Improved Means of Regulating the Supply of Oil to the Burners of Hydro-carbon and other Oil Lamps.
Year: 1888

page_text: Date of Application, 28th Aug., 1888
Complete Specification Left, 3rd May, 1889
Complete Specification Accepted, 8th June, 1889
PROVISIONAL DI BUITIVATOR
Improved Means of Regulating the Supply of Oil to the Burners of
Hydro-carbon and other Oil Lamps.
I, JOSEPH BEVERLEY FENBY, of Sutton Coldfield, in the County of Warwick,
Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
The object of this invention is to control the pressure of oil by automatic appliances,
when the said oil is placed at, or forced up to, a level higher than that desired to be
maintained at the place of consumption by the burners of the lamps.
The lower level for the lamps is supplied, and maintained at a proper level, in the
following manner.
From the higher level a supply pipe leads into a well partly filled with quicksilver,
the said supply pipe dipping into the quicksilver to a suitable depth, according to the
head of oil to be controlled. Approximately every seventeen inches head of oil will
require an immersion of one inch in the quicksilver.
If the head of oil to be controlled, or the specific gravity of the oil, or both, should
vary, the immersion of the supply pipe in the quicksilver must also vary in proper
proportion.
The automatic means now to be described, for effecting this variation of immersion,
constitute the essence of this invention.
In the vessel at the lower or lamp level, receiving the supply of oil from the higher
level through the supply pipe and quicksilver well-is placed a float. The level of
oil in the receiving vessel regulates this float, and the float regulates the level of the
quicksilver in relation to the supply pipe; or, in other words, the depth of immersion
of the supply pipe in the quicksilver.
Thus the level of the oil in the receiving vessel is self-regulating, irrespective of the
original head of oil or specific gravity remaining constant: and further, oil will be
automatically supplied as called for by the consumption of the burners.
This mode of controlling the supply of oil may be used with overhead reservoirs
of oil, or in combination with the system of oil supply set forth in my specification
No. 3067 A.D. 1887.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION..
Improved Means of Regulating the Supply of Oil to the Burners of
Hydro-carbon and other Oil Lamps.
L, JOSEPH BEVERLEY FENBY, of Sutton Coldfield, in the County of Warwick,
Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement
--
The object of this invention is to control the pressure of oil by automatic appliances
when the said oil is placed at or forced up to a level higher than that desired to be
maintained at the place of consumption by the burners of the lamps.
The lower level for the lamps is supplied and maintained at a proper level in the
following manner :-
From the higher level a supply pipe leads into a well partly filled with quicksilver,
the said supply pipe dipping into the quicksilver to a suitable depth, according to the
head of oil to be controlled.
Approximately every seventeen inches head of oil will require an immersion of one
inch in the quicksilver. If the head of oil to be controlled or the specific gravity of
the oil or both should vary, the immersion of the supply pipe in the quicksilver must
also vary in proper proportion.
The accompanying drawings shew automatic means according to my invention for
effecting this variation of immersion.
Fig. 1 is a vertical section of one form of automatic regulator. Fig. 2 is a vertical
section of a modified form.
Referring first to Fig. 1 the oil is supplied by a pipe O the open mouth of which is
immersed in a cup of quicksilver M. This cup is suspended from the lever of a float F
within an oil vessel V from which a pipe I leads to the lamps or set of lamps in
which the oil has to be maintained at a constant level. The pipe O is immersed in the
quicksilver M to such a depth that the column of mercury above the mouth of the
pipe balances the column of oil.
Should the immersion be too little, oil passing freely from O tends to raise the level
of oil in the vessel V raising the float F and the quicksilver cup M, and so increasing
the depth to which is immersed. On the other hand, should the immersion be too
great the supply by the pipe O is arrested, so that the level of the oil in the vessel V
becomes lowered, lowering the float and the quicksilver vessel M, and thus reducing
the extent to which the pipe O is immersed.
According to the modification shewn by Fig. 2, the quicksilver vessel M is
stationary, but the level of the mercury in it is raised or lowered by the greater or
less immersion in it of a plunger P attached to the lever of the float F. As the float F
rises the plunger P descends raising the level of the quicksilver M and so increasing
the extent of immersion of the pipe O; as the float F descends the plunger P rises,
lowering the level of the quicksilver M and thus lessening the extent of immersion of
the pipe O.

page_text: The means of regulation above described may be used when the oil is supplied from
a reservoir at a high level, or when it is forced up to a high level for supplying lamps
at various levels as described in my previous Specification No. 3067 of 1887.
Although in what precedes I have mentioned oil as the liquid supplied, it is to be
understood that other suitable hydro-carbon liquids may have their supply regulated
in the manner set forth.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim in respect of means for regulating the supply of oil, or equivalent liquid to
lamps, is
1. The combination of an oil vessel with float, a quicksilver cup suspended from
the float lever, and a supply pipe having its open mouth more or less immersed in the
quicksilver according as the float is raised or lowered by the raising or lowering of
the oil level in the vessel, substantially as described with reference to Fig. 1.
2. The combination of an oil vessel with float, a quicksilver vessel with plunger
attached to the float lever, and a supply pipe having its open mouth more or loss
immersed in the quicksilver according as the float is raised or lowered by the raising
or lowering of the oil level in the vessel, substantially as described with reference to
Fig. 2.