IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRES
Year: 1867

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Edward Casper at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 4th April
1867. A communication from abroad by François Carlier, of Boulogne-
on-Seine, in the Empire of France, Doctor of Medicine.
I, EDWARD CASPER, of No. 38, Poultry, in the City of London, Merchant,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN APPARATUS FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRES," a communication, to be as
follows:-
The said Invention relates to the novel construction of parts of a certain
fire-extinguishing apparatus known as the "extincteur," in which carbonic
acid gas
is generated, absorbed by water, and the gaseous water employed to
extinguish fire.
The said apparatus consists of one or more closed vessels made of
sheet iron or other suitable material of such a form and strength as to
resist the strain they will be subjected to from the internal pressure of the
gaseous water; the said vessels are provided with one or more tubes having
stop-cocks and delivery nozzles or flexible hose. Within the outer casing of
the apparatus an inner cylinder or barrel is secured extending from the top of
the said outer casing downward, its lower end being closed when required with
a plug or stopper. The vessel in which the gas is generated is filled with
water, to which is added bicarbonate of soda or other one of the ingredients
used to generate the carbonic acid gas; the inner tube is then filled with the

page_text: remaining ingredients employed for generating the said gas, and is placed with
its lower end closed in the said vessel; the stopper is then removed from
the lower end of the tube, and the ingredients therein are allowed to mix with
the prepared water. Carbonic acid gas thus generated in large quantities is
taken up and absorbed by the water, and this gaseous water is ejected through
the pipes or hose upon the burning object.
The object of these improvements is to render the above-described apparatus
less costly and complicated of construction, and to facilitate the proper com-
bination of the chemicals employed therein.
In the apparatus as hitherto constructed the inner tube is closed by a cork
or plug, which is forced out when required by a screw attached to a ramrod
passed down the said tube; this allows the chemical ingredients contained
in the said tube to fall in a body into the water and combine with the other
ingredients therein, and thus produce suddenly as by explosion a large volume
of gas. The pressure of the said gas suddenly called into action and exerted
against the sides, top, and bottom of the vessel tends greatly to its injury and
liability to give way or burst.
By my improved method of construction these objections are obviated,
the cork for closing the tube and the ramrod for removing the said cork
are dispensed with, a colander or perforated metal stopper is employed
instead of the cork, the upper as well as the lower part of the tube being
perforated with small holes. When the said tube is filled with the proper
chemicals and is placed in its position inside the apparatus, the combination
of the said chemicals with those held in solution by the water is effected
gradually and gently through these perforations. The gas is evolved slowly
and regularly, the prepared water takes it up as it is formed, the sudden shock
to the outer casing of the said apparatus is entirely obviated, and the object
desired, namely, the thorough absorption by the fluid of the carbonic acid gas,
is more effectually obtained.