Improvements in Lanterns.
Year: 1894

page_text: GUALE MID
DIVULETATION.
Improvements in Lanterns.
I, BERNHARD BROCKHUES, Engineer, of 5, Metzerstrasse, Cologne, Province
of Rhineland and Kingdom of Prussia, do hereby declare the nature of this inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
Such a lantern is shown in the annexed drawing arranged as a gas-lantern; of
course it can also be arranged for electric light, petroleum etc.
Fig. 1. shows the lantern as a standing lantern. Fig. 2 as a suspension-lantern,
banging in a so-called lyre; in both the roof of the lantern is attached by means
of a hinge to the upper ring or frame b and can be opened upwards.
Fig. 3 shows the lantern hanging, but without the lyre outside, two or more
incandescent gas-lights being arranged in the interior about the gas-pipe that passes
down in the middle and bears the lower frame a of the lantern. In this case the
roof of the lantern is not attached by a hinge to the upper frame b, but can be slid
up and down by means of a guide on the central gas-pipe, so that for purposes of
cleaning, the roof can be lifted on the hanging-pipe of the bracket and kept in that
position until the cleaning is finished.
In Fig. 4 the valve in the bottom of the lantern through which it is lighted is
drawn in upright elevation and section; in Figs. 5 and 6 as well as in Figs. 7
to 11 different forms of reflector are shown in section, and in Fig. 12 is shown the
arrangement of a reflector-rim on the outside of the lantern round the roof.
The characteristic feature and one which from the outside is very striking in all
the different kinds of lantern shown in the drawing is the absence of any
connecting-rod about or in the glass of the lantern between the lower and upper
marginal rings a and b, so that the lantern-glass c itself serves as the only
connection between these two rings. This glass is manufactured as a mantle-shaped
body of conical shape and great strength from a single piece. In order to be able
to use this body as a connection between the two rings, the latter have a ☐-shaped
section, being formed like a gutter, the opening of the gutter in the upper ring
being turned downwards, while that of the lower is turned upwards. Into these
gutters fit the upper and lower rims of the glass body c amd are permanently
secured there by cement or gypsum with which the remaining space of the gutters
is filled.
It is true that in latter years many attempts have been made to diminish as far
as possible the shadow caused by the frame of a street-lantern by using a single
mantle-shaped glass instead of several panes between the upper and lower frame of
the lantern and by reducing at the same time the number of connecting rods to two
or even only one. The single rod, in case of the glass-mantle of the lantern being
destroyed, is intended so to guide the falling upper frame with the head that it falls
on the lower frame and not past the lantern on to the street.
Up to the present no one has dared to do away with all the connecting-rods
between the upper and lower frame. But since practical experiments have shown
that in case of the glass breaking, the falling upper frame with the lantern-head,
even in the most violent storm, always falls on the lower frame and never alongside
of it, too small a surface being exposed to the wind on account of the round
surfaces of the lantern-head, and the weight of the latter being comparatively great
while the distance between the upper and lower frame is only small, in the lantern
TDA

page_text: we are describing all connecting and guide rods between the upper and lower frame
have been omitted.
At the same time this lantern, consisting as it does of only a single glass body,
will in the interior be almost proof against strong winds, a fact which is of
importance as well for open flames as also especially for the incandescent gas lights,
which of late are being used more and more for street lighting. It goes without
saying that the glass body of the lantern does not allow any wind to enter inside, as
is almost always the case in lanterns the body of which is composed of panes of glass;
furthermore the glass body does not break nearly so often or so easily through out-
ward influences such as stones etc., so that also in this respect this body is more
proof against wind than the ordinary many-sided street lanterns, it happening much
more rarely that the body of the lantern receives a hole in the side. The lantern is
made still more proof against wind by the peculiar construction of the movable
glass valve d of the bottom of the lantern which allows of the introduction of the
igniting instrument. This valve namely is often broken or shattered by the lighter
while the lantern is being lighted, this occurring more especially in the winter when
the valve is frozen round about fast to the bottom, so that in order to be able to
raise the valve, the lamp lighter is obliged to push tolerably hard under the glass,
causing it to break and thus making a hole which admits air to the flame. In
order to avoid this and prevent the glass of the bottom-valve from immediately
breaking even under heavy blows, in the new lantern the middle part of the glass
surface, against which the lamp-lighter pushes, is protected and strengthened by one
or more metal ribs f starting from the metal frame-rime of the glass valve so that
the blows of the lighter strike these ribs, but not the glass itself (Fig. 4).
As long as no glass is broken in this lantern, it is protected from the wind in the
interior, and the air can only enter into and leave the interior of the lantern in the
manner prescribed, the fresh air entering by the longitudinal slits in the little turret
on the roof of the lantern, passing downwards to the outside of the ventilator
between the roof and the reflector and then passing below along the reflector, thus
reaching the flame in a slightly heated state, while the combustion gases pass
upwards through the ventilator and reach the open air through the slit running
round under the head of the turret.
In order also to increase the circle of illumination of this lantern as much as
possible the reflector g, instead of as hitherto in the shape of a bell or shape, is
made just the opposite ri. V shaped and attached in such a manner that according
as is needed it, projects downwards more or less below the upper frame of the lantern.
On accourt of this arrangement the bundles of rays reflected from the different
parts of the reflector-ring lying opposite to each other, do not, as is the case with
the ordinary reflectors which reflect towards the side, break through and cross
each other, but each part of the reflector-ring throws its bundle of rays direct by
the nearest way away from the interior of the lantern towards the outside and the
ground. The ground about the foot of the lantern still receives sufficient light by
the scattered rays of light coming from the innermost rim of the reflector-ring an
refracted and reflected downwards.
anl
But since in this form of the reflector, according to its inclination to and height
from the light, a considerable part of the rays might be sent past the reflector
directly upwards into the air, thus in nowise illuminating the ground, the reflector
in this case may be provided with a horizontal (Fig. 5) or obliquely opposite
(Fig. 6) exterior rim h in order to intercept the rays which would otherwise pass
by. In the latter case the section of the reflector represents an angle, zigzag or
wave and therefore also the whole reflector which may be of any shape may be
made instead with a wavy section (Figs. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11).
Instead of making the reflector as in Figs. 5 to 11, it may also be constructed as
shown in Fig. 12, and an intercepting ring i for the rays passing upwards past the
reflector, be provided outside the lantern round the rim of the roof or the upper
ring b.
Of course the reflector may be made of any kind of material, metal, polished,
varnished and enamelled, china, stone-ware etc.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is:
1. The lantern without shadow and inextinguishable by wind as drawn, consisting
of the lower marginal ring a, the upper marginal ring & supporting the roof with the
reflector and ventilator, and the mantle c, situated between the two, and secured by
putty in the two rings and consisting of a single glass body, there being no other
connection between a and b than the glass mantle.
2. The arrangement in the bottom of the glass valve d, which can be pushed
back, of one or more protective ribs, starting from the metal frame e of
the glass.
3. The upturned conical shaped reflector y i.e. a reflector forming a ring-surface
inclining obliquely outwards and upwards, according to Fig. 1 or the same provided
with a horizontal rim or one inclined obliquely downwards (according to Figs. 5
and 6) or the reflector of wavy section according to Figs. 7 to 11.
4. The arrangement of a reflector-ring outside the lantern round the lower rim
of the roof or upper ring of the lantern as in Fig. 12.
Dated this Twenty-sixth day of November 1894.
BERNHARD BROCKHUES.