IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS FOR TESTING SOLAR RADIATION THERMOMETERS
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Joseph Hicks, of Hatton Garden, in the
County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS
FOR TESTING SOLAR RADIATION THERMOMETERS."
Sealed the 20th February 1874, and dated the 8th November 1873.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Joseph Hicks
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 8th November 1873.
I, JAMES JOSEPH HICKS, of Hatton Garden, in the County of Middlesex,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MEANS FOR TESTING SOLAR RADIATION THERMOMETERS," to be as follows:-
The Invention relates to that class of thermometers known as solar
radiation thermometers which are sealed within vacuum chambers, and
has for its object the application of improved means for indicating the
more or less perfect character of the vacuum produced within the
vacuum chambers. For this purpose I seal a platinum wire into or
near each end of the vacuum chamber, and I connect each of such wires
with a galvanic battery or other source of electricity, when by the

page_text: quality of the electric light produced by a current passing through the
vacuum chamber the degree of vacuum produced within such chamber
will be indicated.
It is evident that other known means of causing a current of electricity
to pass through the vacuum chamber may be employed without
departing from the nature of my Invention.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Joseph Hicks in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 8th May 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
JOSEPH HICKS, of Hatton Garden, in the County of Middlesex, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of November, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the thirty-
seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said James Joseph Hicks, Her special
license that I, the said James Joseph Hicks, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said James Joseph Hicks,
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 "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN MEANS FOR TESTING SOLAR RADIATION THERMOMETERS," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said James Joseph Hicks, 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 KNOW YE, that I, the said James Joseph Hicks, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same

page_text: case instead of sealing or fusing two wires c, d, in or near the ends of
the vacuum chamber 6, as in the arrangement shown at Figure 1, I
wrap around such vacuum chamber, at or near the ends thereof, pieces
or strips of tinfoil e, f, and around each of these pieces of tinfoil I
wrap or wind a wire or strip of copper or other metal. Then by causing
a current of electricity to pass through the vacuum chamber 6 by con-
necting the wires c, d, to a galvanic battery or other source of electricity,
the degree of vacuum in the vacuum chamber will be indicated, as
before described.
In the arrangement shown at Figure 2 the tinfoil and wires may be
made a permanent attachment to the thermometer, or they may be only
temporarily secured thereon.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention and the modes
in which I carry the same into effect, I would have it understood that I
do not confine myself to the precise details herein shown and described,
but what I claim as my Invention is, the employment of means for
testing solar radiation thermometers by the temporary or permanent
connection therewith of conducting wires c, d, and by passing a current
of electricity through the vacuum chambers b, in manner substantially
as herein shown and described.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Joseph Hicks, havo here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Eighth day of May, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four.