IMPROVEMENTS IN GAS BURNERS
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edward Thomas Hughes, of the Firm of Hughes
and Son, Patent Agents, 123, Chancery Lane, London, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN GAS BURNERS."-A communication
from abroad by Wilbur Fisk Parker, of Meriden, in the County of
New Haven, State of Connecticut, United States of America.
Sealed the 25th March 1869, and dated the 29th September 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edward Thomas Hughes
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 29th September 1868.
I, EDWARD THOMAS HUGHES, of the Firm of Hughes and Son, Patent
Agents, 123, Chancery Lane, London, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN GAS BURNERS," a communication
to me from abroad by Wilbur Fisk Parker, of Meriden, in the County of
New Haven, State of Connecticut, United States of America, to be as
follows:-
It is well known that much trouble has arisen from the escape of gas
through the burner in consequence of the blowing out of the flame,

page_text: either from a blast of air or by persons unskilled in the use of gas.
The object of this Invention is to overcome this difficulty, and to
construct a fixture which will automatically cut off the supply whenever
the flame is extinguished. To this end the Invention consists in the
arrangement of a rod of suitable material placed in such relative position
to the flame and in direct or indirect connection with the valve, so that
the heat of the flame expands the rod to hold open the supply of gas,
and so that when the flame is extinguished the contraction of the said
rod will automatically cut off the supply.
In order that this Invention may be clearly understood I will fully
describe the same as illustrated in the accompanying Drawings, in which
Fig. 1 shews the burner with the supply of gas cut off, and Fig. 2, the
burner in communication with the supply pipe.
A is the gas burner of any common or known construction attached
by a joint B to the supply pipe C, and arranged so that when the
burner is in the position as seen in Fig. 1 the supply is cut off, but
when the burner is raised or turned to the position in Fig. 2 the supply
is open.
At a convenient point upon the burner I arrange a rod D of
any material that readily expands by heat and contracts by cooling, the
said rod being in such position that the flame of the burner will create
At a convenient point I arrange
sufficient heat to expand the said rod.
a fixed catch E, so that when the burner is raised, as in Fig. 2, and the
gas lighted the said rod will by expansion enter the said fixed notch, as
denoted in blue, and there hold the burner so long as the heat maintains
the expansion of the rod; but should the flame become extinguished
from any cause whatever then the said rod will quickly contract, leaving
the notch and releasing the burner from its control, then the burner will
instantly fall to the position denoted in Fig. 1 and cut off the supply.
To cause the burner thus to fall automatically I arrange a weight F,
or any other convenient means may be employed. It will be convenient
to arrange an adjusting cock at some suitable point near the burner to
adjust the flame, as without such adjusting cock the full head would
a lot on

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Edward Thomas Hughes in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 29th March 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWARD
THOMAS HUGHES, of the Firm of Hughes and Son, Patent Agents, 123,
Chancery Lane, London, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of September, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the
thirty-second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Edward Thomas Hughes,
Her special licence that I, the said Edward Thomas Hughes, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Edward Thomas Hughes, 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 GAS BURNERS," a communication
to me from abroad by Wilbur Fisk Parker, of Meriden, in the County of
New Haven, State of Connecticut, United States of America, upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Edward Thomas Hughes, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or
their, or one of their hands and scals, 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 Edward Thomas Hughes, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement, reference being had to the accompanying
Sheet of Drawings (that is to say) :-
It is well known that much trouble has arisen from the escape of
gas
through the burner in consequence of the blowing out of the flame,
either from a blast of air or by persons unskilled in the use of gas.

page_text: The object of this Invention is to overcome this difficulty, and to
construct a fixture which will automatically cut off the supply whenever
the flame is extinguished. To this end the Invention consists in the
arrangement of a rod of suitable material placed in such relative position
to the flame and in direct or indirect connection with the valve, so that
the heat of the flame expands the rod to hold open the supply of gas,
and so that when the flame is extinguished the contraction of the said
rod will automatically cut off the supply.
In order that this Invention may be clearly understood I will fully
describe the same as illustrated in the accompanying Drawings, in which
Fig. 1 shows the burner with the supply of gas cut off, and Fig. 2, the
burner in connection with the supply pipe.
A is the gas burner of any common or known construction attached
by a joint B to the supply pipe C, and arranged so that when the burner
is in the position as seen in Fig. 1 the supply is cut off, but when the
burner is raised or turned to the position in Fig. 2 the supply is open.
At a convenient point upon the burner I arrange a rod D of any
material that readily expands by heat and contracts by cooling, the said
rod being in such position that the flame of the burner will create suffi-
cient heat to expand the said rod. At a convenient point I arrange a
fixed catch E, so that when the burner is raised, as in Fig. 2, and the
gas lighted the said rod will by expansion enter the said fixed notch, as
denoted in Fig. 2, and there hold the burner so long as the heat main-
tains the expansion of the rod, but should the flame become extinguished
from any cause whatever then the said rod will quickly contract, leaving
the notch and releasing the burner from its control, then the burner will
instantly fall to the position denoted in Fig. 1 and cut off the supply.
To cause the burner thus to fall automatically I arrange a weight F,
or any other convenient means may be employed. It will be convenient
to arrange an adjusting cock at some suitable point near the burner to
adjust the flame, as without such adjusting cock the full head would
be let on.
I have represented this construction as only one of the many
arrangements by which the expanding rod may be combined with the
burner so as to operate by the heat of the flame to hold the supply,
and to automatically cut off the supply when the flame is extinguished.
Having fully described this Invention, what I claim as new and
useful and desire to secure by Letters Patent is, a burner combined

page_text: with mechanism constructed so as to hold and cut off the supply of
as to the said burner, by either expansion or contraction, as herein
lescribed and illustrated in the accompanying Drawing.
In witness whereof I, the said Edward Thomas Hughes, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of March
1869.