AN IMPROVEMENT IN GAS BURNERS
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Vincent Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughts-
man, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN GAS BURNERS."—A
communication,
Sealed the 28th January 1859, and dated the 31st August 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Vincent Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
31st August 1858.
I, ALFRED VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN GAS BURNERS," to be as
follows:-
This Invention consists in the application to "fish-tail" gas burners of a cap
or cover which has a rounded concave crown pierced at its centre with a'
circular orifice. This cap being placed over the burner so as to envelop it,
will, with a very small consumption of gas, produce a large and brilliant
flame.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alfred Vincent Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 28th February 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirty-first day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-second year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Alfred Vincent Newton, Her special license that I, the said Alfred
Vincent Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, 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 "AN
IMPROVEMENT IN GAS BURNERS," being a communication from abroad, upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 Alfred Vincent Newton, 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 Drawing hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say):-
This Invention, as communicated to me by my foreign correspondent,
consists in the application to "fish-tail" gas burners of a cap or cover of the
peculiar construction herein-after specified, whereby, with a small consumption
of gas, a large and brilliant flame is produced.
.
The Invention is illustrated in the accompanying Drawing, in which Fig. 1
is a central section of a burner with the improvement applied, and Fig. 2 is a.
top view of the same. Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts
in both Figures.
A is a burner of the kind known as the "fish-tail," made with what is

page_text: known as the "Scotch tip" a, but this kind of tip is not necessary to the
success of the Invention, which is applicable to the same kind of burner,
having its tip of the same piece of metal as the rest of the burner; B is the
cap, whose combination with the fish-tail burner forms the subject of the
present Invention; this cap may be of cast iron or other metal, and it fits
snugly to the lower part of the sides of the burner, to which it may be attached
by screwing on, though it answers equally well when made to fit snugly, and to
rest in the manner represented in Fig. 1 upon a shoulder 6 on the burner,
which keeps the interior of its crown at a proper distance above the tip of the
burner. The interior of the crown of this cap is made concave, as shown in
Fig. 1, and its distance from the head of the tip at the highest point should be
about one-sixteenth or one-twentieth part of an inch, and thus a very shallow
chamber c is made between the crown and the head of the tip. In the centre
of the crown of the cap a circular orifice d is formed, whose margin is slightly
rounded on the exterior, but the remainder of the exterior of the crown should
be flat altogether, or for a considerable distance from the margin of the orifice.
The diameter of the orifice d should be about one-tenth or one-eighth of an
inch, or such that the edges of the sheet of gas formed by the two impinging
jets issuing from the holes in the tip shall just strike, or, as it were, graze its
margin. The thickness of the crown of the cap at the margin of the orifice
should be about one-thirty-second part of an inch. A carefully conducted
series of experiments with several of these caps shows it to be of importance
that in a burner of medium or ordinary size something very near the above
dimensions should be adhered to, as any considerable departure therefrom
gives a greatly inferior result. When the burner is made with a Scotch tip,
there will be a small cavity e formed between the sides of the tip and the
interior of the cap, as shown in Fig. 1; but when the tip is made in one piece
with the other part of the burner, and the burner is of the usual form of
burners so constructed, the cavity e will be much less, but such cavity is not
considered of importance to the success of the Invention.
When the cap B is applied to a fish-tail burner, the sheet of flame, though
not altered or materially altered in shape, is increased considerably both in
height and width, and very materially so in thickness, and its brilliancy is
intensified, the increased volume of light being very apparent; this effect, the
Inventor remarks, he has tried to account for by various theories, without
having satisfied himself perfectly as to its cause, but the greatly increased
thickness of the flame seems to show that the gas is expanded between the
orifices in the tip of the burner and the orifice of the cap. Much depends on
the form of the exterior of the head of the cap, as, if the margin of the orifice

page_text: d is not rounded off or bevilled, and the surrounding portion of the surface is
not flat or very nearly so, the same effect is not produced. One remarkable
feature in the operation is, that a very low pressure of gas in the burner is
absolutely necessary to its success, and hence it is obvious that the result is
not due to an increased consumption of gas; indeed; experiments have proved
that a very great economy in gas is effected.
Having now set forth the nature of the Invention of "An Improvement in
Gas Burners," as communicated to me by my foreign correspondent, and
explained the manner of carrying the same into effect, I would remark that I
am aware that various forms of caps have been applied to gas burners, and
with various objects in view; I therefore disclaim the application generally of
caps or covers to gas burners, but what I claim under the above in part
recited Letters Patent is the application to fish-tail burners of a cap or cover
constructed and operating as above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Twenty-eighth day of February, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
A. V. NEWTON. (L.S.)