AN IMPROVEMENT. IN LAMPS
Year: 1825

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I. JOSEPH
FAREY, of Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing-date at
Westminster, the Sixteenth day of July, One thousand eight hundred and
twenty-five, in the sixth year of His reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Joseph Farey, His especial
licence that I, the said Joseph Farey, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Joseph Farey, my exors, admors, and assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during
the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT. IN LAMPS;" in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said Joseph Farey, by
an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and
ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and inmediately after the
date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference
being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance' with the said proviso, I, the said
Joseph Farey, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in and by the Sheet of Drawing hereunto annexed, and by the
following description thereof (that is to say:-

page_text: My improvement in lamps consists in applying the direct action of a de-
scending weight, or the direct action of a spring to press upon and diminish the
capacity of the oil chamber or reservoir which contains the store of oil or other
fit inflammable fluid with which the flame of the lamp is to be maintained,
in order by means of such compressure and diminution of the capacity of
the said oil chamber or reservoir to express or force out the oil or other fluid
therefrom, and raise it through the supply pipe, and cause it to exude slowly
through a small and properly adjusted hole at the upper end of such supply
pipe, so as to abundantly feed and supply the wick or burner of the lamp.
The said oil chamber or reservoir may be placed in the pedestal or base of a
table lamp, or in the usual situation for the reservoir of any other kind of lamp
whereof the oil chamber is on a lower level than the flame of the wick or
burner; and such oil chamber or reservoir may be a bag of leather or any other
flexible material or fabric with a moveable top or botton; or it may be
composed of or lined with metal of any kind, and fitted with a moveable
stopper or piston; the said oil chamber or reservoir being in either case
adapted to admit of enlargement or diminition of its capacity in order to
fill it with the store of oil or other fluid in the first instance, and to after-
wards express that oil or other fluid gradually from it to supply the burner.
The quantity of oil or other fluid thus supplied being more than is consumed
by the flame, the surplus is returned through a wasto pipe to a store case
surrounding the aforesaid oil chamber or reservoir, and the oil or other fluid
collected in such store case may from time to time be returned or drawn into
the oil chamber to fresh charge the same by only drawing up the aforesaid
compressing weight or spring, which is applied to act upon the moveable top
or bottom of the said oil chamber or reservoir. Figure 1 represents a
sectional view of one of my improved lamps, wherein A, A, A, A, represents
the oil chamber or reservoir for oil, consisting of a flexible cylindrical bag of
leather or other fit material as impervious and insensible to the action of oil
as may be; this bag (A) being made up in a cylindrical form by an oil-tight
seam, and the bottom and the top of this cylinder of leather or other flexible
materials being retained and pinched in an oil-tight manner between two
conic surfaces of brass or other fit metal marked B, B, which will be further
mentioned herein; C, C, are a series of circular weights of lead or other fit
metal perforated in their centres so as to slip freely on to and be retained in
their places by the tubular stem D, D, affixed to and arising up from the metal
top B of the bag (A). The tubular stem D has soldered or otherwise fixed
on its top or perforated cap a, through the perforation in which cap there
freely slides the cylindrical stem or lower part E, E, of the rack F', the said
.

page_text: eylindrical stem E being furnished at bottom with a button or head 6, by
means of which button (6) acting against the cap (a), the said rack F is
enabled by the action of its pinion G, and of its milled thumb heads H, H, to
draw up tho said weights C, and to distend or again enlarge the capacity of
the bag A when the operation is required of charging or filling the said bag
with oil; which said charging of the bag is effected out of the store case I, I, I,
&c. made almost in the form of a wine bottle, of tinned iron or of any fit metal
tightly soldered or otherwise jointed and made oil-tight in all parts except its
top, on which there is affixed the oil tray K, K, through a hole in the bottom
of which oil tray (K) the rack F freely passes; it has also the waste hole d in
its bottom for letting oil down into the store case (I) through it; there also
passes the supply pipe N, which will be further mentioned herein; and on the
said oil tray bottom thero is also affixed and rises up therefrom the waste
pipo L, L, which has a screw plug f in its top, which screw plug is sometimes
removed when a supply of oil for the lamp is to be poured (from a feed can)
through the said waste pipe (L), which has a hole in its side within the
tray for letting out tho oil, and permitting it to drop through the waste
hole (d) into the said store case (I); or at other times, as convenience may
dictate, the supply of oil for the store case (J) is poured at once from the feed
can through the waste hole (d), and a cork or stopper is applied occasionally
to stop this hole. The oil from the store case (I) is admitted into the bag (A)
through the bag valve M during the drawing up of the weights (C) and the
distending of the bag, as has already been mentioned herein, and the oil is
again expelled from the said bag (A) through the supply pipe N, N, N, N, N,
by the action of the said weights (C), or of a spring as will be further
mentioned herein, the escapo of the oil from the top of the said supply pipe (N)
into the oil cup T, T, (shewn also detached in Figure 4), and the further
progress of the oil to the wick tubes 0, 0, 0, 0, being regulated by an
exceedingly fine or small hole g, either drilled through the top of the screw
plug in the top of the said supply pipe (N); or else for securing this delicate
hole from external injury and to prevent the occasional spirting up the oil
therefrom a deep notch is filed in the side of the said screw plug and the
small holo is drilled up into this notch. A strainer of fine gauze is stretched
and tied over the lower end of this screw plug in order to prevent the entry of
dust or impurities which might choak the small hole. The oil thus supplied
to the said oil cup (through the small hole g) flows to the wick, through
holes or slits in the outer one h, h, of the wick tubes (O), in the ordinary
manner of Argand's lamps, and the waste or superabundant oil escapes from
the said oil cup (T) thro' the aperture i in the screw plug f in the top of the

page_text: said waste pipe (L). The hole i should be on a somewhat biger level than
the said holes or slits in the outer wick tube (h), in order that some oil may
always rest in the oil cup for the perfect supply of the wick. The pipes L and
N act as supports for the burner and its apparatus, and being each furnished
with a tight-fitting screw collar or union joint P, P, they can, by this means,
be detached whenever the clearing or repairation of the lamp may render this
necessary. Studs are affixed upon these pipes L and N (but not shewn in the
Drawing), which support the axis of the pinion G, or this axis may be supported
at q, q, nearer to the pinion. After the operation of drawing up the weight
(C) by means of the pinion (G), and the rack (F) the pinion is to be turned
the contrary way in order to lower the rack, and prevent its causing any
obstruction to the free current of air within the circular wick tubes (0), the
cylindrical stem E and button 6 of the rack for this purpose sliding freely
down into the tubular stem (D), which is attached to the bag top as already
mentioned. Q, Q, is the glass chimney. The metallic bottom B, B, of the bag,
standing on the short or stub feet k, k, is fastened down to the bottom I, I, of
the oil-tight store case by two screws (which are seen also in Fig. 2 and 3),
and the heads of these screws are rendered oil-tight by means of small caps of
tin 1, 1, soldered over them. The inner bottom m, m, of the outer or orna-
mental case of the lamp supports on similar stub feet n, n, the bottom
of the said store case (I), and a pair of screws serve in liko manner for
attaching the whole together; but this attachment of the parts of my lamp
may be made in any other fit and convenient manner. Figure 2 is a section,
and Figure 3 a plan, which are intended for more clearly shewing the manner
in which the bottom of the bag (A) is pinched and held between the outer
cone B (by means of the screws p, p, p), and the inner cone S, composing the
metallic bottom of the said bag; the upper end of the bag is secured to its top
in a similar manner. The partial collapsing of the middle parts of the bag (A)
during the drawing up of the weights (C), occasioning an imperfect filling of
the bag with oil, may be prevented by using within the bag a helically coiled
wire, having one of its ends attached to the metalic top, and the other attached
to the bottom of the said bag. Instead of a cylindrical bag with metallic ends
such as has been described herein, tho ends of a leathern or other bag may be
sewed or tied up in any fit and oil-tight manner for the oil chamber of my
improved lamp, or the skin, the bladder, or other vessicular parts of animals
may be used for the like purpose. Figure 5 represents the mode of applying
the direct action of the descending weights C, C, (such as have been already
described herein), within the metallic cylinder A, A, A, A, truly formed and
polished inside in order to cause the piston L, U, to press upon and diminish the

page_text: oil chamber U, U, A, A, beneath it, and fount up the oil therefrom through the
supply pipe N, N, N, N, and its small regulating hole at top for the supply
of the burner of my improved lamp, as already has been described herein, and
as the corresponding letters of reference on the same, or similar parts in the
several figures will serve to explain. The piston U, U, is furnished with a
cupped leather disk r, r, both above and below it, in order the better to secure
an air and oil-tight fitting during the drawing up, and during the sinking down
of the said piston. When instead of weights, springs are used for pressing
down the moveable tops of my oil chambers A, A, A, A, or U, U, A, A, in
Figure 1 and 5, the said springs may take that purchase or abut against the
contracting parts of the store case (I, I); and when such springs act upwards,
they may take their purchase against the bottoms of the said store cases (I, I);
and so in case of springs, either spiral, helical, or otherwise, being used to
compress an end or a side of an oil chamber, in order to fount up oil therefrom
through a supply pipe and its small regulating hole for the supply of my
improved lamps, such springs may take their purchase against the corre-
sponding end or side of the surrounding store cases, or in any other fit manner
may such springs be counteracted and be wound up or bent.
Lastly, my claim, under the herein-before in part recited Patent, is for
applying the direct action of a descending weight, or the direct pressure of a
spring to the raising up of oils or other inflammable fluid in sufficient quantities,
regulated by the smallness of the holes through which such oil or fluid has to
pass in its ascent to the wicks of my improved lamps.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Farey, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Fourteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and twenty-six.
Inrolled the Sixteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and twenty-six.