Improvements in Incandescence Lamp Burners for Petroleum and other Liquid Combustibles.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 17th Feb., 1899-Accepted, 2nd June, 1899
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Incandescence Lamp Burners for Petroleum and
other Liquid Combustibles.
I, ALFRED LENNER, of VII Kandlgasse, No. 15, Vienna, Austria, Merchant, 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:-
In the incandescence lamp burners for petroleum and other liquid combustibles,
as heretofore constructed, variously combined arrangements of caps and chimneys
have been proposed for conducting and regulating the air supply to the burner,
the form of which caps is such as to produce a more or less restricted area of air
outlet for the upper discharge opening as compared with the larger area of the
air inlet opening below.
These arrangements consequently have the effect of affording a high speed of
outflow for the air while the speed of flow through the channels conducting to
the outlet is maintained at a lower rate.
In addition, such forms of conducting channels always give rise to eddies and
counter currents in the moving body of air.
The present invention relates to improvements in incandescence burners for
wick lamps with liquid combustible, in which the above mentioned disadvantages
do not occur, because the air rising up between the wick tube and a surrounding
tubular casing has the requisite velocity imparted to it without causing eddies,
this being effected by making the area of the exit opening for the air equal to the
area of the inlet opening, so that the passage through which the air current passes
is of uniform sectional area throughout.
This improved external air conduit appears in construction as an outer tubular
casing parallel in form to that of the outer burner tube.
The essential advantages which this improved construction of burner affords
are as follows:-
1. Keeping the burner cool.
2. Ample supply of oxygen to the flame.
3. Uniform force and speed of the air current passing through the lamp.
From the above there result the following properties of the burner:
As to (1) Freedom from danger, increased durability, effective radiation of
heat, absolute uniform combustion with a comparatively cool burner.
As to (2) Absence of smell in the burner, bright light and freedom from
sooting.
As to (3): No humming or other noise or flickering, safety against draughts,
possibility of employing variously formed incandescence mantles of varying
density, and even defective ones.
I will proceed to describe my said invention with reference to the accompanying
drawing in which Figs. and 2 show four forms of wick tubes and their air supply
caps of existing construction, while Figs. 3 to 6 shew burners constructed accord-
ing to my present invention.

page_text: The wick tubes 1 and 2 Figs. 3 to 5 have a central air passage 13 within which
is situated the support 3 of the flame spreader. The latter consists of a spindle 4
and two discs 5 and 6 situated at a certain distance, one above the other.
The lower disc 6 serves to produce the heating flame at the inner edge of the
wick, and it must have the following properties:-
1. It must have openings in the middle part, in order to allow air to pass
through to the upper disc 5 which expands the flame. These openings must there-
fore be of the same size, but not such that the above mentioned heating flame is
drawn up through them. This flame must rather burn in an outward direction
below the underside of the disc 6.
2. The lower disc 6 must extend towards the outer edge of the wick in such
manner that the outer side of the flame is forced into the air current rising
between the wick tubes 1 and the tubular casing 12, so as to be carried up thereby,
whereby the vapours are mixed intimately with the air so as to produce perfect
combustion and consequently a blue flame. The disc 6 must however not extend
to such a distance that the inner heating flame is brought into the path of the
outer air current, as this would cause the flame to be blown away and extinguished.
The heating flame must rather be brought into a quiescent zone, which effect is,
in the arrangement at Fig. 3, produced by making the dise 6 of some thickness and
with the upper edge bevilled off so as to produce a conical surface the larger
diameter of which is at bottom as shewn.
By this means the heating flame is enabled at the commencement and until the
inner air draught has become active, to draw inwards away from the outer air
current, while the air currents passing through the holes of disc 6, are caused by
upper disc 5 to gradually spread out such flame again and bring it to perfect
combustion.
In Fig. 4, this quiescent zone is produced by forming the lower disc 6 of the
ordinary thickness of sheet metal, and fitting upon it a ring 8 of smaller dia-
meter. The quiescent zone thus formed causes the flame to travel in the inward
direction as described, while air issuing through the perforations 9 in the upper
part of the ring spread it out again in the upward direction. In the arrange-
ment at Fig. 5 the quiescent zone is produced by again making the lower disc G
thicker, while the inner holes 7 are conically restricted in the upward direction.
This has the same effect upon the inner flame as above described.
3. The lower disc 6 of the flame spreader must be at such a height above the
wick that the heating flame has a certain sufficient size so as to have the required
action in generating the combustible vapour.
It will be evident that the lower the disc 6 is relatively to the upper end
of the wick the smaller will the said flame be, and that it will increase in pro-
portion as the disc is raised. With the small size of heating flame necessary with
ordinary incandescence burners, the too near approach of the lower disc to the
wick would cause an unpleasant smell on lighting the lamp; it is therefore of
advantage to enable only a small heating flame to be obtained when the lower
plate 6 is arranged in a higher position. This is effected by throttling the air
current rising at the inner edge of the wick, either by turning inwards the edge
of the inner wick tube or by the insertion of rings at the upper end of the said
tube. By this means the rising air cannot pass directly in contact with the inner
edge of the wick, such air being only brought in contact with the inner edge by.
being deflected outwad by the disc 6, and thus only a small heating flame is pro-
duced at that point, instead of a flame extending over the entire uncovered inner
surface of the wick just below the edge.
The action of such throttling edge or conical ring &c. such as is now used
with the ordinary burners as shewn at 11, Figs. 1 and 2, can be considerably
improved if such inserted rings are formed with an upwardly and outwardly
directed bevil or conicity as shewn at 11 Fig. 6.
The outer air supply is effected through the annular space between the outer
wick tube 1 and the tubular casing 12 which is parallel to the former. The

page_text: distance of the casing 12 from the wick tube is made such that the velocity of
the air current determined by the draught of the lamp chimney and the sectional
area of the annular passage, shall be sufficiently great to carry the outer flame
which is forced outward by the disc 6 as above described away from the wick and
carry it upward.
For sufficiently supplying the vapours generated with air it is necessary that
the flame should be raised up to a certain height and be maintained at such
height. This is effected by maintaining the rapid and uniform air draught up
to the said height, and this is effected by making the tubular casing 12 extend
upward to a corresponding height. In order to adapt the configuration of the
pure blue flame thus obtained as much as possible to that of the incandescence
mantle, it is advisable to act upon it on its issue from the tubular casing 12 so as to
spread it out somewhat in a tulip shape. This is effected by raising the upper
disc of the flame spreader to a suitable extent above the upper end of the
tubular casing, 12 and also by providing such upper end with an inward pro-
jecting bend or flange 14, as shewn on the right hand side of Fig. 3. The tubular
casing 12 extends downward to such an extent that the air current has a consider-
able length of travel through the same, but it should not be made of excessive
length as to cause any considerable frictional resistance of the air against the
casing. It is of advantage to leave the space between the wick tube I and the
tubular casing 12 perfectly free and to avoid making perforations in the sides of
the tubular casing in order that the current of air through the space may meet
with no obstruction. For this purpose the tubular casing is only fixed to the
burner by external attachments, as shewn.
Fig. 3 shews a type of burner in which the outer wick tube 1 has its lower
part of an enlarged diameter, the tubular casing 12 being only continued down-
wards to a point above that at which the enlargement of the wick tube com-
mences, and it is extended to a considerable height above the edge of the wick
at the upper end for the above named reasons. The part of the tubular casing
extending downwards from the edge of the wick must, however, not be reduced
beyond a certain length, because the tubular casing would then not have the
proper effect. If the tubular casing requires to be extended farther downwards.
then in extending it over the enlarged part of the wick tube it must also be
enlarged to such an extent that the sectional area of the space between the two
remains the same as that of the upper part.
Fig. 4 shews a type of burner with cylindrical wick tube in which the tubular
casing 12 is uniformly concentric thereto.
Fig. 5 shews a burner with the lower part of the wick tube formed conical,
the upper part being cylindrical in order to maintain a vertical direction for the
issuing air currents. The tubular casing 12 is in a similar manner formed with a
cylindrical upper part and with a conical lower part of such a size that the
sectional area of the air passage remains the same throughout.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is: -
1. An incandescence lamp burner for liquid combustible wherein the outer wick
tube 1 is surrounded by a tubular casing 12 of such a form that the sectional area
of the air passage between the two shall be perfectly uniform throughout, in
order to insure that the air current passing up through the same shall have the
same velocity at the upper issuing end as at the lower entering end, substantially
as described.
2. In a burner such as is referred to in the first claim, constructing the tubular
casing 12 surrounding the wick tube with an inward bend or flange 14 at its upper
end in order to act upon the flame immediately before this leaves the burner, in
such manner as to adapt its form to that of the mantle 15, substantially as
described.
3. The provision of an insertion ring 11 Fig. 6 at the upper end of the inner

page_text: wick tube the inner edge of the ring being coned or bevilled outward in the upward
direction, in order to cause the central air current only to impinge on the inner
upper edge of the wick, so as to produce only a small heating flame even when
the flame spreader 5-6 is raised some height, substantially as described.
4. A flame spreader consisting of two discs 5, 6 of which the lower one 6 is
coned in an upward and inward direction, in order to provide a quiescent zone for
the heating flame, substantially as described with reference to Fig. 3.
5. A flame spreader consisting of two discs 5, 6 of which the lower one 6 has
conical holes diminishing upward, for providing a quiescent zone for the flame
substantially as described.
Dated this 17th day of February 1899.
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicant.