IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY, SHIP, AND OTHER LAMPS
Year: 1872

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles Frederick Whateley at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 26th April 1872.
I, CHARLES FREDERICK WHATELEY, of Birmingham, in the County
of Warwick, Nautical Instrument Manufacturer, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY, SHIP, AND
OTHER LAMPS," to be as follows:—
°
My Invention consists of the construction, and arrangement, or com-
bination herein-after described, of the parts of the burners and oil feeders
of railway, ship, and other lamps, and also in the construction of the
lenses and lens holders, and parts connected therewith, of railway, ship,
and other lamps.
In constructing the burners of the said lamps according to. my In-
vention I make the said burners of a series of small conical wick tubes
or holders, the smaller ends of the tubes being situated uppermost. In
each of these tubes a wick is placed, which dips into the tubular oil cup
of the burner. Slots in the sides of the wick tubes permit of the ad-
justing of the wicks therein. The said wick tubes or holders are arranged

page_text: in a row across the middle of a circular disk or plate. This disk or plate
is supported on a ledge or annular projection in the interior and near the
top of the tubular oil cup of the burner, and the said disk is fixed in its
place by the engaging of the end conical wick tubes under the ledge or
projection described. Portions of the said ledge or projection at opposite !
points are cut away. To fix the wick holder disk to the oil cup, the
end wick tubes are brought opposite the cutaway portions of the ledge,
and the disk depressed on to the ledge. By then giving the disk a
partial rotation the end tubes engage under the ledge and fix the disk
securely in its place in the oil cup. Motion in the opposite direction
releases the disk from the oil.cup.
By constructing the burners according to my Invention a brilliant
light is produced, and the placing of the wicks in the burner plate and
the trimming and adjusting of the wicks are readily effected.
I combine with the burner described an oil feeder of the kind called 1
a fountain or self-feeder, by the use of which oil feeder a uniform level
of oil is maintained in the oil cup, into which the several wicks of the
burner dip. The said fountain feeder consists of a case or vessel com-
pletely closed, with the exception of an opening at bottom, which opening
is provided with a valve having a projecting external stem. This feeder 2
when filled with oil is placed by a sliding motion in a reservoir or
receiver open at top, the valve being opened by the striking of the
valve stem against the bottom of the receiver.
The said receiver communicates by a horizontal pipe covered by a
tubular casing with the bottom of the oil cup of the burner. As the 2
level of the oil in the oil cup sinks oil passes from the oil feeder into the
reservoir or receiver, and from thence by the pipe described to the oil
cup, and a uniform level of the oil in the said cup is thereby maintained.
The inner face of the oil reservoir serves to support a reflector. The
whole of the parts described are carried on a base plate, which is intro-
duced into or withdrawn from the case or body of the lamp by a sliding
motion. Two or more burners and reflectors may be combined with
a feeding apparatus of the kind described, the whole being carried by
a single base plate.
Instead of hinging the front plate or lens holder to the body of the
lamp as usual, I make the said front plate or lens holder capable of
ready connection with and removal from the body of the lamp. I cffeçt

page_text: this by making the front plate or lens holder slide in the body of the
· lamp grooves or depressions in the vertical sides and bottom of the body
at the front thereof, receiving the said sliding front or lens holder. By
this means a lamp can be made to give a white, red, or green light at
pleasure, by using a sliding lens holder provided with a lens of the
required coloured glass. The removal of one sliding lens holder from
the lamp body and the substitution of another therefor having a different
coloured lens is effected with great ease.
The sliding lens holder is fixed in its place by a catch at the top of
the lamp body. A lamp with a set of sliding lens holders, as described,
answers the purpose of three ordinary lamps.
Instead of making the curved surface of the plaro-convex lenses of
ship and railway lamps spherical as usual, I make the curved surfaces of
the said lenses of a parabolic form. By this construction of lenses the
light from the flame is more accurately refracted into a parallel beam
than by lenses of the ordinary kind.