IMPROVEMENTS IN SOLDERING IRONS
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Asher and Philip Gallimore
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 30th April 1878.
GEORGE ASHER, of Balsall Heath, in the County of Worcester, Pattern Maker,
and PHILIP GALLIMORE, of the Firm of Gallimore and Taylor, of Birmingham,
in the County of Warwick, Manufacturers. "IMPROVEMENTS IN SOLDERING
IRONS,"
Our Invention has reference to those kinds of soldering irons in which the head
of the soldering iron is hollow and perforated, and carries at its extreme end the
copper soldering bit; the said bit being heated by the combustion of gas or a gaseous
mixture supplied through the hollow handle of the soldering iron.
Our said Invention consists in constructing and arranging, in the manner herein-
after described, the parts of the said soldering irons, whereby the copper soldering
bit of the soldering iron is more efficiently heated, and the soldering iron made
more convenient in use than when constructed in the ordinary way; instead of
making the copper soldering bit in the head of the soldering iron solid as usual, we
make the said bit hollow or of a thin shell of copper. The ignited jet of gas or
gaseous mixture supplied to the hollow and perforated head of the soldering iron
impinges or plays upon the interior of the said hollow or shell-like soldering bit, and
rapidly and uniformly beats it.
We make the hollow stem of the soldering iron of a metal tube screwed at top
and bottom. Upon the top end of this screwed stem the hollow and perforated head
of the soldering iron is screwed; the said screw stem projecting such a distance into
the hollow and perforated head that its open end is situated a little below the
hollow or shell-like bit of the soldering iron. By means of this screwed stem the
part within the hollow head delivering the gaseous mixture may be adjusted nearer
to or further from the hollow soldering bit. The other or bottom end of the screwed
stem is connected to the hollow handle, through which gas is conveyed in the
following way—
To the upper end of the handle an air nozzle is fixed, into which the bottom
screwed part of the stem described screws. In the axis of the handle is a tube, the
end of which is situated in the air nozzle, the said end being provided with a fine
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page_text: hole, through which the gas passes into the air nozzle. This nozzle is perforated
with a series of holes, gas being admitted to the nozzle described through the
hollow handle; the said gas is mixed with atmospheric air supplied through the
holes in the nozzle, and the gaseous mixture rises in the tubular stem and enters
the hollow and perforated head of the soldering iron, where it is ignited and burns
with a non-luminous flame, which frame is projected upon the interior of the
hollow or shell-like copper soldering bit, and rapidly and uniformly heats it.
The elastic tube by which gas is supplied to the handle of the soldering iron is
ordinarily connected to a nozzle at the base of and in a line with the handle. When
the soldering iron is supported in an upright position on the workman's bench or
other support, the bending of the elastic tube at the nozzle temporarily cuts off the
supply of gas, and the cooling of the soldering iron results.
In order to obviate this inconvenience, we connect the elastic gas supply tube to
the handle in the following ways:-' -To the bottom of the handle we connect a metal
base or foot, on which the soldering iron may rest when placed in an upright position.
The upper part of this base or foot is tubular, and is in communication with the
hollow handle to the upper tubular part of the base or foot; a nozzle situated at
right angles to the said base or foot is connected. To the end of this horizontal
nozzle the elastic gas supply tube is secured in the ordinary way. By this arrange-
ment, when the soldering iron is supported by the base or foot, the gas supply pipe
is not interfered with, and consequently the supply of gas to the head of the
soldering iron is continuous, whether the soldering iron be held by the workman, or
is temporarily put down by him. Or instead of the hollow base or foot described
at the bottom of the handle for carrying the horizontal nozzle to which the elastic
gas supply pipe is secured, the said horizontal or gas nozzle may be applied to the
air nozzle at the head of the handle. In this case the handle need not be hollow,
the air nozzle being provided with a passage with which the gas nozzle when con-
nected with the air nozzle communicates.