Improvements in or relating to Electric Gas Lighters.
Year: 1899

page_text: Improvements in or relating to Electric Gas Lighters.
We, HENRI DE THIERSANT, Clerk, and HANS JACOB NORBALLE, Engineer, both
of 97, Cannon Street, London, E.C., do hereby declare the nature of this invention
to be as follows:
-
This invention consists of improvements in or relating to electric gas lighters.
In carrying out our invention, we provide an electro magnet which operates an
oscillating armature to which two pawls are attached pivotally, being controlled
by means of a suitable spring. These pawls engage upon a toothed wheel
operating a plug or valve this plug or valve is carried in a suitable casing. The
oscillating armature also carries an arm which acts as a make and break, this
arm being situated so that the make and break takes place so as to ignite a small
flame or jet. The supply of gas is arranged through the body in which the plug
is carried, and which is so bored as to enable the gas to pass to the small ignition
jet, and upon further rotation of this plug or valve the main burner is supplied
with gas and ignited from the small ignition jet, the ignition of this smaller
jet being effected by the passage of a current through the electro magnet which
causes a spark to take place at the make and break, and the ports in the plug
are also so arranged that when the gas in the main burner is ignited and burn-
ing at the required height, the supply of gas through the small ignition jet is
cut off. When it is required to regulate the amount of gas consumed or the
height of the flame upon a series of main burners, I provide one or more stop
pieces upon the toothed wheel carried by the plug aforesaid and a supplementary
electro-magnet adapted to attract an armature carrying a stop arm so as to arrest
the rotation of the toothed wheel carrying the plug aforesaid through the medium
of the stop pieces thereon. By this arrangement one or more jets may be
ignited and the height or consumption of gas regulated in various jets. To
resume, when it is required to ignite the gas, a current is caused to pass through
the electro-magnets. This causes the vibration of the armature; and the double
pawls, connected thereto, cause the toothed wheel connected to the plug or valve
to rotate. A certain amount of gas passes through the small inlet and is ignited
by the spark at the make and break. A further rotation of the plug allows the
gas to pass to the main jet which is then ignited by the small jet, and the supply
of gas is cut off from the smaller ignition jet. In order to extinguish the gas,
the current is again passed which causes the plug to rotate and cut off the supply
of gas from the main jet and so on. The operation of the supplementary pegs
or projection upon the toothed wheel attached to the plug is such that upon the
wheel rotating the required distance to bring one of these projections into con-
tact with the arm upon the auxiliary armature, this rotation is arrested; and
by discontinuing the passage of the current the lights or main jets will burn
at the required height and the retaining arm. will be released from contact with
the projection upon the toothed wheel. Upon again passing the current, the
toothed wheel will rotate until the next or following projection comes into con-
tact with the retaining arm, thus again arresting the rotation of the toothed

page_text: wheel and so on. The ports of the valve are so arranged that the gas may be
shut off from the small ignition jet and the main jet, and when the current is
passed which causes the rotation of the plug, the gas is first supplied to the small
ignition jet and ignited by the spark formed at the make and break, and the
main jet is ignited through the further rotation of the plug, and the supply cut
off from the small ignition jet and the still further rotation of the plug will cut
off the supply from the main jet and so on in a cycle. The employment of the
two pawls or what I term the double pawl is one of the essential features of my
invention. The distance between-the extremities of the pawls is so arranged
that when one pawl is in its operative position upon a tooth, the other pawl is
midway between two teeth and the required number of teeth may be embraced.
By this arrangement, the number of teeth upon the wheel is reduced as owing
to the small movement of an armature when vibrating, in order to ensure the
proper rotation of the wheel with a single pawl, a large number of teeth of a
small size would be necessary, but by this arrangement with the double pawl,
the rotation is ensured as the pawls operate one after another alternately upon.
the teeth of the wheel.
Dated this 30th day of November 1899.
We, HENRI DE THIERSANT, Clerk, and HANS JACOB NORBALLE, Engineer, both
of 97, Cannon Street, in the City of London, do hereby declare the nature of this
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
This invention relates to improvements in or connected with electric gas
lighters.
According to the invention we provide in connection with the gas burner and
supply pipe an electro-magnet having a vibrating armature adapted to operate
one or more pawls held in engagement with a toothed wheel controlling the
plug of a suitable valve. This valve controls the supply of gas from the gas
supply pipe to a main burner and to a bye-pass. The vibrating armature of
the electro-magnet also operates a make and break contact placed in proximity
to the bye-pass burner.
With this arrangement when a current is caused to flow through the electro-
magnet the armature is vibrated in the well known manner thereby operating
the valve plug so as to admit gas to the bye-pass, the said gas being ignited by
the spark produced at the make and break contact also operated by the arma-
ture of the magnet; the further rotation of the valve plug by the toothed wheel
admits gas to the main burner, which gas is ignited by the bye-pass or pilot
flame, whilst the still further rotation of the plug cuts off the gas to the bye-
pass burner. To turn off the gas when required the plug is caused to still further
rotate by causing current to again flow through the electro-magnet.
To enable the above described cycle of operations to be properly controlled
and also to enable the size of the flame to be adjusted at will, we employ the
following mechanism, that is to say, we furnish the rotating toothed wheel
actuated by the pawls from the magnet armature with a number of projecting
pins or stops and in connection with these stops we provide a stop arm attached
to the armature of a supplementary electro-magnet which is connected up

page_text: electrically with the main magnét so as to be simultaneously supplied with
current. The stop pins are so arranged in conjunction with the passages through
the valve plug that the said plug can be stopped at certain predetermined posi-
tions to enable the flame to be regulated as desired.
In practice the stop arm is advantageously made as a spring arm so that the
spring is put into tension before the valve plug is actually stopped; the object
of this is to cause the said arm to spring back out of engagement with the said pin
when the electric circuit is broken.
In the acompanying drawing:
:-
Figure 1 is a sectional elevation of an electric gas lighter constructed according
to the invention:
Figure 2 is a plan thereof with the casing removed:--
Figure 3 is a sectional elevation of the device seen in the direction of the
arrow in Figure 1.
Figure 4 is a sectional elevation of the device seen in the direction of the
arrow Figure 2 and shewn with the casing removed:
Figure 5 is a sectional elevation of the burner and valve:
Figure 6 is a sectional elevation, the section being taken on the line 6-6
Figure 5.
Figure 7 is a vertical section on the line 7-7 Figure 5; and
Figure 8 is a vertical section on the line 8-8 Figure 5.
.
a is the gas supply pipe, the casing of the ignition device which is screwed
to the supply pipe, e the main electro-magnet and the armature thereof; the
said armature being pivoted at to a post b₁ formed in the ignition device. e is
the valve casing which is here shewn formed in the post b¹; and e¹ is the valve
plug which fits into and is held in the casing e in the usual manner. This
plug is formed with an annular groove e² which is in communication with the
supply pipe a through the medium of the passage e and with the central hole e*
in the plug through the medium of the radial passages e³, e. The said central
hole can be placed into communication by the radial passages e, e6 with the
tube passing to the burner g which is screwed into the top of the post b₁;
furthermore, the said central hole can, by means of the radial passages e, e, be
placed into communication with the bye-pass burner h.
i is the ratchet wheel which is fixed to the plug e and, are the pawls which
are pivoted to the end of the armature arm & and are held in engagement with
the teeth of the ratchet wheel by the spring We utilise the arrangement of
two pawls, one of which engages a tooth whilst the other is half way up the
inclined face of the tooth so that the number of teeth upon the wheel can be
reduced to obtain the desired result from the vibrating armature d.
To effect the sparking for igniting the gas issuing from the bye-pass h we
employ the arrangement comprising the fixed contact which is in electrical
connection with the terminal supplying current from the battery A, Figure 3,
and the movable contact which is fixed in the insulating clamp attached to the
end of the projection upon the armature d and provided with current by the
wire as clearly shewn.
Proceeding now to the description of the mechanism for controlling the
ignition and extinction of the gas flame, k, kare the projecting pins or stops
formed upon the outer face of the ratchet wheel and is the spring stop arm,
the said arm being fixed to the post by the screw and being connected to
the armature 12 of the auxiliary electro-magnet m which is also fixed in position
to the post band is connected up in the circuit so as to be supplied with current
simultaneously with the main magnet c. 13 is a stop to limit the extent to which
the spring arm can be turned back by the pins.
With this arrangement when the circuit is completed by any suitable key,
current flows through the main magnet c and vibrates the armature d thereby
operating the pawls, and rotating the ratchet wheel i. The electric current
also causes the magnet m to attract its armature 12 thus bringing the free end

page_text: of the spring arm within the path of the stop pins k, k upon the ratchet wheel i
so that the said wheel is stopped by the resistance of the first pin it comes into
contact with, the said spring arm 7 being, however, moved by the pressure of
the said pin to about the position indicated by the dotted lines in Figure 1.
During this rotation the ratchet wheel has turned the plug through a sufficient
distance to effect the following operations, that is to say, it turns the plug so
that gas is first enabled to pass to the bye-pass burner through one of the
passages e so that when issuing from the said burner it is ignited by the vibrating
sparking contact 2, after which the plug is turned sufficiently to admit gas
through one of the passages into the tube f and burner g. the gas issuing
from which is ignited from the flame of the bye-pass burner h, and then to cut
off the gas from the said bye-pass burner h leaving the main burner g alight.
On now breaking the electric circuit the spring arm. Z moves out of the path of
the stop pin and on account of its elasticity springs also beyond it, that is to
say, into the position shewn in full lines in Figure 1 so that when the circuit is
again completed it does not stand in the path of the pink which it has previously
stopped.
:
To control the size of the flame it will be clear that the circuit should be
broken when the spring arm has attained a position intermediate between two
pins; or, we can provide further pins to mark different degrees of illumination
as may be most suitable.
.
In the event of the mechanism for operating the valve plug e¹ not acting by
reason of the battery failing to supply current or for any other reason we arrange
the plug to be operated by hand and for this purpose we provide an extension n
on the plug having a squared end for the reception of a suitable key.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what
we claim is;
1. In an electric gas lighter the combination with the gas supply pipe and burner
of a valve having a plug adapted to be operated from an electro-magnet having
a vibrating armature so as to supply gas to a bye-pass and to the main burner
and of a sparking contact also operated by the vibrating armature of the electro-
magnet to ignite the gas issuing from the bye-pass, substantially as herein before
described.
2. In an electric gas lighter of the kind described in the preceding claiming
clause operating the valve plug by means of a ratchet wheel fixed upon it and
which is actuated by one or more pawls mounted upon the vibrating armature
of the electro-magnet, substantially as herein before described.
3. In electric gas lighters of the kind described in Claim 1, the provision of
means whereby the movement of the valve plug can be controlled, substantially
as described.
4. In an electric gas lighter of the kind wherein an electro-magnet operates
a valve plug the combination with the said plug, of stop pins and of an auxiliary
electro-magnet having an armature operating an arm (preferably a spring arm)
which, when current is sent through the device, is projected into the path of
the stop pins, substantially as, and for the purpose hereinbefore described.
5. The combination and arrangement of parts forming the improved electric
gas lighter, herein before described and illustrated in the accompanying drawing.
Dated the 3rd day of May 1900.
G. F. REDFERN & Co.,
4, South Street, Finsbury, London, Agents for the Applicants.