A LAMP WITH ITS APPENDAGES
Year: 1811

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
FERGUSON, of Barbican, in the City of London, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom, bearing date
at Westminster, the Fourteenth day of March, in the fifty-first year of His
reign, give and grant unto me, the said George Ferguson, my exors, adñiors,
and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I,
the said George Ferguson, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, should and lawfully
might, during the term of years therein express, make, use, exercise, and vend,
within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention
of "A LAMP WITH ITS APPENDAGES;" in which said Letters Patent there is
contained a proviso, obliging me, the said George Ferguson, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and scal, to cause a particular description of the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be enrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within two calendar
months after the date of the said. recited Letters Patent, as in and by the
same, relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said George Ferguson, in compliance with
the said proviso, do hereby describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, that is to say:-
My appendage to be applied to any lamp is as follows:-In order to soften
the rays of light which requires some guard for the eye in all lamps giving a

page_text: strong light, I have invented a glass globe of any size, suppose 5 or 6 inches
diameter, in which globe I fix the usual tube used with an argand lamp
for rarefaction of the air, either straight or larger at bottom, with a neck just
above the light, in order to accelerate the rarefied air and to bring the same
more effectually into contact with the flame of the lamp; this globe and the
stube being sealed together at the bottom by fusion or by cement; the globe
may then be fill with pure water, which softens the light, and if required a
glass globe may be filled with any chemical coloured liquid so as to produce
a colour which may be useful in signals in the army or navy, or may be very
gratifying in illuminations. I also have a method of producing the effect of
my Invention for use in apartments, counting-houses, shops, churches, chapels,
streets, and numerous other uses, by omitting the water or coloured liquid,
and instead thereof taking off the glazed surface from the inside of the globe, or
from both inside or outside, so as to prevent the rays of light from the flame
of the lamp from coming too forcibly on the eye, thus producing by either of
these means the soltness of light which I have described. The lamps best
suited to my Invention I call a compressed air lamp, in which lamp by a true
construction the oil will be maintained always at the same elevation; this I
.have effected in a true and philosophical manner by a lamp in the form of a
column, or of a vase, or any other convenient form. Take out the stopper and
fill the two upper chambers with oil, then put in the stopper and the lamp is
ready for lighting; always after the first change the lamp must be inverted to
allow the oil, which by compression has descended to the bottom, to return
again to the upper chamber; then reinstating the lamp, take out the stopper,
and charge it as in the first instance, again put in the stopper, it is ready for
use; the oil will riso to the top of the tube, and the same elevation of oil will
be supported until the oil has ascended, and by the counter pressure of air
has arisen to the burning flame.
My Invention herein consists only in the just proportions in the several
vessels and tubes described in the Drawing hereto annexed, for want of
understanding which several ways have been made which have proved
imperfect. I also adopt the spiral burner invented by Benjamin-Southcombe,
in the year One thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine, but not as part of
my Inventions.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Ferguson, have hereunto, set my
hand and seal, the Sixth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and eleven.
GEORGE FERGUSON. (L.S.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Sixth day of May, in the
year of our Lord 1811, the aforesaid George Ferguson came before our
said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Eighth day of May, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and eleven.