Improvements in the Construction and Arrangement of Automatic Sprinkler Installations.
Year: 1891

page_text: Date of Application, 20th Feb., 1891-Accepted, 21st Mar., 1891
UMI MUM DEMOTETUALION
Improvements in the Construction and Arrangement of Automatic
Sprinkler Installations.
We, RALPH Dowsox, of 15, Bedford Street, and JOHN TAYLOR, of Linger
Wood, Chorley New Road, both of Bolton, in the County of Lancaster, Fire
Engineers, do hereby declare the nature of our said invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement :-
This invention relates to improvements in the construction and arrangement of
automatic sprinkler installations, and is designed to prevent the freezing of water
in automatic sprinklers and their connections fixed in blind roofs by means of
water conveyed thereto in pipes from heated chambers or rooms underneath the
said blind roofs. We mean by the term "blind roof" the portion of the roof
between the upper side of the ceiling and the underside of the slates. It is the
practice of fire engineers to protect these spaces by means of horizontal pipes to
which the sprinklers are attached at intervals of about ten feet distances, and the
whole of the pipes and sprinklers are supplied from the rooms below by one or more
vertical larger pipes capable of supplying sections of horizontal pipes and sprinklers
in the blind roof or space. This system is liable to become frozen in cold weather,
not only making the sprinklers useless in case of fire, but causing damage by water
to the contents of the building, and to prevent this freezing various remedies have
been suggested and tried, such as heating the blind roofs or spaces by steam pipes,
wrapping the sprinkler pipes with felting and other means of shielding them from
cold currents of air, which come through the joints in the slates and impinge
thereon. The difficulty which has been considerable has been also removed by
making the system in the blind roofs or spaces into an air system, similar to that
described in Letters Patent No. 1127 of 1890 already granted to us.
Our present
invention dispenses with the air system, and other complicated and expensive
arrangements, and is a positive and simple method of removing the danger of
freezing, where the room underneath such blind roof or space is continually heated,
and consists in carrying from the heated room below the concealed or blind roof
or space, a separate vertical pipe to each sprinkler with the sprinkler at the upper
end in an inverted position. The water at the lower end of this vertical pipe
being heated will rise by natural laws to the surface of the water in the
sprinkler.
In order that our invention may be fully understood and more readily seen so as
to be carried into operation we have hereunto annexed drawings illustrative
of our improvements, reference being made to the letters and figures marked
thereon.
A is the heated chamber or room underneath the ceiling B C the blind roof;
Fthe installation pipes, and G the automatic sprinklers.
To the installation pipes F, in the heated chamber or room A underneath the
ceiling B, are attached the crosspieces H; to the underside of which are secured
the automatic sprinklers G. To the upper side of the crosspieces I are attached
the upright pipes I, which extend through the ceiling B into the blind roof or space C
as shown in Fig. 1. On the upper end of the upright pipes I are mounted the
automatic sprinklers G¹. If desired the upright pipes I can be connected to the
installation pipes F in other positions by means of the T pieces or elbows Jas
shown in Fig. 2. The aperture in the ceiling B through which each upright pipe I
passes is closed by the plate L or its equivalent, which may be secured in any
convenient manner to the ceiling B, or to the pipe itself.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is :-
In an automatic sprinkler installation, the combination of a horizontal water pipe
in a room artificially heated and a vertical pipe, or pipes, connected thereto
passing through the ceiling of the room into the blind roof above and furnished at
its upper end with an inverted sprinkler, and a plate or its equivalent secured to
the ceiling or to the vertical pipe for the purpose of closing the aperture in the
ceiling through which the pipe passes, the said pipe or pipes containing water under
pressure, the arrangement being for the purpose of securing the circulation of the
water therein by natural laws to prevent freezing inside the sprinkler and pipes
which are in the cold chamber or blind roof or space above, substantially as
described.
Dated the 18th February 1801
EDMUND CHADWICK,
Agent.