IMPROVEMENTS IN MODERATOR AND OTHER LAMPS
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Moss Defries, of Houndsditch, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MODERATOR AND OTHER LAMPS."
Sealed the 9th January 1857, and dated the 9th July 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Moss Defries at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 9th July
1856.
I, Moss DEFRIES, of Houndsditch, do hereby declare the nature of the
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MODERATOR AND OTHER LAMPS," to be as
follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in moderator lamps,
and consists in employing a double; metal oil vessel as a security; against
leakage; and in place of fixing the 'cover by soldering, it is fixed by screws and
washers, so as to close both parts of the double vessel; or a single oil vessel
may be used, having a cover: fixed by a screw. In order to prevent the
lamp spurting, when' air gets into the reservoir, from the piston being raised
above the oil, the supply pipe is made to descend to the bottom of the reservoir,
and the piston has a tube attached to it through which the supply pipe passes.
To regulate the supply of oil according to the varying pressure of the spring,
the-supply-pipe-is-slotted-towards-its-upper-end, which is closed;--and as-
the-piston descends, this-slot, through which the oil flows, becomes more-and-

page_text: more uncovered by the end of the tube attached to the piston, and thus the flow
of oil is regulated. The oil which passes through the slot is conducted to
the burner by a third tube, which slides on the outside of the tube attached to
the piston
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Moss Defries in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
9th January 1857.
+
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, Moss
DEFRIES, of Hounsditch, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the twentieth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Moss Defries, Her special licence that I, the said Moss Defries, my execu-
tors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Moss Defries,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and
no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter 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 MODERATOR AND OTHER LAMPS,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Moss Defries, my executors,
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of
their hands and seals, 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 NOW YE, that. I, the said Moss Defries, 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, that is to say :-
This Invention consists of a peculiar combination of parts of a moderator
lamp, which, by reason of the novel manner in which the oil vessel is con-
structed, the interior thereof may be more readily cleansed and again put
together than those heretofore made; and also, by reason of the manner
in which the rising or supply tube descends to or nearly to the bottom of the
oil vessel, that spurting of the oil, which was heretofore consequent on air
getting under the piston, is prevented.

page_text: which shews a vertical section of
lamp constructed according to my
Invention. a is the oil vessel, which it is preferred should be of a cylindrical
form; this vessel has a fixed bottom a', as is shewn. At the upper part of the
vessel a is fixed a ring of brass a², formed with a screw; on the exterior of
the screw there is, on a proper shoulder, a washer a³, of leather or other
suitable flexible material. b is the cover of the vessel a; on its under side
there is a ring of brass 6, formed with an internal screw, as shewn, to fit the
screw on the upper part of the vessel a; and by reason of the washer or ring of
soft material as being pinched and pressed tightly between these parts, the upper
part of the oil vessel a is rendered fluid-tight, and yet will admit of the parts
being separated when required in order to cleanse the interior of such vessel.
I would, however, remark that I am aware that it is not new to make the oil
vessels of moderator lamps in parts which will go together with screws, but
heretofore the arrangements for so doing have been very different from the
combination above explained. There is a screw formed at the bottom of the
vessel a, which fits into a screw formed and fixed at the bottom of the outer
case, as shewn; or, in place of this arrangement, I make the vessel a to fit into
an outer vessel of somewhat larger diameter, and fix them together by screws
at the bottom, as shewn; in such cases I arrange the cover 6 with two screws,
and form the top of each vessel with a screw and washer, by which, when the
cover is screwed down, both vessels will be fluid-tight, by which any leakage
from the inner to the outer vessel would be rendered of no consequence. c is
the rising or supply tube of the lamp, which descends through the piston to the
bottom of the lamp, where its end is cut in a slanting direction in order that
the oil may pass in at the bottom and flow up into the ordinary supply tube, for
which purpose there is an opening or slit at c. In order to prevent the
descent of the piston too far, and to close the inlet at the bottom of the tube c,
a short tube is fixed at the under side of the piston, which, sliding over the
tube c, descends and presses on the soft material c' fixed at the bottom of
the oil vessel a. The upper part of the tube c is closed by the moderator d,
which is fixed thereto, and the flow of oil to the burner is moderated thereby
in the ordinary manner; or the slit in the tube c may aid in moderating
or regulating the flow of the oil by being made of a greater length than
is shewn, and by the interior part of the tube e (which is fixed to the piston)
being made to fit the tube c, and close the lower part of the slit to some
extent, so that as the tube e descends with the piston the slit may be more and

page_text: more uncovered; but these means of moderating the flow of oil are not claimed
by me, and they may be varied without departing from my Invention..
"What I claim is the peculiar manner of constructing and closing the upper
part of the oil vessel, and also the descending of the tube c into the oil vessel
a, in the manner described:
In witness whereof, I, the said Moss Defries, have hereunto, set my hand
and seal, this Eighth, day of January, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
GEO. PITT.
MOSS DEFRIES. (L.S.)