We are going to make known to our readers two new styles of electric
lighters whose operation is sure and quick, and the use of which is just
as economical as that of those quasi-incombustible little pieces of wood
that we have been using for some years under the name of matches.
[Illustration: Fig. 1.--MODE OF USING THE GAS LIGHTER.]
The first of these is a portable apparatus designed for lighting gas
burners, and is based upon the calorific properties of the electric
spark produced by the induction bobbin. Its internal arrangement is such
as to permit of its being used with a pile of very limited power and
dimensions. The apparatus has the form of a rod of a length that may be
varied at will, according to the height of the burner to be lighted, and
which terminates at its lower part in an ebonite handle about 4
centimeters in width by 20 in length (Fig. 1). This handle is divided
into two parts, which are shown isolatedly in Fig. 2, and contains the
pile and bobbin. The arrangement of the pile, A, is kept secret, and all
that we can say of it is that zinc and chloride of silver are employed
as a depolarizer. It is hermetically closed, and carries at one of its
extremities a disk, B, and a brass ring, C, attached to its poles and
designed to establish a communication between the pile and bobbin when
the two parts of the apparatus are screwed together. To this end, two
elastic pieces, D and E, fit against B and C and establish a contact. It
is asserted that the pile is capable of being used 25,000 times before
it is necessary to recharge it. H is an ebonite tube that incloses and
protects the induction bobbin, K, whose induced wire communicates on the
one hand with the brass tube, L, and on the other with an insulated
central conductor, M, which terminates at a point very near the
extremity of the brass tube. The currents induced in this wire produce a
series of sparks between the tube, L, and the rod, M, which light the
gas when the extremity of the apparatus is placed in proximity with the
burner.
[Illustration: Fig. 2. MECHANISM OR THE INDUCTION SPARK GAS LIGHTER.]
The ingenious and new part of the system lies in the mode of exciting
the induced currents. When the extremity of the tube, L, is brought near
the gas burner that is to be lighted, it is only necessary to shove the
botton, F, from left to right in order to produce a _limited_ number of
sparks sufficient to effect the lighting. The motion of the button has
not for effect, as might be believed, the closing of the circuit of the
pile upon the inducting circuit of the bobbin. In fact in its normal
position, the vibrator is distant from its contact, and the closing of
the circuit would produce no action. The motion of F produces a
_mechanical_ motion of the spring of the vibrator, which latter acts for
a few instants and produces a certain number of contacts that give rise
to an equal number of sparks. Owing to this arrangement, the expenditure
of electric energy required by each lighting is limited; and, an another
hand, the vibrator, which would be incapable of operating if it had to
be set in motion by the direct current from the pile, can be actuated
_mechanically_. As the motion of the vibrator is derived from the hand
of the operator, and not from the pile, it will be comprehended that the
latter can, everything being equal, produce a larger number of lightings
than an ordinary bobbin and vibrator.
[Illustration: Fig. 3.--INCANDESCENT GAS LIGHTER.]
Dr. Naret's _Fiat Lux_ (Fig. 3) is simpler in its operation, and cheaper
of application, since it takes its current from the ordinary piles that
supply domestic call-bells. It consists essentially of a fine platinum
wire supported by a tilting device in connection with the two poles of a
pile composed of three Leclanche elements. Upon exerting a vertical
pressure on the button placed to the left of the apparatus, either
directly or by means of a cord, we at the same time turn the cock and
cause the platinum spiral to approach, and the latter then becomes
incandescent as a consequence of the closing of the circuit of the pile.
After the burner is lighted it is only necessary to leave the apparatus
to itself. The cock remains open, the spiral recedes from the burner,
the circuit opens anew, and the burner remains lighted until the gas is
turned off. This device, then, is particularly appropriate in all cases
where there is a pressing need of light, for a single maneuver suffices
to open the cock and effect a lighting of the burner.--_La Nature_.
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