A NEW OR IMPROVED FIREPROOF MATERIAL AND MODE OF APPLYING THE SAME, MORE PARTICULARLY APPLICABLE TO SAFES OR RECEPTACLES CONTAINING VALUABLES
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Peter Jensen, of 89, Chancery Lanc, in the
"
County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "A NEW OR IMPROVED
FIREPROOF MATERIAL AND MODE OF APPLYING THE SAME, MORE PARTICULARLY
APPLICABLE TO SAFES OR RECEPTACLES CONTAINING VALUABLES." -A com-
munication from abroad by F. V. B. Meidell, of Copenhagen,
Denmark:
"
-
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Peter Jensen at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 18th July 1874.
I, PETER JENSEN, of S9, Chancery Lanc, in the County of Middlesex,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "A. NEW OR
IMPROVED FIREPROOF MATERIAL AND MODE OF APPLYING THE SAME, MORE PARTI-
CULARLY APPLICABLE TO SAFES OR RECEPTACLES CONTAINING VALUABLES (a
communication to me from abroad by F. V. B. Meidell, of Copenhagen,
Denmark), to be as follows:-
"
At various times it has been found how imperfectly the ordinary iron

page_text: safes are able to secure during fire the inclosed papers from being
charred, and this circumstance has led to a scries of experiments with
various materials, which should, better than the hitherto employed clay
and stuffing, resist the influence of the heat. The result is the Invention
now to be described. Chalk, 7 parts; pipe clay, 1-part; and sawdust of
beech wood, 7 parts, are stirred up to a uniform paste with 1 pound of
natron waterglass of about 30° Baumé fluid weight. This paste, which
must be very well kucaded, is exposed to evaporation in dry air, but not
warmer than 12° R., after which it is put in equal layers on the outside
of the material (metal, wood, millboard, or paper) with which the safe
or other receptacle for valuable matters is surrounded. This must, as
regards wood, millboard, and paper, be carefully prepared with water-
glass.
The protecting covering, which by means of small clods of a harder
mixture shall hold the inner receptacle at some distance from its walls,
is built in 3 or 4 layers by means of the mentioned mass in such
manner that there are air chambers between every layer. Each of these
layers is, when dryed in the open air and without fissures, exposed to
an increasing heat, and finally to a strong flame, which can convert into
coals the chips on the superficies.
..
During the following gradual.cooling a bath of waterglass is employed,
and when this is nearly dryed the superficies is covered with a thin layer
of prepared rice shells or sawdust, as regards the inner layers. When
the joinings are dryed in the air they must be carefully examined, and'
when they are found faultless they are submitted to the same process as
indicated for the layers.
The finished preparation, hard as stone, is exposed to dry, but not too
warm air, and can. thereafter be covered with millboard, paper, iron, or
other material.
Though the above-mentioned proportions are considered to be the best
it is self-evident that they may be somewhat varied without altering the
preparation in any essential manner.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Peter Jensen in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 18th January 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PETER
JENSEN, of 89, Ohancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex; send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of July, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty-
eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Peter Jensen, Her special licence
that I, the said Peter Jensen, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Peter Jensen, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, should, at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "A NEW OR IMPROVED
FIREPROOF MATERIAL AND MODE OF APPLYING THE SAME, MORE PARTICULARLY
APPLICABLE TO SAFES OR RECEPTACLES CONTAINING VALUABLES (a communi-
cation to me from abroad by F. V. B. Meidell, of Copenhagen,
Denmark), upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Peter Jensen, my executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and scals,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said In-
vention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and
cause the same to be filed in the Great Scal Patent Office within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
"
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Peter Jensen, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
At various times it has been found how imperfectly the ordinary iron
safes are able to secure during fire the inclosed papers from being
charred, and this circumstance has led to a series of experiments with

page_text: Firstly. The preparation of a fireproof composition from the materials
herein specified, and prepared as herein specified, all substantially as set
forth.
Secondly. The application of the herein specificd fireproof composition,
substantially as and for the purposes set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Peter Jensen, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of January, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
five.