IMPROVEMENTS IN FIRE EXTINGUISHERS AND COMPOUND FOR USE THEREIN
Year: 1885

page_text: "
I JOHN MARK GIBLIN of Sheboygan in the County of Sheboygan and State
of Wisconsin in the United States of America, gentleman, do hereby declare the
nature of my invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN FIRE EXTINGUISHERS AND
COMPOUND FOR USE THEREIN and in what manner the same is to be performed
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
The drawing hereto attached is a view in elevation of one of my improved fire-
extinguishers, part being broken away and shown in section, the better to illustrate
the construction.
A represents the outer vessel or receptacle of the general shape shown in the
drawing though the upper part of the vessel may be more nearly conical in form, if
preferred, and this vessel is made of glass earthenware or other frangible material.
B is a wiro twisted round the neck a of the vessel and terminating in a loop B' by
means of which the extinguisher can be suspended on a nail or peg, or from a hook
at any convenient point in a building.
C is a cork or stopper, fitting in the neck a of the vessel and having a central
vertical perforation c to receive the upper end or tube d of a gas flask or powder
receptacle D. adapted to contain any preferred explosive agent, E is a wick or fuse
one end of which is in the lower part of the receptacle D surrounded by the
explosive agent and which fuse then passes up through the tube d of the said
receptacle D and through the mass of sealing material F applied on top of the
cork C. to exclude air from the contents of the vessel A.
This wick may pass through the loop B and if desired may hang down below the
bottom of the vessel or may be only a short fuse as shown.
The vessel A is partially filled as shown at G with aqua-ammonia or other alkali
or fluid in which fluid is held or dissolved sulphurous oxide, or else the said vessel
is filled with sulphurous oxide gas reduced to a liquid form by cold and pressure.
The sulphurous oxide and ammonium hydrate have such a feeble affinity for
each other that when thrown upon a fire or subjected to its heat the sulphurous
oxide is liberated and rapidly unites with the oxygen of the air and as the
latter is thus taken up the fire is instantly extinguished for want of oxygen to
support it.
I prepare the fire extinguishing compound as follows: I generate the sulphurous
oxide by burning stick sulphur or flowers of sulphur in a suitable furnace and
forcing the resulting gas through a coil of lead pipe surrounded by ice, to reduce
the temperature of the gas. I then conduct the cooled gas by any suitable means
into the vessel A into which I have previously put aqua-ammonia or other liquid
until the latter is thoroughly saturated with the sulphurous oxide. The aqua

page_text: ammonia when the temperature of the sulphurous oxide is properly reduced is
capable of taking from one thousand to fifteen hundred times its own volume
of sulphurous oxide. When the liquid in the vessel A has been thoroughly charged
or saturated with the sulphurous oxide the said vessel is tightly closed with the
cork C (containing the flask D and fuse E) and sealed, as shown at F and the device
is then ready for shipment or use. If I desire to use simply the sulphurous oxide
without the alkali or other liquid I generate the gas, as before described, draw it
through a long coil of lead or glass pipe, surrounded by pounded ice and then by
means of an air pump I force the sulphurous oxide into the empty vessel A until
the gas
is reduced to a liquid when the vessel A is closed as before described.
To use the extinguisher it is only necessary to throw it upon or into the fire and
the fuse E will instantly ignite and communicate with the explosive agent in the
flask D causing an explosion which breaks the vessel and scatters its contents in all
directions upon the flames liberating the sulphurous oxide as before described and
instantly extinguishing the fire. A very valuable feature of my device is its
adaptability for automatic operation and hence for extinguishing fires in a building
where is no one present to assist in putting out the fire or to throw the extinguishers.
By suspending a number of these devices about the walls of a room and permitting
the fuse (which may be of any length desired) to hang down should fire break out
anywhere in the said room the fuses will quickly ignite and carry the sparks into
the powder vessel D as before described causing the explosion of the device and the
diffusion of its contents which acts, as stated, not by simply displacing the oxygen
of the air (or by smothering the fire as with the carbonic acid gas "hand grenade
fire extinguishers) but by taking up the oxygen from the air surrounding the fire
which is thus instantly extinguished for want of oxygen to support combustion.
As the result of a long series of experiments I have found that it is possible
to extinguish a fire in an ordinary room or building when it is one mass of flames,
by throwing into the room or building two or three of these extinguishers each
containing about one quart (or one litre) of the compound or by using a single
vessel of much smaller proportions containing only the liquefied gas of sulphurous
oxide.
I do not confine myself to liquid alkalies alone, but may use any substance
capable of taking up sulphurous oxide but I find aqua aminonia a useful medium
because in its use, the gas is absorbed without pressure and consequently there is
little liability of breakage in filling the vessels.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what
I claim is
1. A fire extinguisher consisting of a vessel of frangible material containing
sulphurous oxide liquefied or held or dissolved in an alkaline or other suitable
liquid.
2. A fire extinguisher consisting of an outer vessel for holding a substance,
to take up the oxygen of the air and provided with a neck containing an apertured
cork and a receptacle for an explosive agent having a tube sustained within the
aperture of the cork and a fuse extending from within the explosive receptacle out
through the cork and sealing material about the neck of the vessel.
T
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