IM- PROVEMENTS IN LAMPS FOR BURNING KEROSINE OIL AND OTHER VOLATILE OILS
Year: 1876

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by James Hinks, Joseph Hinks, and
Richard Ford at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 15th April
1876.
JAMES HINKS and JOSEPH HINKS, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
Manufacturers, and RICHARD FORD, of Birmingham aforesaid, Electroplater.
« IM-
PROVEMENTS IN LAMPS FOR BURNING KEROSINE OIL AND OTHER VOLATILE OILS."
Our Invention relates to lamps for burning kerosine oil and other volatile oils,
which lamps are usually provided with a small body or reservoir situated a short
distance below the burner, the oil being raised from the reservoir to the point of
ignition by the capillary attraction of the wick. The said body or reservoir requires
to be frequently replenished, and the object of our said Invention is to facilitate
the replenishing of the body or reservoir from which the oil is drawn by the wick
to reduce the size of the body or reservoir, and to diminish the trouble and risk of
accident in replenishing the said reservoir.
We make the base of the lamp of a store vessel having sufficient capacity to hold
the quantity of oil necessary for the burning of the lamp during any required
number of hours. Ordinarily, however, we do not think it desirable to make the
said vessel of a size larger than is sufficient to hold a week's consumption of oil,
owing to the inconvenient bulk and weight of a larger quantity of oil.
We fix a
false bottom in the said vessel at a short distance above the true bottom, the space
enclosed between the false and true bottoms constituting a shallow circular chamber.
Or we make an independent circular chamber at the bottom of the said vessel. In
this chamber a rotating disc is situated, the said disc having on its upper side a
series of equidistant curved vanes radiating from the centre to the circumference of
the disc. These vanes are of a depth somewhat less than the depth of the shallow
chamber in which they are situated. The disc carrying the vanes is supported so
as to be capable of a rapid rotatory motion, and a train of wheels or other gearing
connects it with a thumb plate or handle situated by preference near the top of the
lamp, by turning which thumb plate or handle a rapid rotatory motion can be
given to the said disc and vanes. An opening at the centre of the said false bottom
permits the flow of oil from the store vessel into the shallow chamber, and one or
more vertical pipes open at their lower ends into the said shallow chamber at or
near its circumference, and open at their upper ends into a body or reservoir situated
a distance below the burner about equal to the distance at which the body or
7

page_text: reservoir is situated below the burner in lamps as ordinarily constructed. We
make the said body or reservoir much less than that ordinarily used, and thereby
reduce to a minimum the shadow thrown downwards by the reservoir.
The action of the parts described is as follows:-By turning the thumb plate or
handle a rapid rotatory motion is given to the disc carrying the vanes. The oil
contained in the shallow chamber is put into rapid rotatory motion, and by the
centrifugal force thus generated it ascends the vertical tubes described and passes
into the body or reservoir under the burner. A few turns of the thumb plate or
handle are sufficient to replenish the said body or reservoir. The body or reservoir
is provided with an overflow pipe or hole, by which the level of the oil in the body
or reservoir is prevented from being raised above the proper height.