US3357211A - Gas lighter - Google Patents

Description

J. F. HERI ec. l2, 1967 GAS LIGHTER 2 Sheets-Sheet l Filed March 8, 1965 'FIC Flea

J. F. HERI Dec. 12, 1967 GAS LIGHTER 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed March 8, 1965 FIGA United States Patent O 3,357,211 GAS LIGHTER Joseph Franz Heri, Bienne, Switzerland, assignor to Manufacture Samao SA., Bienne, Switzerland, a firm Filed Mar. 8, 1965, Ser. No. 437,899 1 Claim. (Cl. 67-7.1)

The present invention has for its object a gas lighter of the type including a body forming a gas container, a combustion nozzle, a valve controlling the input of gas into said nozzle, a flame extinguisher pivotally secured to said body and adapted to be selectively raised so as to allow ignition of the lighter or folded back over the nozzle so as to extinguish the ame, While means are provided for holding the valve in its closed condition at least as long as the flame extinguisher caps the nozzle. In such lighters, the flame extinguisher is controlled by an elastic blade secured at one end to a part of the lighter body, while its other end is slightly raised and acts on the flame extinguisher in the vicinity of the pivotal axis of the latter, so as to return elastically said extinguisher into its nozzlecapping position when it is attempted to move it away against the action of said blade, or else so as to hold the extinguisher in its raised position While the opening of the valve is performed through a raising of one of its component parts. According to the present invention, the lighter is designed in a manner such that when the flame extinguisher is raised and said raised section of the elastic blade is caused to bend, said blade pivots slightly round a transverse line of fold, whereby its end secured to the valve rises to a sufficient extent for it to open said valve.

The accompanying drawings illustrate by Way of example a preferred embodiment of said invention. In said drawings:

FIGURE l is a vertical transverse cross-sectional view of the lighter.

FIGURES 2 and 3 are detail views of the mechanism on a larger scale in longitudinal ve-rtical cross-sectional views.

FIGURE 4 is a cross-section on a very large scale of the valve incorporated with the lighter according to FIG- URE 1.

As illustrated in FIGURE l, the gas lighter includes a recessed bod-y 1 the lower end of which is closed by a bottom 2 and forming a container for a mass 3 of liquefied gas introduced into the container through a valve 4 provided in said bottom; said fuel is fed into a combustion nozzle 5 through the adjusting valve 6. To the body 1 is pivotally secured at 1a the arm 7a rigid with the llame extinguisher 7 controlled by the elastic 'blade 8 and adapted to be held selectively in its lower position illustrated in FIGURE 2 for which position the llame extinguisher caps the nozzle, or else, it may be brought into its raised position illustrated in FIGURE 3 when it is desi-red to ignite the lighter. Said ignition is obtained in a conventional manner by causing a knurled wheel 9 to turn and to frictionally engage a int 10. The structure of the valve 6 carried by the lighter need not be described with any detail. The output of gas is adjusted by angularly shifting a socket 12 through the agency of a lever terminating with a ring 11 so as to screw said socket 12 into an outer socket 13 which is locked against angular movement, said socket 12 acting vertically on an annular packing 14 with the interposition of the dished member 15 inside which said packing is fitted. Thus, any modification in the pressure exerted by the dished member 15 on the packing 14 leads to a corresponding modication in diameter of the axial bore in said packing, whereby consequently the iiow of gas adapted to feed the nozzle 5 of the valve is throttled to an adjustable extent.

The flow of gas may furthermore be cut off 'by another packing 16 fitted inside a recess formed at the lower end of the body of the nozzle 5, which latter is adapted to slide duid-tightly inside the socket 12 while it may be raised against the action of a return spring 17. The gas can there-fore feed the nozzle only when the latter is in its raised position and has released the packing 16.

In the lighter illustrated, the valve opens automatically under the action of the spring 8 as soon as the llame extinguisher is slightly raised above its position illustrated in FIGURE 2 so as to be shifted into the position illustrated in FIGURE 3. a

The left-hand end of the spring 8 is engaged in fact through an opening 8a over the body of the nozzle 5 and it is locked in an axial direction on said nozzle by a clip 19 engaging an annular groove 5a in the nozzle body, Whereas the right-hand end of the spring 8 is bent upwardly and engages elastically the pivotal arm 7a carrying the actual flame extinguisher 7; in fact when the flame extinguisher is turned down into its lower position illustrated in FIGURE 2, the spring 8 engages the inner surface of the pivoting arm and it engages the shorter transverse edge of the arm perpendicular to the firstmentioned surface when said arm is raised into its vertical position illustrated in FIGURE 3, the spring engaging for all the intermediate positions the ridge of the pivotal arm 7a along the meeting line between said normally lower horizontal surface and normally transverse edge of the arm.

The data defining the elasticity of the blade 8 and ofthe valve-controlling spring 17 are selected in a manner such that when the flame extinguisher and its arm have been raised by a height corresponding to a pivotal angle of about 30, the spring executes a rocking movement in the direction f round its line of fold 8b, the amplitude of which movement is sufhcient for the outer end of the spring t-o raise the nozzle 5 against the antagonistic spring 17, whereby the gas contained in the lighter is allowed to iiow out of the nozzle. The flow of fluid continues obviously when the llame extinguisher reaches its vertical position illustrated in FIGURE 3 and it stops when the flame extinguisher is being returned into the position illustrated in FIGURE 2 as soon as the iiame extinguisher and arm form again an angle substantially equal to 30 with the upper surface of the lighter.

Of course, the angular position of the flame extinguisher for which the valve opens or closes may be dilierent from 30 as may be obtained by modifying the design and elasticity of the blade 8 or of the spring 17.

The present invention is not limited to the arrangement described and illustrated and, in particular, although reference has been made only to a lighter in which the llame extinguisher is controlled manually, it is of course possible to incorporate the invention with a lighter provided With an elastic ilame extinguisher, that is a flame extinguisher which returns into its vertical position under the control of a spring which has been tensioned by the preceding turning down of the ilame extinguisher into its extinguishing position.

What is claimed is:

In a gas lighter comprising a gas container, a combustion nozzle fed by said container to produce a flame, a valve biased by a spring into closed position and communicating with said nozzle for controlling the ilow of gas through said nozzle and adapted to be shifted between an open and a closed position, means urging the valve into its closed position, a flame extinguisher including an arm pivotally secured to the container provided adjacent its pivotal axis with an outer short transverse surface and an inner longitudinal surface, said ame extinguisher being adapted to be shifted between a collapsed position capping the nozzle to extinguish the llame and a raised position releasing said valve, the provision of an elastic blade provided with a transverse line of fold secured to. the container, one end of which is slightly raised and is adapted to engage the lla-me extinguisher at a point adjacent its pivotal axis selectively along the transverse and along the longitudinal surface -of said flame extinguisher arm thereby to urge the llame extinguisher into either of its above-mentioned positions, means permanently securing the other end of the blade over said valve, the shifting of the flame extinguisher into either position shifting the corresponding end of the blade to make the latter rock round its transverse line of fold to raise and open said valve against said elastic blade for the raised position `of the flame extinguisher and to release said valve for the collapsed position of the llame extinguisher.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,671,328 3/ 1954 Flamm 67-7.1 3,149,484 9/1964 Kobayashi 67-7 .1

FOREIGN PATENTS 1,091,789 11/ 1954 France.

316,88() 12/ 1956 Switzerland.

EDWARD I. MICHAEL, Primary' Examiner.

Images