IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS OR APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN LIGHTING GAS BY ELECTRICITY
Year: 1881

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Benjamin Joseph Barnard Mills at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 13th August 1881.
A communication from abroad by Lucien Alfred Wilhelmine Desruelles and
Georges Jules Albert Eugène Bourdonale, both of Paris, in the Republic of
France.
BENJAMIN JOSEPH BARNARD MILLS, of the Firm of Harris and Mills, of
23, Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent.
'IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS OR APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN LIGHTING GAS BY
ELECTRICITY." A communication from abroad by Lucien Alfred Wilhelmine
Desruelles and Georges Jules Albert Eugène Bourdoncle, both of Paris, in the
Republic of France.
The Invention has for its object the development of a system of lighting jets of
gas by means of electricity which involves none of the inconveniences, nor any of
the causes of fire which are presented by the use of spirit or oil lamps, or wax
tapers, or other lighters in which a flame is employed to light the gas.
By the present Invention it has been endeavoured to solve this problem in a
simple, economical, and rapid manner, by the use of the system horeinafter
described.
For the purpose of rapidly lighting a large number of gas jets it is proposed to
use a system composed of a platina coil mounted on a carrier of wood or other
non conductor sliding on two copper or other conducting rods or wires, which
carrier by its two extremities communicates with the said conducting rods or wires
by means of two contact pieces of copper or other metal.
This carrier is moved by mechanical means, which makes it travel just above
each jet of gas. The platina coil heated to a red heat by an electric current, lights
the said jets of gas each in turn by passing over the orifices by which the gas
escapes; thus by this means a single platina coil heated to a red heat by an electric
current, can light an unlimited number of jets. This arrangement has the
advantage of requiring only a single battery of feeble strength, and only one
platina coil to light an unlimited number of jets. I will give, by way of example,
a description of two sorts of apparatus designed, one for the lighting of a great
number of jets placed in a rectilineal and horizontal direction, such as shop lamps

page_text: or theatrical lights, the second for lighting jets isolated or placed one above another
in a vertical direction.
The first consists of two conducting rods or wires placed parallel to each other
and at a short distance from the line of jets to be lighted.
On these two rods or wires slides a carrier of wood or other non conductor
furnished with a platina coil which communicates by means of two contact pieces
of copper or other metal with each of the said conducting wires or rods. Two
pulleys placed one at each extremity of the row of jets are united by means of an
endless cord fixed to the carrier which supports the platina coil.
Fixed to one of these pulleys is a handle, which when turned moves the endless
cord round the pulley which carries it and causes at the same time the carrier
furnished with the platina coil to slide along the conducting rods or wires.
To each of the conducting wires or rods is connected one of the poles of a pile
or battery capable of heating to a red heat the platina coil.
This coil, put in motion by the endless cord and heated to a red heat by the
electric current, travels above each jet and lights them each in turn and finishes its
course at the end of the row of jets, which when extinguished can be readily
relighted by turning the handle in the opposite direction, that is to say, from left
to right, if it has first been turned from right to left, and vice versa. Another
arrangement of the apparatus designed to light jets of gas placed one above the
other in a vertical direction is composed of a conducting tube or rod placed
vertically at a certain distance from the jets. This conducting tube or rod is
furnished from distance to distance at the height of each of the jets with an
appendage of wood or other non conductor furnished with a platina coil. The
two extremities of this tube or rod are held by metallic cases or sockets in which
they can turn. Two spiral or other springs placed at the extremities of the said
conducting tube or rod hold the appendage in such a position that the platina
coils with which it is furnished are placed at a certain distance from the jets. A
lever enables the tube or rod at a given time to be turned in such a manner that
the platina coils are placed just above the jets by giving motion to said lever, and
when the lever is released the platina coils return to their original positions. A
commutator attached to the apparatus causes by means of a handle an electric
current to pass into a number of springs corresponding to that of the jets, the said
springs communicate each with one of the platina coils.
In order to set the apparatus in work, the lever above mentioned must be
operated so that each platina coil is placed above the jet to which it corresponds
by giving a partial rotary motion to the apparatus to which they are attached,
then by turning the handle of the commutator an electric current is caused to pass
alternately into each of the platina coils, these being heated to a red heat, each in
turn set light to each jet one after the other.
Either of the above arrangements may also be employed for lighting inclined
rows of jets.
It will be seen that the main feature of the present Invention is to heat to a
red heat only one platina coil at a time for the lighting of an indefinite number
of jets, so that it will only require a pile or battery of low power as the said
battery has but to heat to a red heat only one piece of platina at a time.
It will be readily understood that the platina may be of other form than that
of a coil or spiral.