US195945A - Improvement in carriage-lanterns - Google Patents

Description

F. PARK. Carriage-Lantern.

N 0. 195,945. Patented Oct. 9, 1877.

i", 1! Mini! N.PE!ERS. FHOTOLTHOGRAPNER WASHINGTON D O UNITED. STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FRANCIS PARK, OF DEERFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN CARRIAGE-LANTERNS.

Specification fomning part of Letters Patent No. 195,945, dated October 9, 1877; application filed May 31, 1877.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANCIS PARK, of Deerfield, in the county of Franklin and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Carriage-Lanterns; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full and accurate description of the same, which, with the accompanying drawings, will enable any one skilled in the art to which it pertains to make and use the same.

. My invention relates to that class of lanterns which are mainly intended to be used on wagons or other vehicles for use in traveling at night, and is particularly intended to be attached to the shafts of a single wagon or gig, though it may be attached to other parts of a carriage, and can also be used conveniently as a hand-lantern.

In order more fully to illustrate and explain my invention, reference is had to the accompanyin g drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which- Figure 1 represents a perspective view of my lantern, with one side broken away to develop the interior. Fig, 2 is a view of the lamp, reflector, and lens or bulls-eye, connected together and arranged on a slide to be inserted or withdrawn at will. Fig. 3 shows the lantern as attached to the shaft of a wagon.

The earlier and still more common kind of carriage lanterns were supplied with light from a candle placed underneath the case of the lamp in a tube, and fed up for combustion by a spiral spring. These give an insuflicient light, are somewhat cumbersome, and objectionable on other accounts. Succeeding and somewhat superseding these are various oillamps of diiferent forms and with various devices, but all of them liable to some objection, as the difficulty of keeping them burning when subjected to a gust of wind or sudden jar, and the unsatisfactory light they give when attached to the side of a wagon, while it is inconvenient to detach them, and utterly impossible to use them for any other purpose.

My lantern, which I believe to be free from all these objections, is intended specially to be attached to the shafts of a wagon, one on each side of the horse, say between the holdbackstrap and the axle. It is there out of the way of the mud from the wheels and from the horses feet. It sends the light forward from a low level, and directly on the road without blinding the driver with side lights. It cannot be displaced by the jarring of the shafts in traveling, and cannot be extinguished by a jar nor by a gust of wind. It is readily attached and detached, and by the adjustable handle can be used on the road, in the stable, or about the house, as readily and more agreeably than an ordinary hand-lantern.

In Fig. 1 of the drawings, A is the case of the lantern, which is made of a square form, having a perforated bottom for the admission of air, and a double ventilator at top, with apertures in each opening in opposite direc tions. This may be made of tin japanned, or of other metal, the side being represented as broken away. Within may be seen the lamp, the reflector, and the. glass lens or bulls-eye, all attached together and to a helm-cylindrical slide.

Projecting above the case is a handle, B, with prolonged ends, which, extending down in two diagonally-opposite corners, allow it to be withdrawn far enough to carry the lantern with convenience and without burning the hand.

Fig. 2.-O is a lamp, arranged on a hemicylindrical slide, having the wicks midway between the reflector and the lens in front. The reservoir for the oil extends back under the reflector, and has on its rear end a small spiral spring, which, by pressure against the back of the case, aids in withdrawing the slide with the lamp. A pin passing through the wicktubes prevents the wicks from jarring down.

This lamp may be arranged for burning kerosene as well as whale oil.

011 the same slide at the rear end is a metallic reflector, D, secured to the slide and to the lamp. In the front of the slide is secured an ordinary bulls-eye or plano-convex lens, E, for dispersing the light.

The slide, in the ends of which are fastened the reflector and the lens, is a hollow cylinder.

of tin or other metal, having the principal pon tion of its sides cut away to a point below the line of the flame in the lamp, and having secured on its under side, and near the front end, a spring, F, with a projecting thumb-piece,

and a shoulder to catch within the case of the lantern, and to retain it in place.

On one side of the lantern is secured a tongue with a shoulder. This projects down nearly as far as the bottom of the lantern, and enters into a socket fastened to the shaft of a wagon, where it is so securely held as not to be thrown out by any jar or shock in traveling. It may also be attached to the sides of a wagon, or, by a change of the fastening from the side to the back of the lantern, may be placed upon the dash-board of a double wagon, when it would be efl'ectual.

It is intended that the tongues on the sides of the lantern shall be on opposite sides, to make a pair for the right and left shaft. It

will also be found to be an exceedingly convenient lantern for ordinary uses.

I clain1 1. The combination, in a carriage-lantern, of the lamp, the reflector, and the lens, all on one slide, with a spring to hold it in place.

2. In a carriage-lantern, the combination of the lamp, the reflector, and the lens on a slide in a case, with an adjustable handle, and with a tongue and socket for attaching it to the shafts or other part of a wagon or other carriage.

- FRANCIS PARK. In presence of J AMES S. GRINNELL, M10. D. PATTEN.

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