IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE AND MEANS OF GENERATING AND INFLAMING GASEOUS VAPOUR IN LAMPS OR OTHER APPARATUS CONTAINING PETROLEUM SPIRIT OR OTHER HYDROCARBON FLUID OR HIGHLY VOLATILE OILS
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Sanders Trotman, of Stowmarket, in the County
of Suffolk, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MODE AND MEANS OF GENERATING AND INFLAMING GASEOUS VAPOUR IN LAMPS
OR OTHER APPARATUS CONTAINING PETROLEUM SPIRIT OR OTHER HYDROCARBON
FLUID OR HIGHLY VOLATILE OILS."
Sealed the 13th August 1875, and dated the 26th February 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Sanders Trotman at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
26th February 1875.
I, SANDERS TROTMAN, of Stowmarket, in the County of Suffolk,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE AND MEANS OF GENERATING AND INFLAMING GASEOUS
VAPOUR IN LAMPS OR OTHER APPARATUS CONTAINING PETROLEUM SPIRIT OR OTHER
HYDROCARBON FLUID OR HIGHLY VOLATILE OILS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object an improved method of vaporizing
petrolcum spirit or other hydrocarbon fluids or highly volatile oil, and

page_text: facilitating its combustion by lamps or other illuminating apparatus
through the agency of a capillary vaporizer, which drawing the oil or
spirit from the wick or lower part of the lamp vaporizes it by its own
conserved heat, and presents it in a gaseous form to the burner,
through the perforations of which it has to pass to be externally in-
flamed.
For the purposes of my Invention the said capillary vaporizer may be
made of a piece of metallic foil, by preference copper or copper in com-
bination with a metallic foil, being a less good conductor of heat between
itself and the wick, about 8 inches long by a quarter of an inch at one
end, and one inch at the other. This should be rolled up so as to form
a curvoluted cone; this being placed in the top of the perforated tube or
burner draws up the oil or spirit from the wick or lower part of the
lamp, which oil or spirit is vapourized by its heat, and is inflamed
externally in the usual manner. To facilitate however this inflamation
I adopt the means hereafter explained.
The perforated tube or burner is provided with a pan or baffleur to
steady the flame. In order to facilitate the process of lighting this is
made to slide to the bottom of the perforated tube or burner, and is
elevated when the gaseous vapour is fairly ignited.
I do not confine myself to the use of any precise form of lamp or
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Sanders Trotman in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 26th August 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SANDERS
TROTMAN, of Stowmarket, in the County of Suffolk, Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of February, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the
thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Sanders Trotman, Her special licence
that I, the said Sanders Trotman, my executors, administrators, and

page_text: assigns, or such others as I, the said Sanders Trotman, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MODE AND MEANS OF GENERATING AND INFLAMING GASEOUS VAPOUR IN LAMPS
OR OTHER APPARATUS CONTAINING PETROLEUM SPIRIT OR OTHER HYDROCARBON FLUID
OB HIGHLY VOLATILE OILS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said Sanders Trotman, 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
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Sanders Trotman, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement :-
This Invention has for its object an improved method of vaporizing
petroleum spirit or other hydrocarbon fluids or highly volatile oils, and
facilitating its combustion by lamps or other illuminating apparatus
through the agency of a capillary vaporizer which draws the oil or spirit
from the wick or lower part of the lamp, and vaporizing it by its
conserved heat presents it in a gaseous form to the burner, through the
apertures or perforations of which it has to pass to be externally
inflamed.
For the purposes of my Invention the said capillary vaporizer may be
made of a piece of metallic foil (by preference copper or an alloy of
copper and nickel, or other metal or alloy offering suitable conductivity
to the heat, to be utilized) in length varying according to the size of the
tube or burner) from 2 to 6 inches, and of a width in accordance with the
amount of spirit or oil to be vaporized, varying from or at the one
end to or one inch at the other. This strip of metallic foil when rolled
up should be conoidal so far as may be necessary to keep clear of the
apertures in the tube or burner, the apex deriving heat from the top of

page_text: the burner, while the external convolution next the base derives its heat
from the side of the tube or burner, the amount of heat derivable in both
cases being regulated by the area of the surfaces in contact and the
conductivity of the metal employed.
The vaporization of the oil or spirit, while dependant on the contact
of the vaporizer with heated surfaces, and the conductivity of the metal,
is also regulated in some measure by the area exposed to the gaseous
products, which gaseous products are inflamed oxteriorly in the usual
manner. To facilitate however this inflamation when deemed necessary
I adopt the means hereafter explained.
The perforated tube or burner containing the vaporizer is provided
with a pan. or baffleur to steady the flame: In order to facilitate the
process of lighting this is made to slide to the bottom of the perforated
tube or burner (or otherwise removed), and is elevated (or otherwise
replaced) when the gaseous vapour is fairly ignited.
I do not confine myself to the use of any precise form of lamp or
apparatus, but what I claim and desire to be secured to me by the
herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the mode of vaporizing
and inflaming highly volatile oil or spirit in lamps or other like apparatus
by the method and in the manner substantially as herein-before
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Sanders Trotman, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twelfth day of August, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five.