IMPROVEMENTS IN SAFETY LAMPS
Year: 1864

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by James Rees at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 8th January
1864.
I, JAMES REES, of Merthyr Tydvil, in the County of Glamorgan, Miner, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SAFETY
LAMPS," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists, firstly, of the following improvements in safety lamps,
I provide the lamp with two cylinders of wire gauze instead of a single
cylinder as is usual. The said cylinders are concentric with each other and
with the flame, I fix at the top of each of the said wire gauze cylinders a
perforated disc of metal for the purpose of protecting the tops of the said
cylinders from the direct action of the heat from the flame of the lamp. Both
the cylinders described are fixed by screwing to the top of the body or oil
reservoir of the lamp.
I construct the oil reservoir of the lamp as follows:-The oil reservoir is
provided with a false bottom a short distance above the true bottom; the
two chambers thus formed communicate with each other by an opening in
the false bottom. Over the said opening and extending through the upper
chamber or oil reservoir is a tube, the said tube being perforated with holes
from the false bottom upwards to about half the length of the said tube. A

page_text: rod passing through the wire gauze cylinders of the lamp enters the said tube,
its end screwing into the opening in the false bottom. Communication
between the two chambers is thereby cut off. When, however, the rod is
screwed out of the opening in the false bottom the oil in the upper chamber
or oil reservoir passes through the perforated tube and opening in the false
bottom into the lower chamber, from whence it escapes by a number of
openings in the said lower chamber. In using a lamp containing my im-
provements the rod before described is passed through the wire gauze
cylinders and its end screwed into the opening in the false bottom. The
upper chamber or oil reservoir is then filled with oil in the usual manner and
the lamp is ready for use. Before the wire gauze cylinders surrounding the
flame can be removed to obtain access to the said flame it is necessary that
the rod before mentioned should be unscrewed from the opening in the false
bottom of the oil reservoir. Hence if the miner should remove the said rod
communication between the oil reservoir and lower chamber will be established
and oil will pass rapidly from the said oil reservoir to the lower chamber. By
the time the miner has removed the wire gauze cylinders encircling the flame,
by unscrewing them from the body of the lamp the whole of the oil will have
escaped from the oil reservoir, and the lamp wick being no longer supplied
with oil the flame will be extinguished in a few minutes.
My Invention consists, secondly, of the following improvements in safety
lamps in which the flame is protected partly by glass and partly by wire gauze,
I protect the flame of the lamp at front by two concentric curved or semi-
cylindrical glasses and at back by wire gauze. At the back of the flame is a
reflector. The tops of both the compartments formed by the curved glasses
are covered with wire gauze, that covering the outer compartment being
capable of removal when necessary from the lamp case. That part of the
wire gauze covering the back of the inner compartment is capable of sliding
vertically so as to permit of the lighting of the lamp. This sliding wire gauze
door, and the cover closing the top of the outer compartment in front of the
lamp, are so constructed that the former cannot be raised until the latter has
been removed from the 'lamp, I apply to the oil reservoir of this lamp the
arrangement described under the first part of my Invention, the upper end of
the rod which closes the opening in the oil reservoir being passed through the
cover closing the outer cempartment of the lamp so that the said rod must be
removed before the said cover can be lifted from the case to obtain access to
the flame through the door at the back of the lamp. By the removal of the
red oil escapes from the reservoir in the manner before explained and indicates
that the lamp has been tampered with. By employing two concentric curved

page_text: glasses at the front of the lamp, should one be broken, the flame is still pro-
tected by the other. The trigger by which the wick of the lamp is raised is
worked from the back of the lamp and the trimmer by which the wick is
trimmed is also worked from the back of the lamp.