CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF LAMPS TO BURN OIL
Year: 1846

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
HESELTINE, junior, of Bromley, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Eighth day of October, in the tenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Samuel Heseltine, Her especial license, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said Samuel Heseltine, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, and such others as I, the said Samuel Heseltine, my executors,
administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein mentioned,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in all Her Majesty's Colonies
and Plantations abroad, and in the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney,
Sark, and Man, an Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION
OF LAMPS TO BURN OIL," being partly a communication from a Foreigner
residing abroad; in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging
me, the said Samuel Heseltine, by an instrument in writing under my
hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the
same to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said in part

page_text: recited Letters Patent, as. in and by the same, reference being thereunto
had, will more fully and at large appear.
:
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Samuel Heseltine, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference being
had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures thereon
(that is to say)
The Invention for which I have obtained Her Majesty's Letters Patent as
aforesaid relates to that construction of lamp known as the Fountain Lamp, in
which the oil to support combustion is forced by pressure from a reservoir
below up to the wick in the burner.
In the accompanying Drawing Figure 1 represents an external elevation,
and Figure 2 a transverse vertical section, of a table lamp constructed
according to the present improvements. a, a, is the oil reservoir, which is
furnished with a piston b, b, made of leather or some other suitable material.
This piston is cup-shaped, the edges being turned downwards, as shewn in the
sectional figure, and made to fit the sides of the chamber. A weight c, c, is
attached to the under side of the piston, and is furnished with a perforated
metal disc or plate d, which is made to fit the sides of the chamber, and act as
a guide to keep the piston in a proper position. To the upper side of the
piston 6 a straight tube e, e, is attached, and supports at its upper end the
burner, glass holder, and all the upper parts of the lamp. This tube e, e, passes
up through a stuffing box a*, a*, which of course admits of the tube sliding
up and down when required, as will be hereafter explained. The burner does
not differ materially in construction from others well known and in use in
fountain lamps. The oil or substance to support combustion is supplied from
the reservoir a to the burner by the pipe f, f, which, in order to regulate the
supply with nicety, is furnished with a cock g, which may be easily adjusted by
means of a screwdriver. The lower end of the pipe ƒ passes through the
piston 6 and its weight c, and is open to the reservoir below, while the upper
end is in communication with the lower part of the concentric tube or annular
space of the burner. The wickholder, which is shewn detached at Figure 3,
is of the ordinary construction for lamps of this description, and consists of a
short tube h, furnished with spring catches i, i, which, when the holder is
placed in the concentric tube or annular space of the burner, are made to
clasp the wick and hold it firmly, as shewn in Figure 2. The wick is raised
or lowered and adjusted in the tube by means of a pinion j, Figure 2, which
gears into the rack k of the tube h, as is well understood.
When the lamp

page_text: requires to be filled with oil the reservoir a will be empty, and the piston b
consequently be at the bottom of the reservoir; and as the tube e, e, and the
upper part of the lamp is connected to the piston, the under side of the cup 1,
which forms part of the upper portion of the lamp, will rest on the top part of
the stuffing box a*, and in order to supply the reservoir with oil the perforated.
part m, m, which surrounds the lower part of the burner, must be raised up or
removed, and the oil poured into the cup 1, from whence it will pass down the
inside of the tube e through holes or openings made in the lower part of the
latter on to the top of the piston. When the proper quantity of oil has been.
poured in, which will be at once known by the level rising into the cup 1, the
upper part of the lamp must be raised by hand, whereby the piston will be
drawn up, and the oil which was poured into the upper part of the piston
will, by the pressure of the atmosphere, be caused to pass between the sides
of the piston and the chamber, and through the holes 1, 1, 1, 1, of the
perforated metal plate d to the under side thereof, in order to fill the vacuum
which would otherwise be formed beneath the piston. When the weight c of
the piston, and also the weight of the upper parts of the lamp, is allowed to
act upon the surface of the-oil, the latter will be forced up through the centre
aperture 2 of the perforated plate d and the narrow pipe f to the burner and:
wick; and if a greater quantity of oil should be supplied to the burner than
the wick. can consume, the superfluous oil will run over and descend down
the outside of the burner to the gutter (Figures 1 and 2) from which it will
drop into the cup 7 and descend the tube e on to the top of the piston, from
whence it may be transferred to the under side by simply raising the upper
part of the lamp a trifling distance, upon doing which the pressure of the
atmosphere will force the oil past the edges of the piston to the under side of
the latter, as before. The supply of oil up the pipe f to the burner. may, how-
ever, be regulated by means of the stopcock g to that nicety that the wick
shall always be supplied with a sufficient quantity of oil, but an excess or
overflow will be prevented.
เ
In Figure 5 I have shewn a modification of the plan above described, in
which the upper part of the lamp remains a fixture, and forms no part of the
weight that forces the oil up to the burner. In the plan shewn in Figure 5
the weighted piston 6 is suspended from a band, strap, cord, or chain P, the
upper end of which passes. over and is attached to a pulley q. .When the
lamp is empty, or requires a supply of oil, the lower end of the piston weight c
will rest upon the bottom of the reservoir a. The oil must then be poured
into the cup 1, from whence it will descend on to the top of the piston, which
must then be wound up by means of a key applied to the square head of the

page_text: shaft of the pulley 9, and as the piston is drawn up the oil will pass to the
under side thereof, as in the former instance; and as the reservoir a, when not
supplied with oil, will contain a quantity of air which will always be at the
under side of the piston, the oil will occupy the space of the reservoir, with a
column of air above it, as shewn in Figures 5; and immediately the piston is
released it will, by its weight, press on the column of air immediately below,
and by that means force the oil up the supply pipef to the burner. It should
be observed that the pipe f is furnished with a stopcock g to regulate the
supply of oil, as in the former instance. The other parts of the lamp being
similar in construction to that above described, no further explanation will be
necessary.
Having now described the Invention for which I have obtained Her Majesty's
Letters Patent as aforesaid, I would observe that modifications of several of the
parts of the lamps above described have been applied to similar purposes before
the date of my said Patent; I do not therefore mean or intend to claim any such
parts separately. But what I consider to be new, and therefore wish to claim
as the Invention secured to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters
Patent, is, the combination or arrangement of parts above shewn and described,
and constituting a self-acting gravitating fountain lamp.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Heseltine, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-seven.
SAMUEL (L.S.) HESELTINE, Junior.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Eighth day of April, in
the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Samuel Heseltine, junior, came before
our Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of
the Statute in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the same Eighth day of April, in the year above written.