IMPROVEMENTS IN SAFES AND CHAMBERS FOR STORING VALUABLES
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Chatwood, of the Lancashire Safe and
Lock Works, Bolton, in the County of Lancaster, for the Invention
Sealed the 20th October 1873, and dated the 21st May 1873.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Chatwood at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 21st May 1873.
I, SAMUEL CHATWOOD, of the Lancashire Safe and Lock Works,
3 Bolton, in the County of Lancaster, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SAFES AND CHAMBERS FOR STORING
VALUABLES," to be as follows:-
:―
This Invention has for its object improvements in safes and chambers
for storing valuables.
In order to give notice when any attempt is made to tamper with a
safe or strong room I surround it entirely or partially with a cage of
metal piping. I maintain a partial vacuum or a pressure of air or other

page_text: fluid within the pipes, and connect them with vacuum or pressure
guages. The gauge I prefer to employ is a mercury column, and which
mercury, on a variation of the pressure taking place, closes an electric
circuit and sounds an alarm.
I form gates and doors of metal piping or otherwise, with exhaust or
pressure cavities, which I connect with an indicator or gauge by a
passage in one of the pivots.
I make the cases of locks and bolts fluid tight, and provide caps for
the keyholes, and I maintain a pressure or partial vacuum in the lock
Then it is evident that before any attempt can be made to pick
the lock the pressure or vacuum will be lost. This will be indicated by
the gauge, and an automatic alarm will be sounded.
cases.
I also in some cases construct safes and strong rooms so that they will
close air-tight, and maintain an exhaust or air pressure within them, and
connect them with indicators, as above described.
A pump or similar apparatus is provided in a safe place for adjusting
the pressure or exhaust from time to time, and renewing it when lost.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Samuel Chatwood in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 21st November 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
CHATWOOD, of the Lancashire Safo and Lock Works, Bolton, in the
County of Lancaster, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of May, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the thirty-
sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Samuel Chatwood, Her special license that
I, the said Samuel Chatwood, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Samuel Chatwood, 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,

page_text: 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 SAFES AND CHAMBERS
FOR STORING VALUABLES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Samuel Chatwood, my executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Samuel Chatwood, 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:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in safes and chambers
for storing valuables.
In order to give notice when any attempt is made to tamper with a
safe or strong room I surround it entirely or partially with a cage of
metal piping. I maintain a partial vacuum or a pressure of air or other
fluid within the pipes, and connect them with vacuum or pressure
guages. I thus form around a safe or strong room a comparatively
fragile cage, which when injured gives instant notice or alarm at any
place where the gauge may be placed, or which may be placed in electric
or other communication with the gauge.
I make the cage of pipes of comparatively small diameter, half an
inch or even less will often be sufficient, and I prefer to use a hard
brittle material, such as hard steel, cast iron, or glass. I connect the
main tubes with cross tubular connections, so that they cannot without
fracture be bent to a sufficient extent to give access to the contents of
the cage. The cage is provided with a gate formed of pipe bars with
connections through hollow pivots or by jointed pipes. Thus, the
interior spaces of the tubular bars of the cages form a chamber, in which
a partial vacuum or pressure is maintained. A light air vacuum affords..
great security, and is easily maintained by means of a small water jet..
The pressure gauge with which the vacuum or pressure chamber is in
communication may be anywhere conveniently placed, and may either.
at once act upon an alarum when the pressure materially varies from.

page_text: that to which the apparatus is set, or, better, it may make or break an
electric contact in connection with a distant alarum. Water under
pressure from a cistern is very readily applied, the connection between
the cage and the cistern being by a very small orifice sufficient to
maintain the pressure and supply leakage, but not sufficient to con-
tinue the pressure when in consequence of violence the leakago is
increased, so that a signal may be given even if such increased leakage.
should continue but for an instant.
In cases where protection is required on one side only, as in the case
of a shop front, a complete cage is not employed, and the screen of pipe
bars is applied only where the protection is required. In the case of a
shop front the protecting screen may conveniently be arranged to rise.
from a narrow area below and to extend across the whole width of the
shop front from wall to wall, and the screen may extend to any height
which may be thought necessary. The connections are made by means
of telescopic tubes or jointed pipes.
In order to detect any attempt to tamper with the locks and bolts of
safes and strong rooms I make the cases of locks and bolts fluid-tight,
and provide caps for the keyholes, and I maintain a pressure or partial
vacuum in the lock cases. Then it is evident that before any attempt
can be made to pick the lock the pressure or vacuum will be lost. This
will be indicated by the gauge, and an automatic alarm will be
sounded.
I close the keyhole of a lock and any other aperture into a lock or
bolt case with a screw cap or plug, and I provide packing to the passage
through which the bolt works. Also, I connect the case with an exhaust
or pressure pipe or gauge, as already described, or sometimes I bore a
passage in the bolt, and cause it to shoot air-tight (in this case I prefer
to work with air) against a packing, and so to make a joint with the
extremity of a fixed exhaust or pressure channel.
I also in some cases construct safes and strong rooms so that they will
close air-tight, and maintain an exhaust or air pressure within them,
and connect them with indicators, as above described.
In this case
packing has to be provided around the doorway or aperture into the
safe, and the safe cavity is connected with apparatus to exhaust it or to a
compress the air within it, and also with a gauge acting on an alarum, as
in the previous arrangements.

page_text: Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner of performing the same, I would have it understood that I
claim,―
1st. The means of detecting attempts to obtain access to safes and
chambers for storing valuables by the use of a cage or screen formed of
pipe bars, within which partial vacuum or pressure is maintained, such
pipe bars being in connection with a gauge and an alarm, substantially
as described.
2nd. The means of detecting attempts to obtain access to the interior
of the lock and bolt cases of safes and chambers for storing valuables, by
maintaining partial vacuum or pressure within such cases, and placing
them in connection with a gauge and alarm, substantially as described.
3rd. The means of detecting attempts to obtain access to the interior
of safes and chambers for storing valuables by maintaining partial vacuum
or pressure within the interior cavity of the safe or chamber, and placing
such cavity in connection with a gauge and alarm, substantially as
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Chatwood, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of November, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
three.