IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR FACILITATING THE IGNITION OF GAS IN THE LAMPS OF RAILWAY CARRIAGES
Year: 1875

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Austin Chambers at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 1st
March 1875.
I, AUSTIN CHAMBERS, of No. 258, Marylebone Road, in the County of
Middlesex, Signal Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR FACILITATING THE IGNITION OF GAS IN
THE LAMPS OF RAILWAY CARRIAGES," to be as follows:-
My Invention has for its object to enable a number of gas lamps to be
lighted in a railway carriage or carriages by the application of a flame at
a single point, and is especially designed to meet the requirements of
trains running journeys partly in tunnels and partly on open roads. At
present much gas is wasted in consequence of the lamps being kept
alight during the entire journey.
By my Invention all the lamps in a train may be readily lighted at
any point before entering a tunnel or underground portion of the line,
and may be extinguished on leaving that portion of the railway, thus
obviating the burning of the gas to waste in open daylight. For this

page_text: purpose I provide the burner of each lamp with a tube or pipe perforated
at intervals, and having combined with it a deflecting guard plate or
cover of non-inflammable material running in a line with the perforated
pipe or tube at a short distance above the row of perforations. The
perforated tubes or pipes of the several lamps to be lighted are connected 5
with a main pipe (or pipes) arranged along the roof or otherwise, and
extending down to a point accessible to the lamplighter. The main pipe.
communicates through a suitable cock with the gas holder. It (the
pipe) is perforated at intervals and is provided with a non-inflammable
deflecting guard plate or cover, which in cross section may resemble the 1
letter U inverted and having air holes in its sides.
On the cock of the perforated main being opened and a light applied
at the igniting orifice the gas will be ignited, and by the deflecting
guard plates or covers the flame will be communicated from jet to jet,
and thence to the gas issuing from the respective lamp burners until the 1
whole of the lamps are lighted, whereupon the cock is to be closed.
In some cases I provide a burner having a small orifice and supplied
by a separate service, which burner I arrange in proximity to the
perforated main within a suitable chamber, and I keep the gas alight at
this burner with the full pressure on so that its flame shall not be liable 2
to be extinguished when the train is in motion. By this arrangement
the several lamps may be lighted by simply turning the cock of the
perforated main without the application of an external light.
The lighting and extinguishing of the lamps may be effected by a
guard or other official, for which purpose where each carriage carries its 2
own gas holder the cocks of the several carriages composing a train may
be connected so as to be operated from the guard's van or other single
point.
Where the gas holder for supplying several carriages is carried in one
of them a single cock will suffice for lighting and extinguishing all the 3
lamps, the several perforated mains being connected together by hinged
or jointed perforated metal pipes having deflecting guard plates. At
the joints flexible connecting tubes may be used, or the connection
between the perforated lighting mains of the several carriages composing
a train may be established by flexible pipes, a small oil or other light 3

page_text: being maintained in a suitable chamber in proximity to the lighting
main of each carriage, so that when the gas is turned on in the carriage
containing the gas holder, the lamps of all the connected carriages
will be lighted. I arrange the cocks of the lighting mains to close
automatically.