IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF AND APPARATUS FOR ILLUMINATING LIGHT-
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Richardson Wigham, of Albany House,
Monkstown, in the County of Dublin, Ireland, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF AND APPARATUS FOR ILLUMINATING LIGHT-
LETTERS PATENT to John Richardson Wigham, of Albany House,
Monkstown, in the County of Dublin, Ireland, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF AND APPARATUS FOR ILLUMINATING LIGHT-
HOUSES AND DEACONS, AND ALSO OTHER LOCALITIES WHERE SIGNAL LIGHTS
EMPLOYED.
"
ABM
Sealed the 15th September 1871, and dated the 18th March 1871.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Richardson
Wigham at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 18th March 1871.
I, JOHN RICHARDSON WIGHAM, of Albany House, Monkstown, in
the County of Dublin, Ireland, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF AND APPARATUS FOR ILLUMI-
NATING LIGHTHOUSES AND BEACONS, AND ALSO OTHER LOCALITIES WHERE SIGNAL
LIGHTS ARE EMPLOYED," to be as follows:-
My Invention has for its object to economize the expenditure-of
illuminating gas in lighthouses and beacons, and also in other signal
lights where annular lenses or revolving or moving annular or other

page_text: lenses, reflectors, or refractors are employed in combination with gas
light. It consists in so regulating the supply of gas to the gas burner
or burners that during such intervals of time when it is not required to
direct the rays of light therefrom towards an observer the flame of the
said gas burner or burners is reduced to the smallest possible size, and
remains so until it is again required to be brought into action. For this
purpose I provide the gas burner or burners with a cock or valve, which
is so connected to and actuated by clockwork or other suitable known
driving mechanism that the cock or valve to the gas burner or burners
shall at such intervals as may be required be first turned so as to admit
the full supply of gas to the burner, and then be turned so as to reduce
the supply to a point or points of light so small as to be practically
invisible. This operation may be effected in various ways, thus, any
clockwork mechanism of known construction may be made to impart
rotary or other motion to a cam, excentric, or crank, which is made to
act upon a lever or levers connected to the cock or cocks, or valves, in
such manner as alternately to open and close it or them at such intervals
as may be required; or the closing or opening movement only may be
effected by the cam, excentric, or crank, and the other movement be
cffected by the action of a spring or weight upon the said lever or
levers.
Where a number of gas burners are employed their cocks or valves
may either all be acted upon by one and the same cam, excentric, or
crank, or each cock may be actuated by a separate cam, excentric, or
crank, all actuated or rotated by one and the same clockwork mechanism.
This clockwork mechanism may either be separate from the clockwork
that actuates or rotates the lenses, reflectors, or refractors in the usual
'manner, or the same clockwork mechanism that actuates the lenses may
be made to actuate the gas burner or burners.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, 3
filed by the said John Richardson Wigham in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 16th September 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
RICHARDSON WIGHAM, of Albany House, Monkstown, in the County of
Dublin, Ireland, send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of March, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the thirty-
fourth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said John Richardson Wigham, Her special licence
that I, the said John Richardson Wigham, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Richardson Wigham, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times thercafter 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 THE MODE OF AND APPARATUS FOR ILLUMINATING LIGHTHOUSES AND BEACONS,
AND ALSO OTHER LOCALITIES WHERE SIGNAL LIGHTS ARE EMPLOYED," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Richardson Wigham,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my,
or their, or one of their hands and scals, 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 Richardson Wigham, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement thereof, reference being had to the accom-
panying Sheet of Drawings, and to the figures and letters marked thereon,
that is to say :-
.
My Invention has for its object to economize the expenditure of
illuminating gas in lighthouses and beacons, and also in other signal
lights where annular lenses or revolving or moving annular or other
lenses, reflectors, or refractors are employed in combination with gas
light. It consists in so regulating the supply of gas to the gas burner
or burners that during such intervals of time when it is not required
to direct the rays of light therefrom towards an observer the flame of
the said gas burner or burners is reduced to the smallest possible size,
and remains so until it is again required to be brought into action. For
this purpose I provide the gas burner or burners with a cock or valve
which is so connected to and actuated by clockwork or other suitable

page_text: Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that I
do not limit myself to any particular arrangements of mechanism for
actuating the cocks or valves of the burners, as these may be greatly
varied for the purposes of my Invention; but what I claim is,―
First. So regulating the supply of gas to the gas burner or burners
of lighthouses or other places wherein annular lenses are employed,
or where revolving or moving annular or other lenses, reflectors, or
refractors are used, that during such intervals of time when it is not
required to direct the rays of light therefrom towards an observer, the
flame of the said gas burner or burners shall be reduced to the smallest
possible size, and shall remain so until the flame is again required to be
brought into action.
Second. Actuating the cock or cocks or valves of the gas burner or
burners of lighthouses and other places as aforesaid by clockwork or
other suitable automatic mechanism in such manner that the said cock
or cocks, or valves, shall at such intervals as may be required be first
turned so as to admit the full supply of gas to the burner, and then be
turned so as to reduce the flame to a minimum, substantially as herein-
before set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Richardson Wigham, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of September,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
one.