IMPROVEMENTS IN AND APPARATUS FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRES IN THE HOLDS OR BELOW DECKS OF NAVIGABLE VESSELS, WHETHER ARISING FROM SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION OR OTHER CAUSE
Year: 1869

page_text: ETTERS PATENT to William Allan, of Liverpool, in the County of
Lancaster, Superintendent Marine Engineer, William Payne, of
Liverpool, aforesaid, Founder and Ships' Ironmonger, and Alex-
ander Black Fraser, also of Liverpool, aforesaid, Founder and Ships'
Ironmonger, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND APPARATUS
FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRES IN THE HOLDS OR BELOW DECKS OF NAVIGABLE
VESSELS, WHETHER ARISING FROM SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION OR OTHER
CAUSE."
Scaled the 18th February 1870, and dated the 21st August 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Allan, William
Payne, and Alexander Black Fraser at the Office of the Commis-
sioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the 21st August 1869.
We, WILLIAM ALLAN, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster,
Superintendent Marine Engineer, WILLIAM PAYNE, of Liverpool, afore-
said, Founder and Ships' Ironmonger, and ALEXANDER BLACK FRASER,

page_text: also of Liverpool, aforesaid, Founder and Ships' Ironmonger, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND
APPARATUS FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRES IN THE HOLDS OR BELOW DECKS OF
NAVIGABLE VESSELS, WHETHER ARISING FROM SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION OR OTHER
CAUSE," to be as follows (that is to say) :-
This Invention has for its object an improved system or arrangement
of apparatus for extinguishing fires in the holds or between decks of
navigable vessels arising from spontaneous combustion or other cause,
by means of soft or saturated steam, and will be peculiarly valuable on
board coal laden ships.
These improvements may be carried out (say) on board a steam ship
by attaching a small steam pipe of (say) % of an inch or an inch bore
to the steam boiler, which is carried under the deck fore and aft for a
given distance. To this pipe are connected any required number of
branch pipes (say one for each compartment of the hold) which extend
down into the tunnels or passages on the side or sides of the keelston,
where they open into an horizontal pipe (or pipes) of (say) 3 or 4 inches
bore, and which are perforated with holes to allow the steam to escape
therefrom. The steam pipe near the boiler is provided with a stop-cock
or tap, which can be opened and closed by hand to prevent condensation
and waste of steam when the apparatus is not in operation; a stop-
cock or valve is also fitted near the top of each vertical pipe, which leads
down towards the keelston, so arranged that the steam can be directed
to any one or more of the water-tight compartments of the vessel; these
valves may be fitted with weighted levers kept up by wires or strips of
metal, which are fusable at a low temperature, so transposed that when
acted upon by the required heat to fuse the metal the weight on the
end of the valve lever will fall and open the valve, and this power may
be used to sound an alarm.
In a large vessel the horizontal perforated pipe on the side of the
keelston may be in the fore hold (say) forty feet long; in the main hold
(say) sixty feet; and in the: after hold, thirty feet.
In the case of sailing vessels, the most-of which now are provided with
donkey engines, the steam pipe may be connected to the boiler of the
donkey engine, which would supply more than sufficient steam to fill

page_text: the hold; but where there is no steam boiler on board a small boiler
will have to be provided for generating the steam required.
When the weighted levers are used the presence of fire may be
indicated in the engine room or near the steam boiler or other con-
venient situation, when all that is required to be done is to open the
valve to let on the steam, which rushing from the boiler escapes through
the openings in the horizontal pipes on the side of the keelston and fills
the hold, which will immediately arrest or extinguish the fire.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Allan, William Payne, and Alexander
Black Fraser in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 21st February
1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
ALLEN, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Superintendent Marine
Engineer, WILLIAM PAYNE, of Liverpool, aforesaid, Founder and Ships'
Ironmonger, and ALEXANDER BLACK FRASER, also of Liverpool, aforesaid,
Founder and Ships' Ironmonger, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of August, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-
third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her beirs and successors, give
and grant, unto us, the said William Allan, William Payne, and
Alexander Black Fraser, Her special licence that we, the said William
Allan, William Payne, and Alexander Black Fraser, our executors,
3 administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said William
Allan, William Payne, and Alexander Black Fraser, our 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
IN AND APPARATUS FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRES IN THE HOLDS OR BELOW DECKS

page_text: OF NAVIGABLE VESSELS, WHETHER ARISING FROM SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION OR
OTHER CAUSE," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said
William Allan, William Payne, and Alexander Black Fraser, our exe-
cutors 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 William Allan, William Payne,
and Alexander Black Fraser, do hereby declare the nature of our 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 our said Invention has for its object an improved system or
arrangement of apparatus for extinguishing fires in the holds or
"between decks" of navigable vessels arising from spontaneous com-
bustion or other cause, by means of soft or saturated steam, and will
be peculiarly valuable on board coal laden ships.
These improvements may be carried out (say) on board a steam ship,
by attaching a small steam pipe of, say, of an inch or an inch bore to
the steam boiler, which is carried under the deck fore and aft for a given
distance; to this pipe are connected any required number of branch
pipes (say one for each compartment of the hold) which extend down
into the tunnels or passages on the side or sides of the keelston, where
they open into an horizontal pipe (or pipes) of say 3 or 4 inches bore,
and which are perforated with holes to allow the steam to escape
therefrom. The steam pipe near the boiler is provided with a stop-cock
or tap, which can be opened and closed by hand to prevent condensation
and waste of steam when the apparatus is not in operation; a stop-cock
or valve is also fitted near the top of each vertical pipe, which leads down
towards the keelson, so arranged that the steam can be directed to any
one or more of the water-tight compartments of the vessel. These valves
may be fitted with weighted levers kept up by wires or strips of metal,
which are fusable at a low temperature, so transposed that when acted
upon by the required heat to fuse the metal the weight on the end of

page_text: the valve lever will fall and open the valve, and this power may be used
to sound an alarm.
In a large vessel the horizontal perforated pipe on the side of the
keelston may be in the fore hold (say) forty feet long; in the main hold
(say) sixty feet; and in the after hold, thirty feet.
In the case of sailing vessels, the most of which now are provided
with donkey engines, the steam pipe may be connected to the boiler of
the donkey engine, which would supply more than sufficient steam to
fill the hold; but where there is no steam boiler on board a small boiler
will have to be provided for generating the steam required.
When the weighted levers are used the presence of fire may be
indicated in the engine room or near the steam boiler or other con-
venient situation, when all that is required to be done is to open the
valve to let on the steam, which rushing from the boiler escapes through
the openings in the horizontal pipes on the side of the kcelston and fills
the hold, which will immediately arrest or extinguish the fire.
That this our said Invention, and the practical application thereof,
may be the more readily seen and understood, we have hereunto annexed
a Drawing exhibiting a longitudinal vertical section of a ship fitted with
one modification of our apparatus for extinguishing fire in the holds
of vessels, like letters marked thereon being used to denote similar
parts.
A, the steam generator; B, steam pipe running under the upper
deck, and from which branches C, C1, C2, three pendant branch pipes,
which open into D, D¹, D³, branch pipes on the side of the keelson,
which are perforated with small holes to allow the steam to escape
therefrom.
Having now fully described and ascertained the nature of this our
said Invention, and how we believe the same may be best carried into
practical effect, we wish it to be understood that we do not confine
ourselves to the precise dimensions or relative proportions herein-
before described and set forth, as it will be readily seen that the same
may be considerably varied without departing from the Invention;
but what we do claim is, the extinguishing of fire in the holds or below

page_text: decks of navigable vessels, substantially in the manner herein-before
described and set forth.
In witness whereof; we, the said William Allan, William Payne,
and Alexander Black Fraser, have hereunto set our hands and
affixed our scals, this Nineteenth day of February, in the
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy.
year 5
Witness,
WILLIAM WALKER,
WILLIAM
WILLIAM
(L.S.) ALLAN.
(L.S.) PAYNE.
ALEXANDER BLACK (L.S.) FRASER.
of 44, Castle Street,
Liverpool.