CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN SAPES, BOXES, AND OTHER DEPOSITORIES FOR THE PROTECTION OF PAPERS AND OTHER MATERIALS FROM FIRE
Year: 1851

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
MILNER, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Safety Box Manufacturer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Third day of March, in the fourteenth year of Her reign,
and in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-one, did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said William
Milner, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the
said William Milner, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, and such others as I, the
said William Milner, 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, and Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Inven-
tion of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN SAPES, BOXES, AND OTHER DEPOSITORIES FOR
THE PROTECTION OF PAPERS AND OTHER MATERIALS FROM FIRE;" in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said William Milner, shall
cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be enrolled in Her Majesty's Iligh
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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Milner, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described
and ascertained in and by the Drawings hereto annexed and the following
explanation thereof, that is to say :-
My Invention of improvements in safes, boxes, and other depositories for
the protection of papers and other materials from fire, relate, first, to the
method of closing or securing the doors or lids of such safes, boxes, or other
depositories, in order to render them more perfectly flame-proof and otherwise
more efficiently secure.
The second part of my Invention applies to such safes, boxes, and other
depositories, and also to safes and boxes constructed according to the Specifi-
cation of Letters Patent granted to Thomas Milner by Her present Majesty,
and bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-sixth day of February, One
thousand eight hundred and forty, that is, constructed with inner chambers,
and having the spaces between the inner chambers filled with any material
that will evolve moisture upon exposure to heat, and relates to a certain
material or certain materials to be applied to the inner surface of the outer
plate of such safes, boxes, or other depositories, in order the more effectually
to resist the action of intense fire upon the outer portion of the safe.
The first part of my Invention consists in fastening or securing the doors or
lids of such safes, boxes, or other depositories by means of continuous bolts
or bars of iron extending or expanding on all sides of the door or lid of tho
same (in place of or together with the ordinary bolt or bolts of the lock) into
suitable continuous grooves, rebates, or recesses formed within the front of the
safes or boxes, and thus constituting a perfectly flame-proof joint.
The second part of my Invention consists in lining the inner surface of the
outer plate of the before-mentioned description of safes, boxes, &c., with a
coating of pulverized quartz or other infusible material formed into a cement
with a small proportion of hardwood dust, which is to be laid on in that state
and subsequently dried.
In order more fully to illustrate the practical application of the first part of
my Invention, I have attached to these Presents a Sheet of Drawings, and
have marked the same with figures and letters of reference corresponding with
those in the following description thereof, and for the sake of more distinctly
indicating the new parts they are represented as shaded with color, whilst the
ordinary parts of the safes, &c., are drawn in outline only.
Fig. 1 is a front elevation of a safe with the door thrown back, and the
inner plate and fire-resisting chamber of the door removed, in order nore

page_text: clearly to shew the new parts. a, a, is the outer casing of the safe; and
b, b, the door of the same; to the inner side of the door b, b, a flanch
c, c, of metal is rivetted or otherwise secured; this constitutes one. portion
of.tho continuous bolt, and when the door is closed enters a groove, recess,
or rebate formed in the outer casing for that purpose. d, d, are two, rect-
angular plates forming the moveable portions of the said bolt, and are
capable of sliding in a diagonal direction, being guided by the slots! e, e,
working on the pins f,f; these moveable portions d, d, of the bolt may be
moved outwards by turning the disc g; g, in the direction of the arrow, by
means of a knob or handle on the outside of the door, the pins h, h, working
in the curved slots in the disc 9, 9, and the angle pieces d*, d*, sliding on
the ends of the plate c, c, until they assume the position in which they are
drawn in Fig. 1a, that is, become expanded: When the door is closed, and
these two bolts d, d, are thrown out, as above described, they enter a 'recess,
rebate, or groove formed within the front of the inside of the safo or box for
that
purpose, and represented in the Drawing by the dotted line i, i; the bolts
d, d, when thus forced outwards are prevented from being drawn back, and the
joint made, perfect by shooting the bolt h, k, of the lock m, m, by the key,
and thus the door is effectually secured by a continuous bolt on all sides of
the same, forming a perfectly flame-proof and fraud-proof joint (see also the
horizontal section, Fig. 3). It will be evident that the locking or fastening of
the bolts d, d, may be performed simultaneously as represented in Fig. 2, by
causing the bolt k, k, to be actuated by a pin working in a third groove n, n,
in the disc g, g, and thus locking the bars d, d, as seen in Fig. 2, and Fig. 2a. In
this case the bolt of the ordinary lock m, m, shoots into a notch or recess o, o,
formed in the bolt k, k, thus securing the whole. I would hero remark that
it will be evident that the back plate or flanch c, c, may also be moveable, and
projected or expanded simultaneously with the bolts d; d, and by similar means.
Fig. 4 represents a perspective view of a safe constructed upon this principle,
shewing more clearly the groove or relate i, i; Fig. 5 is a perspective view of
a box with my improvements applied; and Fig. 6 is a similar view of of a safe
with two doors, in which the left-hand door has the moveable bolts d, d, only
at top and bottom, and is provided with a groove, rebate, or recess, into
which the vertical part of the bolt d, d, of the right-hand door fits or expands
when closed.
Having thus described the nature and object of my said improvements,
together with the manner of carrying the same into practical effect, I would
here remark, in conclusion, that I claim as my Invention, first, the closing or
securing the doors or lids of safes, boxes, and other depositories for the pro-

page_text: tection of papers and other materials from fire, by means of a continuous bolt or
bolts on all sides of the same, extending or expanding into suitable continuous
grooves, rebates, or recesses formed within the fronts of the safes or boxes,
whether such simultaneous action of the bolts d, d, as described, be performed
by means of the grooved plate g, g, or by any other mechanical equivalent, or
whether such continuous bolt or bolts bo extended or expanded from the door
or lid into suitable grooves, rebates, or recesses formed within the fronts of
the safes or boxes, or vice versa, that is, from the front of the safes or boxes
into the door or lid; and, secondly, I claim the coating the interior surface
of the outer plate of safes or boxes (constructed as above mentioned) with a
cement formed of pulverized quartz or other suitable infusible material mixed
with a small proportion of hard wood dust, in order the more effectually to
resist the action of intense fire upon the outer portion of the safes, boxes, or
other depositories.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Milner, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Second day of September, One thousand eight
hundred and fifty-one.