IMPROVEMENTS IN PRODUCING ELECTRIC LIGHT
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edward Orange Wildman Whitehouse, of 12,
:
Thurlow Road, Hampstead, in the County of Middlesex, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRODUCING ELECTRIC LIGHT."
Sealed the 6th November 1874, and dated the 22nd May 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edward Orange
Wildman Whitehouse at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with his Petition, on the 22nd May 1874.
I, EDWARD ORANGE WILDMAN WHITEHOUSE, of 12, Thurlow Road,
Hampstead, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRODUCING ELECTRIC LIGHT,” to
be as follows:-
-
.
In the use of carbon points for electric light numberless methods have
been adopted to ensure steadiness of light hitherto with very partial
success. The difficulty bas arisen mainly from the apparent impossibility
of maintaining a uniform distance between the points, subject as they
are to combustion and to dispersion, or transference of particles from pole
to pole.

page_text: Now in order to obtain an absolutely uniform distance between the
points at all times in spite of combustion or transference of particles,
and without the use of any regulator, I adopt the method of continuous
supply by bringing constantly fresh points of surface of carbon into
accurately adjusted juxtaposition. The supply of carbon may thus be for
all required purposes of illumination practically unlimited, while any
amount of alteration or loss of surface by combustion, or transference of
carbon from pole to pole, will be so immediately removed and replaced
by fresh surface automatically supplied that inconvenience can hardly
arise before it must again disappear without the necessity of any adjust-
ment by an attendant. For this purpose I employ rods or cylinders of
carbon properly prepared. The rods or cylinders properly mounted on
separate axes are by preference placed across or at right angles to each
other and made to revolve, and at the same time to be screwed forward
axially so as to present in turn every part of their surfaces towards cach
other.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Edward Orange Wildman Whitehouse in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 20th November 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWARD
ORANGE WILDMAN-WHITEHOUSE, of 12, Thurlow Road, Hampstead, in
the County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of May, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty-
seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Edward Orange Wildman Whitehouse,
Her special license that I, the said Edward Orange Wildman White-
house, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Edward Orange Wildman Whitehouse, my exccutors, admini-
strators, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRODUCING.

page_text: ELECTRIC LIGHT," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Edward Orange Wildman Whitehouse, my executors or admi-
nistrators, by an instrument in writing, under my, or their, or one of
their hands and scals, 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 Edward Orange Wildman White-
house, 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 :-
In the use of carbon points for electric light numberless methods have
been adopted to ensure steadiness of light hitherto with very partial
success. The difficulty has arisen mainly from the apparent impossibility
of maintaining a uniform distance between the points, subject as they
are to combustion and to dispersion, a transference of particles from pole
to pole.
Now in order to maintain an absolutely uniform distance between tho
points at all times in spite of combustion or transference of particles,
and without the use of any regulator, I adopt the method of continuous
supply by bringing constantly fresh points of surface of carbon into
accurately adjusted juxtaposition. The supply of carbon may thus be
for all required purposes of illumination practically unlimited, while any
amount of alteration or loss of surface by combustion or transference of
carbon from pole to pole will be so immediately removed and replaced
by fresh surface automatically supplied that inconvenience can hardly
arise before it must again disappear without the necessity of any
O adjustment by an attendant. For this purpose I employ rods or
cylinders of carbon properly prepared. The rods or cylinders properly
mounted on separate axes are by preference placed across or at right
angles to each other and made to revolve, and at the same time to be
screwed forward axially, so as to present in turn every part of their
5 surfaces towards each other.
The rods or cylinders which I employ may conveniently be about
of an inch in diameter, and they should be true and straight from end
to and

page_text: The rods or cylinders are mounted in holders at a proper striking :|
distance the one from the other; and they cross each other at an angle,
by preference a right angle...
.
:
Clockwork or other mechanism rotates the rods or cylinders at a slow
speed, which can be regulated at pleasure, and as they rotate they are
moved gradually forward by screws or otherwise while the carbons are
in use, and the light is developed between them. A spiral groove will
be traced on one of them, and a corresponding ridge on the other. To
compensate this action at any required interval I reverse the direction
of the electrical current and at the same time reverse the movement of:
the carbons in order to retransfer the carbon from the pole to which it-
had been carried back again to that from which it came.
What I claim is, the means for producing electric light, substantially"
as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Orange Wildman White-:
house, have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Nineteenth day.
of November, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight.
hundred and seventy-four.
E. O. WILDMAN WHITEHOUSE. (L.S.)