IMPROVED MEANS OR ARRANGEMENTS FOR FILLING OR FEEDING LAMPS WITh Liquid Fuel, aPPLICABLE ALSO TO THE FILLING OR FEEDING OF OTHER APPARATUS USED FOR BURNING BUCH FUEL
Year: 1873

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Johann Maximilian Plessner at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 16th January 1873.
I, JOHANN MAXIMILIAN PLESSNER, of Berlin, in the Kingdom of
Prussia, at present residing at 11, Golden Square, in the County of
Middlesex, late Captain in the Prussian Army, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVED MEANS OR ARRANGEMENTS FOR
FILLING OR FEEDING LAMPS WITh Liquid Fuel, aPPLICABLE ALSO TO THE FILLING OR
FEEDING OF OTHER APPARATUS USED FOR BURNING BUCH FUEL," to be as
follows:-
:-
These improvements have for their object increased security in the use
of hydrocarbons, alcohol, or other liquid fuel for illuminating and heating
purposes, and at the same time afford a simpler and more perfect means
for filling or feeding a lamp or cooking apparatus with combustible
liquid. To fill a lamp burning petroleum, kerosine, or other similar liquid.
it is usually required to take off the globe, the chimney, and the burner
with the wick, and to pour the oil into the receptacle of the lamp, an
operation of almost daily recurrence and which is not devoid of a certain

page_text: amount of risk, besides being difficult to effect without more or less
staining and soiling the fingers. In order to avoid both these in-
conveniences I firstly attach to the burner (but in some cases to the
receptacle itself) a small tube penetrating into the interior of the lamp
underneath the slits of the wick, and projecting generally as far as tho
level of the oil reaches when the lamp is entirely filled. Outside tho
burner this tube is provided either with a small stop cock or a lid and
allows the liquid fuel to be introduced into the lamp without taking it
to pieces. Secondly, I construct an oil can provided with a small pump,
single or double acting, the piston rod of which projects through the
cover and is moved either by a knob attached to it or by means of a lever
similar to the trunk of a pump well. A moveable metal tube fitting in
another, which latter is attached to the pump, the former also projecting
through the cover, serves for guiding the liquid fuel from the can into
the lamp, for which purpose it is only necessary to connect the tube of
the can with the pipe of the burner, the ends of both being so arranged
as to fit tightly together. By opening a cock attached to the moveable
tube and by gently moving the piston rod the oil is gradually pumped
into the lamp and thus instead of opening the lamp reservoir every day
the above described improvements will allow firstly the filling of a lamp
whilst burning, and secondly the taking it to picces only two or three
times during a year in order to fit it with new wicks.
It is evident that these improvements will considerably diminish the
danger connected with the use of petroleum lamps or similar apparatus,
since the can has not to be opened and raised as heretofore, to allow the
oil to flow into the lamp by its own gravity, an operation which when
executed by the unskilful hands of servants is always connected with a
certain amount of risk.
In lamps which have a crystal or glass oil reservoir the level of the
liquid can be seen, and the pumping consequently may be stopped as
soon as the lamp is filled. Where however the reservoir is not of a
transparent substance such as porcelain or metal, the pumping must be
interrupted as soon as the gurgling noise in the interior of the lamp
ceases, in which case the liquid has reached the lower end of the pipe
and indicates that the lamp is filled. For filling the can a little funnel
is attached to the cover provided either with a stop cock or a cork. In
some cases I use an india-rubber ball attached to the cover instead of a
pump, forcing the liquid up the tube by compressing the air in the can

page_text: by means of squeezing the ball, in which case the cover must be quite
air-tight.
The same effect of feeding the lamps may be produced by using a can
having a cork inserted in the top thereof, which cork is penetrated by
two tubes, the one communicating with the oil reservoir of the lamp, and
the other serving for compressing the air in the can by simply blowing
through it.
For certain lamps such for instance as the moderator burning colza or
other oils, the alteration of the burner is not required, the tube of the can
being moveable it can be adjusted over the aperture into which the oil is
usually poured.
It is obvious that I may use the alteration in the burner either
separately or in combination with the oil can, and the oil can separately
or in combination with the burner.