IMPROVEMENTS " IN LAMPS AND Apparatus for LIGHTING THE SAME
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Martin, of Box Grove, Guildford, in the
County of Surrey, Lieutenant-Colonel, late Commanding Fourth, the
King's Own, Royal Regiment, for the Invention of" IMPROVEMENTS
"
IN LAMPS AND Apparatus for LIGHTING THE SAME.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Martin at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
6th November 1874.
I, THOMAS MARTIN, of Box Grove, Guildford, in the County of Surrey,
Lieutenant-Colonel, late Commanding Fourth, the King's Own, Royal
Regiment, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
“IMPROVEMENTS IN LAMPS AND APPARATUS FOR LIGHTING THE SAME," to be as
follows:-
In a Provisional Specification filed by me on the 22nd September 1874,
No. 3206, I described an improved construction of oil lamps, more
particularly applicable to railway carriages, wherein the air for sup-
porting combustion was supplied to the burner through apertures in the

page_text: side of the lamp casing just above the glass globe, and situated inside
the compartment of the carriage, the tubes through which the air was
conducted to the burner, and which were removeable, together with the
oil tank, being made to fit with their orifices as closely as practicable
against such openings in the casing; also the glass globe of the lamp
was made to open on a hinge inside the carriage.
My present improvements have principally for their object to simplify
the construction of such lamps, and to insure that no heated air shall
find its way from the upper part of the lamp casing into the said air
pipes or into the glass globe. For this purpose, instead of arranging the
oil tank with the burner and reflector to be removeable from the top of
the lamp casing, as has hitherto been done, I construct the oil tank in
one piece with the casing of the lamp, such casing forming the outer
side of the oil tank; furthermore, I fix the reflector with the chimney
by soldering or otherwise in an air-tight manner to the casing of the
lamp, and I also fix the open ends of the air tubes in an air-tight manner
to the casing of the lamp opposite the side holes in the lattor, through
which the air enters. By this means when the lamp is lit, and the glass
globe closed, the space inside the latter is hermetically closed against
the ingress of any air beyond that which enters through the said side
holes in the casing, and thus the glass globe is rendered similar in its
action to that of a cupping glass, the rarefaction of the air inside the
glass globe due to the heat of the. flame tending as it were to suck in the
cold air through the side holes, and causing an increased draught through
the air tubes, whereby a more perfect combustion and an increased
brilliancy of the flame is produced. The glass globe is made to close in
an air-tight manner against the casing by forming on the metal ring to
which the globe is secured a projecting circular bead, which fits into a
corresponding recess formed in a flange on the lamp casing, and if
requisite I provide a packing of india-rubber or other material inside
the recess against which the bead presses. The stoppered aperture
usually provided in the top of the oil tank for filling the same is by
preference dispensed with, the tank being filled when required by
inverting the lamp, and introducing the oil through a funnel inserted into
the opening of the oil tube inside the burner. By this means I prevent
the leakage of oil into the glass globe through the imperfect closing of
the filling hole in the oil tank, as at present frequently occurs. I also
place a small piece of sponge or other material of like character at the
.

page_text: bottom of the oil cup, so as to regulate the uniform and steady supply of
oil to the wick, and prevent overflow.
The top of the lamp casing might with my improved construction be
entirely closed, with the exception of small apertures for the escape
of the burnt air, as the cleaning of the lamp is effected from below when
the glass globe is opened, and as there will be little or no carbonaceous
deposit on the top of the casing, but I prefer to make the top to open
on a hinge in order to facilitate the cleaning of the chimney and top of
the lamp casing.
For lighting the lamp I employ an apparatus consisting of a tube
divided by a transverse partition into two compartments, one of which
constitutes a beak for the reception of an asbestos wick, while the other
constitutes a reservoir for spirit or oil. In the partition is provided a
cock, which may be turned by a handle outside the tube so as to admit
a small quantity of the combustible liquid into the beak from the reser-
voir when the wick is to be lit. The reservoir is filled when required
through a stoppered opening at the end of the tube.
In cases where greater illuminating power is required in lamps than
can be obtained from a single flat wick, I arrange three, four, or more
such wicks radiating star fashion round a central point, each wick being
enclosed within an air hood, which is separately supplied with air by a
tube from the exterior, or all the radiating hoods may bo supplied from
one central air tube.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thomas Martin in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 5th May 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM, THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
MARTIN, of Box Grove, Guildford, in the County of Surrey, Lieutenant-
Colonel, late Commanding Fourth, the King's Own, Royal Regiment,
) send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Sixth day of November, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty-
. eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give

page_text: and grant unto me, the said Thomas Martin, Her special license that
I, the said Thomas Martin, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Thomas Martin, my executors, adminis-
trators, 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, excrcise, and vend,
within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN LAMPS
AND APPARATUS FOR LIGHTING THE SAME," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Thomas Martin, 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 Thomas Martin, 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, reference being had to the accom-
panying Sheet of Drawings and to the figures and letters marked thereon,
that is to say :-
In the Specification of a Patent granted to me on the 22nd day of
September 1874, No. 3247, I described an improved construction of 'oil
lamps, more particularly applicable to railway carriages, wherein the air for
supporting combustion was supplied to the burner through apertures in
the side of the lamp casing just above the glass globe, and situated inside
the compartment of the carriage, the tubes through which the air was
conducted to the burner, and which were removeable, together with the
oil tank, being made to fit with their orifices as closely as practicable
against such openings in the casing; also the glass globe of the lamp
was made to open on a hinge inside the carriage.
My present improvements have principally for their object to simplify
the construction of such lamps, and to insure that no heated air shall
find its way from the upper part of the lamp casing into the said air
pipes or into the glass globe. For this purpose, instead of arranging the
oil tank with the burner and reflector to be removeable from the top of
the lamp casing, as has hitherto been done, I construct the oil tank in.
one picco with the casing of the lamp, such casing forming the outer

page_text: side of the oil tank; furthermore, I fix the reflector with the chimney by
soldering or otherwise in an air-tight manner to the casing of the lamp,
and I also fix the open ends of the air tubes in.an air-tight manner to
the casing of the lamp opposite the side holes in the latter through
; which the air enters. By this means when the lamp is lit and the glass
globe closed the space inside the latter is hermetically closed against
the ingress of any air beyond that which enters through the said side
holes in the casing, and thus the glass globe is rendered similar in its
action to that of a cupping glass, the rarefaction of the air inside the
) glass globe due to the heat of the flame tending as it were to suck in the
cold air through the side holes, and causing an increased draught through
the air tubes, whereby a more perfect combustion and an increased
brilliancy of the flame is produced. The glass globe is made to close in
an air-tight manner against the casing by forming on the metal ring to
which the globe is secured a projecting circular bead, which fits into a
corresponding recess formed in a flange on the lamp casing, and if
requisite I form a packing of india-rubber or other material inside the
recess against which the bead presses. The stoppered aperture usually
provided in the top of the oil tank for filling the same is by preference
'dispensed with, the tank being filled when required by inverting the
lamp and introducing the oil through a funnel inserted into the opening
of the oil tube inside the burner. By this means I prevent the leakage
of oil into the glass globe through the imperfect closing of the filling
hole in the oil tank, as at present frequently occurs. I also place a
3 small piece of sponge or other material of like character at the bottom
of the oil cup, so as to regulate the uniform and steady supply of oil to
the wick, and prevent wash or overflow.
The top of the lamp casing might with my improved construction bo
entirely closed, with the exception of small apertures for the escape of
the burnt air, as the cleaning of the lamp is effected from below when
the glass globe is opened, and as there will be little or no carbonaceous
deposit on the top of the casing; but I prefer to make the top to open
on a hinge in order to facilitate the cleaning of the chimney and top of
the lamp casing.
For lighting the lamp I employ an apparatus consisting of a tube
-divided by a transverse partition into two compartments, one of which
constitutes a beak for the reception of an asbestos or other wick, while
the other constitutes a reservoir for spirit or oil. In the partition is

page_text: provided a cock, which may be turned by a handle outside the tube so
as to admit a small quantity of the combustible liquid into the beak
from the reservoir when the wick is to be lit. The reservoir is filled
when required through a stoppered opening at the end of the tube.
In cases where greater illuminating power is required in lamps than
can be obtained from a single flat wick I arrange three, four, or moro
such wicks radiating star fashion round a central point, each wick being
enclosed within an air hood, which is separately supplied with air by a
'tube from the exterior, or all the radiating hoods may be supplied from
one central tube.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Fig. 1 of the Drawings shews a vertical section of a railway carriage
lamp with my before-described improvements applied thereto; and
Fig. 2 shews a sectional plan of the same on line X, X, Fig. 1. A is the
oil tank formed in one with the casing B of the lamp, so that the latter
constitutes the outer side of the tank, as shewn. The reflector C is
soldered or otherwise fixed in an air-tight manner to the casing B, as are
also the upper ends of the air tubes D, which conduct the air from the
side apertures E to the air casing F of the burner. The holes in the
-reflector through which the air tubes pass, as also the holes in the air
tubes through which the oil tubes G pass, are also closed air-tight by
soldering, so that no heated air can pass from the upper part of the
lamp to the space below the reflector, the flame of the lamp being thus
entirely fed by the cold air supply passing in through the air tubes.
The inlet holes E to the air tubes are closed by perforated
tubular pieces H, as described in the Specification above referred to.
The air tubes D are by preference of a triangular transverse section,
as described in my previous Patent, but for the sake of simplicity of
construction I prefer to make them pass straight at an angle
from the air casing of the burner to the air holes E, as shewn,
instead of curving them, as previously described. Also, instead of
making the air casing F to the burner of the same depth as the
oil cup I, which is unnecessary, I make the latter to project down
below the former, as shewn, and the oil tubes G, which pass along the
under side of the air tubes, are bent downwards at the termination of
these, so as to enter the oil cup near the bottom. In the bottom of the
oil cup I place a small piece of sponge, as before described, to regulate
the uniform supply of oil to the wick, and prevent overflow, and for the

page_text: same object the oil tubes are made to enter the oil cup at its narrow
dimension instead of at the ends, so that owing to the narrowness of the
space in the oil cup between the two openings of the oil tubes there is
little chance of their becoming uncovered by the oil lashing in the
chamber owing to the oscillation of the carriage.
The lamp glass K, which may conveniently be made of the shape
shewn, is made to open on a hinge at K', and is closed by a fastening
at K³, as described in my previous Patent.
Fig. 3 shews a plan, and Fig. 4 an clevation of a lamp burner, with
four wicks radiating from the centre in the form of a cross, according to
my before-described improvement. L, L, L, L, is the oil cup formed of
a cross shape, and surrounded by an air casing M, also of cross shape, at
its upper part. A central air tube N is also by preference provided for
supplying air to the four wicks at the point where they meet; O, O, are
the tubes for supplying air to the burner.
Fig. 5 shews my before-described improved apparatus for lighting
lamps. P is a tubular reservoir for spirit or oil, serving also as the
handle, which is filled from time to time through the end P', closed by
a screw stopper; Q is a small tube communicating with the reservoir P,
and terminating in a beak Q' for the reception of a wick R, which beak
is separated from the reservoir P by a stop-cock S, so that by turning
this cock when it is desired to use the apparatus a small quantity of the
combustible liquid is allowed to flow from P into Q¹, and the cock is
again closed.
Having thus described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I claim in respect of railway
carriage and other lamps, wherein an oil reservoir in the upper part of
the lamp casing supplies oil to a burner situated below inside a glass
globe, the air being supplied to the burner through tubes,―
First. Making the oil reservoir in one piece with the lamp casing,
substantially as herein described.
Second. Fixing the reflector and air tubes in an air-tight manner to
the casing, substantially as and for the purposes herein described,
Third. The use of burners having three or more wicks in oil chambers
radiating from a central point, with air hoods radiating in a correspond-
ing manner to the oil chambers, substantially as herein described.

page_text: Fourth. The use of apparatus for igniting lamps, constructed and
operating substantially as herein described with reference to Fig. 5 of the
accompanying Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Martin, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this First day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five.