AN IMPROVED METHOD OF AND APPARATUS 'FOR PROTECTING BUILDINGS AGAINST FIRE, AND SUPPLYING THEM WITH STEAM POR MOTIVE POWER AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1874

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Robert Lake at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
13th June 1874,-A communication from abroad by John A.
Coleman, of Providence, Rhode Island, United States of America.
I, WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co.,
Patent Agents, Southampton Buildings, London, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF AND APPARATUS
'FOR PROTECTING BUILDINGS AGAINST FIRE, AND SUPPLYING THEM WITH STEAM
POR MOTIVE POWER AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES," a communication, to be ás
follows:-
This Invention has for its object the protection of all of the buildings
in a town or city, or a district, or portion of the same, and the
supplying of such buildings with steam for motive power and for
heating purposes. In practising the said Invention I place in the
centre of the district to be protected and supplied with steam a suffi-
cient number of boilers, and with these boilers I connect a series of
main pipes which extend through the streets, roads, or passages of the
said district, the building to be supplied with steam are provided with

page_text: :
pipes extending in various directions and communicating with the street
mains; these pipes are provided at various points with means for
attaching hose thereto, or with a series of perforated pipes or sprinklers
through which steam can be forced into any room or portion of a
building to extinguish a fire therein. Branch pipes are also provided
for supplying steam for motive power and heating purposes. The
aforesaid pipes provided with means for attaching hose or with sprinklers
also communicate with street pipes or mains supplied with water at the
desired pressure, so that water instead of steam may be supplied when
necessary for extinguishing a fire.
The aforesaid boilers or generators may be located in the basement of
any suitable building occupying a central position with regard to the
district to be supplied with steam. The steam pipes from these boilers
or generators are connected by one or more pipes with a main or
principal steam pipe placed within a brick conduit or tunnel built under
the street. This main extends through the various streets of the district
and is intended to be covered with felt or other suitable material to
retain the heat and prevent the condensation of the steam and con-
sequent reduction of pressure. Each building throughout the district is
supplied with steam from the main through a pipe which communicates
with a short horizontal pipe or chamber placed inside of the front wall
of the building; the admission of steam to the pipe is controlled by a valve
in the pipe immediately below the said chamber. A series of vertical pipes,
one for each story and one for the roof, rise from the said horizontal pipe or
chamber, and the upper end of each vertical pipe has connected therc-
with perforated pipes or sprinklers fastened to any desirable part of the
ceilings; the sprinklers attached to the longest vertical pipe are secured
upon the roof. The outside of the building is also provided with
sprinklers connected with the vertical pipes. Each of the said vertical
pipes is provided at or near its lower end with a valve or stop-cock, the
Istem of which projects through the front wall and is accessible from the
outside of the building. The handles of these valves should be inclosed
within an iron box or casing provided with a lock and key. By means
of these pipes and sprinklers and their valves steam can be admitted into
any portion of a building where a fire may break out, and if this portion
is closed to confine the steam it will smother the flame without material
damage to the goods therein. If the windows of the building have
been broken, or if the fire has made too much progress before its

page_text: discovery water may be admitted to the vertical pipes and ejected
through the sprinklers instead of steam by simply opening another
valve in a water pipe leading from the said horizontal pipe to a water
main placed in the conduit or tunnel under the steam main, the required
degree of pressure being maintained within the water main by one or
more steam pumps which are operated when occasion requires. Should
however the head or pressure of water in the ordinary city service pipes
be sufficient the water pipe may be connected therewith and the main
and steam pumps be dispensed with.
By the employment of one set of pipes only for both steam and water,
instead of two separate and independent sets of pipes, one for water and
one for steam, I am enabled to effect a very considerable saving in the
cost of construction, repairs, and otherwise, and also to economize
space.
Instead of a series of perforated pipes or sprinklers leading to various
places in the interior and on the exterior of the building a stand pipe
suitably connected with both the water and steam mains and at the
outside or inside of the building may be employed; the said stand pipe.
must have short branches at various heights for the attachment of hose
for directing water upon a fire in any part of the building. The com-
munication with the supply of water in the stand pipe is controlled by
valves, one in each fork or branch. When the fire is an incipient
state steam may be forced through the ends of the branch pipes to fill
the room or compartment and smother the fire in the same manner as
where the sprinklers above described are employed.
The steam for heating the building is introduced from the street
main by mcansof suitable pipes provided with branches leading to
radiators on the different floors.