IMPROVEMENTS IN ILLUMINATION BY MEANS OF ARTIFICIAL LIGHT
Year: 1854

page_text: Sealed the 9th February 1855, and dated the 2nd December 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Christopher Witty
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
2nd December 1854.
the
I, ROBERT CHRISTOPHER WITTY, of No. 9, Toriano Avenue, Camden Road
Villas, in the County of Middlesex; Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ILLUMINATION BY MEANS OF
ARTIFICIAL LIGHT" to be as follows:-
By placing a reflector or set of reflectors within; or in the midst of, or amongst
a flame or several frames, or a series of jets of flame, placed or burning in a
circle, or in any other convenient manner, for the purpose of increasing the
illuminating effect of the light given out by such flame or flames: The flame
or flames being thus placed around or near to a reflector (compound or simple)
or a set of reflectors, the rays of 'light falling upon the reflecting service or
surfaces are reflected and disseminated in all directions, or in the particular
directions intended, according to the construction of the reflector or set-of

page_text: reflectors used. The reflectors may be made of any material proper for pro-
ducing reflection, which will bear the heat produced by the flame of a burning
body, and of any form or shape which may be deemed best adapted for pro-
ducing the intended effects. The flame or flames may be such as are produced
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
-by the said Robert Christopher Witty in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 26th May 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
CHRISTOPHER WITTY, of No. 9, Torriano Avenue, Camden Road Villas, in the
County of Middlesex, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Second day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the eighteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Robert Christopher Witty, Her special licence that I, the said Robert
Christopher Witty, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Robert Christopher Witty, my executors, administrators, 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, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN ILLUMINATION BY MEANS OF ARTIFICIAL LIGHT," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Robert Christopher Witty, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 Robert Christopher Witty, do hereby
declare the nature of my 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 accompanying Drawings
(that is to say):-

page_text: My said Invention consists in forming and placing a reflector with several
reflecting surfaces, or a set of reflectors, within, or in the midst of, or amongst
a flame, or several flames, or a series of jets of flame, placed or burning in a
circle, or in any other convenient manner or position, for the purpose of
increasing the illuminating effect of the light given out by such flame or
flames. The flame or flames being thus placed around or near to the reflect-
ing surfaces, or set of reflectors, the rays of light falling upon the reflecting
surfaces are reflected and disseminated in all directions, or in the particular
directions intended, according to the construction of the reflector or set of
reflectors used.
The reflectors may be made of any shape which may be deemed best
adapted for producing the intended effects. I make the reflectors of the
whitest porcelain or earthenware highly glazed, because when made of such
material they reflect light more perfectly than reflectors made of most other
substances. Such reflectors are also easily cleaned, and the material of which
they are made being white, and a bad conductor of heat, they have less ten-
dency to absorb heat, or to heat the air of buildings or rooms in which they
may be used for the purposes of illumination than metallic reflectors.
For ornamental or other purposes, the surfaces of the reflectors may, how-
ever, be colored, tinged, or figured. The flames used for producing the light
to be acted upon by the reflectors may be such as are produced by the burning
of gas, oil, cr any other material burnt for illuminating purposes. The flames
may be made or caused to burn around or near to the reflector or reflectors
by any lamps, burners, or other apparatus conveniently applicable for that
purpose.
In the accompanying Drawings I have given Figures shewing various modes
of applying my Invention in the formation of reflectors, in combination or in
conjunction with burners or burning flames, for the purpose of increasing or
improving the illuminating effect of the light produced by-the burning flames
of lamps or burners designed to be used for various lighting purposes.
In Figures 1 and 2 I have shewn a lamp with three burners and three
reflecting surfaces; Figure 1 being a side view of the lamp, and Figure 2 a
horizontal section of it. In each of these two Figures, a, a, a, are three Argand
gas burners, supplied with gas from a circular pipe c, c, (Figure 1,) to which
they are attached, and furnished with vertical glass chimneys 9, 9, 9, (Figure 1,)
in which the flame of the gas is to burn in the usual way. B is a reflector,
having three reflecting surfaces b, b, b, of a semi-cylindrical shape, or nearly
so, the horizontal sectional form of each of those reflecting surfaces being
shewn in Fig. 2.

page_text: Each of the burners is so placed that its flame shall burn near to the centre
of a horizontal line,. drawn across the bottom of the reflecting surface, before
which it is placed, and rise upwards within or partly within the partially
cylindrical reflecting surface, and parallel to the vertical face thereof, or nearly
.SO. The burners and reflectors are also so placed, as shewn in the Figures,
for-the-purpose-of-causing-the-light flowing from that side of the fame of each
burner which is towards the reflecting surface opposite to which it is placed
to be reflected from all parts of the reflector in a horizontal direction chiefly,
and (in consequence of the shape of the reflecting surface) in almost all the
directions in which the light flows from the opposite side of the flame, so that
the whole or as much as possible of the light produced by the flame may be
disseminated in a direction opposite to the reflecting surface, and more per-
fectly to distant parts of an apartment or building than is usually effected by
ordinary lamps. The three burners and reflecting surfaces are. placed in the
positions round the top of. the lamp, for the purpose of disseminating the light
of the flames in all directions round the lamp..
In Figures 3 and 4 I have shewn a side view and horizontal section of a
lamp with eight Argand gas burners and eight reflecting surfaces, each of such
burners and reflecting surfaces being similar to those shewn in Figures. 1 and 2.
Each of the Argand gas burners, as shewn in Figures 3 and 4, is attached
to the upper side of an, endless pipe c, c, c, (Figure 3,) which is turned into
an octagon or circular form, and supported upon the top of the pillar or
standard S (Figure 3), the gas passing up-through the pillar S and through
the pipe c, c, c, to the burners. Each of the burners is furnished with a vertical
glass chimney 9, 9, 9, 9, (Figure 3,) in which the flame of the gas is to burn
in the usual way. B, B; (Figure 4) is a reflector, having eight reflecting
surfaces (each marked 6), similar to those shewn in Figures 1 and 2. Each
of the burners shewn in Figures 3 and 4 is placed so that its flame shall
burn in the same manner and position with respect to its reflector as the
burner shewn in Figures 1 and 2 with respect to their reflectors. The burners
and their reflectors shewn in Figures 3 and 4 are also placed in the like
manner or positions with respect to each other as those shewn in Figures 1
and 2, and for the purpose, herein-before mentioned.
In Figures 5 and 6 I have shewn a side view and horizontal section of a lamp
with two only of such burners and reflecting surfaces, as aforesaid; each of the
parts shewn in the two last-mentioned Figures being marked with similar
letters of reference as the similar parts shewn in Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4,
further description of this (double reflecting) lamp is unnecessary..
In Figure 7 I have shewn a side view of a portion of a lamp similar to that

page_text: shewn in Fig. 3, but furnished with bat-wing burners instead of Argand
burners.
In Figure 8 I have shewn a vertical section of a lamp adapted for corners
of rooms or buildings, or other angular places; the burners and their reflectors
being marked with similar letters of reference as those shewn in the before-
mentioned and described Figures, further description is unnecessary.
Having now described my said Invention, and the manner in which the
same is to be performed, I declare that I do not claim as of my Invention any
of the parts or elements of the lamps or apparatus herein-before described
separate or apart from the application and combination thereof in manner and
for the purposes herein-before described; and that what I do claim as my said
Invention is, the combining and arranging of burners or their flames, and
several porcelain or earthenware reflectors or reflecting surfaces, with respect
to each other, for the purpose of increasing the illuminating effect of such
flames, and disseminating the light thereof in the intended directions, in
manner herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Christopher Witty, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of May, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
Signed, sealed, and delivered by the above-
named Robert Christopher Witty, in the
presence of
THOMAS BROWN,
47, St. Martin's Lane,
Charing Cross, Middlesex.
R. C. WITTY. (L.S.)