Improvements in Miners' Safety Lamps and the like.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 19th June, 1895
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Miners' Safety Lamps and the like.
1, FREDERICK HARDWICK of Brook House, Eckington, in the County of Derby,
Colliery Manager, do hereby declare the nature of my said invention to be as
follows:
My invention although applicable to a variety of lamps is more particularly
applicable to miners safety lamps. Such lamps as ordinarily constructed are
provided with one wick and one pricker and generally require to be trimmed and
lighted for some time before they are given out to the men, involving a considerable
waste in oil, a certain amount of wear and tear and dirtying of the gauzes and
glasses before the lamps are actually called into use, besides which such lamps are
inconvenient to snuff and trim when in use.
The object of my invention is to construct a lamp which shall be more economical
and convenient to use, and I effect these objects in the following manner.
In my improved lamp I employ in addition to the ordinary wick, a small
auxiliary wick, which I place in a suitable tube alongside the main tube, both wick
tubes being provided with an elongated slot to enable the wicks to be pricked up
and down as required. I also provide a double armed or double hooked pricker
which I so shape and fit that it can be used for raising and lowering both the large
and the small wicks.
The smaller wick I employ as a kind of sentinel jet which can be lighted when
the lamp is prepared for use and burnt with less consumption of oil than when the
larger wick is used and from this sentinel jet the large wick can be ignited when
required and the sentinel jet extinguished.
Thus when the lamp-keeper has lighted the small wicks they continue to burn
until the lamps are given to the miners, who upon arriving at their respective
working places will raise the larger wick (by means of the double armed pricker)
which will then ignite from the smaller wick or sentinel jet, the latter will then be
drawn down (also by means of the double armed pricker) and extinguished, and in
this position it will remain until the large wick requires snuffing, the small wick
will then be raised and lighted from the large wick which will then be drawn down
and snuffed. The snuffing operation being effected with the aid of the light from
the small wick; after which the raising and re-lighting of the large wick and the
lowering and extinguishing of the small wick will be repeated as previously
described.
Dated this 17th day of June 1895.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Miners' Safety Lamps and the like.
1, FREDERICK HARDWICK, of Brook House, Eckington, in the County of
Derby, Colliery Manager, 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 :-
My invention although applicable to a variety of lamps, is more particularly

page_text: applicable to miners' safety lamps. Such lamps as ordinarily constructed are
provided with one wick and one pricker and frequently require to be trimmed and
lighted for some time before they are given out to the men, involving a considerable
waste in oil, a certain amount of wear and tear and dirtying of the gauzes and
glasses before the lamps are actually called into use, besides which, such lamps are
inconvenient to snuff and trim when in use.
The object of my invention is to construct a lamp which shall be more economical
and convenient to use.
My invention will be better understood on reference to the accompanying sheet
of drawings in which,
Fig. 1. represents the wick tube and pricker of a miners lamp as ordinarily
constructed, the pricker being in disuse.
Fig. 2. being a plan of the same.
Figs. 3 & 4. are similar views shewing the pricker in use for raising or
lowering the wick.
Figs. 5 & 6. being side view and plan of the same, shewing the pricker raised
for snuffing the wick.
Fig. 7. is a side view of my improved compound wick tube and double pricker
shewing the pricker in disuse.
Fig. 8. being a plan of the same.
Figs. 9 & 10. are similar views shewing the pricker in use with the main wick.
Fig. 11. is a view shewing the opposite side of the tube with the sentinel jet wick
tube visible.
Fig. 12. is a plan of the same.
Figs. 13 & 14. are similar views shewing the pricker in use on the wick for the
sentinel jet.
Fig. 15. is a side elevation of the oil reservoir with my improved compound wick
tube and pricker in position.
.
The same letters refer to similar parts throughout the several views.
I carry out my invention in the following manner.
In my improved lamp I employ in addition to the ordinary wick, a, a small
auxiliary wick, b, which I place in a suitable tube, c, alongside the main tube, d,
both wick tubes being provided with an elongated slot, e, e¹, to enable the wicks to
be pricked up and down as required. I also provide a double armed or double
hooked pricker, f, which I so shape and fit that it can be used for raising and
lowering both the large and the small wicks, a, and b, by manipulating the end of
the same which is made to project outside below the bottom of the lamp, as shewn
in Fig. 15.
The smaller wick, b, I employ as a kind of sentinel jet which can be lighted when
the lamp is prepared for use and burnt with less consumption of oil, than when the
larger wick is used, and from this sentinel jet the large wick can be ignited when
required and the sentinel jet extinguished.
Thus when the lamp keeper has lighted the small wicks they continue to burn
until the lamps are given to the miners, who upon arriving at their respective
working places, will raise the larger wick, a, (by means of the double armed
pricker, f) which will then ignite from the smaller wick, b, or sentinal jet, the
latter will then be drawn down (also by means of the double armed pricker, f,) and
extinguished, and in this position it will remain until the large wick requires
snuffing, the small wick will then be raised and lighted from the large wick which
will then be drawn down and thereby snuffed. The snuffing operation being effected
with the aid of the light from the small wick, after which the raising and re-lighting
of the large wick and the lowering and extinguishing of the small wick will be
repeated as previously described. The single prickers for the old style of wick
tube illustrated in Figs. 1 to 6, are marked, f¹.
I am aware that separate and distinct sentinel or pilot jets have been employed
in certain kinds of coal gas lamps, and I wish it to be understood that I lay no
claim to novelty for the mere employment of such a jet.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is.
1. In miners safety lamps and the like enclosed lamps, in which oil or spirit with
a wick or wicks is employed as an illuminant, the arrangement and combination of
parts and appliances comprising a compound wick tube which will hold in addition
to the ordinary wick a small auxiliary wick which is placed in a smaller and
separate tube close alongside the main or ordinary wick tube, both wick tubes
being provided with an elongated slot to enable the wicks to be pricked up and
down by means of a double armed or double hooked pricker so shaped and fitted
that it can be used for raising and lowering both the large and small wicks in the
manner and for the purposes substantially as herein described and illustrated.
Dated this 14th day of March 1896.
R. HEBER RADFORD,
Agent for the Applicant.