IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF LIGHTING DOMESTIC FIRES
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Paul Rapsey Hodge, of No. 4, Albion Grove,
Islington, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, for the Invention
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Paul Rapsey Hodge at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
1st March 1856.
I, PAUL RAPSEY HODGE, of No. 4, Albion Grove, Islington, in the County
of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF LIGHTING DOMESTIC FIRES," to be
as follows:-
holding with
I construct an apparatus such as after mentioned, capable of
safety, say, 20 to 24 cubic feet of compressed gas at a time. It will be in
shape not unlike a slop pail, and be carried from room to room by a baile or
handle. Fitted with a flexible pipe and cock, the pipe having upon the end
of it a nozzle of iron or other material constructed as a gas burner, the servant
will introduce the nozzle of the pipe amongst the fuel in the grate where a fire
has to be lighted, turn on the gas, light it, and within a few minutes the fire
will be thoroughly lighted by the gas flame. This portable apparatus will
consist of an exterior vessel of iron lined inside with a coating of varnish to

page_text: prevent decomposition, and will be made of a form sufficiently strong to
resist internal pressure of three times the pressure it will be necessary
to charge it with at any time. It will be fitted with a flexible pipe, as
before mentioned, with iron nozzle and a small cock placed in a recess
in the head of the vessel, which recess will be in the shape of an inverted
cone, and be sufficiently deep to protect the cock from blows, as well as to
hold such flexible pipe coiled up when not in use. The arrangement for
charging this vessel will be by the cock in the head of the vessel, removing.
temporarily the flexible exit pipe before mentioned. The charging or filling
of this apparatus or vessel with gas will be the combined machinery of itself,
and of an ordinary force pump fastened against a wall, alongside of which will
be a gas meter, measuring by a full circuit of the hand on the dial, the exact
charge or quantity to be forced into each empty apparatus. The gas will be
drawn through this meter into the pump, and thence be forced into the
portable vessel, which must be attached to the pump, thus ensuring a perfect
indication by the meter of the exact quantity pumped into the vessel, which it
will be important always to know in reference to the strength of the vessel to
bear pressure, and the money charge to be made for the gas supplied by the
gas merchant. The pump'ánd ineter' can be put up in each house, or at a
gas merchant's, who will supply all customers bringing empty vessels to be
filled, and when the apparatus is attached to the pump, the whole will form a
combination of machinery carrying out my Invention.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Paul Rapsey Hodge in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 1st September 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, -I, 'PAUL
RAPSEY HODGE, of No. 4, Albion Grove,' Islington, in the County of Middlesex,
Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the First day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight liundred and fifty-six, in the nineteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Paul Rapsey Hodge, Her special licence that I, the said Paul Rapsey Hodge,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Paul
Rapsey Hodge, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time

page_text: 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 THE METHOD OF
LIGHTING DOMESTIC FIRES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Paul Rapsey Hodge, my executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly 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 tho
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 Paul Rapsey Hodge, 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:
.
I construct a cylindrical vessel of iron, or any other suitable material, as
marked A, A, in the several Figures in the Drawings annexed. This vessel is
capable of holding from 12 to 30 cubic feet of compressed gas, from the
pressure of from 3 to 20 atmospheres. The bottom of this vessel is convex,
and the top concave, either form being well adapted to resist internal pressure.
The object of inverting the top B is to allow the valve or cock C to be below
the rim or upper edge to protect it from blows, at the same time the cavity
or space, around forms a receiver to coil up the flexible india-rubber pipe D
and the short iron jet pipe E, when the vessel is not in use. This jet pipe
has on its outer end a nozzle F, of iron or other suitable material, constructed
as a "bat-wing" gas burner to distribute a jet of burning gas in the best
possible form for producing rapid and perfect combustion.
The nozzle and jet pipe E, F, is introduced between the grate bars G
between the pieces of coal; when the cock C is turned, the jet of gas is lit, and
the flame ignites the coal thoroughly in one minute, thereby lighting some
eighty fires with one pennyworth of gas. The arrangement above described in
Figure 1-is with a simple jet pipe.
Another arrangement of this apparatus is shown in Figure 2; the receiver
or cylindrical vessel A being the same as before described, I use in this
arrangement, in combination with the common gas (carburetted hydrogen), a
stream or jet of atmospheric air to give it an additional dose of oxygen. This
Iaccomplish by suspending at the bottom of the vessel, a bellows H. It will
be readily seen that when the vessel A is lifted from the ground, that the

page_text: bellows H will distend and inflate itself with atmospheric air, when by letting:
the vessel down again, the air will be forced out of the bellows by the weight
or gravity of the gas vessel up through the tube I, and out through a com-
pound jet pipe as marked E and F, in Figure 2; this jet pipe is so constructed
that the two fluids, air and carburetted hydrogen, meet and combine together
in its exit from the nozzle, thereby making a flame of great intensity, and
capable of lighting the coal in less time and with less gas than with the
simple jet pipe.
Another method of supplying the compound jet pipe E, with common air is
by blowing with the mouth through the flexible tubing J, shown in Figure 3,
or the air may be forced into this tube from a bag or bellows pressed under:
the arm, or between the hands of the domestic.
The method of charging these vessels with carburetted hydrogen gas will
be by the cock or valve C, removing the flexible pipe and nozzle D and E,
and attaching the pipe F on to the valve or cock C, as shown in Figure 4;
this pipe is the exit pipe from the force pump L, which is fastened against the
wall or any other suitable place, alongside of which will be placed a gas
metre M, measuring quantities in cubic feet indicated by the ordinary in-
dicating apparatus attached to such meters. The gas will be drawn through
this meter into the force pump, and thence be forced into the portable vessel
through the exit pipe, thus shewing by the indicator the exact amount. of gas
forced in, at the same time knowing the pressure in atmospheres or per square
inch on the portable vessel, from the difference of quantity in cubic feet forced
in, and the capacity of such vessels.
Another method of charging these vessels will be by first charging a large
cylindrical vessel similar to a steam boiler marked M', in Figure 5. Supposing
the pressure desired in the smaller vessels to be 50 lbs. to the square inch, the
pressure in the larger vessel need be plus but a few. pounds to compensate for
the letting out of the gas to fill the smaller vessel, when the quantity and
pressure may be ascertained by the pressure guage marked N.
The pump and gas meter or large receiver, and the machinery for charging
it, can be put up in the most convenient places for the supplying of all
customers, and when the apparatus is attached to the pump or large
receiver as described, the whole will form a combination carrying out my
Invention.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the manner in which
the same is to be performed and carried into effect, in applying, the use of gas
compressed in a portable apparatus, and capable of being carried from room to
:

page_text: room by hand for the lighting of domestic fires, I hereby declare that I do not
claim as of my Invention, the lighting of fires by gas; but what I do claim as of
my Invention is, the lighting of domestic fires by gas from a portable apparatus ;
also, the simple or a compound jet pipe charged with gas or atmospheric air
and gas in combination, in the manner and by the means as herein-before
described and shown in the Drawings annexed.
I also claim the combination of the said force pump and meter, or the said
vessel, pump, and pressure guage, and the said portable gas apparatus, with the
means of attaching when empty, or detaching when filled, the said apparatus
from and to the said combination.
In witness whereof, I, the said Paul Rapsey Hodge, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this First day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
Witness,
ALEX PRINCE, Patent Office,
4, Trafalgar Square, Charing Cross.
PAUL R. HODGE. (L.S.)