IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR LIGHTING
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Jules Emile Melon de Pradou and Louis Gustave
Lecoq, of 2, Rue Sainte Appoline, Paris, France, and of 4, South Street,
Finsbury, London, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS
FOR LIGHTING."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Jules Emile Melon de
Pradou and Louis Gustave Lecoq at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 5th July 1861.
We, JULES EMILE MELON DE PRADOU and LOUIS GUSTAVE LECOQ, of 2,
Rue Sainte Appoline, Paris, France, and of 4, South Street, Finsbury, London,
do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR LIGHTING," to be as follows, that is to say :-
Our Invention consists in the arrangement and employment of an improved
apparatus to replace the lighting apparatus until now in use on the stage and
in the interior of theatres, and for lighting large buildings and places in general.
The principle of this apparatus is based on the application of the luminous
rays thrown back direct or indirect internal reflexion in vessels for conducting
into the open air the deletereous gases of combustion.
Our improved apparatus consists of a pipe or conduit on which the gas
burners are mounted, the whole being enclosed in a glass cover or reflector,
the interior of which reflects the luminous rays of the light, and throws them
on a polished or ground glass. Screens of various colours may be used at
will to vary the hue of light.
This improved lighting apparatus may be made of a straight, circular, or
other form according to the position of the light required.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Jules Emile Melon de Pradou and Louis Gustave Lecoq
in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 9th December 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JULES
EMILE MELON DE PRADOU and LOUIS GUSTAVE LECOQ, of 2, Rue Sainte Appoline,
Paris, France, and of 4, South Street, Finsbury, London, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fifth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
Jules Emile Melon de Pradou and Louis Gustave Lecoq, Her special licence
that we, the said Jules Emile Melon de Pradou and Louis Gustave Lecoq, our
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Jules
Emile Melon de Pradou and Louis Gustave Lecoq, our 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 APPARATUS FOR LIGHTING," upon the condition (amongst
others) that we, the said Jules Emile Melon de Pradou and Louis Gustave
Lecoq, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under
our, or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Jules Emile Melon de Pradou and
Louis Gustave Lecoq, do hereby declare the nature of our 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, reference being had
to the Drawing hereto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon,
that is to say:-
The object of our improvements is to replace the lighting apparatuses
employed until now for the stage and house of theatres, also for lighting large
buildings and other large spaces.
The essentially new principle of our improved apparatuses, which. are more
especially applicable to lighting the stage and house of theatres, is based on
the application of the luminous rays sent back by direct aud indirect interior

page_text: reflexion into capacities of the shape of pipes, allowing to conduct to the
exterior the odours and deleterious gases resulting from the employment of
gas, and its combustion in buildings and places in which it is essential that the
deleterious gases of combustion should be expelled into the open air.
And our Invention consists in the employment of a pipe or conduit on
which the gas burners are mounted, the whole being enclosed in a reflector,.
the interior of which will reflect the luminous rays, and throw them on a.
polished or unpolished glass. Screens of various colours are placed at will in
such a manner that the lighting can be obtained in the tone required.
These apparatuses will be in a. straight line for the footlights and other.
applications, but they will be placed in circles or in any other manner accord-
ing to the place or space which it is wished to light; thus our apparatuses
can be applied to the stage of theatres for footlights or ceilings, to branches,
lustres, or in any case where they may be usefully applied.
Having thus described the nature of our said Invention, we will now.
proceed more fully to describe the manner of performing the same by the aid.
of the accompanying Drawing, which shows an example of our Invention
applied to the footlights of a theatre, represented in vertical and transverse
section.
a is a horizontal pipe, on which are mounted the gas burners b contained in
the reflector c, silvered, burnished, or platinized internally to reflect the.
luminous rays, and throw them on the surface d, composed of a looking glass
or a polished or unpolished glass. A reservoir e receives the products of com-
bustion of the gas as well as the hot air which escapes through the pipe f into
the atmosphere outside the house containing this lighting apparatus. A
double lid g is placed above the reservoir e; a space is left between the two'
parts fand g for setting up a current of air, or furnished with a substance for.
preventing the communication of heat. Coloured, screens h are placed below
this part.g; it suffices to push them forward either by means of a handle, or
by hand into the reflector c. to give the required colour to the light. The
part represents the floor of a theatre, of a room, or a part of any support
protected underneath from an excess of heat by an air chamber, the lower
part of which can be made of plaster or of brick. It will be seen by the
Drawing, that the reflector c is held by the support j in such a manner as to
be inclined more or less turning it a little on the concave part j', so that in
causing to turn by a handle the pinions n keyed on a horizontal shaft as these
pinions catch with the racks h³, the looking glasses d
may be more or less
inclined in order to the better lighting of any required part of the stage.
The pipe holding the gas burners can be turned into a circle, and form a ring

page_text: contained in a circular reflector of the same form as the reflector c in the
Drawing, and furnished with a large burner or several burners in the middle
with a circular reflector, the whole being placed in such a manner as to throw
the light always on the looking glasses or polished or unpolished glass.
The following advantages are obtained from the application of our improve-
ments: Firstly, no fear of fire to the actors or artists; secondly, the sup-
pression of the hot current in front of the stage, and before and around the
said apparatus; thirdly, the rejection to the exterior of the house of all the
products of combustion of the gas; fourthly, the employment of screens,
invisible to the public, for varying the colour of the light; fifthly, the facility
of varying the maximum light from one point to another.
..It will be seen that this Invention may be applied to lighting apparatuses
of all forms and dimensions, and be constructed of any suitable material or
substance. This Invention applied to apparatuses containing the arrange-
ment represented and above described, as well as other similar arrangements,
is based on the essentially new principle of the application to lighting of the
luminous rays thrown back by direct or indirect interior reflection like the
sonorous undulations of a speaking trumpet or acoustic conductor. By
reflection we thus recover the light which has been lost by the distance.
Having now described the nature of our said Invention; and the manner of
performing the same, we would have it understood that we do not confine
ourselves to the precise details of construction herein-before described, pro-
vided the principle of our Invention be preserved. What we claim is, the
improvements herein-before described and represented in the annexed Drawing,
in apparatus for lighting stages and houses of theatres, ceilings, and appli-
cable to branches and lustres, and in all cases in which they can be usefully
employed.
In witness whereof, we, the said Jules Emile Melon de Pradou and
Louis Gustave Lecoq, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this
Fourth day of December, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and sixty-one.
MELON DE PRADOU. (L.S.)
L. G. LECOQ.
(L.S.)
MELON DE PRADOU. (L.S.)
L. G. LECOQ.
(L.S.)