IMPROVEMENTS IN LAMPS FOR BURNING OILS AND SPIRITS
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Holmes, of 180, High Holborn, in the
County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN LAMPS
FOR BURNING OILS AND SPIRITS."
Sealed the 4th August 1868, and dated 23rd March 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Holmes at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
23rd March 1868.
I, SAMUEL HOLMES, of 180, High Holborn, in the County of
Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN LAMPS FOR BURNING OILS AND SPIRITS," to be as
follows:-
explosion in lamps by
connexion with vase. of
1st. Apparatus to ensure perfect safety from
insulating parts liable to become heated from
lamp by surrounding these parts with a cylinder or other shaped recess
filled with air or other non-conductor of heat of such length as to reach
to the bottom of the lamp, while lateral passage of heat is prevented
by a break in metallic continuity.

page_text: 2nd. Mechanical means for regulating and extinguishing the light
of lamps made as above when burimg materials in a state of vapour by
operating a valve in the upper parts of the burner by screws and inclined
planes in lieu of a stop-cock heretofore used.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent
filed by the said Samuel Holmes in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 14th August 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
HOLMES, of 180, High Holborn, in the County of Middlesex, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of March, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-cight, in the
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Samuel Holmes, Her special licence,
that I, the said Samuel Holmes, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Samuel Holmes, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time, and 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
LAMPS FOR BURNING OILS AND SPIRITS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Samuel Holmes, my executors or adminis-
trators, by an instrument in writing under my, 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 I, the said Samuel Holmes, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement :-

page_text: My improvements in lamps for burning oils and spirits comprise,―
1st. Apparatus to ensure perfect safety from explosion or risk by
fire in lamps burning oils and spirits by insulating the parts of such
lamps as are liable to become heated from all connexion with the
fittings of the vase of the lamp containing the oil or spirit by surround-
ing the wick tube or other heated parts with a cylindrical or other
shaped recess, filled with air or other non-conductor of heat, of such
length as to reach to the bottom of the lamp, so that the supply of
oil for burning is taken from the bottom of the vase of the lamp at
all times during the burning of the lamp, while all lateral passage
of heat is prevented by interruption of conductive continuity.
2nd. In improvements in mechanical arrangements for regulating
and extinguishing such lamps as burn materials in a state of vapor
generated by their own heat in burning.
A reference to the Drawings annexed will make the construction
appear plainly.
No. 1 gives the appearance of a paraffin or petroleum lamp arranged
according to this Invention, ensuring complete safety from explosion
however light the oil used as it cannot become heated in the vase.
No. 2 is a lamp fitted with these improvements burning the most
inflammable spirits of tar or turpentine with entire safety as a night
lamp. In this case the isolated wick carrying a higly carbonaceous
liquid is surmounted with a small brass oxydator and the flame
covered by a glass.
No. 3 shows the safety arrangement applied to a spirit lamp,
wherin the flame is regulated by rotating the outer tube on a
spiral slot, by which it rises and falls, exposing more or less of the
wick.
No. 4 exhibits this Invention applied to a lamp in which the air
is mixed with the combustible vapor previous to ignition by causing
an upward jet of vapor to draw in the air at the hole at the side of
the tube, and propel the mixture through the holes at the top of the
burner.
No. 5 shows a lamp for burning mixtures of light hydrocarbons,
wherein they are converted into vapor by their own heat and burned
through the double row of holes, as shown.

page_text: No. 6 shows one mode of arranging the proposed contrivance for
modulation or extinction of the light. The internal or wick tube termi-
nates in a nipple having a spherical seat; the tube bearing the burning
holes is capable of sliding gas-tight on this internal tube, and carries at
its upper end a spherical valve, which when in contact with the nipple
on the fall of the tube extinguishes the light by cutting off the supply of
gas. While the lamp is alight this valve is kept open by a spring lever;
this lever is controlled or depressed by a screw acting on an inclined
plane on its tail, and by its motion any degree of opening of the valve
may take place, and the light be thus regulated in quantity or extin-
guished altogether.
No. 7 shows another means of actuating the valve; in this case
the outer burner tube is furnished with a screw working in a fixed nut
at its lower end, and at the glassholder with a rotating plate having
a milled edge. On turning this round by hand the tube is depressed
and the light extinguished, the flames rotating with the tube as they
diminish or increase by the closing or opening of the valve.
No. 8 serves to explain an arrangement whereby the flames remain
in position during alteration of size. The outer burner tube is slotted,
as shown, and cannot therefore turn round; it is raised and brought
down as before by turning the milled edge, which in this acts on the
screw in the bottom by the secondary rotating tube attached to it.
In witness whereof, the said Samuel Holmes, has hereunto set
his hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of July, in the year of
our Lord 1868.