IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS TO BE ARRANGED IN CONNECTION WITH GAS PIPES OR BURNERS FOR OPENING AND CLOSING THE COCKS THEREOF BY ELECTRO-MAGNETISM
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Robert Lake at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 12th June 1877. A communication
from abroad by David McConnell Smyth, of East Northwood, New Hampshire,
United States of America.
"
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine Lake & Co., Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, London. IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS TO BE ARRANGED
IN CONNECTION WITH GAS PIPES OR BURNERS FOR OPENING AND CLOSING THE
COCKS THEREOF BY ELECTRO-MAGNETISM.” [A communication from abroad by David
McConnell Smyth, of East Northwood, New Hampshire, United States of America.]
This Invention is intended to be used in connection with a method of lighting
and extinguishing gas by electricity or electro-magnetism, and though applicable to
gas cocks generally is especially useful in connection with street gas lamps for
opening and closing the gas burners or cocks of these lamps, as it meets all the
requirements necessary to be fulfilled in order that any device for opening and
closing the gas burners or cocks of street lamps by electricity or electro-magnetism
may be of practical value. These requirements are simplicity of construction so
that liability to derangement may be avoided, inexpensiveness, instantaneousness,
and certainty of action, and the production of considerable mechanical force with a
minimum of battery power; these requirements are more perfectly attained by the
devices herein described than by other devices for a similar purpose which have
heretofore been used.
It is now well known that the power which can be obtained by the best electro-
magnetic arrangements is very inconsiderable in proportion to the cost of obtaining
such power compared with that which can be obtained at the same cost from other
sources of power, and that electro-magnetism in mechanical arrangements is there-
fore used most advantageously for instantaneously bringing other forces into action at
distant points; therefore in practising this Invention instead of relying solely upon
the electro-magnetic force to operate the gas cock, I use electro-magnetism to set a
weight in motion, and the force of the momentum which this weight acquires by its
movement effects the opening and closing of the cock. By this contrivance a
quick blow of considerable force like that of a hammer is given to the cock, and its
opening and closing are easily effected. The said Invention therefore consists

page_text: mainly in the combination with the gas cock of an electro-magnet, and a weight
moved by the said magnet, and operating to effect the opening and closing of the
gas cock by the force of the momentum which the weight acquires by its
movement.
In carrying the said Invention into practise I provide the gas pipe with an
ordinary burner which may have a cock of the usual construction, except that it
shuts off or permits the flow of gas by a slighter movement of rotation than such
ordinary gas cocks. I use an ordinary electro-magnet which has a shaft parallel
with it, supported at one end in the pipe, and at the other end in a suitable
standard. Attached to this shaft and depending from it is a bar of soft iron which
forms the armature of the electro-magnet. There is also attached to the said shaft
and at right angles to it a rod, upon which is carried an adjustable weight that can
be so placed on the rod as to overbalance the weight of the armature, and thus
when the magnet is inactive, the said armature will swing from above the magnet
to one side or the other, as the gas cock happens to be open or closed.
An arm or lever is attached to the stem of the gas cock and moves with it, and
another arm is attached to the aforesaid shaft. These arms are connected by a
⚫slotted link in which plays a pin on the first named arm. Upon the standards are
metallic segments insulated from the standard and separated from each other; these
segments are connected to contact knobs by suitable wires. An arm is attached to
the aforesaid shaft and makes contact with these segments as the shaft moves.
The two poles of the battery are connected to binding screws, from one of which
a wire passes to one pole of the magnet, and the other pole of the magnet is
connected by a wire to the metallic gas pipe. A switch is connected to one binding
screw, and by means of this switch the circuit can be established. In this device
the only work done by the electric current is the attraction of the magnet, and thé
elevation of the weighted arm; and this work can be effected by a very feeble
current compared with that which is necessary to operate the gas cock, while the
force of the momentum which the weighted arm acquires by its rapid movement
being applied to the cock by the forcible impact of the arms will be sufficient to
ensure the opening and closing of any ordinary gas cock used in street lainps, even
if said cock is tight fitting or rusty. Moreover, if the first movement of the arm is
insufficient to operate the cock, a succession of blows can be given by the weighted
arm until the gas cock is moved.
It will be obvious that this method of operating a gas cock by the action of a
weight moved by electro-magnetism can be effected by other mechanical devices than
those above described, for instance, the link motion may be dispensed with, and the
arm made to act directly upon a lever attached to the stem of the cock.:
.