AN IMPROVE- MENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN LAMPS
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Foxall Griffiths, of Birmingham, in the
County of Warwick, Manufacturer, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVE-
MENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN LAMPS."
Sealed the 2nd March 1855, and dated the 29th September 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Foxall Griffiths
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
29th September 1854.
I, THOMAS FOXALL GRIFFITHS, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN
IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN LAMPS" to be as follows:-
My said Invention relates to such lamps as have flat wicks, and consists of
a method of raising and lowering the said wicks.
Figure 1 represents in elevation a wick-holder constructed according to
my Invention; Figure 2 represents a vertical section of the same; and
Figure 3 represents the same in plan. a is the wick which passes through
the fat tube b; c is an axis carrying a pinion d, which said pinion works in a
slot in the tube b, as seen in Figure 2, and by its rotation carries up or down
the wick a. The motion of the pinion d and the adjustment of the wick a is
effected by turning the knob e on the axis c. The essence of my Invention
consists in raising flat wicks by the use of a pinion of a length equal or nearly
equal to the breadth of the wick.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Foxall Griffiths in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 28th March 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
FOXALL GRIFFITHS, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manufacturer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, hearing date the Twenty-ninth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the eighteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Thomas Foxall Griffiths, Her special licence that I, the said Thomas Foxall
Griffiths, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Thomas Foxall Griffiths, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at 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 "AN IN-
PROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN LAMPS," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Thomas Foxall Griffiths, by an instrument in writing under
my hand and seal, 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 Thomas Foxall Griffiths, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof (that is to say) :-
-
My said Invention relates to such lamps as have flat wicks, and consists of
a new or improved method of raising and lowering the said wicks, by means
of a pinion or grooved cylinder, as herein-after explained and illustrated in the
accompanying Drawing.
Figure 1 represents in elevation the wick-holder of a lamp, having
mechanism for raising and lowering the wick according to my Invention;
Figure 2 represents a transverse vertical section of the same; and Figure 3
represents the same in plan. a is the wick which passes through the flat
tube b; c is an axis carrying a pinion d; one side of the said pinion d passes
through a slot in the tube b, as will be understood by an inspection of Figures

page_text: 2 and 3; and the teeth of the said pinion, as the same is turned by means of
the nut e, engage in the wick a, and raise or lower the said wick in the tube b.
A cylinder having a number of points on its surface may be used instead of
the fluted cylinder or pinion represented. I am aware that pinions have been
used for the purpose of raising and lowering the flat wicks of lamps by
engaging in the said wicks, but the pinions hitherto used have been very
short in the direction of their axis, and have consequently only engaged with
the middle or other small portion of the wick, and in using the said short
pinions the wick is not raised equally in every part, that part in which the
pinion engages having to pull after it the parts on either side of it.
My Invention consists in making pinions for raising and lowering wicks of a
length equal or nearly equal to the breadth of the wick, by which construction
the raising and lowering of the wick is effected with greater facility and
regularity.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner of
carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that I do not limit
myself to the precise details herein described, as the same may be varied
without departing from the nature of my said Invention; but I claim as my
Invention, raising and lowering such lamp wicks as are flat by the use of a
pinion of a length equal or nearly equal to the breadth of the said wicks, as
herein described and illustrated in the accompanying Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Foxall Griffiths, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of March, in the
year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
Witness,
GEORGE SHAW.
THOMAS FOXALL GRIFFITHS. (L.S.)