Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application (in United Kingdom), 17th June, 1898
Complete Specification Left, 3rd Mar., 1899-Accepted, 29th Apr., 1899
We, LA SOCIÉTÉ CHAUSSARD ET CIE, of 4, Rue de Bécon, Courbevoie (Seine),
and CLAUDE EDOUARD VIGNES, Political Writer, of Orsay (Seine et Oise), both in
the Republic of France, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
This invention relates to an improved portable lamp which can be used with
safety for lighting by acetylene gas.
Our improved lamp presents the following advantages:
1. Absolute freedom from risk of explosion; no precautions to be observed at
the time of lighting.
2. Excess production avoided.
3. Great regularity in working and operation; slow and regular action on
the carbide of calcium.
4. Steadiness of the flame.
5. Possibility of producing at will, according to requirements, with the same
lamp, and always with the same regularity, the most varied intensities of light,
from the feeble glimmer of a simple night-light to the powerful brilliance of an
electric arc-lamp.
6. Long period of lighting at normal intensity.
7. Simplicity of construction.
8. Very easy manipulation.
9. Very rapid mounting, dismounting, cleaning and charging.
To enable our invention to be readily understood, we have shown, in the accom-
panying drawings, but by way of example only, the arrangement which forms
the object of cur said invention. In these drawings:-
—
Figure is a vertical section of our improved lamp.
Figure 2 is a partial horizontal section thereof on the line 1-2, Figure 1.
Figure 3 is a horizontal section thereof on the line 3-4, Figure 1.
Figure 4 shows separately, in vertical section, the method of connecting the
bell with the cylinder fixed to the cap.
Figure 5 shows, separately, the sounding blades fixed on the cylinder connected
to the cap of the lamp and giving warning, by their vibration, of the upward
and downward motions of the bell.

page_text: Figure 6 shows, separately, one of the cutting blades fixed to the bottom of
the carbide receptacle.
Figure 7 is a vertical transverse section thereof on the line 5--6, Figure 6.
In these figures, like letters of reference indicate the same parts.
Our apparatus comprises a carbide receiver a supported by a perforated
cylinder b.
The carbide receiver a, which is preferably of ovoid form, is provided at its
base with a circular aperture c, the edges of which bear points or blades d of
different lengths, directed radially towards the centre and continuing in the
curvature of the receiver a.
The interstices which these blades d leave between them, are capable of simul-
taneously retaining or supporting the fragments of carbide placed in the receiver
and of allowing the lime paste to flow through the said aperture.
The body of these blades d has a triangular cross-section similar to that of a
knife-edge of a balance; one of the edges, viz. that which is turned upwards,
forms a cutting edge for the lime paste in its descent; the two other edges are
blunt as shown in Figures 6 and 7.
The carbide receiver a is provided with a cover e slightly rounded and secured
by bayonet-joints.
When this vessel or receiver a is to be charged, it is filled completely and the
cover e is af'erwards fixed thereon.
The cover being thus rendered incapable of being moved in a vertical direction.
the increase in volume which accompanies the transformation of the carbide of
calcium into hydrate of calcium, produces in the interior of the receiver a, a
pressure which promotes the exit of the lime paste through the grid formed by
the blades d, this paste being moreover rendered partly fluid by the saccharose
as will be seen hereafter.
The interior of the carbide receiver is only in contact with its surrounding
moist atmosphere through its lower grid-like aperture where moreover, the more
or less fluid lime paste forms a plug or stopper which is continually renewed by
the movement of the saccharose-charged water which takes place there.
This isolation of the carbide is evidently a first guarantee against the chances
of excess production.
The cover e, although it is fixed, does not close hermetically, so that the
atmospheric pressure acts as much on the upper surface of the contents of the
receiver as on the bottom, and the descent of the carbide mixture under the action
of gravity towards the grid-like aperture, can take place freely.
of
The water for acting on the carbide of calcium contains 120 to 130 grams
saccharose in solution. The receiver a receives a mixture of fragments of carbide
and saccharose. The fragments of carbide, have each preferably a volume nearly
equivalent to that of an olive; it is necessary, moreover, that these fragments
have a certain weight in order that they can descend of themselves to the bottom
of the receiver a, accordingly as the carbide first occupying this bottom space
dissolves.
A first layer of fragments of carbide occupies the bottom of the receiver for
a depth of about three centimetres, then come successive horizontal layers Each
layer, when laid, is afterwards sprinkled over with saccharose in crystalline grains
such as are obtained in commerce; the greater part of the said saccharose
crystals rest in the spaces which are left between the pieces of carbide. When
saccharose cannot be obtained in crystalline grains, fragments of ordinary waste
saccharose can be taken, of a size nearly equivalent to that of the said grains.
The saccharose has two functions, viz.:-
1. It assists in clearing the unacted-upon portion of the pieces of carbide from
the hydrate of calcium which entirely or partially envelopes them, and facilitates
the flow of this hydrate out of the grid.
The hydrate of calcium, in fact, retains an excess of water which, if it should
remain in contact with the carbide during working, after the extinction of the

page_text: amp, would be a cause of excess-production-or-of-untimely continuation of the
volution of gas.
A portion of the hydrate of calcium is dissolved by the saccharose, as much
by that which is previously dissolved in the mass of water f, as by that which
s disseminated in the solid state in the receiver a and the aqueous solution of
which acts at the very surface of the pieces of carbide at the moment when they
are attacked. The other portion of the hydrate forms, with the solution of
saccharate of calcium, which has just been formed, a sufficiently fluid paste, by
reason both of the solvent action of the saccharose and of the diluent action of
the water, to enable it to traverse the grid and to be received in the body of
water.
2. The saccharose, moreover, moderates more or less, according to the propor-
tion thereof, the action of the water on the carbide and thus prevents sudden or
too copious disengagement of gas.
It thus offers, by its intervention, two fresh guarantees against risks of excess
production.
We have said above that the carbide receiver a was supported on a perforated
cylinder b to which it could be connected by a bayonet sleeve or joint.
This cylinder b bears externally at its base, a kind of annular gutter g of which
the external rim engages, by bayonet-pins, with a perforated cylinder h the upper
part of which is fixed in any suitable manner to a cap i mounted by a bayonet-
utting on the external casing k of the apparatus, which contains the water f.
In the swelled part of the cylinder or external casing k are formed holes
serving to permit movement of the water into this part l.
Between the cylinders b and the floating beil m moves concentrically and.
quite freely.
When the bell m is at rest at the lower end of its travel, as shown in dotted
lines in Figure 1, it rests on a ledge n fixed to the lower edge of the cylinder h,
forming a projection at the inside of the latter. In this manner, by raising the
cap i and the cylinder h, the bell m is raised at the same time and, if required,
the cylinder with the carbide receiver a, if this cylinder b has been locked by
the Dayonet-joint on the cylinder h.
A flexible tube o of sufficient length and of which the bends easily follow the
vertical displacements of the bell m, connects the outlet-orifice of this bell to the
box p arranged beneath the burner q.
In the box p are superposed pieces of metal cloth or gauze arranged at a dis-
tance of from about two to three millimeters apart and of finer and finer mesh
from below upwards.
Thus interposed between the bell m or reservoir of combustible gas and the
burner, these pieces of metallic cloth or gauze prevent, in an absolutely infallible
manner, the return of the flame towards this reservoir in such a manner that if,
at the moment of lighting, the bell contains any air mixed with the acetylene
in course of production, all risk of explosion is thus certainly guarded against.
These pieces of metal cloth or gauze at the same time arrest, in their passage,
the particles of dust carried from the interior by the gas and which are liable to
obstruct the fine emission apertures (slits or holes) of the burner.
The flexible tube o has an internal diameter large enough to enable the liquid
water of condensation of the aqueous vapour carried by the gas, to find therein
an easy descent to return into the bell and afterwards into the water reservoir
of the lamp without risk of forming bubble films or pistons in the interior of the
said tube. In this manner there is no liability of jumping of the flame taking
place.
The part of this tube o which opens into the bell m is made whistle-shaped and
with sloping edges so as to promote the passage in opposite directions of the gas
and the water of condensation and thus prevent the obstructions which this water
would tend to cause.

page_text: The bell m is guided in its ascending and descending motion by pins s arranged
in vertical openings formed in the cylinder h.
One of these openings r is preferably arranged to receive the sounding blades t,
Figure 5, which, when they are set in vibration by contact with the pin s cause
two entirely different musical notes or sounds to be heard, one low and the other
high, the latter being produced by the upper blade.
During the ascending and descending motions of the bell, the pins acts
successively on these two blades near their free ends.
If the deep note is followed shortly by the high note it is an indication that
the beil is ascending. If the sequence, at a short interval of time, of the two!
notes, is in the contrary direction, it indicates that the bell is descending.
These warnings, in addition to their giving information as to the rapidity of
the movements of the bell, are above all useful to the consumer at the time
when he wishes to extinguish the lamp. It is very evident that it is more
advantageous to extinguish the light at the moment when the bell is descending
and on the point of returning to touch the ledge on the cylinder than when
the bell is ascending.
To charge the reservoir a with carbide, the cap i is turned so as to unfasten
it, after which it is drawn off vertically. The external cylinder k is thus removed
together with the parts that are mounted therein. The lower bayonet-joints are,
unfastened so as to enable the cylinder 6 to be withdrawn with its carbide
receiver a.
The cover is removed, the receiver a is completely filled with the mixture
which was mentioned above, the cover is replaced and the whole afterwards made
firm by the bayonet-joints on the cover.
The aqueous solution is poured into the external cylinder up to the desired
level, afterwards the removable part is inserted into the external casing and
secured by the upper bayonet-joints.
The cock of the burner q having been previously partly opened, the air enclosed
in the bell, only finding an insufficient outlet through the partly-closed cock,
drives the water from the bell causing it to rise into the annular swelling 1, and
thus prevents it from immediately wetting the bottom of the carbide receptacle.
When all is replaced, the cock of the burner is opened further; then, under
the action of the water-pressure, the air escapes out of the apparatus and the liquid
re-ascends into the bell until it reaches the lower part of the carbide contained
in the reservoir a. The disengagement of acetylene gas takes place immediately.
As this ascent of the water into the bell can be slackened as much as is desired
by operating the cock, one can perfectly control this first action of the water on
the carbide.
One can now light the lamp. When the flame is started, the opening of the
cock is regulated so as to obtain the desired intensity of the light. Afterwards
the apparatus, of itself, acts to maintain this intensity automatically.
When the disengagement of acetylene gas becomes more abundant, so that it
does not correspond to the amount consumed at the burner, the pressure increases
in the bell and the liquid descends and is forced back into the annular swelling.
The water ceasing to moisten the carbide, the disengagement of gas slackens
and ultimately ceases. Soon, consequently, the pressure diminishing, the water
returns into contact with the carbide, the acetylene gas is again formed, and so
on, in an automatic manner.
It is obvious that the form, dimensions, details, accessories, and materials..
employed in the construction of our apparatus can be varied without departing
from the nature of our invention.

page_text: knife-edge of a balance; one of the edges, viz. that which is turned upwards,
forms a cutting edge for the lime paste in its descent; the two other edges are
blunt as shown in Figures 6 and 7.
The carbide receiver a is provided with a cover e slightly rounded and secured
by bayonet-joints.
When this vessel or receiver a is to be charged, it is filled completely and the
cover is afterwards fixed thereon.
The cover bein thus rendered incapable of being moved in a vertical direction,
the increase in volume which accompanies the transformation of the carbide of
calcium into hydrate of calcium, produces in the interior of the receiver a, a
pressure which promotes the exit of the lime paste through the grid formed by
the blades d, this paste being moreover rendered partly fluid by saccharose
as will be seen hereafter.
The interior of the carbide receiver is only in contact with its surrounding
moist atmosphere through its lower grid-like aperture where moreover, the more
or less fluid lime paste forms a plug or stopper which is continually renewed by
the movement of the saccharose-charged water which takes place there.
This isolation of the carbide is evidently a first guarantee against the chances
of excess production.
The cover e, although it is fixed, does not close hermetically, so that the
atmospheric pressure acts as much on the upper surface of the contents of the
receiver as on the bottom, and the descent of the carbide mixture under the action
of gravity towards the grid-like aperture, can take place freely.
The water for acting on the carbide of calcium contains 120 to 130 grams. of
saccharose in solution. The receiver a receives a mixture of fragments of carbide
and saccharose. The fragments of carbide have each preferably a volume nearly
equivalent to that of an olive; it is necessary, moreover, that these fragments
have a certain weight in order that they can descend of themselves to the bottom
of the receiver a accordingly as the carbide first occupying this bottom space
dissolves.
A first layer of fragments of carbide occupies the bottom of the receiver for
a depth of about three centimeters, then come successive horizontal layers. Each
layer, when laid, is afterwards sprinkled over with saccharose in crystalline grains
such as
are obtained in commerce; the greater part of the said saccharose
crystals rests in the spaces which are left between the pieces of carbide. When
saccharose cannot be obtained in crystalline grains, fragments of ordinary waste
saccharose can be taken, of a size nearly equivalent to that of the said grains.
The saccharose has two functions, viz. :-
1. It assists in clearing the unacted-upon portion of the pieces of carbide from
the hydrate of calcium which entirely or partially envelopes them and facilitates
the now of this hydrate out of the grid."
The hydrate of calcium, in fact, retains an excess of water which, if it should
remain in contact with the carbide during working, after the extinction of the
lamp, would be a cause of excess production or of untimely continuation of the
evolution of gas.
A portion of the hydrate of calcium is dissolved by the saccharose, as much
by that which is previously dissolved in the mass of water f, as by that which
is disseminated in the solid state in the receiver a and the aqueous solution of
which acts at the very surface of the pieces of carbide at the moment when they
are attacked. The other portion of the hydrate forms, with the solution of
saccharate of calcium, which has just been formed, a sufficiently fluid paste, by
reason both of the solvent action of the saccharose and of the diluent action of
the water, to enable it to traverse the grid and to be received in the body of
water.
2. The saccharose, moreover, moderates more or less, according to the propor-
tion thereof, the action of the water on the carbide and thus prevents sudden or
too copious disengagement of gas.

page_text: CALL CO
It thus offers, by its intervention, two fresh guarantees against risks O
production.
We have said above that the carbide receiver a was supported on a perforated
cylinder to which it could be connected by a bayonet sleeve or joint.
This cylinder b bears externally at its base, a kind of annular gutter g of which
the external rim engages, by bayonet-pins, with a perforated intermediate cylin-
der h the upper part of which is fixed in any suitable manner to a cap i mounted
by a bayonet-fastening on the external casing k of the apparatus, which contains
the water f.
In the swelled part of the cylinder or external casing k are formed holes
serving to permit movement of the water into this part 1.
Between the cylinders b and the floating bell m moves concentrically and
quite freely.
'
71
When the bell m is at rest at the lower end of its travel, as shown in dotted
lines in Figure 1, it rests on a ledge fixed to the lower edge of the cylinder h, and
forming a projection at the inside of the latter. In this manner by raising the
cap i and the cylinder h, the bell m is raised at the same time and, if required,
the cylinder with the carbide receiver a, if this cylinder 6 has been locked by
the bayonet-joints on the cylinder h.
A flexible tube o of sufficient length and of which the bends easily follow the
vertical displacements of the bell m, connects the outlet-orifice of this bell to the
box p arranged beneath the burner q.
In the box pare superposed pieces of metal cloth or gauze arranged at a dis-
tance of from about two to three millimetres apart and of finer and finer mesh
from below upwards.
Thus interposed between the hell m or reservoir of combustible gas and the
burner g, these pieces of metallic cloth or gauze prevent, in an absolutely infallibl
manner, the return of the flame towards this reservoir in such a manner that if,
at the moment of lighting, the bell contains any air mixed with the acetylene
in course of production, all risk of explosion is thus certainly guarded against.
These pieces of metal cloth or gauze at the same time arrest, in their passage,
the particles of dust carried from the interior by the gas and which are liable to
obstruct the fine emission apertures (slits or holes) of the burner.
The flexible tube o has an internal diameter large enough to enable the
water of condensation of the aqueous vapour carried by the gas, to find therein
an easy descent to return into the bell and afterwards into the water reservoir
of the lamp without risk of forming bubble films or pistons in the interior of the
said tube. In this manner there is no liability of jumping of the flame taking
place.
The part of this tube o which opens into the bell m is made whistle-shaped and
with sloping edges so as to promote the simultaneous passage in opposite directions
of the gas and the water of condensation and thus prevent the obstructions which
this water would tend to cause.
The bell m is guided in its ascending and descending motion by pins s
in vertical openings r formed in the cylinder h
arranged
One of these openings r is preferably arranged to receive the sounding blades t
Figure 5, which, when they are set in vibration by contact with the pin s, cause
two entirely different musical notes or sounds to be heard, one low and the other
high, the latter being produced by the upper blade.
During the ascending and descending motions of the bell, the pins acts
successively on these two blades near their free end, thus serving as an annunciator.
If the deep note is followed shortly by the high note it is an indication that
the bell is ascending. If the sequence, at a short interval of time, of the two
notes, is in the contrary direction, it indicates that the bell is descending.
These warnings, in addition to their giving information as to the rapidity of
the movements of the bell, are above all useful to the consumer at the time

page_text: when he wishes to extinguish the lamp. It is very evident that it is more
advantageous to extinguish the light at the moment when the bell is descending
and on the point of returning to touch the ledge n on the cylinder h, than when
the bell is ascending.
To charge the receiver a with carbide, the cap i is turned so as to unfasten
it, after which it is drawn off vertically. The external cylinder k is thus removed
together with the parts that are mounted therein. The lower bayonet-joints are
unfastened so as to enable the cylinder b to be withdrawn with its carbide
receiver a.
The cover e is removed, the receiver a is completely filled with the mixture
which was mentioned above, the cover is replaced and the whole afterwards male
firm by the bayonet-joints on the cover.
The aqueous solution is poured into the external cylinder up to the desired
level, afterwards the removable part is inserted into the external casing and
secured by the upper bayonet-joints.
The cock of the burner q having been previously partly opened, the air enclosed
in the bell, only finding an insufficient outlet through the partly-closed cock,
drives the water from the bell causing it to rise into the annular swelling 7, and
thus prevents it from immediately wetting the bottom of the carbide receptacle.
When all is replaced, the cock of the burner is opened further; then, under
the action of the water-pressure, the air escapes out of the apparatus and the liquid
re-ascends into the bell until it reaches the lower part of the carbide contained
in the receiver a The disengagement of acetylene gas takes place immediately.
As this ascent of the water into the bell can be slackened as much as is desired
by operating the cock, one can perfectly control this first action of the water on
the carbide.
One can now light the lamp. When the flame is started, the opening of the
cock is regulated so as to obtain the desired intensity of the light. Afterwards
the apparatus, of itself, acts to maintain this intensity automatically.
When the disengagement of acetylene gas becomes more abundant, so that it
does not correspond to the amount consumed at the burner, the pressure increases
in the bell and the liquid descends and is forced back into the annular swelling.
The water ceasing to moisten the carbide, the disengagement of gas slackens
and ultimately ceases. Soon, consequently, the pressure diminishing, the water
returns into contact with the carbide, the acetylene gas is again formed, and so
on, in an automatic manner.
It is obvious that the form. dimensions, details, accessories. and materials
employed in the construction of our apparatus can be varied without departing
from the nature of our invention.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of ou: said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what
we claim is:-
:—
1. A portable lamp for lighting by acetylene gas, ocmprising a covered, recep-
tacle carried by a cylinder and provided at its lower part with an opening having
cutting blades permitting the exit of the lime paste formed by a mixture of
saccharose and carbide; a bell provided with a flexible pipe for the exit of the
gas, which traverses a series of pieces of metallic cloth or gauze, this hell being
capable of moving between the said cylinder and an intermediate cylinder pro-
vided with apertures and connected thereto by a havenet-ioint, which intermediate
cylinder is arranged in an external casing provided with an expansion serving
to receive the water, substantially as herein before described.
2. In a portable lamp, such as is herein before described, for lighting by acety-
lene gas, an annunciator comprising a finger carried by the bell and coming
successively into contact. during the ascending and descending motions of the
said bell with sounding blades fixed in one of the apertures of the fixed or
intermediate cylinder, substantially as herein before described.

page_text: 3. The improved portable lamp constructed, arranged and operating sub-
stantially as described with reference to the drawings, for the purposes specified.
Dated the 3rd day of March 1899.
D. YOUNG & Co.,
11 and 12, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C.,
Agents for the Applicants.