NEW APPARATUS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF LIGHT
Year: 1843

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FREDERICK
ALBERT. WINSOR, of Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of Middlesex, Barrister-
at-Law, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-sixth day of January, in the sixth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Frederick Albert Winsor, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said Frederick Albert Winsor, my exors, adñors, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Frederick Albert Winsor, my exors,
admiors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to
time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, the Invention of of a "NEW APPARATUS FOR THE
PRODUCTION OF LIGHT," communicated to me by a certain Foreigner residing
abroad, in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said
Frederick Albert Winsor, shall cause a particular description of the nature of
the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully
and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that the Invention communicated to me by a Foreigner
residing abroad consists in and comprises an apparatus or burner or combina-
tions of apparatus forming a burner or burners for the production of light, and
which apparatus or burner is applicable to a variety of lamps or chandeliers
containing reservoirs for oil or other combustible liquors or fatty matters, or
supplied with inflammable gas in the manner herein-after more particularly set
forth.
The burner does not require any wick, but consists essentially of a central
tube communicating with the reservoir containing the supply of oil or other
combustible material, by means of a cock, by which the supply is regulated.
This tube a, Figure 1, is open at its upper extremity a', where it is rounded off,
and below which there is a small shoulder or projection 6, at a short distance
below its orifice or orifices, proceeding downwards from this last-mentioned
projection; the tube is surrounded by a thin metallic box c, presenting an inclined
surface over which the combustible material issuing from the orifice of the
central tube descends. Another external thin metallic cap box or cover d
surrounds the last-mentioned inner box, as well as so much of the central tube
as is therein contained, and is entirely covered or concealed thereby.
This external box is longer than the internal box, so as to rise some distance
beyond the orifice of the central tube, and to leave room for a filter or series of
metal rings to be hereafter described. The external box fits air-tight upon the
lower extremity of the inner box, by means of a ledge, cone, screw, or other
convenient fitting. A narrow space, say from one-eighth to one-twentieth of an
inch, is left between the external and internal box. Around the lower extremity,
above the air-tight joint of the external box, are pierced a number of small holes
e, similar to those in an ordinary gas burner, for the exit of the inflammable
material, which is there ignited. This portion of the external cap may be conve-
niently projected or enlarged, and the holes may be drilled at an elevation of from
fifteen to twenty degrees above the horizontal level; the portion of tube above
the projection b is intended to receive a strip of linen or hempen or similar
fabric of about three-quarters of an inch in width, and from about two to four
inches in length, according to the size of the burner; this strip is to be wound
round the central tube above the shoulder, so as to form a filter for the oil or
other material issuing from the orifice or orifices in the central tube, previous
to its descending the narrow space formed between the inner and outer boxes.
This piece of linen or other similar filter, although it becomes charred by the
action of the heat to which it is exposed, has been found to answer the
purpose of preventing an unsteadiness or flickering of the flame, which would
occur without its use, such filter requiring to be renewed from time to time.

page_text: The same good result may also be obtained by substituting for the strip.of
linen thus described three or four metallic rings, placed at a small distance
apart, around the central tube, occupying the place of the linen strip, and
nearly filling the upper cavity of the outer cap, cover, or box, as represented at
Figure 2; it will be found convenient to have the opportunity of adjusting the
level of the burner and of the glass chimney by which it is surrounded; this
may be readily effected by screws or a tube sliding in a stuffing box. The
proper height of the combustible liquid in a fountain or other reservoir will be
found to coincide with the bottom of the thin metallic cases, so as to be just
below the row of holes pierced in the burner. The thin metallic boxes must
be constructed of metal which is a good conductor of heat, capable of being
raised to a red heat without injury, and not easily corroded by chemical action;
silver and alloys of silver and platinum will be found to possess these qualities,
and are consequently preferred. The lamp is lighted and set in action by first
raising the metallic boxes to a red heat, by means of a little spirit of wine
contained in a spoon constructed so as surround the central tube.
As soon as
the burner has obtained its proper temperature the combustible material is
gradually supplied, and issuing from the orifice or orifices of the central tube,
descends through the filter or over the rings already described, down between
the narrow space formed by the outer and inner boxes, until it issues at the
orifices surrounding the external box, where it is ignited, having during its transit
been subjected to a high degree of heat, whereby it has been rendered an inflam-
mable vapour or gas before reaching the point of ignition. Once lighted the
flame itself maintains the requisite temperature to continue the action.
As the construction may be modified in a variety of minor details, I
have not thought it necessary to specify every form that might be adopted, nor
do I confine myself to any precise dimensions. But what I claim is, the
conveying the combustible material to the upper extremity of the internal box,
over which it descends, and the arrangement by which it is subjected to the
action of heat in a thin and extended stratum; I also claim the use of a linen
filter or rings of metal. But I do not claim the conversion of oil into gas by the
action of its own heat, nor do I claim the mode of starting or lighting the lamp
by the use of spirits of wine, or the mere use of a chamber in which the
combustible material is subjected to heat, unless arranged in the manner herein-
before described.
The same construction of burner may be applied to the distribution of light
obtained from gas or gaseous products, and would be remarkably useful when
the illuminating power of the gas is to be increased by the addition of naptha
or other substances rich in carbon, and where the subjection of the gas to a

page_text: Enrolled the Twenty-sixth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-three.