A NEW AND USEFUL OR IMPROVED ELECTRO-MAGNETIC ALARM APPARATUS, TO BE APPLIED TO A DOOR OR WINDOW, OR BOTH, OF A DWELLING HOUSE OR OTHER BUILDING, FOR THE PURPOSE OP GIVING AN ALARM IN CASE OF AN ATTEMPT TO OPEN SAID DOOR OR WINDOW
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Augustus Russell Pope, of the State of
Massachusetts, of the United States of America, for the Inven-
tion of "A NEW AND USEFUL OR IMPROVED ELECTRO-MAGNETIC
ALARM APPARATUS, TO BE APPLIED TO A DOOR OR WINDOW, OR BOTH,
OF A DWELLING HOUSE OR OTHER BUILDING, FOR THE PURPOSE OP
GIVING AN ALARM IN CASE OF AN ATTEMPT TO OPEN SAID DOOR OR
WINDOW."
Sealed the 6th October 1853, and dated the 1st August 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Augustus Russell
Pope at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 1st August 1853.
I, AUGUSTUS RUSSELL POPE, of the State of Massachusetts, of the
United States of America, do hereby declare the nature of my
Invention of "A NEW AND USEFUL OR IMPROVED ELECTRO-MAGNETIC
ALARM APPARATUS, TO BE APPLIED TO A DOOR OR WINDOW, OR BOTH, OF A
DWELLING HOUSE OR OTHER BUILDING, FOR THE PURPOSE OF GIVING AN ALARM
IN CASE OF AN ATTEMPT TO OPEN SAID DOOR OR WINDOW," to be as follows,
that is to sav

page_text: My said apparatus consists of an automatic or self-acting key applied
to the door or window, a set of circuit wires, an electric or galvanic
battery and an electro-magnet connected together and with the said
key by such circuit wires, an alarm bell hammer, and an armature for
the magnet, such armature being attached to the hammer or a pro-
jection therefrom, and finally a spring circuit breaker; the said key to
be so made and applied to the door or window as not only to cause the
electric circuit to be completed or closed whenever the door or window
is in the act of being opened, but to cause it to be broken or opened
whenever the door or window is closed. The circuit breaker consists
of a spring extended up from the end of one of the battery circuit wires,
and made to rest against the end of the other wire. It has a projection
on it which is extended into the path of movement of the armature, so
that when the armature is drawn towards the magnet it shall move the
circuit breaker .out of contact with the circuit wire against which it
rested.
The armature of the magnet is a pendulous one, and so connected
with the bell hammer that when such armature is drawn towards the
magnet it shall cause the hammer to strike the bell. The operation of
the apparatus is as follows:
While the door is closed, or the window sash down, the magneto-
electric circuit is broken, because the spring of the key is thrown out of
connection with one of the circuit wires. But as soon as the door is
opened, or the window sash moved, so as to allow the spring of the key
to come in contact with the circuit wire to which it is not connected,
the circuit will be closed, the current of electricity from the battery
being made to flow through the circuit breaker and around the magnet.
As soon as this takes place the magnet becomes charged, and attracts or
draws the armature towards itself, and thereby causes the hammer to
strike the bell. During the movement of the armature towards the
magnet it is carried in contact with the circuit breaker, or a projection
therefrom, and moves the circuit breaker away from the circuit wire
against which it rested. This breaks the circuit and demagnetizes the
magnet. In consequence of this, the armature is permitted to fall or
move away from the magnet, the weight and fall of the hammer

page_text: causing it to do so, until the circuit breaker springs back against the
circuit wire, and thereby closes the circuit, and causes another blow of
the hammer on the bell to take place. Thus a constant succession of
blows of the hammer on the bell will be produced, the same serving to
sound the alarm.
I not only claim as my Invention the combination of the moveable
or vibrating armature and the spring circuit breaker with the bell
hammer, and applied and used for the purpose of ringing a bell,
but I claim the combination of the automatic or self-acting key, the
circuit wires leading therefrom, the electric battery or a generator
of electricity, an electro-magnet bell hammer and armature, and a
circuit breaker, as applied and used in connection with a door or
window, or other contrivance for the purpose of sounding an alarm
when an attempt is made to open the same.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Augustus Russell Pope in the Great Seal Patent
Office, on the 12th January 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
AUGUSTUS RUSSELL POPE, of the State of Massachusetts, of the United
States of America, send greeting.
WHEREAS the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, by Letters
Patent, bearing date the First day of August, of the year of our Lord
Eighteen hundred and fifty-three, in the seventeenth year of Her reign,
did grant unto me, the said Augustus Russell Pope, my heirs, executors,
administrators, and assigns, an exclusive property or right for fourteen
years to make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man,
an Invention of "A NEW AND USEFUL OR IMPROVED ELECTRO-MAGNETIC
ALARM APPARATUS, TO BE APPLIED TO A DOOR OR WINDOW, OR BOTH, OF A
DWELLING HOUSE OR OTHER BUILDING, FOR THE PURPOSE OF GIVING AN
ALARM IN CASE OF AN ATTEMPT TO OPEN SAID DOOR OR WINDOW," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Augustus Russell Pope,

page_text: by an instrument under my hand and seal, 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, or Office of the Commissioners of
Patents for Inventions, within six calender months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Augustus Russell Pope, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following Specification and the accompanying Drawings,
letters, figures, and references thereof:
Of the said Drawings, Figure 1, represents an elevation of a door
and window, and my apparatus as applied thereto. Figure 2, is a
vertical and transverse section taken through the spring circuit breaker,
to be herein-after described. Figure 3, is a vertical section of the
apparatus, herein-after termed the key, as applied to the door. Figure 4,
is a section of the same as applied to the window.
In the said Drawings A, represents a door, of which B, is the frame,
the same being shewn as fitted into the wall D; E, and F, are window
sashes of a window frame G; H, is an electro-magnet fastened to the
side of the wall in a convenient position, and having a bell I, arranged
over or near it. One of the pole wires leading from an electric battery
is seen at K. It extends to and winds around the magnet, and passes
upwards over the bell and window frame, and thence downwards into
the door frame, where it is connected to a small stationary metallic
plate L, as seen in the Drawings. The plate L, is fastened in the door
frame, and forms a part of the apparatus which I term the key. The
said key is otherwise composed of a metallic spring M, one end of
which is made to bear against the plate L, while the other or lower end
is fastened to the door frame, the spring being fixed in a recess N,
made in the door frame. In Figure 5, a transverse section of the door
frame is given, with the door represented as open. The inner edge of
the door has a small stud or pin O, projecting from it, which constitutes
part of the key, and when the door is closed presses against the spring
M, of the key, and bears it away from contact with the plate L; as

page_text: soon as the door is opened a very short distance the stud will be so
moved away from the spring as to allow the spring to come in contact
with the plate L. From the lower part of the spring a wire P, extends
nearly to the lower pole of the magnet, and towards and against what
I term the spring circuit breaker, which consists of a metallic spring Q,
extended upwards from the battery circuit wire R. To the magnet
there is applied a moveable pendulous armature S, which vibrates on a
pin T, and has a hammer U, extended upwards from it, and towards
and within a short distance from the underside of the bell. When this
hammer is at rest, or down to its lowest position, it is retained there by
a stop pin V, against which the lower part of the armature of the
magnet rests under such circumstances. The form and shape of the
circuit breaker and its relative position with respect to the armature
and the wire P, that leads from the spring of the key, are shewn in the
Drawings. The top of the spring circuit breaker is formed with a
small projection a, which extends into the path of the armature, so that
when said armature is moved towards the magnet the projection of the
circuit breaker will be struck by the arm so as to move the circuit
breaker out of contact with the end of the wire P. The above
constitutes the alarm apparatus as applied to a door.
In the application of it to a window the wire P, or another wire X,
leading up from it, may be extended into the window frame, and con-
nected with the lower end of a metallic spring b, arranged on the inside
or pulley stile of the frame, and made to bear against the edge of a
sash, the said edge being so formed or shaped that while the window is
in the act of being opened it shall press the spring towards and against
the end of another wire Y, extended down from the wire K, before
named, or is an extension of said wire when the apparatus is to be
applied to a window alone. The spring and contrivance for moving it as
above described, as applied to a window, constitutes what I term the
key. The operation is as follows:
While the door is closed, or the window sash down, the magnetic
circuit is broken, because the spring of the key is thrown out of connec-
tion with the upper wire of the door or window frame. But as soon as
the door is opened or the window sash moved so as to allow the spring

page_text: of the key to come into contact with the upper wire or the metallic
plate at the lower end thereof the circuit will be closed, the current of
electricity being made to flow through the circuit breaker and around
the magnet. As soon as this takes place the magnet becomes charged,
and draws the armature towards it, and thereby throws the hammer of
the bell against the bell. During the movement of the armature
towards the magnet it throws or moves the circuit breaker out of
connection or contact with the wire P, whereby the circuit will be again
broken so as to demagnatize the magnet, and allow the armature to fall
back until the circuit breaker again comes in contact with the wire P,
and thereby closes the electric circuit, and produces another blow of the
hammer on the bell. Thus a constant succession of blows of the
hammer on the bell will be produced.
By my apparatus I dispense with the use of clock work or an appa-
ratus to ring the bell through the agency of the falling of a weight or
uncoiling of a spring, the hammer being kept in action on the bell
while the battery continues to furnish electricity, and the door or
window is open.
I not only claim as my Invention the combination of the moveable
or vibrating armature and the spring circuit breaker with the bell
hammer, and applied and used for the purpose of ringing a bell, but
I claim the combination of the automatic or self-acting key, the circuit
wires leading therefrom, the electric battery or a generator of elec-
tricity, an electro-magnet bell hammer and armature, and a circuit
breaker, as applied and used in connection with a door or window, or
other contrivance for the purpose of sounding an alarm when an
attempt is made to open the same.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal.