IMPROVEMENTS IN NIGHT LIGHTS
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Jackson, of Belmont Works, Battersea, in the
County of Surrey, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
NIGHT LIGHTS."
Sealed the 6th October 1866, and dated the 1st May 1866.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Jackson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 1st
May 1866.
I, JOHN JACKSON, of Belmont Works, Battersea, in the County of Surry,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE
MENTS IN NIGHT LIGHTS," to be as follows:-
This Invention is applicable to night lights, consisting of a suitable fatty
material poured whilst melted into a case of paper, match board, gelatine, or
such like material, which case then not only serves to mould the fatty material
to the required form, but also to hold it whilst it is burnt. In such night
lights the wicks heretofore employed have been made of straight cotton's
cemented together by means of wax. Night lights with such wicks are
however to some extent irregular in their times of burning and they are liable
to flicker. To obviate these defects, I employ a wick consisting of cotton
threads plaited together. I prefer to use three such threads of different sizes
or numbers, thus, in burning the wick is caused to turn out of the flame and
the deflection of the wick in burning is regulated to the amount required. To
prepare the wick for use it is stiffened with wax or composition and cut to a

page_text: suitable length; then it is furnished with a foot of metal or other material and
placed in a night light case. Lastly, the melted composition is poured in
around it as at present practised with the ordinary straight wicks.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Jackson in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
1st November 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
JACKSON, of Belmont Works, Battersea, in the County of Surrey, Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the First day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the twenty-ninth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said John Jackson, Her special licence that I, the said John Jackson,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
John Jackson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter
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
NIGHT LIGHTS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John
Jackson, 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 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 Jackson, 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, that is to say :-
This Invention is applicable to night lights, consisting of a suitable fatty
material poured whilst melted into a case of paper, match board, gelatine, or
such like material, which case then not only serves to mould the fatty material
to the required form, but also to hold it whilst it is burnt. In such night
lights the wicks heretofore employed have been made of straight cottons

page_text: cemented together by means of wax. Night lights with such wicks are
however to some extent irregular in their times of burning, and they are liable
to flicker. To obviate these defects I employ a wick consisting of cotton
threads plaited together. I prefer to use three such threads, of different sizes
or numbers, thus in burning the wick is caused to turn out of the flame, and
the deflection of the wicks in burning is regulated to the amount required. To
prepare the wick for use it is stiffened with wax or composition, and cut to a
suitable length, then it is furnished with a foot of metal or other material and
placed in a night light case. Lastly, the melted composition is poured in
around it as at present practised with the ordinary straight wicks.
Having thus stated the nature of my Invention I will proceed more fully
to describe the manner of performing the same.
Although threads manufactured by other persons may be used, I prefer to
employ what are known as Strutt's knitting cotton, each thread of which
consists of three yarns, and I employ coarser or finer threads according as a
larger or less wick is required. For each wick I plait three of these threads
together in a three-thread plaiting machine, and I usually employ one of such
threads, somewhat coarser than the other two, of which a wick is made,
generally from two to four numbers coarser than the other two threads, but
this may be varied. The object of thus using one at least of the three threads
of a coarser number than the other two is to obtain an inequality in the wick,
by which the turning out of that portion of a wick of a night light which for the
time is ignited is insured. The wicks thus formed are employed as heretofore
in the making of night lights in suitable cases, and each wick is at its lower
end sustained by a metal or other foot or holder as heretofore.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Jackson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.
80 Witness,
W. H. HATCHER,
Belmont Works,
Battersea,
London.
JOHN JACKSON. (L.S.)