IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS USED IN SUPPLYING GAS TO BURNERS
Year: 1865

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Henry Saxon Snell and Frederick
Edward Thomas at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 23rd June 1865.
We, HENRY SAXON SNELL, of 36, Chancery Lane, and FREDERICK EDWARD
THOMAS, of 10, Manchester Terrace, Liverpool Road, Islington, both in the
County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS USED IN SUPPLYING GAS TO BURNERS," to be as
follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus used in
supplying gas to burners. Various arrangements of apparatus have before
been proposed to be employed at or near gas burners, in order that when the
supply of gas from the main is shut off the valves or taps at or near the
several burners may each be shut off, and not again admit of the flow of gas
through them till each of the cocks or valves used to regulate and shut off
the supply to the respective burners has been opened by hand. Our Invention
has the same object in view, and according thereto we apply a moveable
partition or diaphragm to each burner in such manner that the pressure of the
gas when the burner is being used acts on the diaphragm or moveable partition,
and so keeps open the passage in the cock or tap which is employed for regu-
lating and for shutting off the supply of gas to each burner, but when the supply
of
gas from the main is shut off and the gas ceases to press on the diaphragm
or moveable partition, the partition or diaphragm, in consequence of its being
no longer resisted by the pressure of the gas, allows of the plug or valve of

page_text: the cock or tap to close and to remain closed till again opened by the person
about to light the gas at the burner.
The form and arrangement of the apparatus are capable of various modifi-
cations, but it is preferred to employ an ordinary stop-cock to each burner, the
plug or valve of which has a tendency at all times to close by means of the
action thereon of a spring or otherwise, whilst on the moveable partition or
diaphragm, or acted on by it, there is a stop or catch, which when the
diaphragm is moved by the pressure of the gas thereon retains one end of a
lever, which at its other or shorter end is in connection with or is acted on by
the spring and plug or valve of the cock or tap of the burner, so as to retain
the spring from closing the plug or valve of the cock or tap so long as the
moveable partition or diaphragm is subjected to the pressure of the gas. It
is preferred that the moveable partition should be a disc with flexible material
around its circumference, in order to fix it and yet allow of its movement to
and fro. The partition or diaphragm is such that in all cases it has the
pressure of the outer atmosphere on one side and. the pressure of the gas on
the other side, and its action is simply to retain open the plug or, valve of the
regulating and shutting-off cock or tap applied to and near a gas burner. In
some cases one of such apparatus may be applied to act with several gas
burners, in which case each burner would have its own regulating cock or
tap; and in place of the cock or tap which acts with the diaphragm or move-
able partition being a regulating cock or tap, it may simply act as a supply
tap or cock, whilst each burner has its own regulating tap or cock.