Improved Means for Preventing Ignition and Retarding Combustion.
Year: 1889

page_text: Date of Application, 11th Jan., 1889
Complete Specification Left, 11th Nov., 1889-Accepted, 14th Dec., 1889
⚫ PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
[Communicated from abroad by ALFRED NOBEL. of 53, Avenue Malakoff, Paris, in the
Republic of France, Engineer.]
Improved Means for Preventing Ignition and Retarding Combustion.
I, ALFRED VINCENT NEWTON of the Office for Patents, 6, Bream's Buildings,
Chancery Lane in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
It is a well-known fact that when fire-damp or other explosive gases, or gaseous
fluids, are sufficiently diluted with atmospheric air, they cease to be explosive. But it
has been found that the like result can be obtained by dispersing into the explosive
atmosphere, water or any non-explosive liquid in the form of fine spray, such as is
readily obtained by the use of well-known instruments.
A still finer division of liquid particles may be obtained by ejecting water, under
strong pressure, through a porous substance such as porous brick or any analogous
substance. The finer the division of the spray thus obtained, the smaller will be the
quantity thereof needed to render inexplosive, whilst saturated with such spray, an
explosive gas or gas mixture.
Theoretically, a very small quantity of water, less than th part of the weight of
said explosive gas mixture, would suffice for said purpose, but practically that limit
has to be exceeded. The finer the spray, the more prolonged is the time during
which it remains suspended in the atmosphere, which is a further inducement to a fine
division, since it reduces the amount of water supply needed.
The aforesaid mode of rendering fire-damp inexplosive may be applied in various
ways, dependent on the object in view. Now that miner's lamps can be made so safe
as to defy even imprudence, the only real source of danger arises from the use of
blasting powder and fuse. But it is clear that if the atmosphere surrounding such
charge and fuse can be rendered, for the time being, inexplosive, the danger ceases to
exist. That result is obtained by providing water-pipes connected with ejectors,
worked by compressed air or steam or otherwise, so disposed that the explosive, or
deemed explosive, atmosphere surrounding the space where shots are to be fired, will
be saturated with the aforesaid cooling spray, until danger has ceased to exist. The
same precaution may be taken in parts of the mine where no blasting is carried on,
but this is not of equal importance.
The safety appliance herein described can be applied equally well for rendering
inexplosive and safe any mixture of atmospheric air with volatile combustible liquids,
such as gasoline, benzine, ethers, spirits of wine, or bisulphide of carbon.
Also, in the case of buildings on fire, especially while the fire is confined within the
building, it is very advantageous to disperse, by means of ejectors, the water used for
extinguishing purposes. Not only is the cooling surface of the water thereby increased,
but the very atmosphere is rendered unfit to support vigorous combustion, and thus
the mastery of the fire is facilitated.
Ejectors dispersing water and liquids generally into almost invisible spray, such as
those in common use, are applicable to the purposes of this invention.
Dated this 11th day of January 1889.
NEWTON & SON,
Agents for the Applicant.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improved Means for Preventing: Ignition and Retarding Combustion.
I, ALFRED VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 6 Bream's Buildings,
Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
The main object of this invention is to prevent the flame arising from the ignition
of blasting charges in mines, from communicating itself to the surrounding atmo-
sphere, and thereby igniting any fire-damp, or combustible matters, that may be
suspended in the air.
The invention also applies to the temporary saturating with moisture the air of
storehouses containing explosive materials, and also the air of apartments in which
fire is discerned, or is liable at certain periods to break out.
I am well aware that dispersion of water in the form of spray has been and is being
applied in mines troubled with fire-damp, as well as in buildings on fire; but the
mode of using such water-spray, and constituting the subject-matter of the present
invention, differs in its nature and purpose from that hereinafter described. Hitherto
water spray has been applied in fiery mines only with a view to lay down or moisten
floating coal dust, and, when applied to buildings on fire, with a view to make a
water jet act on a greater ignited surface.
According to my invention, the dispersion of the water is effected in so finely
a divided condition, that the atmospheric air itself, owing to the cooling action of an
extremely multiplied water surface, becomes incapable of sustaining explosive as well
as inexplosive combustion. Atmospheric air thus saturated with fine spray, although
mixed in explosive proportions with fire damp, becomes so innocuous, that a naked
light is extinguished therein. Such finely divided spray may be obtained in many
ways, and ejectors producing such spray are now a common article of commerce.
The accompanying drawing shows a spray disperser of the Korting construction,
as applied to coal mines, and situate near the end of a working, where "shots
intended to be fired. I do not limit myself to any particular form of spray disperser,
but use the Korting for illustration, as it is well known, and requires no detailed
description. When the outlet of the disperser is millimetre in diameter, and the
water pressure acting thereon is equal to twenty times the atmospheric pressure, it
produces spray fine enough to render inexplosive, atmospheric air charged with fire-
damp.
22
are
Of course, the mode of placing spray dispersers will depend entirely on the
conformation of the space to be protected thereby, which varies in almost every case,
and for which, consequently, no positive rule can be given. In mines troubled with
fire-damp, the disperser or dispersers should be so placed that the atmosphere
surrounding powder charges should, previous to their being fired, be well saturated
with the fine spray to a distance of, say, five yards from each side of a
2 shot." Before
lighting the fuse, or setting off the charge electrically, the miner will, for this purpose,
open a cock or valve, setting the spray dispersers in action, and, on returning to the
spot after the firing, he will turn off the said valve or cock.-Thus, the quantity of
water used for saturating the air will be very small.
The ejectors or dispersers, as well as the water pipe which feeds them, should be,
as far as possible, protected by proper screens from being damaged by material
projected by the blasting.
When spray, as aforesaid, is to be applied inside a building, as for instance in an
apartment on fire, the disperser or ejector may be connected with a common water
pipe, and an excellent result will be thereby obtained, inasmuch as a very small
quantity of water, which causes small damage to the apartment, suffices to render the
air surrounding the fire, unfit to keep it up.-Provided the dispersion is fine enough,
no fire can be fed by atmospheric air holding its own weight of water in suspension.

page_text: Stores or other places where volatile explosive liquids are kept, are easily protected
against the access of fire, by the application thereto of spray dispersers. Before
opening the door of a storehouse of this kind, a valve or cock, which sets a safety
disperser, situate therein, in action, may be opened by the storekeeper touching a
spring or any suitable electric contrivance, and thereby admitting spray to the store-
room in sufficient quantity to saturate the air and vapour contained therein, thus
rendering it proof against firing by contact with flaine.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to
me by my foreign correspondent, I declare that what I claim is:
The mode of applying water spray, in a finely divided state, to atmospheric air, so as
to render said air unfit, whilst thus charged with such cooling spray, to sustain either
explosive or inexplosive combustion, substantially as and for the purposes herein set
forth.
Dated thin 9th 2
Ր
1000
NEWTON & SON,
Agents for the Applicant.