IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING LIGHT BY ELECTRICITY, AND IN THE MEANS OR APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN
Year: 1878

page_text: "
LETTERS PATENT to Charles Weightman Harrison, of South Kensington, in tho
County of Middlesex, Gentleman, for the Invention of IMPROVEMENTS IN
OBTAINING LIGHT BY ELECTRICITY, AND IN THE MEANS OR APPARATUS
EMPLOYED THEREIN."
Scaled the 28th February 1879, and dated the 2nd September 1878.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Weightman Harrison
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 2nd September 1878.
CHARLES WEIGHTMAN HARRISON, of South Kensington, in the County of
Middlesex, Gentleman. "IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING LIGHT BY ELECTRICITY,
AND IN THE MEANS OR APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN."
This Invention relates to obtaining light by electricity.
The first of my improvements applies to the preparation or construction of the
electrodes or burners in which I endeavor to follow the steps of nature in pro-
ducing a perfectly white and diffusive light.
One method by which I effect this consists in impregnating or charging carbon
burners with the metals or elementary bodies, or with some of them which
constitute the solar spectrum or its atmosphere.
An easy method by which I carry this process into effect is to immerse the
carbon burners in suitable solutions of the various metals and then dry them.
Other methods of making such burners may be adopted, as, for instance, the
compounding together of different powders and uniting the same by pressure, or
different wires may be made up into ropes or different fluids into streams, but
however prepared or constructed, these burners form a special feature in this my
Invention; and in order to distinguish them I term them "solar electrodes,"
because they are so built up with the various elements that the incandescent vapors
which they give within the electric arc blend and reproduce the light of day.
Din A71

page_text: I make flexible carbon or metallized carbon burners of any required length by
means of threads or filaments of silk or other suitable flexible material, which I
coat with carbon by rubbing, pressing, or incorporating them with powdered
plumbago or other carbon or metal compounds, and then form them into a cord or
rope of any required dimensions.
A convenient method of using flexible burners is to wind them on a rotary axis
or drum, which by its motion would advance the burners to the mouth of a tube.
where they are consumed.
The second part of my improvements consists in obtaining electric light between
electrodes or burners of any suitable kind, by means of induction currents generated
in conductors or coils placed near where the lights are required at intervals along &
main line or primary circuit. Such coils I form of copper, or iron ribbon or sheet
of any proportions or dimensions, and with or without magnetizable cores
condensers.
or
. 1 sometimes arrange a series of these coils together, which by their mutual action
and suitable connections of the direct and inverse currents can be made to sustain
or increase the light or to produce a light composed of a group of lights.
I prefer to employ a magneto-electric machine as the source of electricity, and to
use alternating or reverse currents to operate the coils.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions. of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Charles Weightman Harrison in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
1st March 1879.
CHARLES WEIGHTMAN HARRISON, of South Kensington, in the County of
Middlesex, Gentleman. "IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING LIGHT BY ELECTRICITY,
AND IN THE MEANS OR APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN."
This Invention relates to obtaining light by electricity.
My improvements relate, firstly, to the preparation or construction of the
electrodes or burners, the object being to produce a perfectly white and diffusive
light.
One method by which I effect this consists in impregnating or charging carbon
burners with the metals or elementary bodies, or some of them which exist in the
solar spectrum, or its atmosphere combining those whose colors are complimentary;
for example, sodium, giving a yellow light, and potasium, zinc, or mercury giving a
blueish light, will in combination produce a white light.
An easy method by which I carry this process into effect is to immerse the
carbon burners in suitable solutions of the various metals or bodies and then dry
them.
Other methods of making such burners may be adopted, as, for instance, the
compounding together of different powders and uniting the same by pressure, heat,
or otherwise; or different wires may be made up into ropes, or different fluids into
streams, but however prepared or constructed these compound burners form a
feature of my Invention. The metals or bodies thus incorporated in the electrodes
are given off in vapors during the combustion of the electrodes. These vapors
I collect or deposit in the form of metals, either separately or in compound, by
burning the electrodes under a glass shade hermetically sealed and kept filled by
any suitable means with chloride or other vapor, capable of combining with the
vapors of the metals and thus depositing them.
My Invention relates, secondly, to the production of flexible carbons or flexible
metallised carbon burners of any required thickness and length. This I effect by
using threads or filaments of silk, cotton, or other suitable flexible material, which
I first treat with acid, such as nitro-sulphuric acid, to render it more perfectly com-
bustible, and then coat with carbon or metal by rubbing, pressure, or otherwise,
incorporating with them powdered plumbago or other carbon, or with metal
compounds by electrotype or other process, and then form such coated or treated
strands into a cord or rope of any required dimensions.
A convenient method of using flexible burners is to wind them on a rotary axis
or drum, which by its rotation would advance the burners each to the mouth of a
tube or to a point where they would be consumed.
The third part of my Invention relates to obtaining electric light between
electrodes or burners of any suitable kind by means of induced currents generated
in conductors, or coils constructed according to my Invention and placed at intervals
along a main line or primary circuit, one or more near to where each light is
required. These induction coils I form of wires, or preferably of ribbons or sheets
of copper and iron coiled together, and insulated from one another and in the
different layers by any suitable non-conducting material, the main line or primary
circuit passing through the copper and the induced current being created in the
iron. They may be used with or without magnetisable cores or condensers.
I sometimes arrange a series of these coils together, so that the induced current
of the first shall become the inductive current of the second, and the induced
current of the second become the inductive current of the third, and so on. Each
induced current thus created may be supplimented by any local source of electricity,
The group of coils may thus be made to sustain an increased light or a group of
lights, or the separate lights may be arranged at any distance apart desired:

page_text: To get the full effect out of these coils I use a rapidly broken current of electricity
to charge them, and I therefore prefer as my source of electricity a magneto-electric
machine with alternating or reverse currents.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Weightman Harrison, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this First day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-nine.
CHAS. W. HARRISON.
(L.S.)