A NEW OR IMPROVED ELECTRIC LAMP WITH AUTOMATIC REGULATION FOR THE PURPOSE OF LIGHTING BY ELECTRICITY, AND EFFECTING A REGULAR UNIFORM APPROACH OF THE TWO ELECTRODES OR CANDLES IN THE PROPORTION AS THEY ARE CONSUMED."
Year: 1880

page_text: "
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Sigismund Cohné at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 1st June 1880.
SIGISMUND COHNÉ, of No. 65, Gracechurch Street, in the City of London.
A NEW OR IMPROVED ELECTRIC LAMP WITH AUTOMATIC REGULATION FOR THE
PURPOSE OF LIGHTING BY ELECTRICITY, AND EFFECTING A REGULAR UNIFORM
APPROACH OF THE TWO ELECTRODES OR CANDLES IN THE PROPORTION AS THEY
ARE CONSUMED."
To the present time all the electric lamps in use (and some are of a very
ingenious construction) have an electro magnetic contrived mechanism, causing them
to be more or less complicated, and besides the electro magnet does not preserve
the arc of the same constant length; the movement of the electrodes not being in
the same proportion as the intensity of the current acting on the magnet causes the
light to flicker. My Invention is intended to obviate those defects, and is a simple
construction upon hydrostatic principles.
A cylinder is filled with water or other fluid, as oil, spirits, &c., in which is
submerged a moveable vessel, which may be of a varied shape or form, of gutta
percha, india rubber, cork, glass, or metal; I prefer a globular form, and made of
metal. The vessel supports two double racks, affixed to a top & bottom crossbars,
forming a parallelogram shaped frame, worked perpendicularly by pinions; the
candles are fixed in the crossbars so as to be brought opposite to each other, point
to point. The vessel is weighted if needed to regulate the approximation of the
candles. The lamp acts thus:-When the consumption of the candles commences the
vessel ascends, the lower candle rises and the upper one descends in like ratio, and
thus the candles are regulated automatically. The two candles are first brought
sufficiently near to form the arc, and in the short space a small piece of carbon is
placed by which the current is enabled to form the circuit.
By another arrangement of this lamp, it may be constructed with a single pair
of racks; the vessel carries a rack on which the lower candle is supported, and that
rack by means of a pinion works a counter rack, on the top of which is a crossbar,
and at the extreme end of it is a pulley resting against a perpendicular rod to assist
to preserve the candle in a right line of descent, or a rack & pinion can be used.
A further construction of my lamp on the principle of hydrostatics, is thus :-I
substitute a syphon for the cylinder, and a ball to swin on the fluid instead of the

page_text: submerged vessel as in the cylinder; the long leg of the syphon is supplied with
fluid, and is confined there by means of a cover at the bottom of the other leg. In
the cover is an aperture so small as to permit the fluid to pass only at the rate
required by the consumption of the candles, as reduced in weight they lessen the
resistance to the rising of the fluid in the lower leg. The arrangement of the upper
part and the rest of the gearing is as already described in the foregoing lamps. The
gearing in the lamps is secured to supports.