IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF FIREPROOF BUILDINGS AND IN THE APPLIANCES TO BE EMPLOYED THEREIN.
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thaddeus Hyatt, of Gloucester Gardens, Hyde
Park, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF FIREPROOF BUILDINGS AND IN THE APPLIANCES
TO BE EMPLOYED THEREIN.
"
Sealed the 23rd January 1872, and dated the 18th November 1871.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thaddeus Hyatt
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 18th November 1871.
I, THADDEUS HYATT, of Gloucester Gardens, Hyde Park, in the
County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF FIREPROOF BUILDINGS AND IN THE
APPLIANCES TO BE EMPLOYED THEREIN," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to certain improvements in the construction
of buildings with a view to rendering the same fireproof, and consists
in the use of hermetically sealed vessels or other steam generating

page_text: contrivances, which are to be filled with water solidified by mixing
therewith plaster of Paris or its equivalent, or filled with alum, soda,
Glauber salts, or other like dry solid substances capable of giving out
steam when subjected to an elevated temperature. These air-tight
vessels are to be built into or overlay the walls, partitions, floors, |
ceilings, and roofs, or portions of them, so that they shall be acted upon
by flame in case of fire, and when so acted upon allow the steam which
is generated therein to escape, and thereby extinguish the fire. The
vessels may be in the form of hollow earthenware or metal tiles for roofs
and floors when used to overlay the same in conjunction or not with:
supporting gratings, and in the form of hollow blocks or bricks when
built in or when dry steam generating material is employed containing
water of crystalization that will not be lost by exposure to the air, such
as alum or its equivalents. These materials may be mixed with other
substances and pressed into cakes, blocks, or bricks, or if preferred ]
made into and applied as mortar or cement.
""
The metal flooring and roofing of my improved fireproof buildings are
intended to be constructed in the nature of an "all-beam floor and
roof without inter-beam spaces, and consequently without
"dead
weight." These roofs and floors may be made of tubular beams laid :
in conjunction or side by side over the whole space, so as practically to
make every square inch of the area beam material.
In some cases I propose to surround the tubes which form the floor
and roof with alum or other like dry steam generating material; or with
water solidified by plaster of Paris, the solidified water filling around the :
tubes being boxed in and hermetically closed; or instead of single tubes
laid side by side I propose to use tubular corrugated metal sheets, that is
to say, corrugated sheets of any metal, the corrugations of which sheets
constitute split tubes of any section, and the tubes being in either single
or double layers.
I also propose to make buildings additionally fireproof by cutting off
communication between the stories by closing the well holes under the
roof skylight at night with horizontal fireproof shutters that become a
portion of the floor above or of the ceiling below the well hole, and also
by constructing the building with roof fireproof shutters to close the
skylights at night, which will also protect the lives of firemen as well as
keep out fire, the shutters like the rest of the roof being adapted for
being walked upon and for supporting heavy bodies. These shutters

page_text: may be placed either inside or outside the glass, and the shutters may
be arranged to turn in a manner similar to Venetian blinds.
Horizontal pockets may be made to receive fireproof shutters placed
between the ceiling and the floor above the ceiling; the perpendicular
gutters or slides being continued into the pocket to form "ways" for
the shutter to slide in, this arrangement being particularly applicable in
cases where there is difficulty in obtaining space for shutter boxes of the
ordinary construction.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thaddeus Hyatt in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 11th May 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THADDEUS
HYATT, of Gloucester Gardens, Hyde Park, in the County of Middlesex,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in
the 35th year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Thaddeus Hyatt, Her
special license that I, the said Thaddeus Hyatt, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thaddeus Hyatt,
my executors, administrators, or 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
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF FIREPROOF BUILDINGS AND IN THE
APPLIANCES TO BE EMPLOYED THEREIN," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Thaddeus Hyatt, my executors or administrators, by
an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly
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
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thaddeus Hyatt, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings
and to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say :—
My said Invention relates to certain improvements in the construction
of buildings with a view to rendering the same fireproof, and consists
in the use of hermetically sealed vessels or other steam generating
contrivances, which are to be filled with water solidified by mixing
therewith plaster of Paris or its equivalent, or filled with alum, soda,
Glauber salts, or other like dry solid substances capable of giving out
steam when subjected to an elevated temperature. These air-tight
vessels are to be built into or overlay the walls, partitions, floors,
ceilings, and roofs, or portions of them, so that they shall be acted upon
by flame in case of fire, and when so acted upon allow the steam which
is generated therein to escape, and thereby extinguish the fire. The
vessels may be in the form of hollow earthenware or metal tiles for roofs
and floors when used to overlay the same in conjunction or not with
supporting gratings, and in the form of hollow blocks or bricks when
built in; or where dry steam generating material is employed containing
water of crystallization that will not be lost by exposure to the air, such
as alum or its equivalents, these materials may be mixed with other
substances and pressed into cakes, blocks, or bricks, or if preferred
made into and applied as mortar or cement.
The metal flooring and roofing of my improved fireproof buildings
are intended to be constructed in the nature of an "all-beam floor"
and roof without inter-beam spaces, and consequently without "dead
weight." These roofs and floors may be made of tubular beams laid
in conjunction or side by side over the whole space, so as practically to
make every square inch of the area beam material.
In some cases I propose to surround the tubes which form the floor
and roof with alum or other like dry steam generating material, or with
water solidified by plaster of Paris, the solidified water filling around the
tubes being boxed in and hermetically closed; or instead of single tubes
laid side by side I propose to use tubular corrugated metal sheets, that is
to say, corrugated sheets of any metal, the corrugations of which sheets
constitute split tubes of any section, and the tubes being in either single
or double layers.

page_text: I also propose to make buildings additionally fireproof by cutting off
communication between the stories by closing the well holes under the
roof skylight at night with horizontal fireproof shutters that become a
portion of the floor on the upper side of the well hole, or of the ceiling
on the under side, or of both; and also by constructing the building with
roof fireproof shutters to close the skylights at night, which will also
protect the lives of firemen as well as keep out fire, the shutters like the
rest of the roof being adapted for being walked upon and for supporting
heavy bodies. These shutters may be placed either inside or outside the
glass, and the shutters may be arranged to turn in a manner similar to
Venetian blinds.
Horizontal pockets may be made to receive fireproof shutters placed
between the ceiling and the floor above the ceiling, the perpendicular
gutters or guides being continued into the pocket to form "ways" for
the shutter to slide in, this arrangement being particularly applicable in
cases where there is difficulty in obtaining space for shutter boxes of the
ordinary construction.
And in order that my said Invention may be fully understood I shall
now proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose
> shall refer to the several Figures on the annexed Sheets of Drawings,
the same letters of reference indicating corresponding parts in all the
corresponding Figures.
Figure 1 (Sheet 1) of my Drawings represents a sectional elevation of
one of my hollow or cellular tiles herein-before referred to composed of
baked clay, earthenware, pottery ware, or other like material.
Figure 2 is a similar tile composed of thin sheet or cast metal. I
propose to fill the interior cavity a of these tiles with water introduced
through the aperture b, such water being solidified by mixing therewith
plaster of Paris in the manner set forth in the Specification of Letters
Patent granted to John Henry Johnson, and bearing date the Fifth
of May One thousand eight hundred and seventy, No. 1289; or I fill
the said hollow or cellular tiles with alum reduced to a fine powder, and
intimately mixed with plaster of Paris; or I use alum and hydraulic
cement mixed or ground together; or I employ, either separately or in
combinations of any two or more, alum, soda, Glauber salts, or other like
dry solid substance containing water of crystalization, and capable of
generating steam when subjected to an elevated temperature.

page_text: The ingredients and proportions which I have found to give good
results are as follows:-When used dry I take eight parts by weight of
alum, for example, and grind it up with two parts by weight of plaster
of Paris or hydraulic cement, so as to intimately mix the two ingredients
together, the said mixture being then used as a dry filling for the
hollow tiles or vessels, or to surround or pack the tubes composing the
floors.
In some cases I mix sufficient asbestos with the above to bind the
mass together when it has become solidified or hardened by the action of
heat, the asbestos acting much in the same manner as the cow hair
which is frequently mixed with mortar.
When making up the above ingredients in the form of compressed
bricks or blocks, there should be a larger proportion of plaster of Paris,
cement, clay, or other absorbment earthy matter, just sufficiently damp
to admit of being thoroughly consolidated under pressure, but not damp
enough to affect injuriously the salts mixed therewith.
When making a mortar from these ingredients I prefer to use about
equal parts of the earthy absorbments and alum or equivalent salts.
The mortar produced as above described is to be applied in a wet state
like plaster over lathwork for walls and ceilings.
The above-mentioned mixtures or compounds, when compressed into
solid blocks by powerful pressure after the manner of making dry
pressed bricks, are to be used as bricks or tiles at convenient intervals
along with ordinary bricks or tiles in the interior surfaces of buildings,
the object in all cases being the generation of steam and moisture in the
event of their being subjected to the action of fire.
The hollow or cellular tiles, Figures 1 and 2, may be of any regular
form, such for example as a hexagon, as shown at Figure 3; or in lieu
of making the said hollow receptacles in the form of tiles to be laid
upon the surface of a wall or floor, they may be made of the form and
dimensions of ordinary bricks, as shewn in Figures 4 and 5, and when
charged with the mixtures or compounds herein-before mentioned, be
built in the walls along with the ordinary bricks.
In some cases these hollow tiles or bricks, filled with the mixtures or
compounds above referred to, or the solid compressed blocks of the same
compounds above referred to, or the solid compressed blocks of the same 35

page_text: mixtures or compounds, may be let into and supported by metal gratings
to form fireproof floors or roofs.
Figures 6 and 7 represent two vertical sections taken at right angles
to each other of one of my "all-beam floors," that is to say, of a floor so
constructed as to be entirely self-supporting, and of which every square
inch possesses the properties of the beam or girder. A, A, are the two
opposite walls of a building or apartment; B, B, are a series of sheet or
other thin metal tubes laid paralled side by side in close contact, as
shewn in Figure 7, and having their opposite extremities built or
inserted into the walls A in order to obtain a firm bearing, like the joists
The thickness of the
or beams of a floor, as shewn clearly in Figure 6.
metal of which these tubes may be made, and the diameter of the tubes
themselves, will of course depend on the length of the tubes and the
weight the floor is intended to carry; but for ordinary purposes, such as
dwelling houses, they may be of a thickness of metal of about one-
sixteenth of an inch, and of a diameter of about 1 foot. Along the
upper and under surface of the range of tubes and parallel thereto, I
dispose at convenient intervals longitudinally light wooden spars 0, 0¹,
(shewn more clearly in Figure 7), across which the usual flooring
boards D are laid, and to which the said boards are to be nailed down.
To the under set of spars C¹ I nail the laths, which receive the coats of
plaster E necessary to form the ceiling. I sometimes fill in or partially
fill in the interior of the tubes B as well as the outer intervening
spaces a, a, with any of the before-mentioned fire-resisting steam gene-
rating substances, so as to render the floor perfectly fireproof.
Figure 8 represents in transverse section a single one B of a series of
tubes enclosed or boxed in by an outer tube or casing B¹, the intervening
space 6 between the outside of the tube and the outer casing being filled
with water solidified with plaster of Paris or other of the before-
mentioned fire-resisting mixtures or compounds.
Figure 9 represents a transverse section of a series of connected plates,
each plate being so bent as to form practically a split tube B connected
by rivets at c, c, to an adjoining bent plate, the whole forming a sub-
stitute for the series of individual tubes illustrated at Figures 6 and 7.
The floor or boarded surface may in this arrangement be formed as in
Figures 6 and 7, but the ceiling will present an entire surface of metal

page_text: Figure 11 represents a mode of corrugating a plate so as to form
practically two ranges of tubular beams B and B¹..
Figure 12 represents the combination of two such corrugated plates as
are shewn in Figure 10, united together by rivets as shewn at c, c,
whereby not only do I obtain two rows or ranges of split tubular
beams B and B¹, but an intermediate web of double-sheet metal F, which
increases the lateral stiffness of the structure.
A slightly modified arrangement is shewn at Figure 13, wherein the
tubes composing the beams are of different diameters, one large tube Bu
by the conjunction of two semi-cylindrical corrugations being situate at
convenient intervals between the pairs of smaller split tubes B, B', the
web F as in the previous case imparting increased stiffness to the floor.
The ends of the tubes in all these various arrangements of tubular beam
floors, whether constructed of actual tubes or of plates so bent or cor-
rugated and combined together as to virtually form tubes, should be
built or inserted into the opposite walls sufficiently far to obtain a safe
and firm bearing.

page_text: flames from floor to floor, and therefore I propose to cut off the com-
munication by closing the said well holes at night by means of fireproof
shutters B of any suitable description, which shall be strong enough to
admit of being walked over.
According to one mode of carrying out this part of my Invention I
introduce two revolving fireproof shutters B, B', into the upper and
lower portions of the well hole, the upper shutter when closed being
nearly flush with the general surface of the floor, whilst the lower
shutter B¹ is nearly flush with the ceiling, a vacant air space being left
between the two shutters, which in itself forms a good non-conductor of
heat. The inner ends of the well hole are cased with metal plates a, a,
which are flanged and rivetted to two other plates b, b, extending along
the two opposite sides of the well hole, and forming with the plates a
a rectangular metal frame. To the two side plates b, b, are bolted or
otherwise secured the castings c, c, which constitute the actual sides of
the well hole, and are provided with flanges d, d, at the top and bottom
edges, each flange forming a double guide for the purpose herein-after
described by having a rib e extending longitudinally from end to end of
the flange, as shewn more clearly in the enlarged detail, Figure 17.
Within the space between the flooring boards and the ceiling laths, and
at each end of the well hole behind the end plates a, a, I place a roller
or winding drum C, C¹, the axes of the said drums working in bearings
in the side plates b, b. These drums are for coiling up the two
shutters B, B¹, and are rotated in any convenient or well-known manner,
as for example by an endless chain and spocket wheel, or by a ratchet
wheel and pall worked by a reciprocating lever introduced through
a hole in the floor. The shutter B is coiled upon the drum C, and
the shutter B¹ upon the drum C¹. Each drum carries two chain
pullies D, D, and D¹, D', on which are wound chains f, f¹, attached
respectively to the ends of the two shutters, the opposite ends of the
shutters being secured to their respective drums. 9, 9, are pulleys for
guiding the chains on to the surfaces of the guide ways formed along
the flanges d, d³, outside the rib e, and g¹, g³, are two guide rollers for
guiding the shutters on to their guide ways inside the rib e. The two
winding drums being connected by the chains and shutters, it follows
that on winding or unwinding one shutter in order to close or open the

page_text: disposed between the ceiling and floor above to receive a flexible fire-
proof shutter b, the upper portion of the said shutter being slid into
such pocket or horizontal guide ways by any suitable arrangement of
mechanism when the shutter is opened in lieu of being wound on to a
drum, which occupies sometimes more space than is convenient.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of the
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or
carried into effect, I would observe in conclusion that what I consider
to be novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to
me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, is,―
First. The application and use of hermetically sealed vessels, hollow
tiles, or bricks of metal or earthenware filled with the herein-before
described substances capable of giving out steam when subjected to an
elevated temperature, as and for the purpose herein-before set forth.
Secondly. The application and use of solid compressed blocks or bricks
composed of the herein-before described substances capable of giving out
steam when subjected to an elevated temperature, as and for the purpose
herein-before set forth.
Thirdly. The application and use of a mortar or plaster composed of
the herein-before described substances capable of giving out steam when
subjected to an elevated temperature, as and for the purposes herein-
before set forth.
Fourthly. The peculiar construction of floor which I designate an
"all-beam" floor, composed of a number of separate tubes laid side by
side, or of metal plates corrugated in the form of tubes, substantially as
herein-before described and illustrated by my Drawings.
"
Fifthly. The enclosing or surrounding the tubes or corrugations com-
posing the said " all-beam floor with the herein-before described
substances capable of giving out steam when subjected to an elevated
temperature, substantially as herein set forth.
Sixthly. The application of fireproof shutters to the well holes or light
apertures made in the floors of buildings for the purpose of checking the
spread of fire by shutting off communication from one floor to another,
substantially as herein-before described.

page_text: Seventhly. The application of fireproof shutters of a strength sufficient
to support the weight of a fireman to the sky or roof lights of buildings,
substantially as and for the purpose herein-before described and illus-
trated by my Drawings.
Eighthly. The forming of horizontal pockets or guide ways for the
reception of fireproof shutters when open between the ceiling and the
floor above, substantially as herein-before described and illustrated by
my Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thaddeus Hyatt, have to this my
Specification set my hand and seal, the Tenth day of May One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.
THADDEUS HYATT. (L.S.)