Improvements in Incombustible Wicks.
Year: 1887

page_text: Date of Application, 14th Mar., 1887
Complete Left, 14th Dec., 1887
Complete Accepted, 27th Jan., 1883
:
Improvements in Incombustible Wicks.
We ALFRED ERNEST WEBB, Chemist of 188 Southgate Road and HENRY JAMES
ROWLAND JOHNSTONE Engineer of 26 Bark Place Bayswater, both in the County of
Middlesex and HENRY WILLIAM PAUL of 101 Leadenhall Street in the City of
London Shipbroker, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
This Invention relates to certain improvements in lamp wicks of incombustible
character.
In preparing the incombustible wick there is to be employed the following
ingredients in about the proportions given-viz. :
2 Ounces of powdered hard wood.
Ounce of powdered glass.
Ounce of fire clay pulverized.
Ounce of Cotton powdered.
3 Ounces of Sea Sand.
These ingredients are rendered into a plastic mass and may be moulded as required
and then baked (or tired) in a stove to about a red heat and then allowed to cool down
when a somewhat hard and porous substance will be produced capable of promoting
or sustaining rapid capillary attraction upon being placed in oil or in connection with
a conductor such as a so-called "cotton wick."
The oil and wick may be used in lamps of substantially well known construction.
Dated 11th March 1887
WALTER A. BARLOW,
6, St. Paul's Churchyard,
London, E.C.

page_text: cause the glass and sand to "run" a good red heat being generally sufficient for the
purpose, and we find that from fifteen to thirty minutes is long enough for the firing
to continue. The duration of the firing may vary according to the materials used,
the thickness of the wicks and other causes; it is therefore best ascertained by
practical experience but we have obtained excellent results in the time given above.
The cooling down must be gradual or the wick will crack; a good test of their
being cool enough to be turned out of the molds is that the molds are cool enough to
handle. The materials are preferably pulverized or ground separately and then
mixed.
It is not necessary to dilate upon the advantages of a lamp wick which never
requires trimming and may be used for years without deteriorating, nor to specify all
the uses to which such a wick may be put; suffice it to mention that this wick may
be used with the various oils, animal, vegetable or mineral for burning or lubricating
purposes, and for spirit lamps.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what
we claim is:-
1. The herein described manufacture of incombustible wick substantially as
specified.
2. As a means of supplying fluid light or heat yielding medium to a flame the
employment of a rigid stone or stone-like wick by which the fluid flows under the
influence of capillary attraction.
"
3. The method of manufacturing a stone wick such as is herein-described by
applying heat to the described materials prepared in the manner and proportions
substantially as specified.
4. In the manufacture of "stone" wicks the method of forming capillaries or fine
passages or spaces therein consisting in mixing with the materials of which the
"
stone is to be made some carbonaceous material such as wood and cotton and
burning it out during the process of manufacture substantially as specified.
11
Dated this 12th day of December 1887.