A METHOD OR METHODS CALCULATED TO CONVEY GAS USED FOR ILLUMINATION TO THE BURNERS, AND AT THE SAME TIME TO SUSPEND THE BURNERS, OR THE LAMPS, LUSTRES, OR OTHER FRAMES OR HOLDERS IN WHICH THE BURNERS ARE PLACED
Year: 1819

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
SIMPSON, Esquire, of the City of Edinburgh, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Third
did, by His Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the
Ninth day of February, in the fifty-ninth year of His reign, give and grant
unto me, the said James Simpson, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said.
James Simpson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, during the term
of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, my Invention of "A METHOD OR METHODS CALCULATED TO CONVEY GAS USED
FOR ILLUMINATION TO THE BURNERS, AND AT THE SAME TIME TO SUSPEND THE BURNERS,
OR THE LAMPS, LUSTRES, OR OTHER FRAMES OR HOLDERS IN WHICH THE BURNERS ARE
PLACED," within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in
such a manner as to me, the said James Simpson, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, should in our discretion seem meet; in which same Letters Patent
is contained a proviso that if I, the said James Simpson, should not particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chan-
cery within two calendar months next and immediately after the date of the
said Letters Patent, that then the said. Letters Patent, and all liberties and

page_text: advantages whatsoever thereby granted, should utterly cease, determine, and
become void, as in and by the said recited Letters Patent, relation being
thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
James Simpson, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, are particularly described and
ascertained in manner following (that is to say):-
The said method or methods consist of a construction or constructions of
tubes and of rings.applied thereto, the whole being an imitation of a chain.
First, I take two tubes made of any metal, mixture of metals, or substance of
which tubes either wrought or cast may be made, and which, when made into
tubes, are capable of confining gas used for illumination. The said tubes are
of optional length, but equal or nearly equal in length to each other, and also of
optional diameter both inside and outside, provided the inside diameter is sufficient
to permit gas to pass; but the outside diameter of the one tube is equal or
nearly equal to the outside diameter of the other tube, and the inside diameter
of the one tube is equal or nearly equal to the inside diameter of the other
tube. Each of the said tubes is of any shape, as well outside or inside, of
which a tube may be made, and has an uninterrupted or continuous passage
for gas through its whole length, however much the tubes may be bent or
otherwise fitted into the imitation chain. At optional intervals, but at the
same or nearly the same intervals in the one as in the other, the tubes are
bent into or cast with projecting curves or angles, the curves or angles
being optional, and the more gentle and less sudden or tortuous the
better for the free passage of the gas. The remainder of the said tubes
not occupied in the said curves or angles is straight, or curved or angled,
according to taste, in any manner not inconsistent with what follows (viz.):
At the said curves or angles the said tubes are brought to meet, or nearly
to meet, and in any suitable manner fixed to each other or to some suitable
substance interposed between them. The tubes so brought together will form
a series of two or more enclosed spaces resembling the links of a chain con-
nected by the junctions or points where the tubes are brought together. The.
contour or circunference of these spaces must depend on the straightness,
curvature, or angularity of the tubes. Of the tubes so constructed a few
varieties in point of form, although by no means all the forms of which the
construction is capable, are delineated in the Drawing hereunto annexed, see
Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. Still adhering to the continuity of the tubes, the
construction may be varied as follows:-Instead of two separate tubes one tube
may be bent at one part or point so as to form two parts or limbs of the

page_text: same tube, in all other respects equivalent, for the purposes of the imitation.
chain, to the two separate tubes already described, see Figures 12 and 13.
Instead of being brought together by projecting curves or angles, the two
tubes or two limbs of one tube may be made to cross each other at the point
of junction. Figures 6 and 7 are specimens. Instead of being bent at intervals
and brought together at the curves or angles, or crossed at the points of
junction, as already specified, the tubes, or limbs of a tube, may merely be
fixed together by a piece of metal or other suitable substance interposed. In
this construction notches should be given to the tubes at the junctions to
increase the resemblance to chain, in which case a greater thickness of metal
will be necessary on one side of the tube for the notch, that it may not inter-
fere with the gas passage. Figure 8 is one of the forms which this construction
may take.
:
Secondly, the remaining part of this Specification applies to any of the con-
structions already described. At the points of junction before mentioned put
on rings or links of any metal, mixture of metals, or suitable substance of any
form in rim and circumference, either at the time of the junction of the tubes
or after the junction of the tubes. These rings or links encircle the junctions.
of the tubes in the direction of their length, but across the plane of the spaces
formed by the tubes, in the same manner as if they were the alternate rings or.
links of a chain. The rims of these rings may be made broad enough to cover
the junctions of the tubes, to increase the resemblance to a chain; but there
is no particular form to be preferred. Figures 9 and 11 represent front views
of the rings applied to the tubes, and Figure 10 a side view. The application
of the rings to the variations in the structure needs no delineation.
Thirdly, in order to convey gas to the burners and suspend the same, or the
holders in which they are placed, the imitation chain or chains are attached
above to a supply tube or service pipe, or to a tubular ring, hook, or other
suitable communication with the service pipe, and below to a burner or
burners or burner holder, or to a tubular ring, hook, branch, or other
suitable communication with the burner holder; the said attachment at both
extremities of the imitation chain or chains being such that on the one
hand the gas shall pass freely from the service pipe through the tubes of the
chain to the burner or burners, and on the other the burners, burner, or
burner holder shall be securely suspended.
If it be found necessary to
interrupt the course of the chain or chains, or to change their direction, a
box or chamber should receive the ends of the chains at the point of interrup-
tion in such a manner as to receive and transmit the gas, and at the same time
to support the weight attached below, see A, Figure 14. It must be obvious