IMPROVEMENTS IN THE ARRANGEMENT AND CONSTRUCTION OF LAMPS SUITABLE FOR BORNING VOLATILE OILS OR SPIRITS, SUCH AS BENZOLE OR OTHER LIGHT HYDROCARBON OILS
Year: 1866

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Elisabeth Lichtenstadt at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with her Petition, on the 10th April
1866. A communication from abroad by Philip Lichtenstadt, of New
York, United States of America.
I, ELISABETH LICHTENSTADT, of Bermondsey Road, in the County of Surrey,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
ARRANGEMENT AND CONSTRUCTION OF LAMPS SUITABLE FOR BORNING VOLATILE OILS
OR SPIRITS, SUCH AS BENZOLE OR OTHER LIGHT HYDROCARBON OILS," to be as
follows:-
This Invention has for its object the arrangement and construction of lamps
suitable for burning highly volatile oils or spirits, such as benzole or other
light hydrocarbon oils or compounds thereof resulting from the distillation and
treatment of mineral oils, petroleum, or other similar crude bituminous
matters. One of these improvements consists in filling the oil vessel or
reservoir with sponge or other suitable absorbent material, a space or recess
being left immediately below the burner, by preference formed by inserting a
cylinder of wire gauze or perforated metal or material, into which the wick
descends and becomes charged by contact with the volatile oil or spirit con-
tained in the saturated sponge, or other absorbent material at the bottom of
the perforated wick chamber. The mouth of the oil vessel is closed by a
screw cap or other suitable cover or stopper to which the combined wick tube
or holder and burner is attached. The wick tube is fixed centrally within
another tube of about equal height, by preference fixed to the cap or cover of

page_text: the oil vessel, and so arranged as to form a narrow space around the wick
tube communicating with the interior of the oil vessel. The wick saturated
with the oil or spirit is drawn loosely into the wick tube by preference, so as
not to project above the top, and on the application of a light a bright and
steady flame free from smoke will burn from the wick tube and from the
space around it, caused by the combustion of the vapour as it rises to the point
of ignition between the central and outer tubes. In order to extinguish the
light a closely fitting conical cap is placed over the burner by which the
evaporation of the spirit is prevented, and any disagreeable odour therefrom
avoided. When the lamp requires a fresh supply of oil or spirit the screw cap
or cover is removed and the reservoir is filled, and when the sponge or other
absorbent material in the body of the vessel becomes thoroughly charged and
saturated the excess is poured off until it ceases to flow, by which arrange-
ment the lamp when lighted may be placed in any position with perfect safety.
The wick tube and burner may be formed with flat narrow spaces, and several
burners may if desired be combined together. No glass chimney is required
with this burner. The burning oil or fluid compound, which it is preferred to
consume in this lamp, is such as is described in the Provisional Specifica-
tion of a Patent now being applied for by me, bearing even date herewith,
and numbered 1021.