IMPROVEMENTS IN SHIPS' SIGNAL LAMPS
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Phillips, of Glasgow, in the County of
Lanark, North Britain, Ship Furnishing Ironmonger, for the Inven-
tion of "IMPROVEMENTS IN SHIPS' SIGNAL LAMPS.”
tion of "IMPROVEMENTS IN SHIPS' SIGNAL LAMPS.'
Sealed the 2nd August, 1872, and dated the 6th February 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Phillips at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
6th February 1872.
I, JOHN PHILLIPS, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North
Britain, Ship Furnishing Ironmonger, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SHIPS' SIGNAL LAMPS," to be as
follows:
This Invention has for its object to improve ships' signal lamps and to
render them better adapted than hitherto for fulfilling legal requirements.
It is requisite that a ship's side lamp should give light spreading over
a horizontal angle of ten degrees of the circle, but with the reflectors

page_text: hitherto used in ships' lamps the light is not efficiently displayed through-
out such an angle, the most part of it being concentrated in a smaller
angle.
The Invention consists in corrugating or indenting the reflector, &
in combining such corrugated reflector placed behind the light with a
lens placed in front of the light, whereby the desired object is attained.
In applying the Invention to a mast head lamp it is preferred to.
furnish the lamp with two burners or lights, and to apply between and
behind such burners either two reflectors or one continuous reflector
presenting two corrugated or indented concavities arranged to spread the
light laterally to a greater or less extent.
It is preferred to employ vertical corrugations, but the corrugations or
indentations may be varied in form and the whole surface of the reflector
may be corrugated or only the outer parts, the middle being left plain.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Phillips in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 5th August 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
PHILLIPS, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain, Ship
Furnishing Ironmonger, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Sixth day of February, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the thirty-
fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said John. Phillips, Her special licence that I,
the said John Phillips, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said John Phillips, 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 SHIPS' SIGNAL LAMPS,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Phillips,

page_text: 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 months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Phillips, 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 in writing, reference being had to the accompanying
Drawings, that is to say:-
=
My said Invention has for its object to improve ships' signal lamps
and to render them better adapted than hitherto for fulfilling legal
requirements.
It is requisite that a ship's side lamp should give light spreading over
a horizontal angle of ten points of the compass, but with the reflectors
hitherto used in ships' lamps the light is not efficiently displayed
throughout such an angle, the most part of it being concentrated in a
smaller angle instead of being spread with approximate uniformity over
the full range of the prescribed angle as it ought to be.
My Invention consists in corrugating or indenting the reflector, and
in combining such corrugated or indented reflector placed behind the
light with a lens placed in front of the light, whereby the desired object
is attained. The corrugations or indentations produce a multiplicity of
reflecting surfaces having different inclinations, and the reflected light is
thereby as it were subdivided, and the different portions of it become
mixed with each each other and with the unreflected portions, so that a
more uniform spreading of the entire light is obtained.
And in order that my said Invention and the manner of performing
the same may be properly understood, I hereunto append a Sheet of
explanatory Drawings to, be herein-after referred to, and showing the
application of my improvements to a ship's side lamp and also to a mast
head lamp. In these Drawings the same reference numerals are used to
mark the same or like parts wherever they are repeated...
Figure 1 is a horizontal section of a ship's side lamp; and Figure 2 is
a front elevation of the lamp but with the lens 1, Figure 1, removed,

page_text: and also the flange which holds the lens. The section is taken in
Figure 1 as at the line A-A in Figure 2. .
The present Invention does not relate to the general construction of
the lamp or its casing, and it is therefore unnecessary to describe these
parts minutely.
The lens 1 is placed in the usual position, and the burner tube 2 rises
up in a central position behind it; the reflector 3 is placed behind the
burner tube 2 with its concavity towards it, and in such a position as to
height as that the centre or most intense part of the flame may be as
nearly as possible opposite to its centre. The corrugations or indentations
of the reflector 3 are shown as running in vertical or nearly vertical lines,
which is the arrangement preferred, but these corrugations may be
varied in form, and they may extend over the whole surface or be
confined to the outer parts, the middle of the reflector being left plain.
Figure 3 is a horizontal section of a mast head lamp as arranged
according to my Invention; and Figure 4 is a front elevation with the
lenses and their holding flange removed, the section in Figure 3 being as
at the line B-B in Figure 4.
In this case the lenses 1 consist of a combination of angular rings
with a middle convex band arranged to disperse the light over a large
portion of a horizontal zone having a limited vertical angle. The lamp
is provided with two burners 2, and there may be placed behind these
burners either two separate reflectors or a continuous or united one 3,
shaped as shown with a part projecting forward between the burners and
presenting two corrugated or indented concavities arranged to spread the
light laterally to a greater or less extent. The corrugations or indent-
tations may of course be modified as in the case of the side lamps.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention, and the manner
of performing the same, I have to state that I do not restrict myself to
the precise details herein described or delineated, but that what I
believe to be novel and original and claim as the Invention secured to
me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,―
1. The constructing of ships' signal lamps with lenses in front of the
lights combined with corrugated or indented reflectors placed behind the
lights, substantially as herein-before described.
2. The constructing of mast head lamps with two burners and with

page_text: corrugated or indented reflectors and lenses, arranged and combined
substantially as herein described and delineated.
In witness whereof I, the said John Phillips, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Second day of August, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,
Glasgow.
JOHN PHILLIPS. (L.S.)