A. NEW OR IMPROVED FIRE EXTINGUISHING APPARATUS, THE SAME BEING ESPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRES IN FACTORIES, WAREHOUSES, AND OTHER SUCH BUILDINGS
Year: 1876

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Hutcheson at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 6th April 1876.
JOHN HUTCHESON, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain. "A. NEW
OR IMPROVED FIRE EXTINGUISHING APPARATUS, THE SAME BEING ESPECIALLY
ADAPTED FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRES IN FACTORIES, WAREHOUSES, AND OTHER SUCH
BUILDINGS."
This Invention, which relates to a new or improved apparatus for extinguishing
fires in factories, warehouses, and other such buildings, is so constructed that the
presence of fire renders the extinguishing thereof to be automatically effected.
Under the first modification the apparatus consists of a water tank placed in the
top of the building, from which a vertical main descends having horizontal mains
leading through every floor or division of the building, and distributing pipes again
leading from these to such points as collectively to command every part of the
building. At the end of cach distributing pipe a tap with a rose for spreading the
water is placed. The plug of the tap is provided with a weighted lever, which
when out of action is held up by a cord of gun cotton or equivalent inflammable
substance. When a firo occurs in any part of the building the cord or cords of gun
cotton or equivalent inflammable substance is or are at once ignited and burnt, so
that the weighted lever or levers, according to the number of cords burnt, at once
falls or fall, and thereby open one or more cocks, so that the water from the tank is
at once discharged through the spreaders, and the fire extinguished.
In fitting a factory containing self-acting spinning mules or other machinery,
which is apt to get so heated when working as to strike fire, and ignite the loose
cotton, wool, or other inflammable substance located in their neighbourhood, it is
preferred to place a horizontal pipe along one side of the room with a branch pipe
across the room between the creels of the mules, and with branches on either side
having the taps and spreaders situated so that the discharge of any one of them
will reach the discharge of the next, and thereby command the entire machine.
The taps may also all be connected to one cord, so that when it is fired and broken
all of them would be opened instantaneously, thereby wetting the entire machine,
and so preventing the fire from spreading.
The foregoing modification is specially adapted for works where prompt means
are essential, and where the taps could be shut off by hand as soon as the fire is
extinguished; but for warehouses wherein if a fire occurred at night, or when no
person was near to shut the taps after the fire had been extinguished, and the con-
[Price 2d1

page_text: tinued running of the water inight do serious damage to the goods before being
noticed the tap and gun cotton or other inflammable cord are substituted by a valve
connected to a bar, coil, or other shaped piece of metal possessed of a high degree
of expansibility.
In the event of a fire occurring with this apparatus its heat expands the sensitive
metal, and thereby opening: the valve causes the water to be discharged through
the spreaders. As the fire. is being extinguished the lowering of the temperature
due thereto causes the sensitive metal to contract and shut the valve, so that as
soon as the fire is put out the discharge of water is suspended.