A LAMP OR LIGHT
Year: 1800

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TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
GASTON JOHN BAPTISTE DE THIVILLE, of Boulton Street, Piccadilly, in the
County of Middlesex, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twenty-sixth day of May, in the fortieth year of His reign, did
give and grant unto me, the said Joseph Gaston John Baptiste de Thiville,
'my exors, admiors, and assigns, His especial licence, that I, the said Joseph
Gaston John Baptiste de Thiville my exors, adñiors, and assigns, during the
term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might use, exercise,
and vend, within England, Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my
Invention or discovery of "A LAMP OR LIGHT;" in which said Letters Patent
there is contained a proviso, oblidging me, the said Joseph Gaston John Baptiste
de Thiville, under my hand and seal, to cause a particular description of the
nature of my said Invention to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within one calendar month next and immediately after the date of
the said recited Letters Patent, as by the said recited Letters Patent, relation
being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YEE, that I, the said Joseph Garston John Baptiste de
Thiville, in compliance with and conformity to the said provisoe, do hereby
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention as followeth.
"I do declare, that the same consists of a new combination and application of
different dioptrical and catoptrical principles, calculated to produce the double
advantage of increasing light and diminishing expence. It is capable of being
applied to lamps for the streets and shops, or to bougies or candles for the
interior of houses, and in lighting chambers, rooms, halls, staircases, public
highways, playhouses, cellars, paths, passages, vaults, pits, caverns, caves, sub-
teraneous passages, and all other places requiring light by reflection; and
also in the lighting of coaches, landaus, chariots, chairs, and other carriages.
Then, instead of the spherical, convex, and concave forms hitherto employed to
refract and reflect light, I make use of oblong, or nearly or quite cylinder-
ical one, sometimes a little eliptic and sometimes a a little conic, according
to the exigency of the case, as seen in A 2, A 3, A 4, and substitute cylinders
or cylindrical segments in the place of convex or concave spheres. These
cylinders I elevate vertually, obliquely, and sometimes horizontally, opposite the
flame in the direction I mean the body of rays to fall. Figure 1 represents
the elevation, and No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, the different plans I give to the instru-
ments of refraction, the dimensions of which I proportion to the actual volumne
of light. These instruments, if not too thick, are of solid glass, as in-No, 5 and
6, and in all cases may be of a hollow glass filled with any transparent fluid
whatever. If the light is to be extended horizontally, Figure 1 must be
employed; if downwards, as, for example, the lamps in the streets, the upper
part of the cylinder must be terminated by part of an ellipsis or cone, truncated
or not, or simply rounded as Figure 2 and 3. I terminate in the same manner
the inferior part of the cylinder or segment of cylinder, if the light is to be
directed upwards, as Figure 4 and 5; and, finally, I terminate both the ends in
'the same manner when I want to produce a strong light to be reflected both
aljove, and below, as a lamp placed in the middle of a staircase, Figure 6 and 7;
if, instead of increasing by refraction the apparent size of the flame, I prefer
increasing apparently the number of these flames, the convex part of the
refracting instrument must be cut in as many facets as I wish to produce
bodies of light. This method may be applied to all the forms of the plans
Figure 1; but I prefer making use of them only with cylindrical segments,
Figure 8, A and B. These I compose of one or several pieces of glass placed
one above the other, as 1, 2, 3, B; hence, if there are six facets, six flames
will be produced a little increased, each of which will give at least as much

page_text: light as the actual flame itself. If I wish to direct the light according to the
different situations above specified in Figure 2, 3, I terminate the one or the
other or both the extremities of the cylinder, or the segment of the prismatic
cylinder, by a pyramid or a portion of a pyramid, either truncated or not trun-
cated, as Figure 9, or I have it simply rounded at both ends. The light of a
lamp in the street is considerably increased, and hence their number, and con-
sequently their expence, may be considerably diminished upon the following
principles of my Invention. In a common lamp of glass, Figure 10, I introduce
three bottles of about two inches and a quarter diameter, and five or six inches
long as Figure 11, which I fill with any transparent fluid, I arrange them in
the order 1, 2, 3, Figure 10, and fix the burner G in such a manner that the
flame A may be about an inch from the bottles 1 and 3, which are to light the
pavement, and a little more than half an inch from the bottle 2, which is to
light the middle of the street; I fasten these bottles within a tin frame, Figure
12; No. 1 and No. 2, composed of several circles, A, B, C, D, E, F, Figure
12, No. 2, which serve to contain the bottles against a partition, A, B, 6,
Figure 12, No. 1, which reaches to the bottom of the lamp, and divides it in a
vertical manner towards the two thirds; this frame is covered with another
plate of tin. Figure 18, A, B, shews the possition of the upright partition, and
1, 2, 3, the parts of tlio tin covering which correspond to the bottles that are
underneath. All this preparation is soldered on the tin rim which belongs to
the lamp, and all the circumference, x, y, z, of Figure 12, No. 1, is cemented
to the interior part of the lamp, and the small space between and above the
bottles is likewise covered with cement, so that neither smoke nor dust can
penetrate in any of the parts 4, 5, 6, Figure 10; thence, in this lamp there is
only the space A, that is to say, the parts of the bottles which are opposite to the
flame, the interior, A, B, 6, of the lamp, and all the exterior part, as usual, that
require cleaning. Figure 10, No. 2, also shews the disposition to be adopted
for a burner with two or even three wicks; and Figure 10, No. 3, shews a lamp
with two cylinders only. This whole apparatus may be made with plaister only
instead of tin, observing that a hole must be contrived in some part of it, which
must not be stopped untill the plaister is intirely dry, to prevent the dampness
tarnishing any part of the bottles or lamp in the inside of the apparatus.
I had made use of segments of cylinders, there would have been space suf-
ficient to introduce the torch of the lamp-lighter; but as I take cylindrical
bottles the space becomes narrower. To remedy this inconvenience, I have
formed a hole furnished with a little tin pipe in A, Figure 14, in the rim,
A, B, of the lamp, and introduce into this pipe a small rod of iron, D, B,
If

page_text: terminated by the hook B, on this hook rests the wire which supports the
burner b. When the lamp-lighter cleans the lamp, he must leave the burner
in the position B, C, and when he returns to light it, he must raise with
his left hand the top of the lamp, which must have a notch into which the
little iron bar is introduced; the lamp-lighter then introduces his torch, lights
the lamp, replaces the lid, and with the same hand pushes the little iron bar
D; B, which causes the burner to take the situation marked by the pointed
line; C shews separately the form of the burner, so constructed that by
pushing the iron bar the said burner can take no other place than the one it
is designed to occupy. Figure 15 shews that the pavement is lighted by the
two bodies of lights A, B, and A, D, and the middle of the street by the body
of light A, C, larger than the former because the flame A is nearer the bottle
2 than the two others, but it being likewise necessary to light the two spaces
which separate these three bodies of light I introduce opposite the top of the
bottles 1 and 3 pieces of common looking-glass y and a, Figure 15, as seen
in elevation, Figure 16 and 17. These glasses are so inclined and placed as to
reflect on the middle of the street, in the direction y, o, and x, v, Figure 15, the
body of light refracted and magnfied by the bottles 1 and 3. In case I wish to
light a space more extended in breadth with less intensity of light, I shall
make use of the form represented, Figure 22, of which A is the vertical
elevation; B,. the profile; and C, the plan; so that by this my Invention of
adopting cylindrical transparent bodies of glass, of making the light pass
through fluids, and having it reflected by pieces of looking-glass in such
number and directions as wanted, a whole street may be lighted in such, a
manner that a single. lamp produces a greater effect than six of the present
construction, and that the streets may be perfectly well lighted in only pre-
serving the third or at most the half of the present number of lamps by placing
them at a distance of one hundred and twenty feet or more from each other.
These principles admit of such infinate variations, and their combinations may
be such that with a very small number of bougies, candles, or lamps, and even
with one only, a large room may be as well lighted as with a very considerable
number of lights, and without any part remaining in obscurity.
I will give
but few examples of it; let us suppose, for instance, a vertical section of a
cylindrical vase, Figure 18, the top and bottom of which are a little rounded,
a, a, b, b, c, c, d, d; I fill it with a transparent fluid and introduce into it a
glass tube P, R, in the bottom of which stands the burner V; to X is added
a small pipe X, T, made of glass or metal to which is adapted in T another
metal pipe T, Y, which supports the lamp S; this piece turns in T on a hollow

page_text: hinge and makes with the part T, X, a sort of syphon, by which the oil is
kept on a level in V and S. When I want to introduce the oil in V, I elevate
the lamp S in S 2, till both tubes Y, T, and T, X, are filled. The lamp being
put again in its former situation, the oil continues running into V so long as the
wick burns, and, till S, S is empty; some attention is only required to raise,
from time to time, the lamp a little towards S 3, in proportion to the consump-
tion of oil, in order to keep it on the same level with Y, S. In this state the
image of the light will be but little amplified, but I cover the outside of the
parts A, A, B, B, C, C, D, D, with a reflecting surface which reflects the light
in the inside of the vase, so that the whole floor is lighted by A, A, and B, B,
and the whole ceiling by C, C and D, D which diffuses into the room an equal
and soft light, disposed in such a manner, that the only flame A is perceptible
to the eye, which even if necessary can be concealed. Instead of a syphon
the communication can be established by a hole practised in the glass with a
cock and stopper B, Figure 19, but the first method is farr preferrable, unless
one of Argand's lamps is to be made use of; in all cases, another pipe L,
Figure 18 and 19, must be contrived in order to introduce air under the flame.
If I wish to fix this lamp against a wall, I cover half the cylinder with a
reflecting surface, as a, b, c, d, e, f, Figure 19, so that the light is reflected in
every direction. If instead of a common lamp I wish to introduce one of
Argand's, a candle, or bougie, the internal pipe must be so disposed that it
forms one piece with the cylinder which is to be open both ways A and B,
Figure 20. In all cases, except the last, the internal pipe may be approached
or removed from the reflecting surface, so that it may be placed in its proper.
focus. By these means the effect of the combination of both the principles of
refraction and reflection will be in compound ratio of the amplification of the
image by the first refraction of its second amplification by the reflection which
will itself be still more magnified by a second refraction much stronger than
the first. A very great advantage to be derived by my Invention' is, that the
reflecting surfaces never want to be cleaned or repaired, they being always
covered with water which prevents their getting dirty or damaged in any
way whatsoever.
Another method will be productive, of a still greater
effect. It consists of three lamps, candles, or bougies, each introduced
between six cylinders or faceted segments. Figure 21 shews the horizontal
plan of such an apparatus suspended in the middle of a room, each part turns
on a pivot placed under the flames A, B, C, and the whole turns on another
pivot D, the use of which is to direct the light at pleasure. Now supposing
the divergeance of each refracted image to be eight feet wide at eighteen feet

page_text: distance, the refringing glasses being eighteen in number, the whole of the
lighted space will be one hundred and forty-four feet, which forms the surface
of a room thirty-six feet square. I have adopted the method of fixing the
apparatus, Figure 10, 12, and 13, in the lamp with the sole view of answering
the objections made to me by the Surveyors of the Town and the Surveyor of
the Committee of Sewers, both entrusted with the examination of my plan as
presented to the said Committee for better lighting the City of London. The
objection is, that in case this apparatus would be free and independant of the
lamp, as seen in Figure 12, No. 3 for one wick and two cylinders, and No. 4 for
two wicks with one cylinder only, the conic part a, b, c of which is covered with
a reflecting surface), the risks of a greater fragility should be the consequence
of this method which I lay open here, that the public may judge and choose.
I have sufficiently demonstrated the great advantages to be derived in and by
my said Invention, both in point of increasing light and diminishing expence
by adopting my cylindrical forms and a fluid through which the light is
refracted and magnified. It is to be observed that the refringing powers of
fluids in general are less than that of solid glass, but that loss is considerably
repaired by the greater transparency of the fluid, the parts of which are
more homogenous than the glass which always contracts both in fashion and
working; defects and innequalities which produce very often an imperfect and
dazzling image of the flame.
For further explanation, and in order to illustrate and illucidate still
inore fully the present statement, I referr to and have added by way of
Schedule to this my Specification the particulars of the plans, drawings,
and devices of the different lamps and lights of this my Invention, referring
thereby to the different letters, figures, and forms herein-before specified,
abstracted from a pamphet or treatise wrote by me on the subject.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Gaston John Baptiste de Thiville,
have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twelfth day of June, in the
year of our Lord One thousand and eight hundred.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twelfth day of June, in the
year of our Lord 1800, the aforesaid Joseph Gaston John Baptiste de Thiville
came before our Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the
Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified,
in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt
according to the tenor of the Statutes made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twelfth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred.