IMPROVED ELECTRICAL APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING FIRE AND LIGHT, AND DESIGNED TO BE CARRIED IN THE POCKET
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Robert Lake, of the Firm of Haseltine,
Lake, & Co., Patent Agents, Southampton Buildings, London,
for the Invention of "IMPROVED ELECTRICAL APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING
FIRE AND LIGHT, AND DESIGNED TO BE CARRIED IN THE POCKET."-A
communication from abroad by Charles Louis Van Tenac, of Paris,
France, Civil Engineer.
Sealed the 30th May 1876, and dated the 4th December 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Robert Lake
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 4th December 1875.
I, WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co.,
Patent Agents, Southampton Buildings, London, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVED ELECTRICAL APPARATUS
FOR PRODUCING FIRE AND LIGHT, AND DESIGNED TO BE CARRIED IN THE POCKET,”
a communication, to be as follows:-
-
The main object of the present Invention is a novel electrical appa-
ratus of small size completely hermetic and portable, and whose object
A

page_text: is the production of fire or light at the will of the person employing
the same.
It may also be constructed for giving electric sparks at
great distances, or for medical, scientific, or manufacturing purposes,
and I term it a pocket fire-box or electric fire.
All apparatus constructed heretofore for electric lighting have the
defect of not being portable, or if they are so, they are of too great a
size to be carried in the pocket.
By the present Invention I first unite in a size small enough to be
carried in the pocket an electrical power sufficient for lighting a spirit
lamp, a mineral oil, a wick, or match, or other like article; second, I
have produced a hermetic apparatus of small dimensions permitting the
employment, by the aid of a novel combination, of wet piles of bi-
chromate of potash and mercurial salts, and the obtaining with them as
with large or unportable apparatus the lighting of the lamp, match, or
wick of the apparatus by heating a spiral platinum wire; third, I
employ a pile of chloride of silver for producing the action of an electric
pocket box, and give it the necessary form and power for producing
this result in a convenient manner. I divide the said apparatus into
two classes, namely, boxes, called pocket electrical fires, first with piles
of chloride of silver; second, with piles of bichromate of potash or
salts of mercury.
With regard to the boxes with piles of chloride of silver. The pile
in this kind of box is enclosed in a vessel of glass, porcelain, or hard
india-rubber, which is hermetically sealed. It is composed of one or a
number of sheets of zinc amalgam, and of one or a number of sheets of
chloride of silver adapted to the form of the pile. These elements are
separated from each other either by sawdust, porous paper, or by sand,
or they are simply placed at such a distance apart as will prevent their
contact.
The exciting liquid is chloride of zinc at 5 or 10 degrees, or a satu-
rated solution of sea salt. The minimum surface of the chloride of
silver should be 50 square centimeters, but to obtain a good result it is
preferable to give it a greater surface. The positive and negative poles
of this pile are placed in communication by the aid of a moveable piece
which permits the opening and closing of the circuit at will in such
manner as to light the lamp or wick of the box instantaneously, when
desired, and then to render the pile inactive till again required. This

page_text: pile of chloride of silver being consumed only when the circuit is closed
will last a very long time, being thus only employed in an intermittent
manner; and will permit the obtaining of fire with the box from fifteen
thousand to thirty thousand times or more, according to its power
without having to be re-charged. With this pile I may in constructing
the pocket box place the lamp or wick at the centre of the pile, as
indicated in Figures 2, 3, 4, 6, and 11. This facility permits the
enclosing of all the apparatus within a box of a very portable form, as
indicated in Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, and 11, or of any other convenient form.
I also construct the apparatus with all its accessories at the exterior
of the pile.
may
To ensure the easy and gentle approach of the wick of the lamp or
the smoker's wick or match at the necessary height for effecting the
lighting so as to avoid the breaking of the platinum coil, which might
happen, as in other well-known apparatus, I employ the following
device -A screw is fixed on the box of the apparatus by a tenon and
its nut, which is soldered to the lamp or to the wick holder, acts as an
elevator when turned, and conducts the wick to the point of ignition or
withdraws it therefrom at will, see Figure 3. I may also use an endless
screw or spiral spring for effecting this object.
For opening and closing the circuit of the pile I employ, by
preference, a moveable piece of hardened india-rubber or other suitable
non-conducting material, upon which is mounted the platinum coil.
This piece is attached to a spring, and is manipulated by means of a
knob or button. The whole is combined in such a manner, that by
sliding this button in its groove, the armatures of the platinum coil
touch those of the poles of the pile and cause it to act, effecting at the
same time the advance of the coil immediately above the lamp or wick,
as indicated in Figures 5 and 11. I also employ other mechanical
devices for producing the same result, either by pushing or by pulling
a button or knob. I may also so combine the mechanism, as in
Figure 6, that on opening the box a spring pushes the movable piece
similarly to that shewn in Figure 5, and causes it to open the circuit or
close it. Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, indicate the various details of the box
with the chloride of silver.
The box with piles of bichromate of potash or salts of mercury
differs from that above described in its form and details in this respect
that the piles employed being consumed when the circuit is open as well

page_text: as when it is closed, the two elements of the pile cannot be permitted to
remain in presence of each other immersed in the exciting liquid when
the apparatus is not working. Moreover these piles being liquid and
consequently requiring a perfectly hermetic closing neither the zinc nor
the charcoal can be displaced without endangering this tight or hermetic
closing of the apparatus which is indispensable to its existence. Con-
sequently to permit the construction with these piles of a portable
apparatus it is necessary that the liquid therein may be displaced at
will. When fire is required it is necessary that the pile should act then
in order that the said pile shall not continue to be consumed; when the
circuit is open it is necessary it should be immediately withdrawn and
enclosed in a special compartment; it is also necessary that any air
that may be enclosed therein should not be compressed by this displace-
ment of the liquid, and that this air which has no means of escape from
the apparatus should facilitate instead of obstructing its operation. It
is the combination of these divers results which forms the object of this
part of the said Invention of the electric pocket box, and the following
is the manner I adopt for obtaining these results. I introduce the
charge of the pile into a suitable reservoir A of flexible india-rubber of
the proper thickness, see Figure 7. This reservoir has a hole T, and is
screwed to the bottom of the pile B contained in a vessel of wood or
hard india-rubber made very tight. In the top of the pile B I screw a
small india-rubber bladder or air ball very thin and flexible. By
pressing with the hand the reservoir A the liquid of this reversoir is
caused to fill quickly the pile which acts instantaneously and heats the
platinum coil at the closing of the circuit, sec Figure 8. The air con-
tained in the pile in being driven out by the liquid of the reservoir
escapes by the hole x and expands the air ball V. Immediately the
pressure of the reservoir A is discontinued the liquid of the pile is drawn
into the same by the vacuum produced therein, being also driven by the
air contained in the small air ball V caused by its elasticity and the
atmospheric pressure to collapse in forcing into the pile the air which it
had received from it, and which the vacuum caused by the exit of the
liquid had drawn in.
Figure 7 represents the apparatus at rest; and
the same when the pile is charged with its liquid.
Figure 8 represents
The small air ball V
is protected against accidents by enclosing it in a special compartment
below the pile, as indicated in Figure 11, and I may also enclose the

page_text: reservoir A in a compartment below the pile and produce its action by a
pressure of the fingers or by other suitable means.
As in the apparatus with the chloride of silver I may render the
platinum coil movable and raise the lamp or the wick to the point of
ignition by the aid of similar mechanical appliances, the pile is
composed of one or two pieces of charcoal from a gas retort, and one or
two plates of zinc amalgam, more numerous elements if necessary. The
best result and the most compact size is obtained by cutting the charcoal
to a cylindrical or oval form, and making it hollow or tubular for the
reception of the zinc rolled spirally, as shown in Figures 9 and 10.
I may construct this apparatus of various forms which need not be
here described.
I may also employ an ordinary hermetic pile, but if this is kept con-
stantly in a particular position it would be rapidly exhausted and would
have to be constantly recharged, and moreover would be subject to the
disadvantage of prompt polarization with the bichromate; in fact it will
not be portable. Other known piles may be employed but they will not
be satisfactory.
The applications of this apparatus or pocket electric fire are numerous.
By means of automatic appliances I may employ it in connection with
various articles, such as inkstands, clocks, paper presses, cigar holders,
and the like, so that they will give a light to any person who presses a
knob or button on them. The aforesaid hermetic arrangement and the
small dimensions permit the concealment in such objects of the pile and
lamp which a single train of mechanism will put in operation, closing
the circuit at the same time that the wick of the lamp or the flame will
be at the desired distance for producing the fire. Figures 12 and 13
illustrate this apparatus.
The arrangement of the apparatus morcover obviates all danger of
11
11
1

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Robert Lake in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 3rd June 1876.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co., Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, London, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of December, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the thirty-
ninth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said William Robert Lake, Her special licence
that I, the said William Robert Lake, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Robert Lake, 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
"IMPROVED ELECTRICAL APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING FIRE AND LIGHT, AND
DESIGNED TO BE CARRIED IN THE POCKET," a communication to me
from abroad by Charles Louis Van Tenac, of Paris, France, Civil
Engineer, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
William Robert Lake, my executors or administrators, by an in-
strument 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 William Robert Lake, 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, reference being had to the accompany-
ing Drawings forming a part of this Specification :-
My Invention relates to,-

page_text: for producing fire and light and great electrical power, by coupling
within very restricted and portable dimensions.
Second. The capability possessed by this electrical apparatus, of being
arranged to be carried in the pocket, enclosed within a small box (even
a metallic one), or within a walking stick, a whip, an umbrella handle,
or a pocket book, or placed inside statuettes of bronze or any other metal,
being actuated by a new movement for closing and opening the electric
circuits.
Third. Improvements in the construction of chloride of silver and
other piles or batteries, which I employ in my apparatus to render
these piles or batteries capable of producing great electrical power
with very small dimensions, and to render them portable and capable
of receiving a great variety of forms not possible previous to my
Invention.
Fourth. Improved tools or. implements which I employ for the con-
struction of my piles or batteries.
And in order that the said Invention may be clearly understood I will
proceed to more fully describe the same by the aid of the accompanying
Drawings.
The principal object of this Invention is a new portable electrical
apparatus of small dimensions, and with a complete hermetical closing
to be used for producing fire or light at the will of the person employing
it. It can also be constructed to give an electric spark at great distances,
and for the requirements of medicine, of science, and of manufactures.
I give it the name of pocket "briquet" or "pocket electric fire."
All the appliances for lighting by means of electricity which have
been constructed up to the present time have the defect of not being
portable, or if they are portable of being too large to be carried in the
pocket.
This Invention comprises,-

page_text: tion, wet piles or batteries, with bichromate of potash and with salts
of mercury, and effecting with them, as in apparatus of large size
or non-portable, the ignition of the lamp, or of the match of the
apparatus, by causing a red heat to a platinum wire wound in spiral
form.
Third. The employment of the chloride of silver pile or battery to
actuate an electrical "briquet or lighter" for the pocket, and giveng
to it the form and power necessary to obtain this result in a convenient
and portable manner.
"
I divide my apparatus into two classes, viz., the "briquet or lighter
called " 'pocket electric fire," first, with chloride of silver battories ;
second, with bichromate of potash or salts of mercury batteries.
The "Briquet" or Lighter with Chloride of Silver Pile.-The pile or
battery in this kind of "briquets" or lighters is enclosed within a vessel
of glass, porcelain, or hardened'india-rubber, which is closed hermetically.
It is composed of one sheet or several sheets of amalgamated zinc, and
of one sheet or several sheets of chloride of silver adapted to the form of
the pile or battery. These elements are separated from each other either
by means of sawdust, blotting paper, or sand, or may be simply placed
apart in such a way as to prevent contact. The exciting liquid is
chloride of zinc at 5 or 10 per cent., or a solution of sea salt. The
minimum surface of the sheets of chloride of silver should be 0 50 square,
but in order to produce a good result it is preferable to give a greater
surface. The positive and negative poles of the pile or battery being
conducted from the hermetically closed box of this pile or battery are
put into communication by means of a moveable piece, by which the
circuit can be opened and closed at pleasure so as to light the lamp or the
match of the briquet or lighter instantly, when desired, and then to put
back the pile or battery in repose until wanted again. This chloride of
silver pile or battery wearing only when the circuit is closed will last
for a very long time, being thus used in an intermittent manner. A
light may be obtained from it with the briquet or lighter called the
pocket electric fire," from 15,000 to 30,000 times, according to its
power (and even more than that) without having to be recharged.
66
The following description refers to parts of my Invention shewn on
Sheet 1 of the Drawings. With the above described pile or battery, the
pocket briquet or lighter may be constructed with the lamp or the

page_text: match placed in the centre of the pile or battery, as shewn in Figures 2,
3, 4, 6, and 14. This facility allows of the whole of the apparatus
being enclosed within a box of a very portable form, as shewn in
Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, and 14, or of any other form considered suitable. The
briquet or lighter may also be made with all the accessories on the
outside of the pile or battery.
In order to bring the wick of the lamp, or the match or fusec, for
smokers to the necessary height to light gently and without shock
(so as to avoid breaking the spiral of platinum, a thing liable to occur as
in other apparatus known by bringing them in contact with the hand)
I employ the following arrangement:-A screw is fixed to the box of
the briquet or lighter by a tenon, and its nut soldered to the lamp or to
the match holder acts as an elevator when it is turned, and carries them
to the lighting point or away from it at pleasure, as shewn in Figure 3.
An endless screw or a spiral spring may also be used to produce the same
effect.
In order to close and open the circuit of the pile or battery I prefer
to use a moveable appliance made of hardened india-rubber or of any
other non-conducting substance, upon which is mounted the spiral of
platinum. This appliance or part is attached to a spring and is worked
by a button or stud. The whole is combined in such a manner that
when the button or stud is made to slide in its groove, the armatures of
the spiral of platinum touch those of the poles of the pile or battery,
and cause it to operate, bringing forward the spiral at the same time
just above the lamp or (match) as shewn in Figures 5 and 14.
I also employ other small mechanisms having for their object the
production of the same result, either by pressing a button or stud or by
drawing it out, these details being but of secondary importance (see
(Figure 6). The mechanism may also be combined in such a manner
as to cause the opening of the box to actuate a spring, which presses
the moveable piece in a similar manner to that shewn in Figure 5,
and so cause the circuit to be opened or closed either so as to produce
the light or to extinguish it, or to do both at the proper time.
Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 14, shew the various details of the
chloride of silver briquet or lighter, briquet or lighters with piles or
batteries of bichromate of potash or salts of mercury. This briquet

page_text: or lighter differs from the previous one both as regards form and details,
inasmuch as the piles or batteries employed wearing as much when the
circuit is open as when closed, the two elements of the battery cannot
be left together immersed in the exciting liquid when the apparatus is
not at work. Also these batteries being liquid ones and therefore
requiring a complete hermetical closing, neither the zinc nor the carbon
can be displaced without endangering the hermetical closing of the
apparatus which is indispensable to its existence. Consequently, in
order to construct a portable briquet or lighter with these batteries
it is necessary that the liquid may be displaced at pleasure. When a
light is wanted it is necessary that the liquid should come and act upon
the battery, and then in order that the battery may not wear away
when the circuit is open it is necessary that the liquid should leave it
immediately and be stored in a compartment provided for that purpose.
It is also necessary that the air contained therein should not be com-
pressed by the displacement of the liquid, and that this air which has
no means of exit from the apparatus should be made to assist in the
effective working thereof instead of acting hurtfully.
The combination of these various phenomena forms the object of this
part of my Invention of the electrical briquet or lighter for the pocket,
and I obtain the desired result as follows:-I place the charge of the
pile or battery within a suitable chamber or reservoir A, made of
pliable india-rubber and of a sufficient thickness to ensure safety
(Figure 7). This reservoir is provided with a hole T of very small
dimensions, and is made to screw on at the bottom of the pile or
battery B, which is contained within a vase or box of hardened india-
rubber closed hermetically. To the top of the pile or battery B I screw
a small bladder of thin pliable india-rubber V, which is quite empty.
By pressing the reservoir A with the hand the liquid therein passes into
and fills the pile or battery at once, which operates instantaneously and
heats the spiral of platinum on the closing of the circuit (Figure 8). The
air contained within the pile is driven out by the entry of the liquid
from the reservoir and escapes through the hole x, filling and inflating
the small bladder V. As soon as the pressure is removed from the
reservoir A the liquid in the pile or battery is drawn therefrom by the
vaccuum thus produced, assisted also by the pressure of the air contained
in the small bladder V which its elasticity and the atmospheric pressure
cause to contract, and thus to discharge into the pile or battery the

page_text: air which it had received therefrom, and which the vaccuum caused by
the departure of the liquid attracts.
Figure 7 shews the apparatus at rest, and Figure 8 shews it with the
pile or battery charged with its liquid. The small bladder V is protected
against injury by being enclosed within a compartment provided for it
above the pile or battery, as shewn in Figure 11, and the reservoir A
may also be enclosed within a compartment below the pile or battery
and may be actuated by a pressure of the fingers or by any suitable
means (Figure 11). As in the chloride of silver apparatus the spiral of
platinum may be made moveable, and the lamp or the match may be
raised to the height necessary for lighting by means of analogous
mechanical movement.
The pile or battery is composed of one or two pieces of gas coke, and
of one or two plates of amalgamated zinc or of an increased number of
elements if necessary. The best result and the smallest dimensions are
obtained by cutting the coke into a cylindrical or oval form and
hollowing it to form a tube, inside which is to be adjusted the zinc rolled
into a spiral shape, as shown in Figures 9 and 10. These apparatus
may be constructed in various forms which is not necessary to specify
here.
All these various models rest upon the principles described above, as
shewn in Figures 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11. An ordinary hermetical pile or
battery might also be employed, such for instance as Crowie's, but
unless it were kept constantly in one special position it would wear
rapidly and would have to be constantly recharged, and would have also
the disadvantage of becoming polarized quickly with the bichromate ;
in fact it would not be portable. There are also other piles or batteries
known which might be used, but, either through their size or other
unsuitable qualities, they would not produce so satisfactory a result.
The application of the briquet, or lighter, or "pocket electric fire," are
numerous. It can be employed in a useful and suitable manner in con-
nection with medical and travelling telegraphic apparatus, also for firing
torpedoes and mines, and for electric bells and electric signals requiring
piles with complete hermetical closing, and portable, and the like.
By adapting it to automatic combinations the briquet or lighter or
"pocket electric fire," may be applied to ornamental objects, such as
inkstands, clocks, paper weights, cigar cases, or other articles, which

page_text: will thus provide a light for any person who presses the button or stud
for this purpose.
The hermetical arrangement and the small dimensions required allow
of both the pile or battery and the lamp being concealed within these
objects, and a simple mechanical appliance will give the motion
necessary to close the circuit at the same moment as the wick of the
lamp (or smoker's match) is at the desired distance for producing the
light (as illustrated in Figures 12 and 13). The arrangement of the
apparatus is such that there is no danger of spilling the liquid of the
pile or battery in carrying the articles about or in using them. The
pocket electric briquet or lighter with chloride of silver pile or battery
above described being quite hermetically closed and very portable may
be, as I have said, applied in a variety of forms and manners.
I will now proceed to describe various new applications of the briquet
or lighter and improvements or modifications of which its construction
is susceptible. I construct this apparatus in such a manner that it can
be put inside a walking-stick, an umbrella handle, a cigar case, a travel-
ling companion, a brush, and other analogous articles.
In order that this part of the said Invention may be clearly understood
I have shewn as an example only in the accompanying Drawings,
Sheet 2, my apparatus applied to the various articles above mentioned.
Figures 1 to 23 inclusive shew my improved briquet or lighter
applied to a walking-stick with a round handle, and a walking-stick or
umbrella stick, with a crow's beak handle, with the details of these appli-
cations and the arrangement of the mechanical movements, having for
their object the placing of the article to be lighted in contact with the
electric current. These Figures also shew the principal details of the
mode of attachment for the spiral of platinum.
Figure 1 shews a plan on the line R, S, Figure 2, of the movement
for closing the circuit and to keep it open at pleasure. In this Figure
A is the silver pole; B, the zinc pole; C, the lamp; D, the spiral
holder; E, a spring; f, the contact stem with stud.
α is
Figure 2 shews a section of the same on the line x, y, Figure 1.
the movement; b, the cover; g, a pinion; and 7, a ratchet for raising
and lowering the lamp or match.
Figure 3 shews the end of my walking-stick briquet.

page_text: Figure 4 is a view on the line b, c, Figure 2, shewing the junction of
the conductors of the movement with the electrodes of the pile or battery
at o, o¹.
Figure 5 shews a view on the line d, e, Figure 2, where is seen at m
the chloride pole, and at n the zinc pole.
Figure 6 shews a section of the pile or battery on the line x, y,
Figure 1. k, k, is the chloride of silver; 1, the zinc; m, the silver
pole; o, o, are copper pieces for conducting the current from the pile or
battery to the movement. These pieces, Figures 4, 5, 6, are in contact
when the stick is mounted. Those in Figure 4 communicate with the
movement by means of brass wires inlaid within the stick and its
handle.
Figure 7 is a section of the pile or battery on the line G, H, Figure 2.
p is the empty space; 9, the paper; v, the wood of the stick.
Figure 8 shews a plan following on the line A, B, Figure 9, of the
movement of my briquet or lighter applied to an umbrella or to a stick
with a crow's beak handle. The direction of the movement is shewn
by the arrow. a is the silver pole; b is the zinc pole; c, a spiral spring
to bring back the movement and to maintain the contact open; D is
the lamp or match.
Figure 9 shews a section of my walking-stick or umbrella briquet or
lighter, with crow's beak handle, on the line a, y, Figure 8.
Figure 10 shews a plan of the cartridge, on which is mounted the
movement of the pocket briquet or lighter.
Figure 11 shews a plan of a movement mounted in the cartridge.
Figure 12 shews another kind of movement.
In Figures 8, 11, 12 the arrows denote the direction of the movement.
A and D are the lamp or match; a is the zinc pole; b, the silver pole;
m, the pinion for raising or depressing the match or lamp; P, pile or
battery; C and R are the spring for bringing back the movement and
for keeping the contact open; S is the stud.
Figures 13, 14, 15, and 16 shew the details of a movement; and one
of the means which I employ for fixing the spiral of platinum; Figure 13
is a view of the movement of Figure 8. The arrow denotes the direction

page_text: to be given to the movement for closing the circuit; Figure 14 is a
section on the line x, y, Figure 13; Figure 15 is a side view.
Figure 16 shews the spiral of platinum. a is a slide on the silver
pole; b, a stem of the setting back spring; c, a spring touching the
zinc pole when the spiral of platinum is above the match or lamp; d,
an insulator of ivory or other suitable substance; e¹, open pressure
springs for placing the platinum; e, same pressure spring main-
taining the platinum in its place; k, studs for operating the springs; m,
a stem of the stud.
Figures 17, 18, 18, shew the method of attachment of the platinum
like a knife.
Figures 19 and 20 shew details of the movement represented in
Figure 11. a is the stem of the stud; b is a bell lever; c is a spring
for closing the circuit by touching the zinc pole; o, a silver pole serving
as a pivot; i, the knives; m, the support for the knives; p, p¹, the
spiral of platinum (at p it is seen before fixing, and at p' after the
fixing); x, an insulating joint; R, a setting, back spring; z, a section of
its support on the line 2, 21; S, a holding pin for the spring.
Figures 21, 22, and 23 show details of the movement represented in
Figure 12.
In Figure 21 the arrow denotes the direction of the impulse.
Figures 22 and 23 show the nippers and the platinum, the pressing
ring being open; a is a circular spring advancing or withdrawing the
spiral of platinum; b is a contact spring closing the circuit when the
spiral of platinum is above the match or lamp; C is an insulating joint
of ivory or other material; H is an attachment hook of the spiral
spring; d, d, are the pressing rings of the nipping spring for seizing the
platinum; m is the platinum pressed between the jaws of the nippers;
S is a hinge of the upper nippers; Tis an actuating stud.
Figures 24, 25, 26, and 27 shew the application of my pocket electric
briquet or lighter to cigar cases, pocket books, travelling bags, and the
like Figure 24 is a general view showing my briquet or lighter applied
to a cigar case.
Figures 25 and 26 show the details for mounting the lamp or match;
a is a hinge for opening the cover of the pile or battery compartment;

page_text: b, the lock of the cover; d, the movement; e, the light; f, a pinion for
advancing the match or lamp; g, the match or lamp; h, the cigars; x,
an angle reserved for lighting; ✗ shews the arrangement or disposition
of this angle for the lamp or match which by means of the fixed pinion
and the rack mounted on this lamp may be made to come quite out if
desired; m, m, hinge of the cigar case; K, reflecting or non-reflecting
cover.
Figure 27 is a general view shewing the application of my briquet or
lighter to a travelling bag. In this arrangement the pile or battery and
the movement being separated are put into communication by means of
conductors; A is the light; B is the movement and lamp or match;
y is a pile or battery adjusted to the bottom of the bag; x, x, are
conductors from the pile or battery to the movement.
Figures 28 to 41 shew various details of my system of ingot moulds.
Figure 28 shews a plan of an ingot mould on the line A, B; Figure
29, the said ingot mould being formed of two parts or pieces 1 and 2.
Figure 29, shews an elevation of the interior of the piece No. 1.
Figure 30 shews the foot of the ingot mould arranged for melting
vertically; K is the square on which is placed the handle.
Figure 31 shews the tourniquet or handle serving to remove the
central core from the tube of chloride of silver, and to screw it into the
ingot mould.
Figures 32 and 33 shew the general views of the ingot mould of
which Figures 28, 29, 30, and 31, shew the details. This ingot mould is
designed to obtain the element chloride of silver for the walking stick
and umbrella and the like briquets or lighters without deteriorating it.
Figures 34, 35, 36, and 37, shew the combination and the detached
parts of my arrangement of ingot moulds for pocket briquet or lighter
cigar cases, pocket books, brushes, travelling bags, and the like.
The parts A, A³, A¹¹, ƒ, ƒ¹, and D, D¹, are adjusted together and fixed.
The parts A, A', A", B, B¹, may be of any suitable form and at variable
distances from each other. A, A³, A", are cores of the ingot mould
(fixed); B, B¹, are moveable casting or moulding pieces; C, C₁, are
pressing pieces fitting on D, D'; D, D', are supporting pieces fixed;

page_text: Figure 41 is a section of the same on the line A, B, Figure 40.
Figure 42 shews the electrode having a part tapped if desired, and
flattened on the remainder of its length as seen at b, b¹.
Figure 43 shews how the electrodes are placed within the piece of
chloride; the electrode undulated as shewn by Figure 42 becomes after
the casting as though it were sewn into the chloride, and thus like a
seam winds around the said piece in a very lengthened spiral.
1
Having described the combination and the details of the arrange- 1
ments of my apparatus shewn in the Drawings, I now proceed to
point out in a more precise manner the distinctive character of
my Invention and its various applications:-To form a briquet or
lighter for an umbrella handle or any other long narrow object,
without in any way changing the principles as described I simply 2
lengthen the pile or battery, the diameter of which I diminish by giving
to it the form which the space it is designed to occupy requires, and I
place the lamp or the smoker's match as well as the mechanism above
the pile.

page_text: and revolver cartridges. Also as the gas liberated by the chemical
decompositions would find no means of escape it were left shut up
between the box of chloride and that of zinc, and would cause a rapid
wearing away of the pile or battery, or endanger the hermetical closing,
I make my zinc of zinc wire, as in my bichromate piles or batteries, or
with sheets perforated with holes, and I leave a sufficient free space
outside the zinc. By this system I gain considerable space and I can
enclose a large surface of chloride and of zinc within
very small
dimensions, and consequently obtain a very small, portable, and
powerful pile or battery, capable of being adapted to a great variety of
forms, and which cannot be deteriorated by imperfect construction.
I have devised mechanical movements for the purpose of bringing the
object to be lighted in contact with the electric current, that is to say, I
have improved the mechanical movements for employing the electricity
produced by the pile or battery. The combinations of these movements
necessarily varying according to the shape of the articles to which they are
to be applied it would be impossible for me to describe them all. I give in
Figures 1, 2, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, the
details of the four principal ones. These movements are mounted upon
plates or inside cases, made either of hardened india-rubber, horn, papier
mache, boiled leather, bone, ivory, glass, mother-of-pearl, or porcelain,
or any other non-conducting substance. As with the face of a watch
these movements may be covered over with an opaque plate to conceal
them, or with a transparent glass so as to see them operate.
I have provided a mode of attachment for the spiral or screw of
platinum. The being able to fix the spiral of platinum in such a
manner that the electric fluid shall pass through it with the proper
result is a thing most important to secure; the whole success of the
other combinations rests entirely upon this important point. Moreover
it is necessary that this spiral may be easily changed should any
accident happen to it, and that its points of contact with the mechanism
may be easily inspected and cleaned if required.
All the methods in use up to the present time are defective or
inapplicable to my apparatus, the spirals of platinum being fixed in
such positions as not to be got at by the fingers. I have therefore

page_text: combined several methods for effecting these objects. Figures 1, 8, 9,
11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 18, 21, 22, 23, shew their principal details.
In the method with springs shewn in Figures 13, 14, 15, 16, the spiral
is maintained in its place by the two rivets of the studs fixed at the end
of two springs. By raising these studs and sliding the springs to
right and left the platinum can be changed and its points of contact
cleaned.
In the method with spiral springs shown in Figure 20, partly an
elevation and partly a section, the ends of the spiral or screw of
platinum are pressed between the sliding sockets and the fixed heads
of the poles; a spiral spring coiled around the stem of the poles pushes
automatically the sockets in order to give them the required pressure.
In the method with knives, shown at Figures 17, 18, 18, the spiral
is maintained in its place within its groove by means of blades i, i,
which open and shut at pleasure in order to charge the platinum and
clean the points of contact.
In the method with nippers shewn in detail in Figures 21, 22, 23,
the platinum is pressed between the two jaws of the nippers by means
of a ring d, and as shown by Figures 22 and 23 the upper nippers may
either have or be without a hinge. The nippers may be bent as at
Figures 21, 22, and 23, or straight.
For cigar cases, pocket books, travelling bags, brushes, and the like,
I construct the pile or battery according to the place it is to occupy,
and I establish the mechanical movement for opening and closing the
circuit at a suitable position, which may be at some distance from
the pile or battery. I have only to take care to put the clectrodes of
the pile carefully in contact with the movement which has to com-
municate the electricity to the apparatus and to effect the ignition.
Figures 24, 25, 26, and 27 shew this contrivance.
Ingot Moulds. Figures 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39,
40, and 41, shew various details of my method of ingot moulds designed
to shape the chloride of silver into a great variety of forms so as to
utilize this kind of pile or battery for purposes to which up to the
present time it could not be applied. All the chloride of silver piles or
batteries previously manufactured having been made only with the

page_text: chlorides cast into flat plates or into pencils, or in the form of dust,
and with zincs of ordinary forms, it was necessary in order that
the liberation of the gas should not be hurtful to put them into boxes
of large dimensions compared with their power and with definite forms,
owing to the difficulties attending this mode of employing chloride of
silver. This manner of treating chloride of silver renders it capable of
being adapted to a number of forms of piles or batteries suitable to a
variety of uses, such as my briquets or lighters for the pocket, for
sticks, for cigar cases, for example, which could not be done with
any of the chloride of silver piles or batteries constructed up to the
present time, except by greatly increasing the dimensions of the
apparatus, and giving to them inconvenient and not very portable
forms.
It will be seen that the central core of my ingot mould for walking
sticks, umbrellas, and the like is tapped. The object of this is based
upon the fact that melted chloride of silver contracts to such a degree in
cooling that it adheres in some way to the central core, and that it is not
possible to make this core slip (when it is of a certain length) without
breaking the chloride.
The ingot moulds may be constructed for one or several models,
according to their size; the cores A, A¹, A", are only screwed in, and
may be replaced by others, such as the pieces B, B'.
Figures 42 and 43 shew the manner of preparing the silver or
platinum electrode of the chloride, which it is preferable to place
3 undulated over the whole of the area of the piece from bottom to top, so
as to cause it to conduct a greater developement of electricity, and at
the same time to strengthen the chloride in which after the casting it
appears like a spiral seam. In this way I can produce strong chlorides
of one millimetre (03937 inch) in thickness, or even less. All these
O piles or batteries may be constructed of larger dimensions either with
chloride of copper or with chloride of lead instead of chloride of silver.
My chloride of silver piles or batteries may be constructed with a
surface of less than 50 square centimêtres for lighting a smoker's match,
and also with a surface of less than 50 square centimètres for lighting a
5 lamp, provided that the thickness of the chloride is proportionate and
that the screw or spiral cast with this latter is well buried in all the
parts of the said chloride,

page_text: Having thus fully described the said Invention, as communicated to
me by my foreign correspondent, and the manner of performing the
same, I wish it understood that I claim,-
First. An electric apparatus portable and sufficiently powerful to give
fire and light, although of dimensions sufficiently small to be carried in
a waistcoat pocket, or to be placed inside an article of daily use, such as
a walking stick, an umbrella handle, or whip, a pocket book, a cigar
case, or the like.
Second. The introduction into the piles or batteries which I employ
in these apparatus of the improvements specified, particularly in my dry
chloride of silver piles or batteries, in which being able to cast the
chloride into all forms it is placed outside the zinc, which allows of this
pile or battery having a form in accordance with the article into which
it is to be fixed, and in my wet bichromate of potash or salts of mercury
piles or batteries the close hermetical closing, and in the action of the
same.
Third. The new tools or apparatus for manufacturing the elements,
chlorides of silver, and others, according to the forms which these
elements are required to take.
Fourth. The mode of introducing in the casting long undulated
electrodes and securing them spirally in the chloride.
Fifth. The employment of my piles or batteries within automatic
statuettes to be placed on inkstands and other objects in order to have
fire or light by means of simple mechanism as described.
Sixth. The application of my improved piles or batteries to the a
purposes of medicine, surgery, telegraphs, electric lighting, and to
other uses by coupling them according to the electric power desired,
thus causing the said apparatus to possess with great portability and
very small dimensions very great electrical power, and the quality of
durability and of not becoming polarized.
Seventh. The various new movements designed to open and close the
electric circuits and to sustain the spiral of platinum, as above set
forth.
ย
Eighth. The tube, sheath, envelope, cartridge, or shell of flexible
india-rubber, having the forms of my batteries or piles of chloride of 3

page_text: silver, and permitting the introduction of the same into metallic or other
receptacles, as above set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Robert Lake, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Third day of June, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
six.
Witness,
JA. EDWARDS,
8, Southampton Buildings,
London.
W. ROBT. LAKE. (L.S.)