Christiania & London Argand Burner page

The "Christiania"
and "London Argand"
Burners
(This is an element of 'Lighting - Burners & Controls')

Design painting of a gold plated London Argand Burner.

There were many beautiful designs of both these burners as well as the fixtures to which they were applied.

The Patent "Christiania" Governor Burner

Early photographs indicating the range of designs of the Christiania burners, the top two without, the remainder with, governors.

In a paper given by Charles Carpenter of the South Metropolitan Gas Company to the Institution of Gas Engineers on 21st June 1922 he says:

"About fifty years ago Sugg brought out his world-known Christiania burner, one of the first successful attempts to combine pleasing design with efficiency. The latter result was largely due to the attachment to the burner of an efficient form of regulator by which the gas delivery through it was kept constant at a rate best suited to the jet and the conditions required by the surrounding glass protector. But he also brought into his business the fruits of an artistic temperament, ripened on foreign soil, which permeated in greater or less degree all he undertook. The industry today misses him and the work in which he delighted."

"Simultaneous with the development of the flat flame burner was that of the Argand type in which the combustion of gas was substituted for that of oil soon after its distribution on a practical scale."

These two burners were manufactured at the same time in huge quantities. For a long time it would seem that William preferred the Argand over the Christiania especially when applied to street lighting. In the two illustrations above which are both as applied to interior fixtures, the common arrangement of three arms which support the glassware can be clearly seen. The essential difference between the two is considerable although both are open flame burners, pre-dating the gas mantle by many years

The Argand Burner is based on a circular wick oil burner designed by Monsieur Argand and uses a glass chimney in the same way. In the gas version there is a ring of holes that produce a circular flame which by virtue of the design of the burner allows a current of air to pass up the centre as well as the outside of the flame within the glass chimney. The result is a strong circular 'tube' of flame distributing light evenly through 360 degrees. In order to increase the performance of these burners for street lighting they were constructed with a series of concentric circles of flames, the larger ones having complex arrangements for adjusting the individual rings. The larger the burner, the longer the chimney to provide suitable draught to raise the flame to its highest state of incandescence. These chimneys reached from 12 to 18 inches in length and were as a result very unevenly heated which resulted in a danger of breakage. William designed a compound chimney having a short glass section the height of the flame and a metal section above this. It seems, however, that the process of lighting these burners was more complicated and time consuming and that they may well have been sabotaged by the legion of lamp lighters in their hurry to light the number of lamps they were expected to light within a certain time. Eventually William decided to concentrate his efforts for street lighting burners on the flat flame burner.

(illustration of multiple Argand street lighting burner to come)

UNDER CONTINUOUS DEVELOPMENT - PLEASE TRY AGAIN LATER

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