IMPROVEMENTS IN LAMPS AND BURNERS, AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED FOR MILLING OR ORNA- MENTING PARTS OF LAMPS, WHICH APPARATUS MAY ALSO BE APPLIED TO OTHER SIMILAR USES
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Ralph Martindale, of Birmingham, in the County
of Warwick, Manufacturer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
LAMPS AND BURNERS, AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED FOR MILLING OR ORNA-
MENTING PARTS OF LAMPS, WHICH APPARATUS MAY ALSO BE APPLIED TO OTHER
SIMILAR USES."
Sealed the 21st August 1863, and dated the 23rd February 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Ralph Martindale at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on tho
23rd February 1863.
I, RALPH MARTINDALE, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manu-
facturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN LAMPS AND BURNERS, AND IN. APPARATUS EMPLOYED FOR MILLING OR
ORNAMENTING PARTS OF LAMPS, WHICH APPARATUS MAY ALSO BE APPLIED TO OTHER
SIMILAR USES," to be as follows, that is to say :-
My Invention consists, firstly, of improvements in the construction of oil,
bydrocarbon, and other similar lamps and burners used for other purposes
than lamps, of the description in which a flat cotton can be employed to form
a cylindrical wick by the following means:-I alter the form of the wick case,
which is usually a circular tube, and make it either flat or semi-annular at its
lower end, merging into a circular tube or cylinder above. An inner tube,
around which the wick is arranged, reaches slightly below the shoulder of the

page_text: outer tube or wick case, that is to say, slightly below the point at which the
flat or semi-annular portion meets the circular part, this inner tube serves as a
guide to the cotton, and causes it to assume a tubular form; or by the
employment of a suitable guide or funnel I can insert these flat wicks at the
top of the wick case and wind them down the tube into their proper position.
The winding of these wicks I effect by employing a thumb button and series of
toothed wheels and rollers which serve to maintain the vertical position of the
cotton; or I can employ a cotton holder and cap worked up by means of a
slide or by a lever, or a series of wheels, as above described, for the purpose of
raising the wick, or it may be done by means of a cap working up a slot or
groove in the inside of the wick case.
Secondly, my Invention consists of improvements applicable to gas as well
as other descriptions of burners. I surround the burner with one or more air
chambers or cones, each separated from the other by its own windguard,
by which arrangement more perfect combustion is ensured, and a smokeless
or nearly smokeless flame is obtained.
Thirdly, my Invention consists of improvements in apparatus to be employed
in milling or ornamenting parts of lamps, which apparatus may also be applied
to other similar uses. In place of the chock of an ordinary lathe I insert a
block piece or holder to receive the stamped or shell work to be milled. In
front of this holder I fix upon a jointed arm in a rest a lever rod forked at
one end to hold a revolving wheel or roller engraved with the pattern or
mill, the shell or stamped work being fixed upon the holder; the operator by
a motion of the lever rod brings the milling roller into contact with the shell,
and thus the pattern or milling is produced upon the shell. If a pattern or
mill be required upon the interior of the shell also, the holder in the lathe is
engraved with a pattern.
For solids, such as thumb buttons, screws, and other like articles, a very
slight modification of the form of the holder or the use of clams will allow of
their being similarly milled or ornamented.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Ralph Martindale in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
22nd August 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RALPH
MARTINDALE, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manufacturer, send 3.
greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent; bearing date the Twenty-third day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-sixth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Ralph Martindale, Her special licence that I, the said Ralph
Martindale, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Ralph Martindale, 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 LAMPS AND BURNERS, AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED FOR
MILLING OR ORNAMENTING PARTS OF LAMPS, WHICH APPARATUS MAY ALSO BE
APPLIED TO OTHER SIMILAR UBES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said Ralph Martindale, by an instrument in writing under my hand
and seal, 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.
66
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Ralph Martindale, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say:→
My Invention consists, firstly, of improvements in the construction of oil,
hydrocarbon, and other similar lamps and burners used for other purposes
than lamps of the description in which a flat cotton can be employed to form
a cylindrical wick by the following means:-I alter the form of the wick case.
which is usually a circular tube, and make it either flat or semi-annular at'its
lower end, merging into a circular tube or cylinder above. An inner tube,
around which the wick is arranged, reaches slightly below the shoulder of the
outer tube or wick case, that is to say, slightly below the point at which the
flat or semi-annular portion meets the circular part, this inner tube serves as
a guide to the cotton and causes it to assume a tubular form, or by the
employment of a suitable guide or funnel I can insert these flat wicks at
the top of the wick case, and wind them down the tube into their proper
position. The winding of these wicks I effect by employing a thumb buttou
and series of toothed wheels and rollers, which serve to maintain the vertical
position of the cotton; or I can employ a cotton holder and cap, worked up by,

page_text: means of a slide or by a lever, or a series of wheels, as above described, for
the purpose of raising the wick; or it may be done by means of a cap
working up a slot or groove in the inside of the wick case.
Secondly, my Invention consists of improvements applicable to gas as well
as other descriptions of burners. I surround the burner with one or more air
chambers or cones, each separated from the other by its own windguard, by
which arrangement more perfect combustion is ensured, and a smokeless or
nearly smokeless flame is obtained.
Thirdly, my Invention consists of improvements in apparatus to be employed
in milling or ornamenting parts of lamps, which apparatus may also be applied
to other similar uses. In place of the chock of an ordinary lathe I insert a
block piece or holder to receive the stamped or shell work to be milled. In
front of this holder I fix upon a jointed arm in a rest a lever rod, forked at
one end to hold a revolving wheel or roller engraved with the pattern or mill,
the shell or stamped work being fixed upon the holder; the operator by a
motion of the lever rod brings the milling roller into contact with the shell,
and thus the pattern or milling is produced upon the shell. If a pattern or
mill be required upon the interior of the shell also the holder in the lathe is
engraved with a pattern.
For solids, such as thumb buttons, screws, and other like articles, a very
slight modification of the form of the holder or the use of clams will allow of
them being similarly milled or ornamented.
I will now proceed to describe my Invention in detail by the aid of the
accompanying Drawings, in which Figures 1, 2, and 3, represent views of
those parts of burners, the form or arrangement of which will be altered to
meet my present improvements, namely, adapting them to admit of a flat
wick being wound up into a cylindrical one, as in the Bude or Argand burner
(Figure 1), shewing a top view of these parts of the burner; Figure 2, a
vertical section of the same; and (Figure 3), an elevation.
(a) is the ordinary gallery; (6), the wick case; (c), the wick; (d), the
inner tube around which the wick forms itself into a cylinder; (e, e, e, e,) are
the small toothed-wheels driven by the thumb button f. The spindles of
the two outer wheels are prolonged through openings in the wick case past
the wick, forming rollers hung in bearings (g, g,) and roughed, grooved,
or serrated at about their centres to give them a hold upon the wick. The
outer wheels are retained in their bearings by a strap or link (h) as it is
necessary that they should be capable of being thrown out of gear by throwing
up the link (h) and raising the spindles out of the bearings through the slots
(i, i,) to give sufficient space to admit the end of the wick between the rollers

page_text: and the inner tube in trimming the lamp, this being done and all the parts in
the position seen in (Figure 1), turning the thumb button rotates the rollers
and thus raises or lowers the wick.
(Figure 4) shews a vertical section, and (Figure 5) an elevation, of a
portion of a burner constructed to admit of the wick, whether flat or round,
being raised or lowered by the action of a right and left handed screw.
(a) is the wick case; (b), the wick; (c), the inner tube; (d), a clip attached
to the bearing (e), which passing through the slot (f) in the wick case,
receives the upper end of the screw (9), the lower end working in a fixed
bearing (h); (i) is a button upon the screw (g), by turning which button the
screw (9), clip (d), and the wick can be raised or lowered; instead of this
button (i) a worm wheel and pinion may be used, the latter being formed
upon the spindle of a thumb button, as in (Figure 1), if preferred.
(Figure 6) shews a mode of raising and lowering the wick by means of a
lever and slide.
(a) is a lever, having its fulcrum at (6) upon the outside of the wick
case (c), upon one end of this lever the slot (d) receives the pin (e) fixed
upon a sliding clip (f) working in slots (g) in the wick case; the part (f)
clips the wick inside the wick case, and thus by means of the lever the wick
is raised or lowered.
(Figure 7) shews an elevation, and (Figure (8) a part vertical section of a
mode of working the wick by means of a slide clip, as in that last described,
but by the aid of a double link (a, b,) and thumb button (c), instead of the
lever.
(Figure 9) represents a vertical section, and (Figure 10) a top view of
another mode of working the wick, represented as applied to a flat wick
burner, but applicable also to Bude burners. It consists in mounting two wheels
upon the spindle of the thumb button, and one similar wheel or more than
one upon an independent spindle on the opposite side of the wick case, two
wheels are shewn in the Drawings, the wick being operated upon by the
wheels upon the spindle (a) causes those upon the opposite spindle (6) to
rotate also, and thus the regularity of the wick's motion is maintained.
(Figure 11) represents a mode of working the slide clip by means of a
cam and thumb button instead of the link shewn in (Figures (7 and 8).
(Figures 12 and 13) illustrate the second part of my Invention, which
consists in employing an air chamber or chambers around the cone or burner
of oil or hydrocarbon lamps, for the purpose of steadying the flame, ensuring
more perfect combustion, and preventing smoke. The Drawings shew an
arrangement of one cone above another, the air entering in the direction of

page_text: the arrows and feeding the flame; more than two cones may be used if
required.
The third part of my Invention, "the improvements in apparatus for
milling or ornamenting parts of lamps and other similar articles," having been
already sufficiently detailed to enable the operator to carry that part of my
Invention into effect, further description is unnecessary.
Having now fully described the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, I do not limit myself to the
exact details herein specified, but I claim in substance,―
Firstly, the several improvements in lamps and burners used for the
combustion of oils and bydrocarbons. as described under the first and second
heads of my Invention, and illustrated by the accompanying Drawings.
And, secondly, I claim the improvements in apparatus to be employed in
milling or ornamenting parts of lamps and for other similar uses, as herein
more fully set forth and specified.
In witness whereof, I, the said Ralph Martindale, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of August, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.
RALPH MARTINDALE. (L.S.)