AN IMPROVEMENT IN LAMP WICKS
Year: 1876

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Frederick Henry Smith, of Number 28, Westbourne
Park Villas, Bayswater, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of
"AN IMPROVEMENT IN LAMP WICKS."
Scaled the Sth August 1876, and dated the 9th February 1876.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Frederick Henry Smith at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 9th February 1876.
FREDERICK HENRY SMITH, of Number 28, Westbourne Park Villas, Bayswater,
in the County of Middlesex. "AN IMPROVEMENT IN LAMP WICKS."
My Invention consists in the employment for the wicks of lamps of blotting or
other bibulous paper, instead of the cotton or other such like fibrous material
usually employed. The blotting or other bibulous paper wicks may be made direct
from the paper pulp of any required shape or thickness or by the employment of
any required number of thicknesses, of ordinary blotting or other bibulous paper of
sufficient porosity to enable the oil or spirit to rise through it by capillary
attraction, and the said blotting or other bibulous paper wicks may be made of
any desired shape.
By the employment of these wicks a more even and regular flame can be obtained,
the liability to carbonize and the necessity for frequent trimming after lengthened
use is diminished. The amount of heat transmitted from the burner through the
wick to the oil or spirit is reduced, the wicks are less expensive, and by reason of
their rigidity are less liable to derangement or alteration of shape, and are therefore
more easily manipulated than the cotton or other such like fibrous wicks heretofore
employed.
20 SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Frederick Henry Smith in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 9th
August 1876.
FREDERICK HENRY SMITH, of Number 28, Westbourne Park Villas, Bayswater,
in the County of Middlesex. "AN IMPROVEMENT IN LAMP WICKS."

page_text: My Invention consists in the employment for the wicks of lamps of blotting or
other bibulous paper, instead of the cotton or other such like fibrous material
usually employed. The blotting or other bibulous paper wicks may be made direct
from the paper pulp, of any required shape or thickness, or by the employment of
any required number of thicknesses of ordinary blotting or other bibulous paper of
sufficient porosity to enable the oil or spirit to rise through it by capillary attraction,
and the said blotting or other bibulous paper wicks may be made of any desired
shape.
By the employment of these wicks a more even and regular flame can be obtained,
the liability to carbonize after lengthened use and the necessity for frequent
trimming are diminished. The amount of heat transmitted from the burner through
the wick to the oil or spirit is reduced, the wicks are less expensive, and by reason of
their rigidity are less liable to derangement or alteration of shape, and are therefore
more easily manipulated than the cotton or other such like fibrous wicks heretofore
employed.
"3
These wicks are especially applicable for use in lamps of the kind described in
the Specification of a Patent granted to me dated the Ninth day of October, A.D.
1874, No. 3473, in which the ordinary winder is dispensed with, and the wick is
fitted into a separate wick holder which rests on and is supported by the dome, the
lower end of the wick dropping into an oil cup, the arrangement being on that
account designated by me the "drop-in wick arrangement. The said blotting
paper wicks are however more or less applicable to use with the ordinary burners,
and adjusting winders whether of the kind usually employed in mineral oil lamps
or those employed in moderator and other lamps. These wicks may be made
tubular, and thus adapted to moderator lamps, or flat for use in mineral oil
lamps.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention and the manner in which
the same is to or may be performed, I would have it understood that what I claim
as my Invention is, the application and use for the purposes of lamp wicks of
blotting or other bibulous paper, as herein described.
In witness whereof, 1, the said Frederick Henry Smith, have hereunto set my
hand and scal, this Eighth day of August, One thousand eight hundred and
seventy-six.
FRED. H. SMITH. (L.S.)