IMPROVEMENTS IN MINERS' SAFETY LAMPS
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Higgs, junior, of Penzance, Cornwall, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MINERS' SAFETY LAMPS."
Sealed the 14th August 1858, and dated the 18th May 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Higgs, junior,
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, ou
the 18th May 1858.
I, SAMUEL HIGGS, junior, of Penzance, Cornwall, do hereby, declare the
nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MINERS' SAFETY LAMPS," to be as
follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in miners' safety lamps.
For these purposes, to each of such lamps an air vessel is applied in which air
is condensed by a suitable air pump or apparatus; a stop-cock or valve is also
applied to regulate the passage of the air from the air vessel to the wick of
the lamp. By these means, when by reason of the bad atmosphere of a mine
the flame of a lamp decreases, it may be improved by allowing the condensed
air in the air vessel to flow therefrom to the wick, and the flame will be im-
mediately improved, notwithstanding the lamp may continue to be exteriorly
surrounded with the bad air of the mine.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Samuel Higgs, junior, in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 17th November 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
HIGGS, junior, of Penzance, Cornwall, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-first year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Samuel Higgs, Her special licence that I, the said Samuel Higgs, iny
exccutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Samuel
Higgs, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN MINERS'
SAFETY LAMPS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Samuel
Higgs, my executors or administrators, 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 mouths next and immediately after the date of the
said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Samuel Higgs, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and 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:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in miners' safety lamps.
For these purposes, to each of such lamps an air vessel is applied, in which air
is condensed by a suitable air pump or apparatus; a stop-cock or valve is also
applied to regulate the passage of the air from the air vessel to the wick of the
lamp. By these means, when by reason of the bad atmosphere of a mine the
flame of a lamp decreases, it may be improved by allowing the condensed air
in the air vessel to flow therefrom to the wick, and the flame will be imme-
diately improved, notwithstanding the lamp may continue to be externally
surrounded with the bad air of the mine.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, I will proceed more
fully to describe the manner of performing the same.

page_text: DRAWING,
which represents an ordinary miners' lamp, having apparatus applied thereto
according to my Invention. A is the ordinary miners' lamp, which fixed by
screws or otherwise to the upper part of the air vessel B. The air vessel B is
to be supplied with compressed air at C, where there is a valve, which it is
preferred should be arranged to be moved away or opened by the screwing on
of the pipe of an air pump, and to be closed by the removal of the pipe of the
air pump; D is the wick tube of the ordinary miners' lamp; E is a tube which
is arranged to pass through the upper part of the air vessel B, and through the
oil vessel of the lamp, so that the upper end of the tube may come to the
position shown in the Drawing. The upper end of the tube E is bent
horizontally, partly around the wick tube; hence the compressed air in passing
out of the end of the tubo E flows around the outside of the wick tube before
rising up to the flame. The lower end of the tube E is fixed within the air
vessel; through an enlargement formed at the lower end of the tube E a
screw F passes, there being a female screw formed in the enlargement of the air
tube E, and by means of such screw the passage of air to the burner of the lamp
is regulated. The stem of the screw I passes out of the air vessel through a
stuffing box; the lower end of the screw F fits the female screw in the air pipe
closely, but the threads of the screw, as they come nearer the handle of the
screw F, are cut or filed away more and more, so that as the end of the screw
Fis passed more and more through the end of the tube E, there will be a
larger and larger passage for the air to pass through the tube E, and thence to
the burner.
I would remark that the form of the air vessel may be varied, and such is
also the case in regard to the means of regulating the air passing therefrom
to the miners' lamp. What I claim is the combination of an air vessel with
a miners' lamp, as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Higgs, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
Witness,
S. CARPMAEL.
SAM. IIIGGS, JR. (L.S.)