IMPROVEMENTS IN PORTABLE OR FIRE PUMPS AND APPARATUS.CONNECTED THEREWITH."
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Roberts, of Millwall, Poplar, Engineer,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PORTABLE OR FIRE PUMPS AND
APPARATUS.CONNECTED THEREWITH."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Roberts at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
13th February 1861.
I, WILLIAM ROBERTS, of Millwall, Poplar, Engineer, do hereby declare the
nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PORTABLE OR FIRE PUMPS AND
APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in portable or fire pumps
and apparatus connected therewith. In constructing portable or fire pumps.
according to my Invention, I mount the working parts of the pump on a bed
plate without wheels, and I arrange the same so that it may be lifted and
carried from place to place by the pair of wheels and axle employed for trans-
porting the hose reel. The hose reel is mounted and turns on the axle as is
usual, and a frame proceeds from-the-axle-and-carries the handle,.or.it.may
be the shafts by which the apparatus is drawn or pushed. The wheels of the
hose reel are placed sufficiently far apart to allow the bed plate of the pump

page_text: to pass between them, and to lift the pump when it is to be moved from place
to place; the hose reel is backed over the end of the bed plate, and the frame
thereof is tilted up; two books carried by the hose frame, and connected
thereto immediately over the axle are then hooked into loops on the bed
plate; this being done, it will be seen that if the handle or shafts of the hose
reel are drawn down again the end of the bed of the pump over which the
hose reel has been run will be raised, the handle or shafts acting as levers,
with the wheels as a fulcrum, to draw up the hooks and the end of the bed
plate now connected to them. In addition to the hooks there is also jointed
to the fore part of the frame of the hose reel a strut, the other end of which
is made so that it can be readily attached to the end of the bed plate of the
pump; this strut when the end of the bed plate has been raised, as before
described, to a sufficient height is connected to the bed plate, and then by
continuing to force down the handle or shafts the bed plate will be raised
completely off the ground, and may then be moved from place to place, as
required. It will be seen that great portability and lightness is obtained by
employing the pair of wheels and axle of the hose reel to carry the pump and
its bed plate. The pump I employ by preference is that described in my
Provisional Specification, dated 13th November 1860, No. 2781.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Roberts in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
13th August 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
ROBERTS, of Millwall, Poplar, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fourth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said William Roberts, Her special licence that I, the said William
Roberts, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said William Roberts, my excentors, 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-

page_text: MENTS IN PORTABLE OR FIRE PUMPS AND APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Roberts, 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 William Roberts, do hereby declaro
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 portable or fire pumps
and apparatus connected therewith. In constructing portable or fire pumps,
according to my Invention, I mount the working parts of the pump on a bed
plate without wheels, and I arrange the same so that it may be lifted and
carried from place to place by the pair of wheels and axle employed for trans-
porting the hose reel. The hose reel is mounted and turns on the axle, as is
usual, and a frame proceeds from the axle and carries the handle, or it may be
the shafts by which the apparatus is drawn or pushed. The wheels of the hose
reel are placed sufficiently far apart to allow the bed plate of the pump to pass
between them, and to lift the pump when it is to be moved from place to place,
the hose reel is backed over the end of the bed plate, and the frame thereof is
tilted up; two hooks carried by the hose frame, and connected thereto imme-
diately over the axle are then booked into loops on the bed plate; this being
done it will be seen that if the handle or shafts of the hose reel are drawn
down again the end of the bed of the pump over which the hose reel has
been run will be raised, the handle or shafts acting as levers, with the wheels
as a fulcrum, to draw up the hooks, and the end of the bed plate now con-
nected to them. In addition to the hooks there is also jointed to the fore part
of the frame of the hose reel a strut, the other end of which is made so that
it can be readily attached to the end of the bed plate of the pump; this strut
when the end of the bed plate has been raised, as before described, to a suffi-
cient height is connected to the bed plate, and then by continuing to force
down the bandle or shafts the bed plate will be raised completely off the
ground, and may then be moved from place to place, as required. It will be
seen that great portability and lightness is obtained by employing the pair of
wheels and axle of the hose reel to carry the pump and its bed plate. The

page_text: Figure 1 is a side elevation, and Figure 2 is a plan of the pump, with its
bed plate; Figure 3-is a side elevation, and Figure 4 is a plan of the hose
reel, with its wheels.
The parts of the pump are marked a, a, and as it is constructed by prefer-
ence exactly in accordance with the Specification of the Patent granted-to me
and dated 13th November 1860, (No. 2781,) no detailed description of it will be
necessary. a¹, a', are its suction pipes, and a³, a³, its exit pipes; b is the bed
plate; c, c, are hooks attached thereto, one on each side; d is a catch, con-
sisting of a plate d', with a 1-shaped notch cut in it, and-a-turn-button-d
In Figures 3 and 4, e, e, are a pair of wheels, mounted on an axle f; and g is
a reel, capable of turning on the same axle, on it the hose or flexible pipe h
is wound; is a wooden handle, connected with the axle f by the metal
brackets, through holes, in the lower extremities of which the axle passes.
On the top of the handle a boxj is fixed, this box is used to contain the jet
for the end of the hose, and any tools which may be necessary; k, k, are
hooks, jointed to the metal brackets ; and 2 is a strut, jointed to the
handle i; the pieces of flexible pipe m, m, secured by straps alongside of the
handle are rendered stiff, so that they cannot be collapsed, by spirals of wire or
otherwise; they are intended to be applied to the suction orifices of the pump
when required for use. Figure 5 is a side view of the pump and bed plate, as
it appears when coupled with the hose reel and its wheels for travelling; the
hooks k, k, of the hose reel catch the hooks c, c, on the bed plate of the pump,
and the lower end of the strut 7, which is 1-shaped is placed in the corre-
sponding notch of the catch d, and is there secured by the turn button d'.
When the parts are thus arranged the whole will be so nearly balanced about
the axle that the handle i can readily be held in such a position as to keep
both ends of the bed plate 6 off the ground, and then the whole can be run
along on its pair of wheels e, e, very readily. The uncoupling is readily
effected by tilting up the handle till the bed plate b rests on the ground, when
it only remains to disconnect the hooks k, k, and the strut l. Figure 6 shows
on a somewhat smaller scale a side view of a pump and hose reel, suitable to

page_text: be drawn by a horse, the parts being larger and heavier than in the arrange-
ment first described, from which, however, besides its size, it differs but in
slight details, which are sufficiently illustrated by the Drawing, which is lettered
to correspond with the description already given.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Roberts, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.