IMPROVED MEANS OF ILLUMINATING BUOYS, FINGER OR DIRECTION POSTS, MILESTONES, OR OTHER MARKS USED AT SEA OR ON LAND TO GUIDE OR DIRECT NAVIGATORS OR TRAVELLERS, SO AS TO RENDER SUCH BUOYS, POSTS, OR MARKS VISIBLE AT NIGHT
Year: 1860

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Edward Newton at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
18th April 1860.-A communication from abroad by Mr. F. Maxwell
Lyte, of Bagnères de Bigorre, Hautes Pyrenées, in the Empire of
France.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery
Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVED MEANS OF ILLUMINATING BUOYS,
FINGER OR DIRECTION POSTS, MILESTONES, OR OTHER MARKS USED AT SEA OR ON
LAND TO GUIDE OR DIRECT NAVIGATORS OR TRAVELLERS, SO AS TO RENDER SUCH
BUOYS, POSTS, OR MARKS VISIBLE AT NIGHT," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in an application of phosphorescent or chemically
luminous bodies, as they are sometimes called, to the purpose of illuminating
buoys or other marks used at sea, whereby they may be rendered more visible
at night than they are at present.
Phosphorescent substances are found sometimes in nature, as, for instance,
fluor spar and chlorophane, which are slightly phosphorescent, but by far the
most numerous as well as the most powerful phosphori are artificially pro-
duced, and among these perhaps the most remarkable are the sulphurets of
some of the alkaline earths; for example, the sulphide of calcium, commonly
known as Canton's phosphorus, and the sulphide of barium, known as
Bolognian phosphorus. Phosphorus, the element properly so called, is not
essential to the formation of phosphori; indeed the shining of this latter

page_text: element in the dark depends on a kind of combustion, more or less rapid, by
which it become changed in its nature, whereas in the phosphori intended to
be used for the purposes of the present Invention no combustion takes place.
When one of these phosphoric bodies, well prepared, is placed in a glass
receiver, and exposed to the light of the sun, if even only for a minute, or to
diffused daylight for rather longer, it acquires phosphorescent properties, i.e., it
shines in a dark place for a certain space of time afterwards. This phospho-
rescence is more or less durable according to the composition of the substance,
and may last for a few minutes or for many days, as the case may be.
Canton's phosphorus, which is the compound proposed to be employed, shines
for two days at least, while its composition is easy and cheap, and the light
it gives is among the best known. Other phosphorescent or chemically
luminous bodies may, however, be employed for rendering buoys more
apparent at night, among which phosphorescent bodies may be cited, as
examples, certain sulphurets or sulphides known commonly as Bolognian
phosphorus.
It is not intended that this Invention is to compete with ordinary modes of
lighting, but rather to come in where all others are inapplicable, as phospho-
rescent bodies do not diffuse more than a feeble light, visible at the best at
only a short distance; but with buoys ordinary lighting could not be applied,
however desirable. Canton's phosphorus, for example, shines with a light
which is not visible in moonlight, but is so in complete darkness at fifty
yards to the naked eye, if the containing vessel be about the capacity of a
gallon. The preparation of this substance is cheap, and easily applied, and
its properties remain unimpaired for an indefinite period, and are spon-
taneously renewed by the solar light from day to day.
The object of the present Invention is not so much to make buoys more
easy to be seen on a bright night, but to make them visible at all on a really
dark night.
The Invention is also applicable to direction posts, milestones, and the
posts set up to guide travellers in waste places where there are no roads, as
by its means the letters on the two former might be made legible, while the
latter would be rendered more apparent, like the buoys.