IMPROVEMENTS APPLICABLE TO SAFES, VAULTS, AND OTHER STRUCTURES FOR CONTAINING VALUABLE PROPERTY, AND IN ALARM APPARATUS OR TELEGRAPHS CONNECTED THEREWITH
Year: 1870

page_text: ETTERS PATENT to William Edward Newton, of the Office for
Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Civil
Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS APPLICABLE TO SAFES,
VAULTS, AND OTHER STRUCTURES FOR CONTAINING VALUABLE PROPERTY, AND
IN ALARM APPARATUS OR TELEGRAPHS CONNECTED THEREWITH."—A com-
munication from abroad by Edwin Holmes, of Brooklyn, in the
State of New York, and Henry Clay Roome, of Jersey, in the State
of New Jersey, United States of America.
ealed the 21st April 1871, and dated the 1st November 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Edward
Newton at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 1st November 1870.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD NEWTON, of the. Office for Patents, 66, Chancery
Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS APPLICABLE TO SAFES,
VAULTS, AND OTHER STRUCTURES FOR CONTAINING VALUABLE PROPERTY, AND IN
ALARM APPARATUS OR TELEGRAPHS CONNECTED THEREWITH," to be as follows :--
This Invention consists in adapting an electro-magnetic apparatus to
safes, vaults, and other structures or enclosures for the purpose of

page_text: operating a burglar alarm upon any attempt being made to break into
or improperly interfere with the safe or other structure.
The first part of the Invention consists in the use of an electric
envelope or lining applied to the structure so that any perforation of
the envelope or lining (when the same is properly connected with a
battery and bell or other alarm device) or any severring of its connection
with the battery shall sound an alarm. In combination with the electric
envelope or lining for safes, vaults, and other structures or enclosures
there is a galvanometer or instrument the movements of which are
produced by variations in a current of electricity from a battery or other
electrical apparatus in connection with the safe, vault, or structure. The
electric envelope or lining is made of seperate parts or plates connected
with the opposite poles of the battery, and which are imperfectly
insulated from each other or are connected with each other by a resist-
ance coil or medium. An insulated metallic ribbon is arranged in a
convolute or zig-zag manner over the seperate parts or plates herein-
before referred to, and through which the latter are connected with the
battery. The envelope or lining is made of thin pliable sheets of metal
insulated from cach other by a pliable non-conductor, so that when
glued or connected together they form a single sheet. It is preferred to
use for the insulating substance a coating composed of gum, shellac, and
paper or cloth. The galvanometer consists in a needle hung so as to be
capable of deflection on a pivot intermediate of its length, and which is
or may be in connection at all times with the one pole of a battery, and
when deflected with either one of two points or adjusting screws that
are in connection through a magnet with the opposite pole of the
battery and with an alarm bell or device, the points when the needle is
deflected establishing contact with one or other of the opposite arms of
the needle so as to close the circuit and sound the alarm. When the
needle is not deflected it and its combinations operate to open the
circuit, which causes the alarm to cease or fails to sound it. This part
of the Invention also includes a drop and certain combinations or
devices, including the needle points and magnet just recited, arranged
to automatically break a primary circuit and complete a secondary one
for the purpose of sounding the alarm.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
left by the said William Edward Newton in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 1st May 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the
County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, send grecting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the First day of November, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-fourth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said William Edward Newton, Her special licence
that I, the said William Edward Newton, my executors, administrators,
or assigns, or such others as I, the said William Edward Newton, 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, 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
APPLICABLE TO SAFES, VAULTS, AND OTHER STRUCTURES FOR CONTAINING VALUABLE
PROFERTY, AND IN ALARM APPARATUS OR TELEGRAPHS CONNECTED THEREWITH,"
being a communication to me from abroad by Edwin Holmes, of
Brooklyn, in the State of New York, and Henry Clay Roome, of Jersey,
in the State of New Jersey, United States of America, upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said William Edward Newton, 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 Edward Newton, 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, reference being had to the Drawing
hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is
to say) :-
-
This Invention consists in adapting an electro-magnetic apparatus to

page_text: safes, vaults, and other structures or enclosures for the purpose of acting
on a burglar alarm when any attempt is made to break into or improperly
interfere with the safe or other structure.
The first part of the Invention consists in the use of an electric envelope
or lining applied to the structure so that any perforation of the envelope
or lining (when the same is properly connected with a battery and bell
or other alarm device) or any severing of its connection with the battery
shall sound an alarm. In combination with the electric envelope or lining
for safes, vaults, and other structures or enclosures there is a galvanometer
or instrument the movements of which are produced by variations in a
current of electricity from a battery or other electrical apparatus in
connection with the safe, vault, or structure. The electric envelope or
lining is made of separate parts or plates connected with the opposite
poles of the battery, and which are imperfectly insulated from each
other or are connected with each other by a resistance coil or medium.
An insulated metallic ribbon is arranged in a convolute or zig-zag
manner over the separate parts or plates herein-before referred to, and
through which the latter are connected with the battery. The envelope
or lining is made of thin pliable sheets of metal insulated from each
other by a pliable non-conductor, so that when glued or cemented
together they form a single sheet. It is preferred to use for the insulating
substance a coating composed of gum shellac and paper or cloth.
The second part of the Invention relates to a special construction of
the galvanometer constructed to form a burglar alarm apparatus or
telegraph for operation with the electric envelope or lining of the safe,
vault, or other structure as effected by the perforation of the lining or
by the severing of its connection with the battery or other electrical
apparatus. The galvanometer consists in a needle hung so as to be
capable of deflection on a pivot intermediate of its length, and which is
or may be in connection at all times with the one pole of a battery, and
when deflected with either one of two points or adjusting screws that
are in connection through a magnet with the opposite pole of the battery
and with an alarm bell or device the points (when the needle is deflected)
will establish contact with one or other of the opposite arms of the
needle, so as to close the circuit and sound the alarm. When the needle
is not deflected it and its combinations operate to open the circuit which
causes the alarm to cease or fails to sound it. This part of the Invention
also includes a drop and certain combinations or devices, including the

page_text: needle points and magnet just recited, arranged to automatically break a
primary circuit and complete a secondary one for the purpose of sounding
the alarm.
In the accompanying Drawing Fig. 1 represents an interior face view
of an electric envelope or lining constructed in accordance with the
Invention and as applied to the one side of a safe or vault or wooden or
other case enclosing the same, and Fig. 2 is a transverse section thereof
in part; Fig. 3 is a partly sectional or interior view of a burglar alarm
telegraph made to correspond with the second part of the Invention, and
in connection with the electric envelope or lining; Fig. 4 is a sectional
elevation on a larger scale taken as indicated by the line x, x, in Fig. 5
of the instrument or portion of the telegraph which contains the working
mechanism or forms the galvanometer proper under an immaterial
difference in the arrangement of certain of its details to that shewn in
Fig. 3; Fig. 5 is a sectional view of the same at right angles to Fig. 4
through the line y, y, in Fig. 6, which is an interior side view of the
instrument.
In Figures 1, 2, and 3 of the Drawing a and b represent two thin and
pliable plates of sheet metal so insulated from each other that they will
allow of a slight current of electricity to pass from one to the other when
such plates are connected with the opposite poles of a battery A. This
insulation is effected either by introducing a partial conductor between
the plates or by making the insulating substance so thin in one or more
places that it will allow of the passage of a slight current through it;
or a like effect may be produced by perfectly insulating the plates a
and b as by an insulator c, and connecting them together by a resistance
coil or medium f, which last arrangement is here selected for the
purpose of more clearly explaining the action of the electric envelope
or lining. The two plates a and b being insulated (as described) upon
the surface of one of them is glued or otherwise suitably secured
another plate or sheet of insulating material c¹, and upon this insulator
is glued or secured a thin continuous ribbon d of metal arranged to lie in
convolutions or in a zig-zag manner over the entire surface of the
insulator c. The insulator c, c', it is preferred to make of cloth or
paper, properly coated with gum shellac so that they (like the metallic
conductors which they insulate) are pliable, whereby the whole may be
applied in the form of a single sheet as an envelope or lining to the
safe vault or other structure or to the inside of a case or covering

page_text: enclosing the same. One end of the ribbon d is connected as by a
wire b with the one pole of the battery A and the other end thereof with
the plate a. The resistance coil f is connected with the plates a and b
at points g and h, and the plate 6 is connected as by a wire k with the
opposite pole of the battery A to that with which the ribbon dis
connected. The wire k is in interposed connection with the coils m, m,
of a galvanometer B, the needle n of which is hung on an intermediate
pivot so as to form opposite arms which when the needle is deflected
move in reverse directions. The needle is permanently connected (as
by a wire a²) with one pole of a battery C. Arranged to face these
upper and lower arms of the needle are adjusting screws o and o¹, the
latter one o¹ of which is adjusted so that when no current is passing
through the coils m, m, its point and lower part or arm of the needle
will be in contact and connected by a wire 2 to an electro-magnet p
which is in connection with the battery C.. r is a drop kept in its place
by a notch on the armature of the magnet p when the magnet is not
charged. q is an upright from a horizontal lever s pivotted at a point
which is intermediate of its length, and such lever has a small platinum
point upon the under side of each of its arms: There are small springs
and t, the latter of which is connected to the magnet p by a wire c², and
the other is connected by a wire d² to an electro-magnetic alarm bell
I connected to a pole of the battery C by a wire e²: A spring w keeps
one arm of the lever s in contact with the spring t when the drop r
is held up by the magnet. A wire connects the lever s with
the opposite pole of the battery C to that with which the wire c²
connects.
When the safe vault or structure is in working order a slight current
of electricity passes from the battery A through the wire to the
ribbon d, thence around the entire safe or structure to the plate a,
through the resistance coil f to the plate b, and through the wire k to
the coils m, m, causing the upper arm of the needle n to deflect towards
the screw o, thus releasing the lower part of the needle from contact
with the screw o¹. The screw o must be so adjusted that the needle 12 will
very nearly but not actually touch it while the current is passing through
the resistance coil f. Any attempt to perforate the electric envelope
or lining of the safe or other structure with a metallic substance
establishes a perfect electrical connection between the plates a and b,
and the current not having to pass through the resistance coil ƒ will be

page_text: greatly increased, which will cause the needle n to deflect sufficiently
to touch the screw o. This completes an electric circuit from the
battery C through the magnet p by means of the wire d², the needle »,
the wire b², the spring t, the lever s, and the wire f³. When this circuit
is completed the armature of the magnet p being attracted will release
the drop r, which falling upon the upright q will press the one arm of
the lever s upon the spring u, breaking at the same time the contact of
the opposite arm of the lever with the spring t, and will thus establish.
a new circuit through the bell D, the wire e³, the battery C, and the
wire f, thereby keeping up a continuous ringing of the bell D. The
same result would follow if a metallic connection be made between the
wires k and l.
Should an entrance into the safe or other structure be attempted by
using a non-conducting instrument to penetrate the electric envelope
or lining the metal ribbon d would be severed and the circuit broken
and the needle n would assume an upright position and be brought in
contact with the screw o³, thus completing the same circuit as before,
and would keep up a continuous ringing of the bell D. Should either
wire or be cut the same result would follow.
Having now described the Invention which has been communicated
to me by my foreign correspondent, and having explained the manner.
of carrying the same into effect I claim, as the Invention secured to
me by Letters Patent as aforesaid,――
First. The application to safes, vaults, and other analogous structures
or enclosures of an envelope or lining composed of two parts or con-
ductors imperfectly insulated from each other or connected with each
other through a resistance coil or medium, and in connection with the
opposite poles of a battery or other electrical apparatus for action, as
and for the purpose herein set forth.
Second. The combination of an electric envelope or lining for safes,
vaults, and other analogous structures or enclosures, with a galvano-
meter or instrument, the movements of which are produced by variation
in a current of electricity from a battery or other electrical apparatus
in connection with the safe, vault, or other structure or enclosure as
herein described.
Third. The use of the metallic ribbon d arranged or applied to a safe,
vault, or other analogous structure or enclosure, and serving to complete

page_text: an electric circuit by its connection with the opposite poles of a battery
or other electric apparatus as herein set forth.
Fourth. The use of an electro-magnetic envelope or lining composed
of thin and pliable sheets of metal insulated from each other by pliable
non-conductors so that when glued or secured together the whole will
form a single sheet as herein set forth.
Fifth. The combination of the metallic sheets or plates a, b, the
insulating sheets c, c¹, the metallic ribbon d, the resistance coil or
medium, and the battery wires or connections k, l, as and for the
purposes herein set forth.
Sixth. The application of the needle n and its combinations or con-
nections when used to open and close a circuit of a burglar alarm
telegraph as specified.
Seventh. The use of the drop and its combinations or connections
when used to automatically break a primary circuit and complete a
secondary one as herein set forth.
Eighth. The employment of the resistance coil or medium ƒ when
used in a continuous circuit for the purpose specified.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Edward Newton, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, the First day of May, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
one.