AN IMPROVED MODERATOR LAMP FOR BURNING PETROLEUM AND OTHER MINERAL OILS
Year: 1870

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Martin Marceus Silber at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
22nd April 1870.
I, MARTIN MARCEUS SILBER, of Boulevard de Strasbourg, No. 23,
Paris, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED
MODERATOR LAMP FOR BURNING PETROLEUM AND OTHER MINERAL OILS," to be
as follows:-
Hitherto a moderator lamp without a piston has never been constructed;
but owing to the introduction of petroleum it has become necessary to
do so.
And my Invention consists in an arrangement of lamp whereby
all kinds of mineral oils, and especially petroleum, are caused to rise
within it by means of the pressure of a spring upon an elastic receptacle
made of a material not liable to deterioration from the action of petroleum
like the leather piston bitherto employed and which cannot be employed
with petroleum.
I employ as the flexible and therefore compressible reservoir for oil
an animal bladder into the neck of which I introduce a tube, at the upper
end of which is a short lateral tube which is closed by means of a plug

page_text: and through which the oil is poured into the flexible reservoir. In the
first-mentioned tube another tube is concentrically inserted; I call this
tube the ascension tube, and it serves to feed the wick. At the junction
of the double tube with the reservoir a metal disc is attached to the
outer of the two tubes, which disc is free to ascend and descend in the
body of the lamp. This disc is acted upon by a spring, the pressure
of which it transmits to the elastic reservoir, which thus as it is pressed
upon sends the oil up through the ascension tube to feed the wick.
In order to interrupt this feeding it is only necessary to stop the
expansion of the spring, which is drawn-up-in-the-ordinary manner
by means of a pinion and toothed rod. The interruption is effected by
a paul taking into a pinion mounted upon the axis or spindle. When
the spring is raised and stopped the filling tube of the flexible reservoir
is also raised, and is filled through the pipe at its upper end, which
projects sufficiently from the body of the lamp.
In order to fill the lamp it is necessary:-1st. To raise the spring until
it meets with a resistance and to stop the key of the winder by a paul.
2ndly. To unscrew the plug of the filling pipe and to introduce the
petroleum until the flexible reservoir is filled.
In order to then cause the lamp to act the paul must be released.
In order to remove the overflow from the vessel in which the reservoir
is contained, I fit a screw at the bottom of the lamp, which can be
removed, or I may employ a cock placed at the lower part of the
lamp: The burner of the lamp is like those of ordinary moderator lamps,
but is in addition covered by a shield.
:
In order to prevent the petroleum rising to the top of the burner I
make holes a little distance from the edge of the latter; in order to ensure
the steady burning of the flame I may make use of a cap as a carburator,
with an ordinary glass or of a chimney glass without a cap, or of both
at once.
The burner is provided with a gallery, and carries a globe as
well as a movable shade carrier, and is provided with a thumbscrew
for raising up the wick and the other usual accessories of an ordinary
moderator lamp.
In order to protect the bladder I may enclose it in a bag of cloth or
other material. The above system is applicable for the feeding of street
lamps, light-houses, and other lighting apparatus of all sizes. The body
.

page_text: of the lamp may be made in two parts united by screws in order to
permit the elastic reservoir to be changed when worn out. In order
to do this the body should be unscrewed, the old bladder removed, and
a fresh one tied on the feeding tube.