IMPROVEMENTS IN SAFETY LAMPS
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Reuben Plant, of Brierly Hill, Staffordshire,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN SAFETY LAMPS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Reuben Plant at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 23d February 1853.
I, REUBEN PLANT, of Brierly Hill, Staffordshire, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SAFETY LAMPS "
to be as follows:-
Heretofore in the manufacture of safety lamps it has been usual to
use the wire gauze in the dark state, iron wire being generally
employed; the consequence is, that the dark wire materially interferes
in transmitting the light. Now the Invention consists of employing
white or light coloured wire; and the best means I am acquainted
with for preparing the same is to cause the gauze to be coated with
tin, silver, or white metal, by electrotype.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Reuben Plant, in the Great Seal Patent Office,
on the 23d August 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
REUBEN PLANT, of Brierly Hill, Staffordshire, send greeting.
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 fifty-three, in the
sixteenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Reuben Plant, Her special licence
that I, the said Reuben Plant, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Reuben Plant, 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
SAFETY LAMPS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Reuben Plant, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Inven-
tion, 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 Reuben Plant, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the sanic is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof (that is to say):
Heretofore, in the manufacture of safety lamps, it has been usual to
use the wire gauze in the dark state, iron wire being generally em-
ployed. The consequence is, that the dark wire materially interferes in
transmitting the light. Now the Invention consists of employing white
or light-coloured wire; and the best means I am acquainted with for
preparing the same is to cause the gauze to be coated with tin, silver,
or white metal, by electrotype. And in order that my Invention may

page_text: be most fully understood, I will proceed to describe the means pursued
by me.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
The drawing shows a section of a safety lamp, the wire gauze a, a,
of which, in place of being in the dark state, is coated or covered with
silver, tin, or other white metal; and I believe that the best means of
preparing such coated metal gauze is by electrotype. b, is the wick-
tube, which, with the oil vessel, is of the ordinary form, and such is
the case in regard to the general arrangement of the safety lamp shown.
And I would state that the form of the parts may be varied without
departing from my Invention. In order to obtain a better light from
the wick, and to prevent the flame smoking, I employ a chimney or
glass, of the shape shown at c, c, which is contracted at c¹; and, in
order to keep the chimney from movement, it is spread out at its upper
end so as to fit within the cylinder of wire gauze, as is shewn. By this
arrangement a safety lamp will not only, by reason of the white and
bright character of the wire gauze, transmit the light better than
heretofore, but this will be aided by the circumstance of the glass
chimney being arranged in a suitable manner for preventing the flame
smoking.
In witness whereof, I, the said Reuben Plant, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Twentieth day of August, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.
5 Witness, THOMAS ROLINSON,
of Brierley Hill, Staffordshire.
REUBEN PLANT. (L.s.)