US1055185A - Mercury and other vapor electric lamp. - Google Patents

Description

H. A. KENT & H. G. LAOELL.

MERCURY AND OTHER VAPOR ELECTRIC LAMP.

APPLICATION FILED DEC. 27, 1911.

Patented Mar. 4, 1913.

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. HENRY ANDREW KENT, BOUNDS GREEN, AND HAROLD GEORGE LACELL, OF I FINCHLEY, ENGLAND, LASSIGNORS TO THE SILICA SYNDICATE LIMI ITED, OF I LONDON, ENGLAND.

.MERCURY AND. OTHER VAPOR ELECTRIC LAMP.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 4, 1913.

To all whom it may concern: I

Be it known that we, HENRY ANDREW KENT and HAROLD GEORGE LAOELL, both subjects of the King of Great Britain and Ireland, and respectively residents of The Poplars, Maidstone Road, Bounds Green, county of Middlesex, England, and Ardoch, Nether street, Finchley, in said county, have invented new and useful Improvements in Mercury and other Vapor Electric Lamps, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to mercury, and other vapor, electric lamps of the general character described in the specifications of Letters Patents Nos. 923124 and 939708 granted to us, and the objects'of the present invention are to provide such. lamps with eflicient means for starting the lamp, for preventing impediment to the working of the lamp by'small quantities of air, or gas, remaining in the lamp after it has been charged with mercury, or other vaporizable matter, or entering the lamp from the ends and obstructing the passages to and from the cups and for efiiciently closing the lamp containing the mercury, or other vaporizable matter, for transport with convenience and safe y.

We will, for the purposes of description, presume that mercury is the vaporlzable matter used in the lamp.

The means for starting the lamp are such that quick and forcible generation of vapor is caused to take place to start the arc in the illuminating portion of the lamp by breaking the column of mercury therein. For this purpose there is, in communication with the illuminating portion of the lamp, a receptacle containing mercury and in communication with the said receptacle, by means of a contracted passage, or nozzle, is another receptacle also containing mercury and an electric heater is so applied that the mercury in the first receptacle is first vaporized and then this receptacle becomes heated to a very high temperature, and afterward the mercury in the second rece tacle becomes heated and passes into t e first receptacle, the intense heat of which rapidly converts the mercury into such high tension vapor that, by it, the column of mercury in the ill-uminating portion of the lamp is broken and the are rapidly formed.

A device for the aforesaid purpose is illustrated in section in the accompanying drawing, showing a lamp in section.

The said device consists of a tube 1, communicating with the illuminating portion 2, of the lamp, the said tube 1, being closed at its lower end and provided, at a suitable distance above that end, with a division, or partition, 3, and upwardly projecting nozzl e 4 the parts above and below the said division, or partition, 3 constituting, respectively, the aforesaid first and second receptacles which cause the arc to be struck rapidly as hereinbefore explained. The said receptacles are surrounded by an electric heater, the connections with the electric supply of the lamp being so made that the current at first passes through the heater and, after the arc has been started, the heater is short-circuited by the rise of mer cury in the lamp, for example as explained in the specification of the aforesaid Letters Patent No. 939708.

When the current is switched on to start the present lamp it flows through the re sistance wire and heats the tube 1 to such degree that the temperature of the mercury is raised to the boiling point. The hottest portion of the mercury in the tube is located substantially at or a trifle above the septum 3. The result is that the mercury lying just above the septum is vaporized and the expansion of thls vapor forces the column above it in the tube out into the lamp leaving the tube below the septum momentarily full of liquid mercury. A few seconds now suffice to bring the portion of the tube above the septum and its contained vapor to red heat. This state having been obtained the liquid mercury below the septum has become sufliciently heated to raise it to the boiling temperature and the production of vapor therein parts this column below the septum at about its mid-point and forces liquid mercury through the noz-' zle 4 into the red hot portion of the tube above the septum- 3, with the result that vapor is produced in the upper portion of wire is cut out, as described in the Patent 939,708 above mentioned.

In the drawing the portion 2 is shown contracted but of course if the general bore of the lamp tube be suitable for the portion 2 such contraction will not be required.

For preventing impediment to the working of the lamp by small quantities of air, or gas, which may be in the lamp, the cups 5, at the top into which the mercury rises through a contracted passage, are each formed with a funnel-shaped bottom 6, inside the upper ends of the lamp, the said funnel-shaped bottoms having a small orifice 7, for the passage of mercury to and from the cups, the spaces 8, surrounding the said funnel-shaped bottoms 6, forming receptacles for the aforesaid air, or gas. For enabling the lamp containing the mercury to be safely transported, each of the said cups 5, is provided with a closing device, such as a valve, or stopper, by which an immovable column of mercury can be maintained between the orifices 7, at the funnel shaped bottoms 6, of the cups 5, until the lamp is installed for use. These closing devices may each consist, for example, as illustrated in the drawing, of a ball 9, of resilient material carried by a stem 10, screwed through a stopper 11, fixed 'in the upper end of each cup 5, and provided with a milled head 12. If it be desired to limit the pressure in the lamp to that of the atmosphere, or a few centimeters of mercury above that of the atmosphere, then each of the stoppers 11 is provided with a passage 13, open to the atmosphere when. the .lamp is at work, which passage 13, when the lamp is to be transported, can be closed by any suitable means, such as by screwing down a nut 14, on the valve stem 10, so as to close the said air passage .13, preferably with the intervention of a washer 15, situated between the said nut 14, and the top of the stopper 11. When the lamp is to be used, the said closing devices are screwed. away from their seats and if there be air passages through the stoppers, the means which effect their closure can be removed, or operated, and communication with the atmosphere be established above the mercury when such communication, is required.

It is to be understood that this invention is not limited to the precise details shown posed in any desired position relatively to the other portions of the lamp.

lVhat we claim is 1. In a vapor electric lam of the character described, a lamp bo y adapted to contain a vaporizable liquid, and a starting device therefor comprising communicating receptacles for the vaporizable liquid one of which is open to the lamp body, in combination with means for heating said receptacles to vaporize the liquid in the one which is open to the lamp, in f dvance of the other, for the purpose described.

2. In a vapor electric lamp, a starting device comprising a chamber communicating with the lamp body, a second chamber communicating with the first, and heating means to expel the vaporizable liquid in the first chamber andthen introduce into the thus heated chamber vaporizable liquid from the second chamber to produce the rapid vaporization of said liquid from the second chamber, for the purpose described.

3. In a vapor electric lamp, a starting de- 4. In a vapor electric lamp, a starting device comprising a tube open to the lamp body, an apertured septum dividing said tube into communicating chambers, and a resistance winding on the tube arranged to vaporize the liquid in the chamber open to the lamp body in advance of that 1n the chamber beyond the septum, for the purpose described.

5. In a vapor electric lamp, a starting device comprising a tube open to the lamp body, a septum with nozzle dividing said tube into communicating chambers, and a resistance winding on the tube' arranged to vaporize the liquid in the chamber open to the lamp body in advance of that in the chamber beyond the septum, for the purpose described.

6. In a vapor electric lamp, a hollow body portion and cups at each end thereof, the bottoms of said cups being funnel-shaped with central aperture, and the body portion of the lamp being enlarged at the juncture with said cups to form a chamber surrounding the funnel-shaped bottom of the cups,

of the lamp being enlarged at the juncture names to this specification in the presence of with said cups to form a chamber surroundtwo subscribing witnesses.

ing the funnel-shaped bottom of the cups, HENRY ANDREW KENT.

together with plug closures for the aper- HAROLD GEORGE LACELL. 5 tures in said funnel-shaped bottoms of the Witnesses:

cups, for the purpose described. Geo. T. FULLER,

In testimony whereof we have signed our CHAS. W. CROCKER.

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