IMPROVEMENTS IN LAMP WICKS
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Albert Shaw, of Boston, in the County
of Suffolk, State of Massachusetts, one of the United States of
America (Solicitor), for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN LAMP
WICKS." A communication from Halvor Halvorson, of Cambridge,
in said Massachusetts (Mechanic and Chemist). `
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Albert Shaw
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 15th December 1874.
I, CHARLES ALBERT SHAW, of Boston, in the County of Suffolk,
State of Massachusetts, one of the United States of America (Solicitor),
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN LAMP WICKS," a communication, to be as follows:-
The said Invention relates more especially to that class of wicks which
are designed for use in lamps adapted for burning kerosene or the hydro-
carbon oils, and consists in a wick composed of cotton or similar fibrous

page_text: material and partially carbonized, the object being to increase its
capillary action and allow it to be more easily cut or trimmed.
It is well known by all conversant with such matters that it is difficult
to cut the ordinary woven knit or braided wicks used in lamps for
burning kerosene in such a manner as to trim the lamp evenly and
properly, especially while the wick is in the tube and after it becomes
saturated with oil. It is also well known that when a wick of this
character is woven, knit, or braided too closely, or when its strands
contain too many short hirsute projections or loose fibres it will “mat”
or indurate, having its capillary action so much reduced as to insuffi-
ciently supply the flame with oil.
The said Invention is designed to obviate these difficulties and
objections, and to that end I char or partially carbonize the wick,
rendering it more brittle and easily cut or trimmed than an ordinary
wick, and by burning out or destroying the fine hirsute projections or
loose fibres which clog up the ducts or pores greatly increase its capillary
properties and prevent induration or hardening.
In carrying the said Invention into practice I take the ordinary knit,
braided, or woven wicks of commerce and submit them to a high degree
of heat in any convenient manner until they are well and evenly browned
or partially carbonized, and the fine hairy projections destroyed or
shrivelled up. For this purpose a closed oven is preferable, in which the
wicks are separated and evenly distributed, and in which the heat is
maintained at about 500° Fahrenheit or at a degree sufficient to produce
partial carbonization without causing them to ignite.
I also sometimes char the wicks in the piece or web and cut them
into proper lengths afterwards. In this case I pass the web or riband of
wicking slowly through a furnace or flame by means of reels or in any
other convenient manner, subjecting all portions of it to the flame or
heat sufficiently long to produce the desired effect.

page_text: 5
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Charles Albert Shaw in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 10th June 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
ALBERT SHAW, of Boston, in the County of Suffolk, State of Massa-
chusetts, one of the United States of America (Solicitor), send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of December, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the
thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
Her
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Charles Albert Shaw,
special licence that I, the said Charles Albert Shaw, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Charles
Albert Shaw, my exccutors, administrators, 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 In-
vention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN Lamp Wicks,”, a communication to me by
Halvor Halvorson, of Cambridge, in said Massachusetts (Mechanic
and Chemist) upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Charles Albert Shaw, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Inven-
tion, 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 Charles Albert Shaw, do hereby
déclare 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, reference being had to the' accompanying
Drawing forming a part of this Specification:-
My Invention relates more especially to that class of wicks which are

page_text: designed for use in lamps adapted for burning korosene or the hydro-
carbon oils, and consists in a wick composed of cotton or similar fibrous
material, and partially carbonized as hercin-after set forth, the object
being to increase its capillary action and allow it to be more casily cut
or trimmed.
It is well known by all conversant with such matters that it is
difficult to cut the ordinary woven, knit, or braided wicks used in lamps
for burning kerosene in such a manner as to trim the lamp evenly and
properly, especially while the wick is in the tube and after it becomes
saturated with oil. It is also well known that when a wick of this
character is woven, knitted, or braided too closely, or when its strands
contain too many short hirsute projections or loose fibres it will "mat"
or indurate, having its capillary action so much reduced as to insuffi-
ciently supply the flame with oil.
My said Invention is designed to obviate these difficulties and objec-
tions, and to that end I char or partially carbonize the wick, rendering it
more brittle and easily cut or trimmed than an ordinary wick, and by
burning out or destroying the fine hirsute projections or loose fibres
which clog up the ducts or pores greatly increase its capillary properties
and prevent induration or hardening.
The Drawing is a side elevation showing my improved wick, A repre-
senting the body of the same.
In carrying the said Invention into practice I take the ordinary knitted,
braided, or woven wicks of commerce and submit them to a high degree
of heat in any convenient manner until they are well and evenly browned:
or partially carbonized and the fine hairy projections destroyed or
shriveled up. For this purpose a closed oven is preferable in which the
wicks are separated and evenly distributed, and in which the heat is
maintained at about 500° Fahrenheit, or at a degree sufficient to
produce partial carbonization without causing them to ignite.
I also sometimes char the wicks in the piece or web and cut them
into proper lengths afterwards. In this case I pass the web or riband of
wicking slowly through a furnace or flame by means of recls or in any
other convenient manner, subjecting all portions of it to the flame or
heat sufficiently long to produce the desired effect.

page_text: Having thus fully described the said Invention and the manner of
performing the same, I wish it understood that I do not confine myself
strictly to the precise method herein-before specified for carrying the
same into practise, and that I claim, a fibrous lamp wick charred or
partially carbonized, substantially as described and for the purpose
specified.