IMPROVEMENTS IN CONSTRUCTING CONSTANT GALVANIC BATTERIES FOR GIVING A SIGNAL OR ALARM IN CASE OF FIRE AND ANY OTHER TELEGRAPHIC PURPOSES
Year: 1865

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Samuel Watson, Albert
Horwood, and Charles Brumfit at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 19th August 1865.
We, JOHN SAMUEL WATSON, ALBERT HORWOOD, and CHARLES BRUMFIT, all
of No. 1, Pall Mall West, in the Parish of St. James, Westminster, in
the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN CONSTRUCTING CONSTANT GALVANIC BATTERIES FOR GIVING
A SIGNAL OR ALARM IN CASE OF FIRE AND ANY OTHER TELEGRAPHIC PURPOSES," to
be as follows, that is to say:-
The nature of our said Invention consists, for the purpose of making a
galvanic battery more constant than others, in placing on the top of any
description of battery cell a flat or bulb-shaped bottle with or without a neck,
made of any kind of material, but that which we prefer to be made of glass;
before placing it, i.e., the "supply bottle," on the top of the cell, we fill it
with any kind of liquor that may be considered most desirable for generating
electricity, and then turn it (the bottle) upside down, with the neck or mouth
end touching the level of the liquor in the battery cell, at the same time
allowing the bottle to rest on the top of the cell, and it will be seen that as
the liquor for generating electricity in the battery cell becomes either decom-
posed by an electric action, or evaporated, or wasted from any other cause, it
will receive a fresh and sufficient quantity of liquor from the "supply bottle,"
so as to always keep the liquor in the battery cell filled up to one desired
height. This is accomplished by the liquor in the battery cell being either

page_text: decomposed or evaporated or wasted below the level of the neck or mouth of
the "supply bottle," which then allows air to pass through the liquor in
bubbles up the inside of the neck or mouth of the "supply bottle" into the
interior in sufficient quantity so as to allow some of the liquor contained in
the "supply bottle" to flow into the battery cell, and replace that liquor which
had previously been either decomposed or evaporated or wasted.
The arrangement which we prefer for generating electricity in a galvanic
battery consists of an amalgam of zinc and mercury (in addition to acids), viz.,
we purify the zinc in the ordinary way, and then place it in the melting pot
with some mercury, and amalgamate them by fusion, and then cast the
amalgam in the shape of a flat plate, with the bottom edge or edges turned
up so as to form one or two chambers for the purpose of holding a quantity of
mercury.
For the purpose of detecting the presence of fire in any building or ship,
we place an air thermometer in each apartment constructed with three
chambers, viz., 1stly, the expanding chamber; 2ndly, the reservoir for
holding the mercury; and, 3rdly, the receiving chamber for the mercury,
two of the chambers being arranged in a vertical position, and the glass tube
gradually on the incline with the receiving chamber at the top; we then place
two insulated wires into the top or receiving chamber in circuit with an
electric alarm bell and battery.