IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CARBON CANDLES OR POINTS AND OF CARBON PLATES FOR ELECTRIC LIGHTING AND OTHER PURPOSES." SP
Year: 1879

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Felix John de Hamel, of 70, Avenue Road, Regent s
Park, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF CARBON CANDLES OR POINTS AND OF CARBON PLATES
FOR ELECTRIC LIGHTING AND OTHER PURPOSES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Felix John de Hamel at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 25th June 1879.
FELIX JOHN DE HAMEL, of 70, Avenue Road, Regent's Park, in the County of
Middlesex. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CARBON CANDLES OR
POINTS AND OF CARBON PLATES FOR ELECTRIC LIGHTING AND OTHER PURPOSES."
The Invention consists in the introduction into or combination with compressed
or solid cut carbon candles or points of any form for electric lighting or other
electrical purposes in the process of manufacture thereof, or otherwise, of one or
more wire or wires of iron or other metal or metallic alloys either through
the centre, or inserted in, attached to, or embedded in such carbon candles or
points, or in the surface thereof, or in any direction into, through, or around
the same.
Also in the introduction into or combination with compressed or solid cat carbon
plates for electric lighting or other electrical purposes, or for use in galvanic
batteries in the process of manufacture of such plates of one or more wire or wires,
sheet or sheets, plate or plates, of iron or other metal or metallic alloys of any
shape, and inscrted in, attached to, or embedded in such carbon plates or in the
surface thereof in any direction.
Also in the manufacture of compressed or solid cut carbon candles or points with
or without the introduction therein or combination therewith of iron wire or iron
plates of the kind and in the manner before described, of tubular or cylindrical
form, or partially hollow, or hollow throughout for the introduction of such sub-
stances or inaterials as may be required or deemed necessary to impart colour to
electric light or produce lights of different hues or colours for signals or other
purposes.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by'
the said Felix, John, de Hamel in, the Great Seal Patent Office on the 24th
December 1879.
FELIX JOHN DE HAMEL, of 70, Avenue' Road, Regent's Park, in the County of
Middlesex. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CARBON CANDLES OR
POINTS AND OF CARBON PLATES FOR ELECTRIC LIGHTING AND OTHER PURPOSES."
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of carbon
rods or candles, plates, and hollow, cylindrical, or other shaped carbons for electric
lighting and other purposes.
וי
The principal machinery employed 'consists of a cylindrical press, the cylinder
of which is of iron or other suitable metal, and is so mounted on a bed or frame-
work as to be capable of adjustment to any inclination from a horizontal to a
perpendicular position, or being set at an angle of any intermediate degree of
inclination. The cylinder is open at one end and receives a closely fitting plunger
or propeller. A moveable head piece is attached at the other end, open in the
centre and grooved crosswise on the face for the reception of moveable plates or
dies of steel, brass, or other suitable metal or materials, such plates having orifices
of circular, square, triangular, or other shape or form and size adapted to produce
the rod or candle required as the paste or material of which they are made is
expelled through the die or orifice. The cylinder of the press has, if desired, an
opening at the top or upper part, securable by a close fitting door or plug hinged,
bolted, or otherwise fastened, so that the cylinder may be fed with the carbon paste
through this opening, or the cylinder may be fed at the end through which the
propeller enters when set to work. The propeller may be driven in the cylinder
by means of a screw or rod worked either by manual labour, steam, hydraulic
pressure, or other power, so as to drive the carbon paste through the orifice in use.
The carbon pencil as it emerges and travels away is received on a tray of wood,
zinc, or other suitable material, grooved by preference with a groove to guide the
article formed as it emerges from the orifice and keep it straight.
The tray is set at the same inclination as the cylinder or thereabout, and as may
be found most convenient for the size of candle which is being produced. There is
also a support. upon the tray to sustain the iron or other wire on which the carbon
candle is to be formed.
'
The paste used consists of finely pulverized carbon moistened by an admixturo
of molasses or oil to the required consistency.
The paste now in use for the manufacture of carbons for electric light may be
employed.
The mode of manufacturing the carbon rods, candles, or other articles with wire
of iron or other metal (soft iron wire being preferred) is as follows:-The propeller
having been drawn back or out of the cylinder and the latter charged with paste
of the required consistency, the end of the propeller is introduced into the cylinder
and the wire is inserted through the centre of the orifice or moulding die in.the
cross plate already described, and pushed through the paste in the cylinder until
it reaches the end of the propeller which is then put in motion when the wire in
the cylinder will travel through and out with the paste, forming a wired carbon of
the required length, whereupon it will be severed and removed, and the process
of introducing fresh wire to touch the propeller and be expelled as before will be
repeated as long as sufficient paste remains in the cylinder to make a carbon rod
of the required length. Afterwards the process of withdrawing the propeller,
recharging the cylinder, and proceeding as before will be repeated. When wire too
thin to bear expulsion by the action of the propeller without injuriously bending
is required the following mode is adopted:-One end of the fine wire is fastened
to a loop or small hook in the end of the propeller, and the other end carried
through the cylinder and the dio or orifice to a distant point outside, where it is

page_text: fastened to a moveable block to keep it on the stretch, and in passing through the
cylinder it travels through a fine groove on the top of a thin plate, serving as a
guide within the cylinder. The guide is near to and its groove on a level with the
centre of the die or orifice. The end towards the propeller of this thin support or
guide being sharp offers no detrimental resistance to the passage of the paste to and
through the orifice; or instead of fastening one end of the wire to a loop or hook
in the propeller, the wire is provided in bulk on a spool or in a coil, or other con-
venient mode or form for supply is resorted to. The end is passed through a hole
in the propeller, bored from the outer end to the centre of the other end and thence
carried through the press, but restrained by the pressure of a spring or other con-
trivance where it enters the propeller sufficient to maintain its proper tension
during its passage through the press. This method prevents the necessity for
fastening a fresh wire to the end of the propeller for each successive wired carbon.
When the plunger is set in motion the block to which the external end of the wire
is fixed travels away at the same rate with it and keeps the wire, whether fastened
to or passing through the propeller, on the stretch until a carbon of the required
length is made and severed, and this process may be repeated until the contents of
the cylinder are converted into wired carbons.
Hollow and cylindrical carbons are produced like the foregoing except that the
hollow is preserved by a rod of the requisite diameter and length, which is with-
drawn from the carbon when it is delivered from the press. The hollow carbons
are when required to produce different lights filled with colour giving chemicals.
Carbons with wires or rods on or embedded in the surface are made in the same
manner as those already described, except that the wires are put in after the
carbons are moulded; there are projections or groove cutters at the sides of the die
or orifice by which grooves are ploughed in the surface of the carbon as it emerges
from the cylinder. Into these grooves the wires are laid and smoothed over by
gentle pressure with a trowel shaped instrument whilst the carbons are humid, in
order to embed the wires more firmly.
Carbon plates with metallic sheets or wires inserted are made by rolling heavily
carbon paste into sheets of any given size, but half the required thickness, and after
placing between two of these sheets the metallic addition in the required position
the plate is solidified by re-rolling heavily.
The carbon pencils and plates are finished by drying and baking in the usual
way.
What I claim is the manufacture, substantially as herein described, of candles, or
points, or plates of carbon combined with wire or metal.
In witness whereof, I, the said Felix John de Hamel, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seventy nine.
F. J. DE HAMEL. (L.S.)