AN IMPROVED FIREPROOF COMPOSITION FOR SAFES AND OTHER DEPOSITORIES."
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles John Curtis and Augustin Fiddes, both of
the City and County of Bristol, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED
FIREPROOF COMPOSITION FOR SAFES AND OTHER DEPOSITORIES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles John Curtis
and Augustin Fiddes at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 14th July 1870.
We, CHARLES JOHN CURTIS and AUGUSTIN FIDDES, both of the City
and County of Bristol, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "AN IMPROVED FIREPROOF COMPOSITION FOR SAFES AND OTHER DEPOSITORIES,”
to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to fireproof composition employed for lining:
safes and other depositories intended to contain books, papers, and other
documents and valuable property, for the purpose of preserving. the same
from being burnt or otherwise injured or defaced by the action of heat.
in the case of a building taking fire in which a safe or other depository
is situated.

page_text: Various methods have been devised and employed for effecting the
above object with considerable success, and the intention of this
Invention is to manufacture a fireproof composition which shall resist
the action of heat for a greater length of time than the compositions,
mixtures, or means heretofore generally employed for that purpose.
We propose to accomplish the above object by combining together the
following ingredients, matters, or substances in and for the manufacture
of the above-mentioned fireproof composition, that is to say, we take
plaster of Paris, Portland, Roman, or other plastering cement, and reduce
it to the consistence of putty or thick paste by mixing therewith one or
other of the following liquids in about the following proportions, namely,
one gallon of bone spirit to one bushel of plaster of Paris or cement, or
instead of bone spirit we propose to employ a solution of saltpetre,
ammonia, or common salt in the proportion of about two pounds of
either of the above salts to one gallon of water, or in such other
proportion as will bring the plaster or cement to the required degree of
consistence.
In some cases we propose to employ saltpetre and common salt mixed
together in equal proportions, and this mixture we propose to use for
lining the smaller chambers of fireproof safes and other like depositories,
and the larger chambers we fill with the plaster or cement composition
above described.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Charles John Curtis and Augustin Fiddes in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 14th January 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, CHARLES
JOHN CURTIS and AUGUSTIN FIDDES, both of the City and County of
Bristol, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of July, 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 us, the said Charles John Curtis and Augustin Fiddes,
Her special licence that we, the said Charles John Curtis and Augustin
Fiddes, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we,

page_text: the said Charles John Curtis and Augustin Fiddes, our executors, adminis-
trators, 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 "AN IMPROVED FIREPROOF COMPOSITION
FOR SAFES AND OTHER DEPOSITORIES," upon the condition (amongst others)
that we, the said Charles John Curtis and Augustin Fiddes, our exccutors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our, 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 we, the said Charles John Curtis and Augustin
Fiddes, 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, that is to say:-
This Invention relates to fireproof composition employed for. lining
safes and other depositories intended to, contain books, papers, and other
documents and valuable property for the purpose of preserving the same
from being burnt or otherwise injured or defaced by the action of heat
in the case of a building taking fire in which a safe or other depository
is situated.
Various methods have been devised and employed for effecting the
above object with considerable success, and the intention of this Invention
is to manufacture a fireproof composition which shall resist the action
of heat for a greater length of time than the compositions, mixtures, or
means heretofore generally employed for that purpose.
We propose to accomplish the above object by combining together the
following ingredients, matters, or substances in and for the manufacture
of the above-mentioned fireproof composition, that is to say, we take
plaster of Paris, Portland, Roman, or other plastering cement, and reduce
it to the consistence of putty or thick paste by mixing therewith one or
other of the following liquids in about the following proportions, namely,
one gallon of bone spirit to one bushel of plaster of Paris or cement, or
instead of bone spirit we propose to employ a solution of saltpetre,
ammonia, or common salt in the proportion of about two pounds of either

page_text: of the above salts to one gallon of water, or in such other proportions as
will bring the plaster or cement to the required degree of consistence.
In some cases we propose to employ saltpetre and common salt mixed
together in equal proportions, and this mixture we propose to use for
lining the smaller chambers of fireproof safes and other like depositories,
and the larger chambers we fill with the plaster or cement composition
above described.
Having now fully described and set forth the nature and object of our
said Invention for "An improved Fireproof Composition for Safes and
other Depositories," together with the best means we are acquainted with
for carrying the same into practical effect, we would remark in conclusion
that we hereby declare our Invention to consist in and we claim, the
combination of ingredients above described in and for the manufacture
of an improved fireproof composition adapted for safes and other
depositories as above stated.
In witness whereof, we, the said Charles John Curtis and Augustin
Fiddes, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Ninth day of
January, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
seventy-one.
Witness,
JAMES HENRY LOCKLEY,
Mermaid Brewery,
Lewins Mead,
CHARLES JOHN CURTIS. (L.S.)
(L.S.)
AUGUSTIN FIDDES.
Bristol.