IMPROVEMENTS IN LAMPS FOR BURNING MAGNESIUM
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Tomlinson Bousfield, of Loughborough Park,
Brixton, in the County of Surrey, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN LAMPS FOR BURNING MAGNESIUM."-A communication from abroad by
Robert Henry Thurston, residing at the City and County of Providence,
in the State of Rhode Island United States of Americe.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION. filed by the said George Tomlinson Bousfield:
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and
Declaration, on the 26th January 1866, pursuant to the 9th Section of
the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEOrge
TOMLINSON BOUSFIELD, of Loughborough Park, Brixton, in the County of
Surrey, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS.
IN LAMPS FOR BURNING MAGNESIUM," (communicated to me from abroad by
Robert Henry Thurston, a person resident at the City and County of
Providence, in the State of Rhode Island, United States of America), and

page_text: in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say:-
In Sheet I. Figure 1 is a view of the top of the lamp; Figure 2 is a side
elevation; Figure 3 is a front elevation; Figure 8 is a view in section;
Figures 4, 5, 6, are sections of guides; Figure 7 is a view of guides from
beneath; Figures 9 and 10 show another form of guides adapted to the use
of a single wire.
In Sheet II. is represented a lamp in which the magnesium is burned upon
the surface of the feeding roller without the aid of guides, with certain other
features incident to this simplification. Figure 1 is a side elevation; Figure 2
is a front elevation; Figures 3 and 4 are details of modifications to be referred
to hereafter.
Hitherto the metal called magnesium, which has recently been employed
for illuminating purposes where a light of intense brilliancy is required, has
been burned only by feeding the same to the flame from above, in consequence
of which the light is not only rendered fitful, irregular, and uncertain, but the
metal is unnecessarily wasted, and from the deposit of ashes and smoke upon
the guides a portion of its effectiveness in illuminating power is lost.
The Invention consists, first, in a means for feeding the metal to the flame
from below; second, in presenting the ribbons or wire of magnesium so that
the section of the flame at the point where combustion takes place. shall be
circular; third, in feeding the metal to the flame at a constant and uniform
rate of speed by the use of a bucket wheel actuated by sand or some equivalent
thereof as a motor.
In the accompanying Drawings, Sheet I., the ribbon of magnesium is to be
supposed to be wound in a convenient coil. One end of the ribbon is conducted
through the aperture k or k¹ (Figure 8), and between the friction rollers a, a¹,
through the guides 6, 6', to the point where combustion is to take place. If,
as is desirable in all cases where a light of intense brilliancy is required, two
sheets of flame are employed, there should be a second coil of metal like the
first, the end of which should be conducted to the point of combustion through
friction rollers and guides identical with and opposite to the set first mentioned.
I have exhibited in the Drawings such an arrangement of double feed rollers
and guides, though in some cases one set alone will be sufficient.
A is a wheel provided with buckets, each of which in turn communicates
with an opening at the bottom of the reservoir B, which is to be filled with
sand, the gravity of which as it flows at a uniform rate through the aperture
at the bottom, and which can be regulated by a check slide, will cause the

page_text: bucket wheel A to revolve with a regular unvarying motion. Instead of sand
a fluid may be employed and with a like result, or instead of a bucket wheel
with sand or a fluid as a motor a simple weight attached to a cord wound
around a pulley connected with the driving wheel A may be used. In this
latter case, however, it would become necessary to make use of a wind or
other governor to regulate the motion. From the main driving wheel A
motion is communicated in any convenient way to the second wheel T. The
axle shaft of this second wheel is also the axle shaft of one of the feed rollers a,
which by a train of gears familiar to any mechanic can be arranged to impart
a motion at the same rate of speed in the opposite direction to its fellow feed
roller; and where two sets of feed rollers are employed, as in the instance
shown by duplicating the gear wheels and pinions necessary for the purpose,
the second pair of feed rollers can be made to revolve in opposite directions
to each other, and at the same rate of speed as the first pair.
It is obvious that with the arrangement described the coil or coils of
magnesium will be fed to the flame from below with a regular rate of speed,
which is to be determined by the rate at which the metal is consumed.
The guides b, 61, through which the metal is conducted to the point where
combustion is to take place are gradually curved longitudinally, so that the
section at the point where the metal protrudes will be circular, as shown at
Figures 4, 5, 6, and 7, and where two or more sets of guides and two or
more strips of ribbon are used the flame will be in the form which belongs to
an argand burner, or in other words a cylindrical flame. For the purpose of
clearing the ash from the guides as the metal is consuming I arrange an
upright shaft d, which receives a rotary motion from the pinion n deriving its
motion from tho wheel T. The upper end of this shaft is provided with a
clearer c, which revolving with the shaft removes the ashes which fall down
by their gravity and are discharged through the spout K, Figures 1, 2,. 3.
In Sheet II. the Drawings represent an apparatus for burning magnesium
in many respects similar to the one exhibited in Sheet I. I propose, however,
in this to dispense altogether with guides for the magnesium wire or ribbon,
but to burn the same as it issues from the feeding rollers, thereby economizing
the construction of the apparatus, and also to make use of stationary scrapers
for clearing off the ashes as they are formed. B, Figure 2, is one of a pair
of feeding rollers which are made to revolve and feed forward the ribbon or
wire of magnesium E¹ by means of a train of wheels, as shown in Figure 1,
for which the weight W is the prime motor. The particular arrangement of
this train of wheels is obvious from the Drawing, but need not be particularly

page_text: described, as it is to be supposed that the feeding rollers move at a regular
and uniform rate of speed, which can be easily accomplished by any mechanic;:
and they can be set in motion by the use of a weight attached to a cord which
is wound around a windlass and regulated by a wind governor, as shown, or by.
the use of the sand wheel motor above described.
In Figure 2 I have shewn the pressure roller D as geared to the roller B
so that the two will move simultaneously, and also an arrangement by which
the space between the two rollers can be regulated to admit metal of different
thicknesses; but in Figures 3 and 4 I have shewn only a single roller, the
pressure spring P bearing upon the strip or wire of magnesium answering the
purpose of a second geared roller.
this arrangement burned upon the
extremity of a guide, and from the
that this can be done successfully.
For the purpose of clearing the ashes from the roller I make use of a
scraper k, Figure 1, which is stationary, and bears against the face of the roller
as it revolves. Thus, as an incident of the discovery that this metal can be
burned upon the surface of the roller quite as well as by the use of a guide,
I am enabled to combine with such roller a stationary scraper, which will
enable me to dispense with the apparatus for rotating the scraper exhibited in-
the first described modification.
The strip or wire of magnesium will be by.
surface of a feed roller instead of at the
nature of the material it has been found
I do not mean to limit myself to the precise construction and arrangement
of the several parts as described, but I mean to claim all variations of form;
structure, and arrangement which perform the same mode of operation by
equivalent means; what I claim as the Invention, and desire to secure by
Letters Patent is,-
First, feeding magnesium upwards to the point where combustion is to take
place from below the flame by a regular motion to be determined by the rate
at which combustion proceeds, in the manner substantially as described.
Second, the combination of curved guides b, b', or guides arranged in a
curve with the mechanism for feeding a ribbon or ribbons of magnesium, so
that the section of such ribbon or ribbons where combustion takes place shall
be circular.
Third, combining with such guides a clearer c, constructed and operated
substantially as described.
Fourth, the combination of a bucket wheel A having a continuous rotary
motion as described with a set or sets of feeding rollers a, a', arranged and
operating substantially as specified.

page_text: Fifth, the use of the feed roller B as a surface on which to burn a strip or
wire of magnesium, substantially as described.
Sixth, the combination of the stationary scraper k with the roller B, sub-
stantially as described and for the purposes specified.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Tomlinson Bousfield, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of January, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.
GEO. T. BOUSFIELD. (L.S.)