IMPROVEMENTS IN EXTINGUISHING FIRES IN BUILDINGS
Year: 1844

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
CAMERON, of Liverpool, Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Sixteenth day of January, in the seventh year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Charles Cameron, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said Charles Cameron, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Charles Cameron, my exors, admors, or assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN EXTINGUISHING
FIRES IN BUILDINGS;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso
that I, the said Charles Cameron, shall cause a particular description of the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said in part
recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had,
will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Charles Cameron, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and

page_text: the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
My Invention consists in employing an incombustible substance or
substances in combination or mixture with water, for the purpose of more
readily extinguishing fires. The substances I use combined or mixed with
water are all or either of the following: chalk, whiting, any of the alluminous
clays, such as white clay (commonly called potters' clay), blue clay, or the
common red clay. These substances, being reduced to a state of very fine
powder by the ordinary process of grinding or otherwise, I use in the follow-
ing manner-Every fire engine is to be furnished with a tub or vessel
capable of containing one hundred gallons of water (more or less). This tub or
vessel is to be divided into two compartments, a larger and a smaller. The
division to be formed either by a metal plate of sheet iron, or zinc, or any
other metal, or of wood. This division plate goes down to the bottom of the
vessel, and projects about six inches above the top. That part of it within
the vessel is thickly pierced with small holes about one eighth of an inch in
diameter, and it may be permanently fixed, or it may be made to slide out
and in in two grooves in the sides of the vessel, and forming the smaller com-
partment in the vessel, of about twelve inches in diameter at its centre from
the side or end of the vessel.
My mode of operating on the fire is simply this:-When the fire engine
arrives at the fire, carrying along with it a quantity of any of the above speci-
fied materials in a dry (or moist) state, the tub or vessel is placed at the end of
the engine, and the suction hose or pipe is placed into (or connected with) the
smaller compartment. The material is thrown into the larger compartment,
and the water from the water mains in the streets of cities or towns, or in what-
ever way it is procured, is introduced into the larger compartment amongst the
material; the whole is then kept in a constant state of agitation during the
time that the engine is playing on the fire, either by means of a common
broom, a wooden spade, or any other instrument applicable to the purpose of
keeping the material in a state of suspension in the water, continuing to add
additional supplies of the material to successive quantities of water until the
fire is extinguished. To those employed in the extinguishing of fires, it is
known as an established fact that muddy water is far more effective in
accomplishing the object than clean water.
I claim as my Invention the above-specified materials, and the manner of
forming by them an artificial muddy water of any degree of thickness or
consistency that may be required for smothering or extinguishing fire.
I claim them in whatever way they may be employed in extinguishing fires,

page_text: whether by means of a fire engine, or a water tank placed on an elevated
situation on a building. I likewise claim the vessel above described, being
divided into two compartments, without regard to its shape or form.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Cameron, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-four.
Enrolled the Sixteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and forty-four.