US3218831A - Burner jet and valve for cigarette lighter of the gas type - Google Patents

Description

v Nov. 23, 1965 s. H. NEWMAN BURNER JET AND VALVE FOR CIGARETTE LIGHTER OF THE GAS TYPE Filed April 18, 1962 INVENTOR STmvLEY A. NEWMAN United States Patent Filed Apr. 18, 1962, Ser. No. 188,410 3 Claims. (Cl. 677.1)

This application is a continuation-in-part of my copending application Serial No. 671,053, filed July 10, 1957, now abandoned.

This invention relates generally to improvements in cigarette lighters of the so-called gas type, meaning of the type utilizing butane gas or the like as fuel. In such lighters the fuel is contained in a suitable tank or receptacle under such pressure that the major portion of it is normally in liquid form and one of the difliculties encountered heretofore has been to provide for ready control of the gas to the jet or burner for ignition, while ensuring against leakage at all other times.

The object of the present invention is to provide an improved combination burner or jet and valve structure which will overcome the foregoing difficulties and thereby ensure a reliable flame at each lighting and an extremely long-lasting fuel supply.

The invention will be readily understood from the following description and the accompanying drawings which depict the structure, much enlarged, in FIG. 1 in top plan, in FIG. 2 in vertical section on the line 22 of FIG. 1, and in FIG. 3 in horizontal section on the line 33 of FIG. 2.

The structure includes and the components to be described are mounted in a cylindrical body 1 having an open, internally threaded upper end portion 2 and a reduced diameter or counter bored lower section terminating in a flange 3 defining a restricted opening 4. The body may be mounted in and soldered or otherwise suitably secured to the upper wall of the gas tank or receptacle of which a portion is indicated at 5.

Seated on flange 3 within the lower end of the body is a wick holder having a central upstanding boss 11. As shown, the boss is perforated to receive wicks 12 which, it will be understood, depend into the liquified fuel in the tank and provide a continuing supply to the top of the wick holder.

Mounted above the wick holder is an inverted cup 15 dimensioned to telescope over the upstanding boss of the wick holder. The cup, which is a sliding fit in the reduced diameter bore of the body, is surrounded by suitable gasket material 16, such as Buna N rubber and within the cup is a body or pad of fibrous, compressible material 17, such as absorbent paper or the like. The inverted cup 15 has an upstanding centrally disposed portion 18 having a through bore 19 leading to the top surface of the portion 18 which comprises the valve seat of the structure.

The pad 17 is thus disposed in a chamber (in this instance of cylindrical form) the end walls of which comprise the top surface of the wick holder boss and the under surface of the inverted cup member; and these surfaces are apertured to provide fuel ingress to and egress from the chamber. As will be understood, the fuel is supplied to the chamber and pad, through the wicks, in liquid form and, when permitted, escapes from the chamber and pad in gaseous form through bore 19.

Engaged with the .body threads is a nut member 25 having an enlarged head 26 which is disposed and accessible from above the top of the body 1. The lower end of the nut has a reduced diameter portion 27 substantially fitting the smaller bore of the body and bearing on the periphery of the upper surface of the inverted cup.

The nut has a central bore 30 with a reduced diameter central opening 31 at its upper end. A jet tube or burner See member 32 which is a sliding fit in opening 31 has an enlarged lower end 33 which is a loose fit in the nut bore 39; and recessed into the enlarged lower end of member 32 1s a washer or gasket 34 adapted to make sealing engagement with the upstanding seat of the inverted cup. Gasket material 40, such as Teflon, encircles and seals the jet tube at its upper end and a coil spring 41 surrounding the jet tub serves to bias it downwardly to seal the gas bore 19. A transverse hole 42 through the jet tube above its enlarged lower end 33 intersects the central bore 43 of the tube.

At its upper end and disposed above the top of nut 25 the jet tube has a reduced neck 45 forming above it a head 46 beneath which a suitable lifter (not shown) may be inserted to raise the tube against the action of its spring 41. When the jet tube is raised, the gas escapes around the enlarged lower end of the tube and, by way of hole 42 and jet tube 43, flows to the jet tip 47 where it is ignited by spark or other suitable means in the known manner.

It will be seen that -by rotating the nut 25 (as by a suitable tool inserted in the hole 48) the surfaces constituting the end walls of the absorbent pad chamber are caused to move toward or from one another and hence to vary the degree of compression to which the pad 17 is subjected and, hence, the rate of feed of the gas when the valve is open. This, of course, determines the size of the flame at the jet tip. It will be clear that this adjustment of the flame in no way changes the sealing action of the valve, because the moving parts (including both the valve gasket and its seat) all move together.

It has been found that to ensure a steady or constant flame at various adjustments of its size, the absorbent pad should not be uniformly compressed over its full crosssection but that portions of it should be compressed only lightly, if at all, in order to allow at least some continu ing supply of liquid fuel to the pad. Different portions or sections of the pad may be subjected to different degrees of compression .by providing at least one of the end wall surfaces of the pad chamber with a protruding portion as,

in the preferred form illustrated, by making the top surface 50 of the wick holder boss of convex form. In the result, the central portion of the pad is compressed when the flame adjustment nut is screwed down, while the peripheral portion of the pad remains relatively uncompressed. Thus, the wicks, which are preferably disposed off-center, as shown, continue to supply liquid fuel to the relatively uncompressed edges of the pad, whence it is sufliciently absorbed by the compressed central portion to continue to supply gas to the jet tube.

In certain types of gas lighters, the tank 5 may be provided with a filling opening through which the tank may be initially charged and subsequently recharged, a from a compressed gas cylinder. In other types, the burner valve unit may be an integral part of an otherwise sealed tank and, in that event, other provision must be made for filling or refilling of the tank.

According to the present invention such a sealed tank may be filled readily and quickly through the valve unit itself. This is accomplished by so relating the forms or shapes of the pad and its chamber that, before the pad is compressed by tightening up the adjustment nut member to a normal operating position, an unobstructed duct is provided extending between the end walls of the pad chamber so that fuel in liquid form injected into the burner opening 47 (with the valve open) can readily find its way past the pad and into the tank through or around the wick holder. For this purpose the wicks can be either of tubular form or very loosely composed so as to provide for the passage for the fuel. The fuel admission duct may readily be formed by removing one or more portions of the pad.

In the preferred form in which the foregoing principle or arrangement is exemplified herein, the pad has one or more peripheral portions removed so as to space it from the chamber walls; or, in other words, while the pad chamber is circular in section, the pad is of non-circular section. As shown in FIG. 3, by Way of example, the pad 17 is more or less square, thereby forming spaces or ducts 55, between its edges and the circular chamber wall. Thus, the incoming fuel is free to flow through bore 19, then readily outwardly over the uncompressed pad then downwardly around the edges of the pad. By this means the filling can be accomplished very quickly and after all the valve components have been assembled excepting only for the final tightening of the adjustment nut to compress the pad and thereby et the gas discharge rate to provide an appropriate flame size. It will be recognized that after the pad has been so compressed the filling duct described above is obstructed (by the tight engagement of the top of the pad with the top wall of the pad chamber) so that there can be no escape of fuel in liquid form into the jet tube but only of gas evaporating from the saturated pad.

It will also be apparent that the unit is, at the same time, a safety valve. If, for example, the lighter equipped with the described structure should inadvertently be placed where it is subjected to undue heat, the resulting pressure increase Within the fuel receptacle is limited to that necessary to overcome the bias of the coil spring and open the valve to permit gas to escape. Thus, with a suitably selected spring, there need be no danger whatever of the 'fuel receptacle developing excessive internal pressure and rupturing itself.

As will be recognized, the components are simple, both to make and to assemble and experience has proven the structure to be extremely effective in ensuring against loss of fuel by leakage.

The following is claimed:

1. In a'gas lighter burner and valve combination of the type including a pad of compressible material to which fuel is supplied in liquid form and from which the fuel escapes in gaseous form to a burner jet and in which the amount of fuel escaping in gaseous form is controlled by subjecting the pad to various degrees of compression, the improvement which comprises means for compressing said pad, said compression means including a substantially fiat perforate upper platen and a curved surface lower platen, whereby said pad may be compressed to a lesser degree at its side edge portions than at its central portion.

2. In a gas lighter as defined in claim 1 and further including means for maintaining the pad in alignment between said platens, said means including flanges perpendicular to said upper platen, said flanges contacting only a portion of the side edge of the pad.

3. A combination burner jet and valve structure for cigarette lighters comprising a cylindrical body having an open, internally threaded upper end and a flange defining a restricted opening at its lower end; a wick holder seated on said flange within the said lower end and having an upstanding boss; an inverted cup mounted for sliding movement in the body and adapted to telescope over the upstanding boss of the wick holder, said cup having an upstanding centrally disposed apertured seat portion; absorbent compressible material disposed in the cup and compressible by it against the top of the wick holder; an adjustment nut in the said threaded upper end of the body with its lower end engaging the cup, said nut having an enlarged head disposed and accessible from above the body; a jet tube slidably mounted in the said nut; a washer carried by the lower end of the tube and adapted to seat on and close said apertured seat portion of the cup when the jet tube is at the lower limit of its movement; a coil spring encircling the jet tube and abutting a portion of the nut at its upper end and an enlarged portion of the jet tube at its lower end to hold the said washer in aperture closing position; and a head on the upper end of the jet tube disposed above and with its lower surface spaced from the top surface of the adjustment nut.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,732,699 1/1956 Ward 67-7.1 2,737,037 3/1956 Zellweger 677.1 X 2,743,597 5/1956 Newman 677.1 2,892,251 6/1959 Felt 677.1 X

FOREIGN PATENTS 681,777 10/ 1952 Great Britain.

EDWARD 1. MICHAEL, Primary Examiner.

MEYER PERLIN, Examiner.

Claims (1)

1. IN A GAS LIGHTER BURNER AND VALVE COMBINATION OF THE TYPE INCLUDING A PAD OF COMPRESSIBLE MATERIAL TO WHICH FUEL IS SUPPLIED IN LIQUID FORM AND FROM WHICH THE FUEL ESCAPES IN GASEOUS FORM TO A BURNER JET AND IN WHICH THE AMOUNT OF FUEL ESCAPING IN GASEOUS FORM IS CONTROLLED BY SUBJECTING THE PAD TO VARIOUS DEGREES OF COMPRESSION, THE IMPROVEMENT WHICH COMPRISES MEANS FOR COMPRESSING SAID PAD, SAID COMPRESSION MEANS INCLUDING A SUBSTANTIALLY FLAT PERFORATE UPPER PLATEN AND A CURVED SURFACE LOWER PLATEN, WHEREBY SAID PAD MAY BE COMPRESSED TO A LESSER DEGREE AT ITS SIDE EDGE PORTIONS THAN AT ITS CENTRAL PROTION.

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