The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-09-12 00:00:00

A. BATH POWER, ALA,

" Vice-President, Athenaeum."

"Norwich, 22nd August, 18.18.
" I certify that this document was saturated by the evapora-
tion on Milner's tire-resisting principle, by being placed in
their bankers' safe, and subjected to a severe trial by fire, con-
veying the most intense heat, for five hours, and that the above
names were written thereon previously, all of which are now
as perfect as before the trial.
"HENRY S. PATTERSON,
" Vice-Chairman, Chamber of Commerce."

On the ground %Nem exhibited a large variety of Mil-
ner's fire-resisting safes, of different sizes, and also a lock
with six tumblers and a detector, of the same description
as those fixed upon the safes, thus rendering these manu-
factures not only proof against the application of fire, but
also against the attempts of fraud and violence.
Mr. Wenden illustrated to the gentlemen present, by
means of a beautiful and ingenious section of a safe, the
principle by which the safety of the contents is secured
from the effm::, of Bent. This principle, it was shown, is
applied between plate-iron cases, calculated to conduct or
retain as little heat as possible. The chambers are filled
with an alkalised vegetable non-conductor, possessing ex-
traordinary powers. of resistance to the transmission of
heat, combined with an arrangement for the vaporization
of steam into the interior, so soon as the box or safe attains
the temperature of 212 degrees (boiling heat.) For each
contents passes into
of the box,
ts
inch of fluid is slowly evolved nearly two thousand times
andiownts issuccessively
volume of s steam i
and
condensed v.ianpotuhe c
vapour,
rendering them damp and humid, as a newspaper from
the press. By this means 1040 degrees of heat-is neutral-
ised, and rendered latent and harmless, (one-half of which
temperature would char the contents of the best safe or
box that could be put together, of dry anhydrc us materials,)

whilst the papers are made difficult of ignition—the whole
process and principle being throughout conducive, in a
most extraordinary manner, to their preservation. For a
much longer period than during which a box would
be in direct contact with fire, in the successive confla-
gration of the pacts of an ordinary building, no greater
heat than 212 degrees will pass through this medium into
the box, a temperature perfectly harmless to books, papers,
parchments, or even bank notes. The cause of the ex-
haustion of the moisture being so protracted, is its being
sheathed and protected from rapid vaporization in the ab-
sorbent non-conductor. In long-continued heat the non-
conductor discharges its pyroligneous acid, which, com-
bining with the alkali, forms a carbonaceous crust or py-
rolignate of potass—the worst conductor of heat known ;
and from within this shelter the papers or books slowly
give out again the large volume of steam that has been
passed into and condensed in them, re-acting most favor-
ably in keeping down their own temperature, that of the
box, and the surrounding fire. To the best arrangement
of non-conductors, which 30 years' practical experiments
have suggested to the patentees, they have superadded the
mitigating power of evaporation—the principle of the tea-
kettle on the fire—red-heat outside, boiling water at 212
degrees inside, one-fourth of the outer temperature; the
principle whereby the loaf, by its self-contained moisture,
is kept soaking but uncharred in the oven.
We have only space to add, that this valuable invention
has already met in Norwich with a portion of the patron-
age it so highly deserves, orders to a considerable extent
having been given on the ground. One of our fellow
citizens, we understand, was so pleased with the success
of the test, that he was determined to make safety
doubly certain, by the use of Milner's patent safes, in his
own " safety chamber."