IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF APPARATUS FOR LIGHTING AND EXTINGUISHING GAS BURNERS BY AUTOMATIC MEANS
Year: 1880

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Theodore Dann, of 32, Canterbury Road, Brixton,
in the County of Surrey, Civil Engineer, for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF APPARATUS FOR LIGHTING AND EXTINGUISHING
GAS BURNERS BY AUTOMATIC MEANS." A communication from abroad by
Wilhelm Effer, of Berlin, in the Empire of Germany.
(Void by reason of the Patentee having neglected to file a Specification in
pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent.)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Theodore Dann at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 10th May 1880.
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JOSEPH THEODORE DANN, of 32, Canterbury Road; Brixton, in the County of
Surrey, Civil Engineer. 'IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF APPARATUS
FOR LIGHTING AND EXTINGUISHING GAS BURNERS BY AUTOMATIC MEANS." A
communication from abroad by Wilhelm Effer, of Berlin, in the Empire of
Germany.
The object of this Invention is to impart increased accuracy and efficiency to
that description of apparatus for automatically lighting and extinguishing street
and other gas lamps in which the ignition and extinction are produced by the
alternate increase and decrease of the pressure of the gas in the main. Instead of
the sliding tubes with apertures or orifices in their sides by which the gas is
alternately admitted to and shut off from the main burner, and a small auxiliary
burner, such as are used in the self-lighting apparatus for which Her Majesty's
Letters Patent, Number 1983, bearing the date of June 8th 1874, have been
granted to me, and instead of cognate appliances for effecting the same object
heretofore in use, I provide a cock or tap of conic or other appropriate shape,
working within the frame or casing upon or to which both the main burner tube
and the small auxiliary burner are fitted. I make four apertures or orifices,
hereinafter called the main orifices; at right angles to one another, in the sides of
Price S71

page_text: this tap or cock, and opposite to the axis of the main burner, and four other
apertures or orifices, hereinafter called the auxiliary orifices, at or near the thin
end of the tap or cock, at an angle of forty-five degrees to the former, and opposite
the bottom end of the auxiliary burner; so that whenever one-eighth of a revolution
is imparted to the tap or cock the gas is admitted to the main burner, and cut
off from the auxiliary burner, or conversely. I so enlarge the auxiliary orifices
near the surface of the tap as to admit gas to the auxiliary burner before the main
flame is extinguished, and by connecting these enlargements with the circular
groove I make around the tap near to them, and by making the tap itself hollow
I admit of the auxiliary burner being amply fed, before the main orifices cease to
communicate with the main burner, so as to insure the issuing of sufficient gas
from the auxiliary burner to light it at the main flame.
To the end of the tap or cock I fix a ratchet wheel with a number of cogs
corresponding to the number of orifices in the tap; and above the float that is
raised or lowered by the increase or decrease in the pressure of the gas in the main
I fix a vertical rod fitted with a pawl that acts upon the cogs of the aforesaid
ratchet wheel in such a manner that as soon as the float is raised by the increase
of the pressure in the main, one eighth of a revolution is imparted by the ratchet
wheel to the cock or tap; and by means of a counter-pawl which I provide above
the aforesaid float I prevent the ratchet, and consequently the tap or cock, from
turning in the opposite direction when the reduction in the pressure of the gas
forces the float to descend again.
In order to preserve the necessary equilibrium in the working of the apparatus
constructed according to my Invention, I connect a second vertical rod with the
aforesaid float, and I cause such rod to act upon a counterweight by means of a
pin and a lever, or by any other suitable appliance, the said counterweight having
for its effect to compensate such differences as may arise in the ignition and
extinction of the flames by reason of variations in the diameter of the main and
service pipes, and in the level at which such pipes are placed; and I also fix and
adjust the igniting and extinguishing points by putting weights upon the float and
removing them therefrom. The construction of the membranes or diaphragms and
their floats for admitting or cutting off the gas in accordance with the pressure
in the main may be equal or similar to that hitherto used; but in order to prevent
the mercury from being spilled, I so construct the casing or receptacle for holding
it as to make its inside slope upwards, and I then bend it downwards, in the shape
of a note of interrogation, thereby increasing the space within which the mercury
may be held inside the float.
In order to effect a saving in the consumption of gas when required, I am
enabled by the apparatus constructed according to my Invention to reduce the
quantity of gas to be admitted to all the lamps instead of keeping some of them
fully lighted and extinguishing others altogether, as is usually practised at present;
and upon the full pressure being then given out, the main flame is put out and the
auxiliary one lighted, as hereinbefore described. Upon the casing that contains
the membrane or diaphragin and the float I place a metal hood with perforated
sides covering over the whole of the moveable organs of my apparatus, and
protecting at the same time those organs from injury and the auxiliary burner
from the access of wind; and to increase this protection I place within this hood
a second and smaller concentric hood, the perforations of which do not correspond
to those in the outside hood, so that a full supply of air is admitted to the small
burner, and yet every access of wind and all other injurious external influences
aro shut off from it.
By a modification in the arrangement of the apparatus constructed according to
my Invention, I apply the auxiliary flame hereinbefore referred to to Argand
burners, and by this means adapt this description of burners to street lamps. I
introduce the thin tube which forms the auxiliary burner into the axis of the
Argand burner itself, and around the said auxiliary burner itself I place a pipe or

page_text: -
tube for protecting it from wind and other disturbing influences. Upon the
Argand burner I fit a glass chimney; this I furnish with two metal tubes with.
perforated sides, one inside the other, and within those I place a diaphragm made
of wire gauze to secure greater rapidity in the circulation of the air and prevent
an excessive heating of the metallic parts of the apparatus. To this kind of
Argand lamp any appliance for automatic lighting by the agency of the pressure
of the gas in the main may be adapted, and by fitting such Argand burners with
my improvements herein set forth I am enabled to apply the same to any ordinary
street lamp.