DIFFERENT MACHINES OR INSTRUMENTS, ONE OF WHICH WILL PRODUCE INSTANTANEOUS LIGHT, AND THE OTHER INSTANTANEOUS FIRE
Year: 1806

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
LORENTZ, late of Great Portland Street, in the County of Middlesex, but now
of Brook Green, near Hammersmith, in the said County, Esquire, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Fifth day of February,
in the forty-seventh year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said
Richard Lorentz, my exors, admors, and assigns, His especial licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Richard Lorentz, 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, certain Inventions (communi-
cated to me by Foreigners residing abroad) of "DIFFERENT MACHINES OR
INSTRUMENTS, ONE OF WHICH WILL PRODUCE INSTANTANEOUS LIGHT, AND THE OTHER
INSTANTANEOUS FIRE;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso
obliging me, the said Richard Lorentz, by an instrument in writing under my
hand and seal, to cause a particular description of the nature of the said In-
vention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in
His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months after the
date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, relation
being thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Richard Lorentz, in compliance with
the said proviso, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same are to be performed, are particularly described
as followeth, that is to say:-
In the Drawings hereunto annexed, Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 represent front and
side views of my said machine or instrument for producing instantaneous light;
and Fig. 3 exhibits a vertical section or view of the inside of the said machine;
and Fig. 4 exhibits the same internal parts seen from above; and Fig. 5 shews
the shaded plan of an electrophore, being part of the said machine; and Fig. 6
shows a tube of communication for inflamable air or hydrogen gas, being
also part of the same. And in all the said Drawings or Figures the dimensions
are laid down from one and the same scale (which may nevertheless be varied
if thought fit), and the same parts are everywhere denoted by the same
letters of the alphabet.
And farther, as to Figures 7 and 8, the said Fig. 7 represents my said
machine or instrument for producing instantaneous fire, and Fig. 8 is a section
thereof, in which the structure of the interior parts is manifest. The outline
A, A, A, E, C, D, F, B, Fig. 3, represents a vessel, box, or receptacle, of tin,
or other fit metal or material, open at top A, B, but having the lower part,
amounting to nearly half its capacity, closed by a plate or partition E, F,
except with regard to a fixed tube or pipe K, communicating from the upper
part of the said inclosed space, and with regard to another fixed tube or pipe
F, D, communicating with lower part of said enclosed space, and used for the
purpose of admitting a moveable pipe H, I. 1. In the upper or open compart-
ment of the said vessel, box, or receptacle, I place a vessel or bottle G, in
which bydrogen is to be developed or produced, and conducted from thence
through the tube H, I, I, which for that purpose is provided with a perforated
stopped piece at H, see Figures 4 and 6, into the lower compartment at D,
Fig. 3, through a side hole in the fixed tube or pipe F, D. L represents a
cock turned by the handle or axis U, for conveying the hydrogen through a
small nozle or adjutage M to a candle or other combustible matter at N.
T, T, is the resinous plate of an electrophore, placed in a drawer or cell, well
secured from humidity or dust which night come from the external air or
otherwise. Q, Q, is the metallic plate thereof (see also Fig. 5), which can be
raised or depressed by a wire at P, while its due positions are regulated and
governed by the insulating arm R, moveable on the joint or axis S at O. The
upper end of the wire P, O, is hooked upon or fixed to an insulated knob
of metal at the extremity of an arm proceeding from the axis of the cock L,

page_text: so that when O is sufficiently raised, the knob is stopped by M, to which it
previously gives the electric spark. The operation or effect of my said
machine or instrument may be easily understood from the structure and
positions of the said parts thereof. I pour water into the upper compartments
nearly to fullness, or as required, the cock L being shut, and in these circum-
stances very little of the water can descend into the lower compartments
through F, D, because the clacticity of the common air naturally included in
the said last-mentioned compartment opposes its introduction. I then take off
the adjutage M, and open the cock L, in consequence of which the included
air escapes through K, while the water descends through F, D, and fills the
lower compartment. In the next place I put zinc and diluted muriatic acid
(or such other well-known and fit materials as will afford hydrogen) into the
vessel G, and after a short time I apply the tube H, I, I, in its place, and the
hydrogen descends through the said tube, and fills the lower compartment
more or less, while a correspondent bulk of water is forced up the intustice
of the tube F, D, into the upper compartment where, by the action of its
gravity, it compresses the hydrogen, and gives it a tendency to escape with
considerable velocity through K, L, M, whenever the cock shall or may be
opened. In this state, after the electrophore hath been excited, the machine
or instrument will be ready for use, and whenever, by means of a handle or
arm, or other communication put on or applied at V, the cock is opened, a
stream of hydrogen gas rushes forth and strikes the wick of the candle, but
nearly at the same instant the electric spark from O sets fire to the said gas,
and converts it into a jet of flame, which lights the candle; and the same effect
may be repeatedly and for many weeks produced by one charge and excitement
of the said machine or instrument in the manner hercin-before described.
Fig. 8 shews the construction of my machine or instrument for producing
instantaneous fire. a represents the cap or head of a staff or stick, baving
therein a cavity or space for containing the prepared fungus known by the
name of German tinder, or for containing common tinder of rags, or any other
very combustible substance. c is the outer end of the rod of a syringe, which
works by a piston in the upper part of the staff, and by a stroke of about twelve
inches forces the common air with great velocity and in an highly condensed
state through a small aperture against the combustible matter included in the
head a, which is well screwed on against a shoulder or face armed with a
collar of leathers. b is the hole for admitting common air when the piston is
drawn quite back. The manner of working consists simply in pressing the
end of the rod of the charged syringe strongly against the ground so as to drive

page_text: the air suddenly on the tinder, and the cap a being without loss of time
'unscrewed, the tinder is found to be on fire.
In witness whereof, I; the said Richard Lorentz, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Third day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seven.