AN IMPROVED FIRE-LIGHTER
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Henry Newman, of 45, Cannon Street Road,
London, in the County of Middlesex, Corn Dealer, for the Invention
of "AN IMPROVED FIRE-LIGHTER."
Sealed the 19th February 1856, and dated the 15th December 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Henry Newman
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, oi
the 15th December 1855.
I, WILLIAM HENRY NEWMAN, of 45, Cannon, Street Road, London, in the
County of Middlesex, Corn Dealer, do, hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "AN IMPROVED FIRE-LIGHTER" to be as follows, (that is to, say):-
The nature of my Invention consists in, a particular, arrangement or
disposition of any combustible material or materials 'to be applied to the use
or purpose of lighting a fire, or, in other words, of igniting or setting on fire a
mass of coals, cinders, or other fuel. And the arrangement or disposition of
combustible material or materials which I claim as my Invention, consists, in
giving 'to such material.or materials the shape or form of a funnel, or of a
large section of a hollow, cone; or pyramid, being such a cone or pyramid
without an apex, having, its horizontal sections circular, oval, angular, or
otherwise shaped, and having holes or openings into the cavity or hollow

page_text: within the article, in and through its side or sides, or between the parts or
pieces which comprise and are its side or sides, that is to say, which comprise
and are the article itself. And I further claim for my Invention that besides
being an improved means of lighting a fire it will occasion the production of
less smoke than is produced by the methods of lighting a fire now in use, and
that it will direct and concentrate superfluous flame, or the flame which
spreads or rises beyond or out of the fuel which is being ignited. I place the
article which I have invented upon the horizontal bars or grate of a fire-place,
with its base or greater circumference downward; I then surround the said
article from its base to its summit with the fuel to be set on fire, but I place
none of the said fuel over or upon its summit; I then ignite the inner surface.
of the said article.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Henry Newman in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 6th June 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,. WILLIAM
HENRY NEWMAN, of 45, Cannon Street Road, London, in the County of Mid-
dlesex, Corn Dealer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said William Henry Newman, Her special licence that I, the said
William Henry Newman, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said William Henry Newman, 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 AN IMPROVED FIRE-LIGHTER, upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said William Henry Newman, my executors or adminis-
trators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands
and seals, 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Henry Newman, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement (that is to say):-
The nature of my Invention consists in such an arrangement of material
for the purpose of lighting a fire, as will secure the passage of a current of air
through the coals, cinders, or other fuel to be lighted thereby. And I effect
this object by fashioning the said material into a shaft or tunnel having the
general shape of an inverted funnel, or of a cone or pyramid without an apex,
having its horizontal sections, round, oval, angular, or otherwise shaped, and
having a cavity or cavities within, and an aperture at its base and at its
summit into such cavity or cavities. And it is preferable that the said shaft
or tunnel should also have openings through or between its side or sides into
the cavity within.
I am aware that it is not new to provide articles manufactured for the
purpose of lighting fires with cavities between their parts for the passage of
air, and that such cavities are also provided in the immemorial custom of
crossing sticks to light a fire; but these arrangements do not include a
provision for securing an atmospheric current through the coals or other fuel
sought to be lighted, whereas my Invention provides such an arrangement
of material as will secure the passage of a current of air through the entire
mass of fuel to be lighted.
The above description of the shaft or tunnel which I employ, is a descrip-
tion of it in its state of actual use as a means of lighting a fire; but it should
be stated here that it may not be a description of it before it is put into use,
for it has been found of service to close up its upper aperture with a
plug of
shaving or other similar material, to prevent its efficiency from being impaired
by the falling of coals or other matters into the cavity within, which plug is
pushed downward and consumed when the shaft is put into use. It is possible
also, that in endeavours to cheapen the production of the said shaft or tunnel,
which being destined to be consumed in its first use, must be manufactured at
a small cost, its parts may be fastened together by ligatures of shaving, paper,
or other similar material, which will pass across and thereby close up one or
both of its apertures, or interrupt the continuity of cavity between them, to
be burst or burned through at the moment of using the article to light
a fire.
Having thus stated the nature of my Invention, I will now describe the
manner of performing the same. In the annexed Drawing, A, A, A, A, represent
a fire-place; B, B, represent coals or other fuel placed within the fire-place to

page_text: be lighted; C, C; C, represent the material to be used for lighting the said
coals or other fuel placed in the midst of such fuel, and being so arranged as
to secure the passage of a current of air through the whole contents of the
fire-place. The disposition thus described of the materials for lighting a fire
being made, I ignite the, material of which the shaft or tunnel is composed.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that what I claim is, an
arrangement of material to be used for lighting a fire into a shaft or tunnel,
which will secure. the passage of a current of air through the mass of fuel to
be lighted.
:
In witness whereof, I; the said William Henry Newman, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Sixth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
WILLIAM HENRY NEWMAN. (L.S.)