding the variations which ordinarily occur in the mains
or sources from which the gas is supplied.
The third part of my Invention consists in placing above the burner a vessel
containing water, and in using in connection with this vessel a metallic
fabric, such as wire gauze, whereby the heat which is generated in the
production of the light may be absorbed by contact with and by the con-

page_text: duction of the metal, and so carried away. The vessel placed immediately
above the lamp communicates by an upper and an under pipe with another
vessel in any convenient situation, either within or without the building.
The steam, vapour, or heated water, by virtue of the change in its specific
gravity from heat, will pass along the upper of these pipes, and be replaced by
cold water through the lower or under pipe, by the circulation of the water in
these pipes, or in any similar system of pipes and vessels, either closed or open
to and communicating with the atmosphere, according to the principles and
arrangements which are well understood by persons who have been in the
habit of employing steam and water circulating in pipes and vessels for the
purpose of warming. The heat of the lamp may thus be removed, and the
apartments lighted by gas prevented from becoming unpleasantly heated, and
the heat so transferred may be applied for various useful purposes, as the
heating of water required for domestic and other purposes, and for warming
other parts of the building.
•
Having now described and ascertained the nature of my said Invention,
I shall proceed to describe and ascertain, by the Drawings hereto annexed,
in what manner my said Invention is to be performed; premising, however,
that though the arrangements shewn in the Drawings are such as will be
found generally most convenient for carrying out my Invention into practice,
yet the same may be modified and altered to meet the circumstances of each
case by attending to the directions given, and without departing from the
principle of my Invention, as already described and ascertained.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
The same letters, when found on the different Drawings or Figures, refer to
to the same or similar parts.
These reflecting
Figure 2 shews a
Drawing 1 illustrates the manner in which I disperse or direct the light
produced. Fig. 1 is an elevation of a set of zonal reflectors, A, B, C, D, D',
which may be of silver, china, or other reflecting surfaces.
zones are placed or fixed in a suitable frame E, E, E.
section of the same, and the radiation or direction of some of the rays of light
proceeding from the focal light F, as indicated by the dotted lines G, G¹, G, G',
Figure 3 is a plan of this apparatus when viewed from above, and Figure 4 is
a plan of the burner H. These zones A, B, C, D, & D', may have plane
surfaces, or be frustra of conoidal figures, or have a curvature adapted to the
peculiar circumstances of the case, the reflection of the light from such surfaces
being well understood.

page_text: Drawing 2 illustrates the apparatus and arrangements for putting into
practice the second and third parts of my said Invention. Figure 5 exhibits a
section of the governor. apparatus, which acts on the principle of the equal
transmission or equality of pressure in all directions by fluids. J, J, is a close
cylindrical vessel floating in water or other suitable fluid, and so formed that it
can rise or fall in the chamber K, K, as the quantity of water in this chamber
is increased or diminished. By the rod L, which plays through the bridge M,
the disc valve N is firmly attached to the float J; the area of this valve at its
seat, and the cross sectional area of the float, should be the same. The disc
valve N rests. upon the valve seat 0, 0, when the fluid has been sufficiently
depressed in the chamber K, K, by the gas flowing in from the supply at P.
Q, Q, is an annular chamber, surrounding the inner chamber K, K, and
when the pressure of gas is equal on both of the surfaces of the liquid in K, K,
and in Q, Q, the valve N stands a little open. Now, suppose the gas to be
passing in a steady manner through the "iulet," and the open valve, and the
"outlet," to the burners" (the quantity being regulated in the usual manner
by a main or service cock) and suppose that by the action of the wind, or the
turning off numerous other lights, a sudden rush of gas comes upon the
surface of the liquid in K, K, it will be depressed, and that in Q, Q, will be
raised, so that the valve N will be depressed and the opening reduced. It
must be observed that the valve N is not intended to form at any time a
perfectly tight joint, otherwise the lights would be extinguished by its sudden
and perfect closing. R is a common syphon guage for observing the relative
pressure of the gas in one limb, and of the atmosphere on the other. The
range of the water levels in the regulator must be adapted to the maximum
pressure of the gas mains. Figure 6 exhibits a pendant light, fitted with a
heat absorber. S is a vessel containing water. T is the water supply pipe
from any suitable tank or chamber. U is a pipe for carrying off the vapour
formed or water heated by the heat from a flame at H. This heated vapour
or steam may by means of the pipe U be conveyed to heat baths or rooms.
V is a wire gauze fabric for absorbing other portions of the heat. W is the
gas pipe. Fig. 7 is a section of the heat absorber of Fig. 6. Fig. 8 is a
section shewing another arrangement of the gas pipe W. Fig. 9 is a section
of an absorber, which may be suspended over a burner when it is not required
to appropriate the heat for other purposes; it is seen in position in Figure 10.
The vapour formed by the heat of the flame or flames rises from the water,
and descends by the tube X over the top of the flame; there it becomes more
rarefied, and is invisibly dispersed in the room. Y is a plug for the purpose