CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON A MACHINE OR APPARATUS FOR MORE READILY PRODUCING LIGHT
Year: 1824

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
BERRY, of Abchurch Lane, in the City of London, Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth, did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of that part of the United King-
dom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twentieth day of March, One thousand eight hundred and
twenty-four, in the fifth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said
Henry Berry, my exors, adññors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power,
sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Henry Berry, my exors, admors,
and assigns, during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully
might, make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON A MACHINE
OR APPARATUS FOR MORE READILY PRODUCING LIGHT;" in which said Letters Patent
there is contained a proviso, that if I, the said Henry Berry, shall not par-
ticularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under
my hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after
the date of the said Letters Patent, that. then the said Letters Patent, and all

page_text: liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly cease,
determine, and become void, as in and by the same, relation being thereunto
had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Henry Berry, 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 Drawing hereunto annexed, and the following
description thereof (that is to say) :-
My Invention of certain improvements on a machine or apparatus for more
readily producing light consists in a convenient adaptation of means already
known and employed to produce ignition, and for a certain combination of parts
new as applied to that purpose, the whole forming a compact, portable, and elegant
instantaneous light machine, which may be placed in any distant part of a bed-
chamber or elsewhere, when by means of a string an invalid sitting in a chair
or lying in bed may immediately procure a light. This apparatus is shewn of
its full size in the accompanying Drawings, and is represented as mounted in a
box divided longitudinally, one half or which is occupied by the lamp and the
other by the apparatus, the whole of which is covered by a lid which shuts by
a catch and keeps the parts secure.
Fig. 1 is a horizontal view of the box and the apparatus within; Fig. 2 is a
vertical section taken lengthways, and cut through the parts, by which their
internal construction will be seen. Fig. 3 is a vertical view seen endways; the
side of the box being removed for the purpose of shewing the forms and positions
of the several parts of the apparatus within; the respective letters referring to
the same parts of the apparatus in each Figure. a, 1, is a match box of a
triangular shape with a hinged lid. a is a glass bottle half filled with pure
sulphuric acid, which bottle is encased with metal, and is attached to the
bottom of the box by slipping into grooves. 6 is a long conical glass
stopper, carried by 'two brass rods c, which slide in cylindrical tubes. d,
with stops at bottom intended to guide them, and secured by caps screwed
on the tops of the tubes. e is a collar of caoutchouc; which closes upon the
neck of the bottle, and by its elasticity when pressed upon in shutting the
box closes the bottle securely and completely prevents the escape of the acid.
f is a revolving carriage upon which the prepared matches are placed. The
shaft of this carriage turns in the cylindrical tube g, and has'a helical spring
coiled round it. This spring is fixed to the seat of the shaft within the tube
at one extremity, and to the shaft itself at the other, which causes it, when
put in action, to turn the shaft and the match carriage round. h is a standard
with a cross at top bearing a pully i, over which the 'cord 7 passes, and is at

page_text: its extremity hooked to the ring of the stopper. This cord is conducted
through a circular eye or guide on the top of the standard, and when drawn
in any direction, however oblique, raises the stopper. The match having been
previously placed so as to press against the wire guard (which is constructed
either of platina or steel wire coated with sealing wax, when the stopper
ascends, comes in contact with the long conical end of the stopper, and
receives a small portion of the acid from the bottle, which acting upon the
well-known preparation of oxymuriate of potash with which the match has
been previously coated, instantly produces ignition. The lighted match now
passing the stopper comes in contact with the regulating pin A, seen in Fig. 4,
which is placed with that nicety of distance from the asbestos wick 7 of the
oil or spirit lamp, or the wick of a wax candle or other taper, as to cause it
immediately to take fire. This burner is also provided with a short pin B
underneath, which goes into the notch in the screw of the lamp and prevents
the possibility of the regulating pin A of the burner changing its position.
When oil is used in the lamp a hollow ground stopper as an extinguisher is
adopted, but when alcohol is burnt I prefer an extinguisher with a hinge, as
shewn in Fig. 8. This extinguisher has a collar of cauotchouc for the purpose
of preventing the escape or evaporation of the spirit. I fix the match carriage
with its shaft in the box by sliding it into a groove and confine it by a jointed
arm m, bearing against the end of the box. The standard h is fixed by
sliding into a socket, but when out of use packs in the inside front of the box
in a horizontal position.
In the above improved apparatus I wish it to be understood that I do not
claim the whole as an original Invention, but I declare the present arrange-
ment of the parts already known, with such new parts as I have introduced, as
peculiarly mine (to wit), viz', the elastic valve or collar formed of caouchouc,
as attached both to the stopper of the bottle and to the hinge extinguisher,
which elastic collar of caoutchouc will be found extremely valuable as a
chemical stopper in general. I also claim the particular construction of the
pully and its eye guide, with the cord passing through it for the purpose of
drawing up the stopper in any direction. I also claim the revolving match
carriage which carries the match when ignited by the acid to the lamp or the
wick of a wax candle or other taper and lights it. And I also claim the
application of platina or steel wire coated with sealing wax as a guard to the
match against the stopper of the bottle, and also the peculiar construction of
the burner, as above detailed. And, lastly, I claim the employment of a glass
surface cemented on to the top of the lamp for the purpose of preventing the
action of the acid or fire. Though I have described this apparatus as enclosed

page_text: in an oblong-formed box, yet I do not intend to confine myself to that shape,
but mean to enclose this my improved apparatus in boxes or receptacles of
various kinds and in different tasteful forms as circumstances may render
eligible.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Berry, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Seventeenth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and twenty-four.