A NEW APPLICATION OF THE ELECTRIC LIGHT FOR LIGHTING BUOYS OF EVERY DESCRIPTION
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Adolphe Miroude, of 18, Rue Lemire, Rouen, in
the Empire of France, for the Invention of "A NEW APPLICATION OF THE
ELECTRIC LIGHT FOR LIGHTING BUOYS OF EVERY DESCRIPTION."
Scaled the 4th December 1866, and dated the 20th June 1866.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Adolphe Miroude at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
20th June 1866.
I, ADOLPHE MIROUDE, of 18, Rue Lemire, Rouen, in the Empire of France,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "A NEW APPLICATION
OF THE ELECTRIC LIGHT FOR LIGHTING BUOYS OF EVERY DESCRIPTION," to be as
follows, that is to say :-
The Invention consists in the employment of the electric light for lighting
buoys without requiring any communication from the shore, by which they
can be increased in number and placed as far from the land as the sea or
river navigation requires. In a buoy of a construction which will remain in
equilibrium (the form I prefer being that of a hemisphere with a truncated
conical top) I place, instead of ballast necessary for producing the required
equilibrium, a receiver containing the exciting liquid of any suitable galvanic
be made
battery; preferably one with a constant current. The receiver may
of lead, sandstone, gutta percha, hardened or vulcanized india-rubber, mastic
of any kind or other suitable substance, protected by a sheet iron cylinder,
and is lowered down through the man-hole made in the upper part of the
buoy, and fixed at the base of the buoy. The conducting wires covered with

page_text: gutta percha conduct the current of the battery to the induction bobbin, the
coated wires of which react on a Geissler's tube (not patented in England con-
tained in a small lamp protected by a strong glass, or if necessary by a
lenticular apparatus similar to that employed in lighthouses. According to
the weight which the buoy to be lighted can bear, the cylinder battery will
contain 4, 6, and even 1800 or 2000 pounds weight, and according to the power
of the light required from the apparatus the battery will work during a week,
fifteen days, or a month. The principal object which I propose is not to
provide all buoys with a powerful apparatus for lighting, which from a long
distance will indicate to navigators the course to be followed, but to signal
these buoys in all weathers to prevent collisions so dangerous and so expensive,
and in difficult passages to point out the precise way to be followed (in
certain rivers, for instance). When the battery is exhausted. which will be
perceived by the loss of intensity of the light, it will be only necessary to raise
through the man-hole the receiver containing the elements, and to replace it by
another, and change if required the Geissler's tube; for experience shews that
after working several weeks the gas, whatever it may be, is more or less de-
composed according to its nature (nitrogen gas appears to be the best). The
movement of the induction bobbin is produced by the attraction of an electro-
magnet on a piece of soft iron fixed to the extremity of a spring.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Adolphe Miroude in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
19th December 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ADOLPHE
MIROUDE, of 18, Rue Lemire, Rouen, in the Empire of France, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the thirtieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Adolphe Miroude, Her special licence that I, the said Adolphe Miroude, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Adolphe
Miroude, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the
term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel

page_text: or
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "A NEW APPLICATION OF THE
ELECTRIC LIGHT FOR LIGHTING BUOYS OF EVERY DESCRIPTION," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Adolphe Miroude, my executors
administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of
their hands and scals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature
of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and
cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar
months next and inmediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Adolphe Miroude, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the Drawing hereto annexed, and to the
figures and letters marked thereon, that is to say:-
The Invention consists in the employment of the electric light for lighting
buoys without requiring any communication from the shore by which they
can be increased in number and placed as far from the land as the sea or
river navigation requires, my object being to light buoys by means of the
light produced by electricity, in the apparatus known as Geissler's tube, and
is carried out in the following manner :-I place in the buoy to be lighted,
whatever may be its dimensions and form, but arranged so as to keep in
equilibrium, a receiver or battery (of a size and weight in proportion to the
size of the buoy) producing an electric current, then a Ruhmkorff induction
bobbin, and lastly at its upper part I place a lamp furnished or not with
lenticular glasses, or glasses of any other form, in which lamp I set one or
several glass tubes or spheres known as Geissler's tubes. A plate or roofing
of metal or other suitable material may be placed above as a shelter for the
apparatus.
The main object of my Invention is the rendering the production of this
light independent, that is to say, dispensing during a certain time with all
communication between the buoy and the shore for the production of this
light. In this way the buoys may be left at any distance from the shore
without danger of being struck by ships during the night, whilst reefs, banks,
rocks, and other obstructions, passages, deep water, and other like charac-
teristics which they are intended to point out by day will be equally visible by
night. When the battery is exhausted, which will be perceived by the
diminished intensity of the light, it will only be necessary to raise the battery
through the inan-hole and replace it by another, and to change if required the
Geissler's tube; for experience shews that after working a certain time thic

page_text: gas, whatever it may be, is more or less decomposed according to its nature
(nitrogen gas has been found to be the best).
To make my Invention better understood I will now proceed to describe it
by reference to the accompanying Drawing, which represents a buoy furnished
with the above described apparatus. A is the buoy; B is the lamp for
spreading the light furnished by the Geissler's tube C; D and E are the wires
from the bobbin G to the tube C; F is the roof or cover for protecting
the Geissler's tube C; G is the Ruhmkorff bobbin or other suitable apparatus
producing analogous effects as required; H is the battery for producing
electricity; I, man-hole.
Having thus described my Invention, and the manner of performing the
same, I wish it to be understood that I do not confine myself to the precise
details herein laid down, as the battery can be of any known system, and the
buoy may be of a different construction to that shewn, nor do I confine myself
to the place occupied by the battery on or in the buoy; but what I claim is,
the lighting buoys at sea in smooth and in shallow water by means of the
electric light, the production of which does not necessitate a continual com-
munication with the shore, as herein-before described and shewn in the
accompanying Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said Adolphe Miroude, have hereto set my hand
and seal, this Eleventh day of December, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.
A. MIROUDE. (L.S.)
Rue Lemire, Rouen