IMPROVEMENTS IN LAMPS
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Edward Newton, of the Office for
Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex; Civil
Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN LAMPS."- A
communication from abroad by Franklin Thomas Grimes, of
Liberty. in the State of Missouri. United States of America.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Edward
Newton at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 21st July 1870.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery
Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN LAMPS," to be as
follows:-
This Invention consists firstly in the combination of a main oil or
fluid reservoir arranged to form the outer portion of the body of the
lamp, with a separate wick chamber arranged in the base of the lamp,
and supplied with oil from the main reservoir by a tubular connection.

page_text: or connections between the two together with an air chamber or passage
extending from the base of the lamp to the burner within or through
the main reservoir and outside of the wick chamber, whereby not only,
the main body of oil or fluid is separated as it were from the wick
chamber, but the weight of the oil or fluid in the wick chamber is made
to give stability to the lamp and a current of cooling air is circulated
up through the main reservoir and around the wick chamber and its
tube, which in the use of certain oils or burning fluids contributes to
safety.
The Invention also includes the combination of an automatic valve or
valves with the main reservoir and separate secondary reservoir or wick
chamber for controlling the supply from the main reservoir to said
chamber, so that when the lamp is burning, or occupies an upright
position, ingress is kept open between the reservoir and chamber, but
when the lamp is inverted or any explosion takes place in the wick
chamber, communication is automatically closed between the reservoir
and wick chamber, and connection is thus cut off with the main body
of oil or fluid in the lamp.
The Invention likewise embraces an automatic valve for opening
and closing the air orifice usually made in the cap or nozzle through
which the reservoir is supplied with oil or fluid, so that in case of the
lamp being upset, oil or fluid is prevented from escaping through the
orifice.
The Invention also includes the arrangement within the oil or main
reservoir and between it and the air tube or passage that supplies the
flame of a safety water chamber for extinguishing the flame in case of
the upsetting of the lamp.
The Invention likewise embraces the combination or arrangement
with a wick lifting and lowering wheel on the one side of an elastic wick
tube of an adjusting screw on the opposite side of the tube for setting up
the latter to ensure grip of the wheel on the wick.
These improvements or certain of them are not restricted to one
particular kind or form of lamp, but the remaining feature or division of
the Invention relates to that description of lamps in which the wick
chamber is supplied with oil or fluid from a reservoir that is arranged
outside of the chamber or stands detached from it, and this division of
the Invention consists in the arrangement of an air supply pipe or passage
to the flame relatively with the oil reservoir and wick chamber with its

page_text: wick tube so that when the lamp is burning, the air to supply the flame
is in the course of its passage to the burner made to first descend or pass
in a downward direction through the oil reservoir, and afterwards to
ascend around the wick or wick tube to the flame. This arrangement
establishes a current in which the cold and denser air is made to
assume its natural downward course, keeping the oil in the reservoir
cool, and thereby reducing the risk of an explosion and afterwards as
it approaches the flame to assume its natural upward course of a heated
current.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Edward Newton in the Great Seal Patent.
Office on the 19th January 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lanc, in the
County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
"
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of July, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-fourth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said William Edward Newton, Her special licence
that I, the said William Edward Newton, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Edward Newton, my
executors, 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 Invention for "Im-
PROVEMENTS IN LAMPS," being a communication to me from abroad by
Franklin Thomas Grimes, of Liberty, in the State of Missouri, United
States of America, upon the condition (amongst others), that I, the said
William Edward Newton, 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
Invention, 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

page_text: calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Edward Newton, do hereby
declare 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 Drawing hereunto
annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to
say):-
This Invention consists, firstly, in the combination of a main oil or
fluid reservoir arranged to form the outer portion of the body of the
lamp with a separate wick chamber arranged in the base of the lamp
and supplied with oil from the main reservoir by a tubular connection
or connections between the two, together with an air chamber or passage
extending from the base of the lamp to the burner within, or through
the main reservoir and outside of the wick chamber. By this arrange-
ment not only the main body of the oil or fluid is separated as it were
from the wick chamber, but the weight of the oil or fluid in the wick
chamber is made to give stability to the lamp and a current of cooling
air is circulated up through the main reservoir and around the wick
chamber and its tube, which, in the use of certain oils or burning fluids
contributes to safety.
The Invention also includes the combination of an automatic valve
or valves with the main reservoir and separate secondary reservoir or
wick chamber for controlling the supply from the main reservoir to such
chamber, so that when the lamp is burning or occupies an upright
position ingress is kept open between the reservoir and chamber, but
when the lamp is inverted or any explosion takes place in the wick
chamber communication is automatically closed between the reservoir
and wick chamber, and connection is thus cut off with the main body of
oil or fluid in the lamp.
The Invention likewise embraces an automatic valve for opening and
closing the air orifice usually made in the cap or nozzle through which
the reservoir is supplied with oil or fluid so that in case of the lamp
being upset the oil or fluid is prevented from escaping through the
orifice.
The Invention also includes the arrangement within the oil or main
reservoir, and between it and the air tube or passage that supplies the

page_text: flame, of a safety water chamber for extinguishing the flame in case of
the upsetting of the lamp.
The Invention likewise embraces the combination or arrangement
with a wick lifting and lowering wheel on the one side of an elastic
wick tube of an adjusting screw on the opposite side of such tube for
setting up the latter to insure grip of the wheel on the wick.
These improvements or certain of them are not restricted to one
particular kind or form of lamp, but the remaining feature or division
of the Invention relates to that description of lamps in which the wick
chamber is supplied with oil or fluid from a reservoir that is arranged
outside of the chamber or stands detached from it. This division of the
Invention consists in the arrangement of an air supply pipe or passage
to the flame relatively with the oil reservoir and wick chamber with its
wick tube, so that when the lamp is burning the air to supply the flame
is in the course of its passage to the burner made to first descend or
pass in a downward direction through the oil reservoir and afterwards to
ascend around the wick or wick tube to the flame. This arrangement
establishes a current in which the cold and denser air is made to assume
its natural downward course, keeping the oil in the reservoir cool
and thereby reducing the risk of an explosion, and afterwards as it
approaches the flame to assume its natural upward course of a heated
current.
In the accompanying Drawing Fig. 1 represents a sectional elevation.
of one form or description of lamp with most of the distinguishing
features of the Invention applied to it; Fig. 2 is a sectional clevation
of a different form of lamp mainly in illustration of the draft
arrangement, firstly in a downward direction through the oil in a
detached reservoir, and afterwards in an ascending current to the flame,
and Figures 3 and 4 are sectional views of another style of lamp and
of a chandelier in illustration of the same principle of action as regards
the draft or air current to the flame.
In Fig. 1, A represents the main reservoir or oil chamber which is
made to form the body of the lamp or outer portion thereof, and which
is in connection by one or more tubes 6 with the wick chamber B
arranged in the base of the lamp which forms a secondary reservoir or
chamber for the oil, which by its weight is thus made to contribute to
the stability of the lamp. The tubes bare controlled above and below
by connected spherical or other suitable valves d, d'. The upper ones d

page_text: of these valves are grooved or otherwise constructed so that when down
on their seats oil will trickle past them into the wick chamber, but the
lower valves d¹ are made close fitting, so that when thrown or forced
against their seats at the bottom ends of the tubes b, either by explosion
within the wick chamber or by the upsetting of the lamp they shut off
communication between the wick chamber and main body of oil in the
reservoir A. A similar provision is made in the screw cap or nozzle C
through which the oil is fed into the reservoir by fitting the air orifice e
therein, through which air to produce the necessary atmospheric pressure
on the surface of the fluid in the reservoir to secure flow is secured with
a valve or double valve f, f¹, so that when the lamp is in an upright
position it allows of air entering through such orifice, but closes from
within to shut off escape of oil or fluid when the lamp is inverted or
partially so. D is the wick tube, and E an air tube or passage for
supplying the flame with oxygen. This air passage is supplied from
below as by side orifices g in the outer portion of the base and surrounds
the wick chamber B, and also passes up through the oil reservoir,
separating the wick tube D from contact therewith and serving to keep
the oil in the reservoir cool.
1
Arranged within the reservoir A and surrounding the air tube E is a
safety water chamber F open at its top. It serves in case of the upsetting
of the lamp to extinguish the flame. By the arrangement of this water
chamber between the oil reservoir A and wick tube or passage E, the
air is kept purer and cooler in its course to the flame, and the fluid in
the reservoir is correspondingly cooled. The wick tube D is of such
construction or so restricted as regards its support as to be capable of
springing towards or from the wick operating wheel or lifter G arranged
in the upper portion of the lamp on one side only of the wick tube, into
which it projects to establish hold on the wick. On the opposite side of
the wick tube is an adjusting screw H capable of operation from the
exterior and serving to spring the wick tube towards the lifter G to
prevent the slip of the latter on the wick, and thereby to regulate the
action or grip of the wick lifter.
Certain of these improvements are applicable to swinging or pendent
lamps as well as to table lamps or those of a stationary character.
In Fig. 2 of the Drawing, A¹ represents the reservoir or main oil
chamber of a lamp, and B' the air tube or passage arranged to pass
downward through the reservoir and from thence to or around the wick

page_text: chamber C¹ from below and up around the wick tube D³ to the burner E¹.
The air passage B₁ may be furnished with a lid b₁ at its top to close it
when the lamp is not in use; F¹ is a water base or stand for the support
of the lamp, and which may communicate by suitable orifices with the
lower branch of the air passage B¹, so that while the base serves to give
steadiness to the lamp (when in use) in case of the lamp upsetting. the
water will flow out of the base into the air passage to extinguish the
flame. The water chamber F¹ (as also the oil reservoir A¹) may each be
provided with valves to air orifices made therein, or in their screw caps,
or filling nozzles so constructed and operating that while not excluding
air from entering when the lamp is in an upright position, fluid is
prevented from escaping in case of the lamp upsetting. The wick
chamber C¹ is supplied with oil from the reservoir A¹ by a tube G¹
arranged within the lower connecting branch of the air tube or passage
and provided at its opposite ends with a valve or valves that operate to
admit of flow under ordinary conditions and in an erect position of the
lamp, but which close the communication between the reservoir and
chamber should the lamp be upset, and also control ingress from the
reservoir, and close (in case of an explosion within the wick chamber)
and thereby prevent ignition extending to the oil reservoir.
The arrangement herein described of the air passage B¹, ensures firstly,
the descent of the cold and heavier air through the oil in the reservoir,
thereby keeping the oil cool and afterwards the ascent of the air under
rarefaction of it by the flame, thus maintaining a most perfect circula-
tion or current through the lamp and contributing alike to its safety
and brilliancy or steadiness in burning. The same arrangement is
applicable to other constructions of lamps employing a detached wick
chamber, as for instance to a student's lamp as shewn in Fig. 3, and
which is adjustable up or down on a vertical rod or post I under lock by
a set screw g¹, and to a chandelier as shewn in Fig. 4, in which a
central oil reservoir A¹ is made to supply a series of branch lights
arranged around it; B' is the air flue or passage to the flame in both of
these Figures (3 and 4).
Having now described the Invention which has been communicated
to me as aforesaid, I claim as the Invention secured to me by Letters
Patent,-
First. The combination and arrangement relatively to each other of

page_text: base of the lamp, the tubular connection or connections b, and the air
tube or passage E.
Second. The combination of an automatic valve or valves d, d¹, with
the tube or tubes 6, the reservoir A, and the wick chamber B, as and for
the purposes herein set forth.
Third. The combination of the automatic valve f, f¹, with the filling
cap or nozzle C or air orifice e, through which air is admitted to the
reservoir A.
Fourth. The arrangement of the safety water chamber F relatively to
the air tube or passage E and oil reservoir A.
Fifth. The combination with the wick lifter G arranged on the one
side of the wick tube of the elastic wick tube D and the adjusting
screw H arranged on the opposite side of such tube to that on which the
wick lifter is adapted.
Sixth. The arrangement of the air supply tube or passage relatively
to the reservoir or main oil chamber and wick chamber, or its tube,
whereby the incoming air is made first to descend through the body of
oil or fluid in the reservoir and afterwards to ascend in its course or
passage to the flame as herein set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Edward Newton, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, the Nineteenth day of January,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
seventy-one.
'