New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1856-01-11
FIRE-PROOF SAFE MAKING.

To the Editor 81 Inc ". T. ITtoune
SIR: In an article on New Inventions IN your pa
per of this morning appears an account of a new and
extraordinary Safe filling" invented by Mr.. w. IL.
Butler This new filing is alum and carbonate of
lime. j. e. common chalk. Being certain that an an
earIer-f not the orgNaI-discoverer of the valuable
properties of alum for this purpose than Butler ask
YOU, as an act of justice to Mr. Butler, myself, and
any other persons who may be now, or who might,
after reading your article, give time, thought and
money to search after what is already inrcHted, to
publish the following brief history of my abos in the
production of perfectly freproof receptaces for books
As early as ls45, perhaps earlier, my attention was
drawn TO the fact that green or unseasoned wood was
far better than dry seasoned wood as ming for our
then common fre-prOOf book safes. Following this
chain of reasoning became satisfied early 1s49
that the value of sGte.fHng depended on the amount
of water il contained, for this reason: The large
amount of heat required to vaporze the iud, or the
amount of dctre heat that became latent or nsensbe
during the vaporizng OF the water prevented active
heat operating directly the iron shell casing of
the safe, and giving it temperature sufficiently high
TO char hIn or decompose the books, etc, contained
in the safe. Having determined tins law to be cor
rect turned my attention TO discovering and select
ing those materials most tit to form filling frcprO0
The better they would be, the more water they con
tanned; but il must be in SOLID form or anhydrous
In this part of the investigation, my accurate knOw-
edge of chemistry early pointed to crystalzed salts
containing large quantities Of ystahzation;
alum stood prominent among them, as It contained
80 per cent.
In August or September of 1852 communicated
the result of my experiments to several Of my friends
and aequaintances--one of whom was Walter Mead,
esq. formerly Of the Merchants Bank and authorized
him to dispose of the discovery to rome OF the then
sGle-makers, with view Of getting out patents
thereon, in their name or mine, soon my expert
ments completed. He Mr.. NJ called on several
Of them. OF this number was Mr. Herring. The dis
covery was looked upon worthless or at least was
not salabe. still, however-beng certain of its great
.tn a
that crystalized carbonate OF Soda containing 62l
Per cent of water of capitalization, the best and
most desirable wdtertoder-charco in powder, clay,
ground granite, the lines, etc., mixed unmixed, to
be used az the absorbents and non-conductOrs will
here observe that your article il strangely deficient in
chemical correctness in stating that alum water and
sulphuric acid, 80 combined with-what, you say
not that they vapored at $50 deg and therefore
that chalk Is necessary to combine with satuTate
the sulphuric acid.
| frst became aware of Mr. Buffers discovery at
the time Of the issue Of his Alum Potash
did not care at that time to contest the matter of
priority Of discovery and right to patent with
hin. ] preferred TO wait until / had completed
my experiments this hope to do within the next few
months when | will, 10 doubt, get my patent issued
and have the question of priority OF night 10 the
Alum filing Of Mr.. Is. decided. ] am expert
meniDg with view to make the filing with 4
large proportion of charcoal the best nOn-conducter
and absorbent known, into solid bricks or tiles by
means OF sudden or percussion pressure as Is used IN
forming tiles from dry fnely-pOwdered clay, but.
tons out of dry porcelain materials and solid block
pumbago from the fine powder. These tiles or bricks
viii then be cemented into one large s0d within the
iron casing OF a safe by means of u small amount Of
fluid cement run between the joints. need not here
state what perfect .fre-PrOg; permanently dry and
lasting safe this will make. The present make Of
safes rusts out within a few year.
l now publish this statement to save other parties
the cost OF experiment and chance Of litigation and
10 DO justice to myself the pioneer in a field that
has now been pretty thoroughly explored
heE- York Jan. &C. J. STUART GWYNSE.