AN IMPROVED METHOD OF CONSTRUCTING MAGAZINES FOR THE SAFER AND MORE ECONOMICAL STORING OF VOLATILE OILS IN LOCALITIES WHERE THE GROUND AND LABOR ARE EXPENSIVE
Year: 1863

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by James Fraser at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 19th September
1863. A communication from abroad by Moritz Pinner, of Union
Square, New York, in the United States of America.
I, JAMES FRASER, of No. 12, South Terrace, Grosvenor Park, Camberwell,
in the County of Surrey, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF CONSTRUCTING MAGAZINES FOR THE SAFER AND
MORE ECONOMICAL STORING OF VOLATILE OILS IN LOCALITIES WHERE THE GROUND AND
LABOR ARE EXPENSIVE," to be as follows:-
A water-tight reservoir being provided, having only sides and bottom, but
no top to it, within this reservoir other smaller reservoirs are to be placed
called "floating tanks" of the desired number, size, and capacity to contain
the volatile oil. These floating tanks are best constructed of wood and of
cylindrical form, somewhat similar to common oil casks, and have sides and
tops, but no bottoms to them, they may however be made of metal or
other suitable material. They are fastened by short chains to rings in the
bottom of the reservoir, and there being water in the latter they are kept afloat.
The number and size of such floating tanks will be regulated by the known
laws of displacement, and the water within the reservoir is to surround and
thinly cover those floating tanks, and also to rise and fall within them. The
height to which these floating tanks can rise may be regulated by beams of iron
or wood fastened into the sides of the reservoir near its upper end to extend
over and across the tops of the floating tanks, but the chains attached to the
bottom of the reservoir would probably always suffice. The introduction of the
volatile oil into the floating tanks is effected through a pipe or tube

page_text: permanently inserted into the top of each tank and reaching to above the
surface of the water. The volatile oil on being poured through such pipe
or tube into the floating tank forces the water which the latter contains out
of it and into the reservoir by bydraulic force, and by the same force the
water from out of the reservoir is caused to rise within the floating tank
whenever the oil is withdrawn from the latter. Thus whatever oil is contained
in the floating tank is always kept close against the inside of the top of the
floating tank, the tops of the floating tanks should always be a little under
water, leakage and inflammation of the oil so stored are prevented by thus
surrounding with water the floating tanks containing it, and evaporation is
prevented which might otherwise arise by the formation and accumulation
of gases by the absence of any vacant space in which such gases could be
generated. To facilitate the introduction and discharge of the oil, the tube in
the top of the floating tank should be supplied near its upper end with a screw
thread stop-cock, and at its upper end with a screw thread, to which latter can
be attached a funnel for the introduction and a spout or gutter for the discharge
of the oil.
The reservoir may occupy the cellar part of a building, the sides of the
reservoir forming the foundation of the building. In such case it would be
desirable to make the part of the flooring next above the upper end of the
reservoir removable so as to have full access to the reservoir and tanks in
case of accident. And to prevent the unnecessary disturbance of such
removable flooring the tubes or pipes in the tops of the floating tanks
should be so set and arranged as to extend and reach to the outside of such
flooring. The simple adjustment of the funnel or spout to the screw thread
at the upper end of the tube would be all the preparation required to fill or
empty the floating tanks. By a supply pipe, waste pipe, and sewerage, the
quantity of water in the reservoir should be regulated. A stratum of water one
or two inches thick should always be left in the bottom part of each floating
tank, the oil in it would thus rest on a sheet of water held in its place by the
same tank, and the risk of disturbance of the oil by the water under the
floating tank avoided. A pond or other piece of still water might be used as
a reservoir. In this case it might be advantageous to connect the different
floating tanks by beams or ties in order to steady the process of introducing
or discharging the oil.