AN IMPROVEMENT IN ALARUM APPARATUS WHEN USING ELECTRIC CURRENTS
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Seelic Greenhow, of Chelmsford, in the
County of Essex, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN ALARUM
APPARATUS WHEN USING ELECTRIC CURRENTS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Seclic Greenhow
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 2nd May 1857.
I, Joseph Seelie GREENHOW, of Chelmsford, in the County of Essex, do
hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN ALARUM
APPARATUS WHEN USING ELECTRIC CURRENTS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object an improvement in alarum apparatus
when using electric currents.
Heretofore, in employing electric currents for working alarum apparatus
used in inhabited and other buildings, in order to give notice on the opening
of any door or window, or in the event of fire taking place in any part of a
building, it has been usual so to arrange the electric apparatus that tho
alarum has been sounded by making contact or a complete circuit, the circuits
ordinarily remaining incomplete; but such system of combining electric
apparatus for sounding alarums is objectionable, as the simple act of dividing
the conducting wires at any part of the apparatus prevents its action, though
a door or window may be opened or a fire take place.
Now, my improvement consists in so arranging the clectric circuits and
battery that there is a constant flow of electricity from pole to pole of the

page_text: battery in such manner as that an electro-magnet in the circuit may attract
its armature constantly and retain the alarum from being sounded; and I
arrange the parts of the circuit in connection with the doors, windows, and
other places so as to compose a complete circuit when all are closed, and so
that the alarum will be sounded on breaking the circuit, however that may be
dono, and I combine therewith clockwork apparatus to prevent the sounding
of the alarum during the hours it is desired that the electric apparatus shall
not be required to act.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Joseph Seclie Greenhow in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 2nd November 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPп
SEELIE GREENHOW, of Chelmsford, in the County of Essex, send grecting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Second day of May, in the year of our Lord One
housand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Joseph Seelie Greenhow, Her special licence that I, the said Joseph Scelic
Greenhow, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Joseph Seclic Greenbow, my 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 "AN
IMPROVEMENT IN ALARUM APPARATUS WHEN USING ELECTRIC CURRENTS," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Joseph Seclic-Greenhow, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, 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 I, the said Joseph Seelie Greenhow, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say :-

page_text: This Invention has for its object an improvement in alarum apparatus when
using electric currents.
Heretofore, in employing electric currents for working alarum apparatus
used in inhabited and other buildings, in order to give notice on the opening
of any door or window, or in the event of fire taking place in any part of a
building, it has been usual so to arrange the electric apparatus that the alarum
has been sounded by making contact or a complete circuit, the circuits
ordinarily remaining incomplete; but such system of combining electric appa-
ratus for sounding alarums is objectionable, as the simple act of dividing the
conducting wires at any part of the apparatus prevents its action, though a
door or window may be opened or a fire take place.
Now, my improvement consists in so arranging the electric circuit and
battery that there is a constant flow of electricity from pole to pole of the
battery in such manner as that an electro-magnet in the circuit may attract
its armature constantly, and retain the alarum from being sounded; and I
arrange the parts of the circuit in connection with the doors, windows, and
other places so as to compose a completo circuit when all are closed, and so
that the alarum will be sounded on breaking the circuit, however that may
be done; and I combine therewith clockwork apparatus to prevent the
sounding of the alarum during the hours it is desired that the electric
apparatus shall not be required to act. The arrangements of the connections
used for these purposes it will be evident may be greatly varied. The only
care requisite on the part of the workman is that the metallic contact of
the parts of a circuit shall be complete when the door, shutter, window, or
other moveable part of a building is shut, and when the apparatus is to
be used for indicating fire, parts of the metallic circuit are, as heretofore, to
be held together by a material readily melted on a considerable increase of
temperature.
I would state that I make no claim to any of the parts of the apparatus
separately.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Seelie Greenhow, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Thirty-first day of October, in the year of
Our Lord One thousand night lundred and fifte coun
Witness,
J. WOODFORD.
J. S. GREENHOW. (L.S.)