IMPROVEMENTS IN FIRE- PROOF BUILDINGS, PART OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE APPLICABLE TO OTHER STRUCTURES
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Riddle, of Mawbey Place, South Lambeth,
in the County of Surrey, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN FIRE-
PROOF BUILDINGS, PART OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE APPLICABLE TO OTHER
STRUCTURES."
Sealed the 8th August 1864, and dated the 12th February 1864.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Riddle at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
12th February 1864.
I, WILLIAM RIDDLE, of Mawbey Place, South Lambeth, in the County of
Surrey, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
FIREPROOF BUILDINGS, PART OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE APPLICABLE TO OTHER
STRUCTURES," to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to render buildings less liable to be destroyed
by fire, and more especially has for its object the rendering of warehouses for
merchandise with their contents more secure from fire.
I construct the main iron doors of warehouses so that in the event of a fire
taking place on one of the floors any or all of the main doors through which
goods are loaded and unloaded, and other doors which separate one part of a
warehouse from another, can be closed from the exterior of the building. For.
this purpose I use a shaft extending up the outside of a building, or otherwise
capable of being acted on from the exterior of a building, in gear with cross
shafts communicating with drums or cylinders, on which chains attached to the

page_text: doors will roll and wind up, so as to close the doors on the shaft (or it may be
shafts) being put in motion. An escapement or clutch movement may be
employed, so that the chain drums can for a time be thrown out of gear with
the shaft, in order that the warehousemen may close the doors at night or
open them in the morning or at other times. I construct the windows also
with shutters, by preference outside shutters, which normally may serve as
daylight reflectors to aid in reflecting light into the floors of the warehouses,
but which in case of fire can be drawn up or closed over the windows by
means of drums and chains or other mechanism in communication with an
outside shaft or shafts, which can be put in motion from the outside of the
building.
Cast-iron columns have been known to melt under the great heat of a fire,
or break with contact of cold water when thrown against highly heated
columns and girders, and wrought-iron columns and girders are known more
readily to bend when hot under an ordinary load. I employ the now well-
known principles used for protecting the interior casing and contents of iron
safes or depositories of property in the following manner :-I fill_iron (cast or
wrought) columns with wood, sawdust, or with other absorbent material or
other known substances, in which I bury bottles or tubes of water, and cause
the columns to be sealed or closed at both ends, or I employ salts therein,
which when highly heated give off water; and in addition to or instead of this
I jacket the iron columns or girders with a casing of plate iron, leaving a
space all round between the column and the jacket, and this space I fill in the
manner just described; or I jacket iron columns and girders with sand, fire-
clay, plaster of Paris, chalk, or other non-conductor of heat, and shut in such
material with a jacket of plate iron. I. have also exterior to the main
building a wrought-iron chamber, in which are one or more stone earthenware
vessels containing chalk, and also other earthenware vessels containing acid,
which when mingled with chalk is well known to cause the evolution of
carbonic acid gas. I havo rods of hard material or other means to bring the
acid and chalk into contact; a stoneware stirrer or mill may also be used to
stir up such acid and chalk. I have pipe communications with suitable
valves to admit of the gas being supplied to the different parts of the building,
so that in case of fire carbonic acid gas may be discharged into the building
and in the locality thereof where fire prevails. The foregoing apparatus
may be similarly applied to ships.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Riddle in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
12th August 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
5 RIDDLE, of Mawbey Place, South Lambeth, in the County of Surrey, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-seventh year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said William Riddle, Her special licence that I, the said William
Riddle, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said William Riddle, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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 "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN FIREPROOF BUILDINGS, PART OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE APPLICABLE
TO OTHER STRUCTURES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, tho
said William Riddle, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par.
ticularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed
in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Riddle, do hereby declare
he nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-.
ormed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
tatement thereof, that to say :-
The object of this Invention is to render buildings less liable to be destroyed
y fire, and more especially has for its object the rendering of warehouses for
aerchandize with their contents more secure from fire.
I construct the main iron doors of warehouses so that in the event of a fire
aking place on one of the floors any or all of the main doors through which
oods are loaded and unloaded, and other doors which separate one part of a
arehouse from another, can be closed from the exterior of the building. For
is purpose
I use a shaft extending up the outside of a building, or otherwise
pable of being acted on from the exterior of a building, in.gear with cross

page_text: shafts communicating with drums or cylinders, on which chains attached to
the doors will roll and wind up, so as to close the doors on the shaft (or it may
be shafts) being put in motion. I construct the windows also with shutters
(by preference outside shutters), which normally may serve as daylight
reflectors to aid in reflecting light into the floors of the warehouses, but
which in case of fire can be drawn up or closed over the windows by means of
drums and chains or other mechanism in communication with an outside shaft
or shafts, which can be put in motion from the outside of the building.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 is an elevation of two floors of a warehouse having my Invention
applied; Figure 2 is a portion of the same in plan; Figure 8 shows shafting
exterior to the building in elevation; Figure 4 shows counterbalance arrange-
ments outside on the other side of the building.
A, A, are doorways or apertures such as are used in loading or unloading
warehouses; m is a door hinged at its back edge to the building, which acts
as a flap to the doorway when let down; b, b, are shafts running along inside
the building, on which are drums k, l; these drums when the shaft revolves
also revolve, and close or open the doors m and shutters of window apertures n
(which, used as daylight reflectors, are fitted with any kind of reflector) by
means of chains, one end attached to the drum and the other to the front
edges of the doors or window shutters respectively. To actuate the shafting b
on every floor simultaneously the vertical shaft a, Figure 3, can be turned by
the handles 9, worked by hand or motive power; this turns a screw h gearing
in the edge of wheelf (see Figure 1) fixed on the shaft. On the shaft a are
also bevilled toothed wheels d', and, as can be clearly seen in the Drawing,
the turning of these causes the shafts on the several floors to rotate simul-
taneously. But in case they are not all required to be closed simultaneously,
but only certain floors, then there are rods t acting on levers a, which throw
the wheels d' which slide on shaft a upwards or downwards in or out of gear,
and thus, with enough of the rods t, I can throw any of the floor shafts 6 in
I or out of gear with the primary shaft a.
.
As the doors m are of stout iron plate and the shutters n of iron plate, they
require greater power than hand labour can readily produce without a capstan,
requiring many hands to move them, consequently in Figure 4 fuzees & are
shown, which are fixed on the shafts b, and these with weights and chains
relieve the weight of the doors and shutters by counterbalance.
Cast-iron columns have been known to melt under the great heat of a fire,
or break with contact of cold water when thrown against highly heated

page_text: columns and girders, and wrought-iron columns and girders are known more
readily to bend when hot under an ordinary load. I employ the now well-
known principles used for protecting the interior casing and contents of iron safes
or depositaries of property in the following manner:-I fill iron (cast or
wrought) columns with wood, sawdust, or with other absorbent material or
other known substances, in which I bury bottles or tubes of water, and cause
the columns to be sealed or closed at both ends, or I employ salts therein,
which when highly heated give off water; and in addition to or instead of
this I jacket the iron columns or girders with a casing of plate iron, leaving a
space all round between the column and the jacket, and this space I fill in
the manner just described; or I jacket iron columns and girders with sand,
fire-clay, plaster of Paris, chalk, or other non-conductor of heat, and shut in
such material with a jacket of plate iron.
In witness whereof, I, tho said William Riddle, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twelfth day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
WILLIAM RIDDLE. (L.S.)