A CERTAIN IMPROVE- MENT OR CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN RAISING AND LOWERING GAS AND OTHER LAMPS, LUSTRES, AND CHANDELIERS
Year: 1845

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
FINLAY, of Glasgow, in Scotland, Ironmonger, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victaria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Eighteenth day of November, in the ninth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said John Finlay, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, Her especial licence, full
power, sole privilege, and authority, that I, the said John Finlay, my exors,
adñiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Finlay, my exors,
adiñors, 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 expressed, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales,
and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A CERTAIN IMPROVE-
MENT OR CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN RAISING AND LOWERING GAS AND OTHER LAMPS,
LUSTRES, AND CHANDELIERS;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a pro-
viso, that I, the said John Finlay, shall cause a particular description of the
nature of my Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to
bo inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said in part 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
John Finlay, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and the

page_text: manner in which the same is to be performed or carried into effect, are fully
described and ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference
being had unto the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures
marked thereon. The same numbers are used in the several Figures to
indicate the same parts.
My Invention consists of a method or methods of supporting such gas and
other lamps, lustres, and chandeliers as require to be raised or lowered by
atmospheric pressure, and the method by which I apply atmospheric pressure
to the said purpose is as follows:-I attach to the ceiling of the room from
which the lamp, lustre, or chandelier is to be suspended a rod carrying at its
lower end a piston constructed in the manner herein-after particularly
described. The lamp, lustre, or chandelier to be suspended is connected to a
tube which is made to slide air-tight on the said piston. A vacuum being
produced in the tube beneath the piston, as herein-after particularly described,
the pressure of the atmosphere supports the said lamp, lustre, or chandelier.
The area of the piston and diameter of the tube in which it slides are propor-
tioned to the weight of the lamp, lustre, or chandelier to be supported. The
particular method of carrying my Invention into effect is illustrated in
Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4 of the accompanying Drawing, the said Figures repre-
senting my Invention applied to a gas lamp or lustre.
•
Figure 1 represents an outside view of a gas lamp or lustre slide of one
and one-eighth of an inch diameter. The part of the Figure marked 1
is à gas tube (supposed to be attached to the ceiling of the room) from
which gas tube the lamp or lustre is suspended by means of atmospheric
pressure, the said atmospheric pressure being brought into operation by means
of a vacuum in the cylinder at 13, 18, on the under side of the piston 5, 5;
the position of the said piston and of the tube 1 in this Figure are denoted
by the dotted lines. 3 is a screw for attaching the slide to the lustre, the
weight of which should be about twelve pounds, the weight which a cylinder
of the diameter herein-before mentioned is capable of supporting; 2 is a tube
placed within the roof tube 1, which said tube 2 conveys the gas to the arms
of the lamp or lustre, and is made fast at the screw 3.
Figure 2 shews an outside view of the roof tube 1 with the piston 5, 5, on
the lower end. The tube 2, indicated throughout the Figure by dotted lines,
is seen to project beyond the under side of the piston; 15 is a shoulder for
preventing the lamp or lustre tube, Figure 1, from sliding off the roof tube 1,
when the lamp or lustro is drawn down; 17 is a helical spring encircling the
tube 1, and resting on the said shoulder, and when the lamp or lustre is drawn
down to its fullest extent the cover of the cup 4 comes in contact with the

page_text: spring 17, and by compressing the said spring prevents the shock which
would otherwise be occasioned by the striking of the said cover against the
shoulder 15.
Figure 8 is a sectional representation of Figure 1; the piston is shewn
midway in the cylinder, and the exhausted or vacuum portion of the cylinder
is marked. 13, 13; 6, 6, represents oil which is put on the top of the piston
for lubricating the tube and keeping the leather cups 8, 8, and 9; 9, which
form the packing of the piston air-tight; 16, 16, are two small holes drilled
through the body of the piston, which holes are covered by a valve formed of a
leather washer 10, on which the brass washer 11 is pressed by the spiral
spring 12.
The object of the holes in the piston and the valve which covers them is to
produce and maintain the vacuum by which the pressure of the atmosphere is
brought into operation, for when the lustre tube, Figure 1, is raised, the air
which is included between the bottom of the piston 5, 5, and the bottom of
the said tube is compressed, and its elasticity causes it to raise the leather 10,
and brass 11, and escape through the oil 6, 6. When the tube has been
raised to its fullest extent, that is to say, until the bottom of the said tube is
brought into contact with the bottom of the piston 5, 5, the whole or nearly
the whole of the air is removed from under the said piston, and the spring 12
forces down the leather valve 10. On drawing down the lustre tube, Figure i,
the oil 6, 6, piston 5, 5, and valve 10, prevent the entrance of air under the
said piston, and the vacuum existing there causes the lustre tube and lustre
attached thereto to be supported by the pressure of the air external to the
said tube. If from any cause air or oil should have descended below the
piston, it may be made to escape through the holes 16, 16, by the raising of
the lustre tube, Figure 1; 7, 7, are two small holes made through the piston
5, 5, for feeding the inner cups 8, 8, and 14, 14, with oil.
The cup or washer 14, 14, is for the purpose of preventing the gas from
passing the sides of the tube 2, and coming out at the holes 7, 7, when the
level of the oil is below the said holes; 4 is a cup for receiving a part of the
oil when the lustre is drawn down.
Figure 4 is a sectional view of the roof tube 1 with the piston, exhibiting
the position of the inner tube 2; 19, 19, is a screw in the body of the piston,.
by which the leather cups 8, 8, and 9, 9, are kept in their respective places;
and 18, 18, is another screw for keeping the leather cup or washer 14, 14, in
its place.
'
Although in the foregoing description and in the accompanying Sheet of.
Drawings I have only described and represented my Invention applied to a

page_text: gas lamp or lustre, the application of my Invention to other lamps and
chandeliers is so obvious that I deem it unnecessary to describe particularly
any other application of my said Invention; for it is evident that where it is only
required to raise and lower a lamp, lustre, or chandelier without transmitting
gas or other fluid or liquid for the purpose of supplying combustible matter
through the same, it is only necessary to attach a rod and piston with a valve
to the ceiling of the room, and to attach a tube sliding air-tight on the said
piston to the lamp or chandelier. On pushing the said tube up until the
bottom of the piston is brought in contact with the bottom of the 'tube, the.
air is forced through the valve of the piston, and on drawing the tube down
again, the vacuum in the said tube causes the supporting of the lamp or lustre
by the pressure of the atmosphere on the exterior of the said tube.
Having thus explained the nature of my Invention, and having described
with reference to the relative Drawings the means or method by which the
same can be carried into effect, I would have it understood that I do not
confine myself to any particular method or to the exact materials mentioned
in the foregoing description, nor to the position or arrangement of the various
parts as described, for the same results, viz, the application of atmospheric
pressure as a suspending power, may be effected by means of different materials
and by various arrangements or combinations of parts; for example, the
same results might be obtained with any metallic piston, common packing
might be used in place of leather, and water might be used in place of oil,
and these different bodies might be placed in different positions, and according
to a different arrangement from that which I have described, and still be pro-
ductive of the same or a similar result. Neither do I limit myself to any
particular sizes or dimensions of tubes, cylinders, pistons, or other component
parts of gas or other lustres, lamps, or chandeliers, my Invention being capable
of being applied to lamps, lustres, and chandeliers of any size, the diameter
of the cylinder being always proportioned to the weight of the lustre intended
to be suspended therefrom. Thus, for example, a cylinder of three-quarters
of an inch internal diameter will suspend a weight of five pounds or there-
abouts, one of an inch about nine pounds, of one and a quarter inch about
sixteen pounds, of one and a half inch about twenty-three pounds, of one, and
three-quarter inches about thirty-two pounds; of two inches about forty-two
pounds, and so on for cylinders of larger diameter. In like manner any range
of motion required for a particular lustre (according to the height of ceiling
or otherwise) may be obtained by making the shell or lustre tube longer or
shorter, as the case may be, and the lengths of the other parts in proportion.
And I would have it further understood that I do not claim as new or forming

page_text: part of my Invention any parts or portions of the machinery or mechanism
above described taken by themselves, or the manner in which certain parts or
portions are combined without reference to the general effect or result. But
I claim as my Invention, the application of atmospheric pressure to the
raising and lowering of gas and other lamps, lustres, and chandeliers, by causing
the said atmospheric pressure to suspend or hold in equilibrium the said lamps,
lustres, and chandeliers, the said atmospheric pressure being brought into
operation by the production of a vacuum in a suitable part or in suitable
parts of the said lamps, lustres, and chandeliers, whether the vacuum neces-
sary to the said use of atmospheric pressure be produced and maintained by
the method herein-before described, or by any modification of the said method
which shall produce the same results.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Finlay, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-six.
Signed, sealed, and delivered, being first
duly stamped, before and in presence of
J. HUTCHINSON,
JOHN (L.S.) FINLAY.
of the City of Glascow Clerk-at-I
ROD. WILTON,
of the City of Glasgow, Clerk-at-Law.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-fourth day of April,
in the year of our Lord 1846, the aforesaid John Finlay came before our said
Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Seventh day of May. in the year of our Lord One thousand