Improvements in Automatic Fire-extinguishers.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 10th June, 1896-Accepted, 11th July, 1896
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Automatic Fire-extinguishers.
I, ROBERT WILKINSON NEWTON, of 16 Diamond Street, in the City of
Providence, County of Providence, and State of Rhode Island, United States
of America, Machinist, do hereby declare the nature of my invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement:-
This invention has reference to improvements in the construction of automatic
fire-extinguishers adapted to be released by the action of heat and to distribute
water in the form of spray over a large area.
Automatic fire-extinguishers form the most reliable protection against great loss
by fire.
With an intelligently designed installation by which the full force of the
water will, when a fire starts, act on any sprinkler that may be opened by the heat,
the fire will be instantly arrested, confined to the place where it started and
quickly extinguished,-provided the sprinklers, or automatic fire-extinguishers,
are sufficiently sensitive to heat to open quickly and throw a spray of water around
the freshly starting fire.
When in a mill or warehouse a serious conflagration has been started the
automatic fire-extinguisher installation is insufficient to extinguish the fire,
although in many cases it is sufficient to arrest the spreading of the fire.
One object of this invention is to so construct a sprinkler that the rising
temperature, caused by a fire in the vicinity of the sprinkler, will act more
readily on the fusible solder and release the valve so promptly that a mere
incipient fire will open the nearest sprinkler and cause a spray of water to
enclose and extinguish the fire.
Another object of the invention is to expose the fusible joint of the automatic
sprinkler to the rising currents of heated air caused by an incipient fire and thereby
more quickly release the valve.
Another object of the invention is to produce an automatic sprinkler which,
while much more sensitive to heat, firmly resists the pressure on the valve, is not
liable to leak, and not liable to stick when partly opened.
And another object of the invention is to so construct the soldered holding-
devices that they may be easily attached to the valve-holding device and new ones
substituted after a fire.
To these ends the invention consists in the peculiar and novel construction of an
automatic fire-extinguisher or sprinkler shown in the drawings and hereinafter
more fully described.
The terms "automatic fire-extinguisher," "sprinkler" and "automatic sprinkler"
for the purpose of this specification are synonymous.
Figure 1 is a side view of my improved automatic fire-extinguisher showing the
same in the closed position.
Figure 2 is a vertical sectional view of the automatic fire-extinguisher at right
angle through the vertical center of Figure 1.
Figure 3 is a bottom view of the hollow supporting block and the over-
lapping frame by which the valve-supporting struts are held until released by
heat.
Figure 4 is a side view of the hollow supporting-block, the braces or struts by
which the valve is held, and the overlapping frame shown in section.

page_text: Figure 5 is an end view of the hollow supporting-block, the struts and the over-
lapping frame shown partly in section.
Figure 6 is a bottom view of the hollow supporting-block and a modified form of
frame having the inclined vertical sides secured together by solder fusible at a low
temperature.
Figure 7 is a side view, partly in section, showing the modified frame in
connection with the hollow block and the thrust struts.
Figure 8 is an end view of the hollow block, the struts and the modified form of
overlapping frame.
In the drawings A designates a screw-threaded nozzle adapted to be secured in
the usual pipe-fittings used in a fire-extinguisher installation, when open it forms
the discharge outlet from the system; this rozzle is provided with the flange B
from which extends the frame C having the conventional, form of a Gothic arch,
the cone D forming the keystone to the arch. Against the cone D is secured the
dished deflector E by means of a nut F¹ engaged with the adjusting-screw F the
upper end of which forms the thrust support of the hollow block G formed of
sheet-metal so as to allow the heated air to pass around and through the same.
The block G forms the support for the struts H which incline towards each
other and support the valve 1 by which the discharge-opening of the nozzle A is
closed.
To firmly support the valve I against internal pressure in the installation, the
lower ends of the struts H, H, forming the base, must be held against spreading
apart, to do this effectually I use two forms of frames one form being shown
enlarged in Figures 3, 4 and 5 and the other in Figures 6, 7 and 8. Referring
now to all the figures except 6, 7 and 8,-K, K, designate two U-shaped plates
of sheet-metal, these are placed one on top of the other with the arms overlapping
and are soldered together with the solder used in automatic fire-extinguishers
which is fusible at a temperature but little bigher than the temperature normally
existing in the room to be protected. When secured together the two U-shaped
plates form a rectangular frame against the inner end pieces of which the
struts H, H, bear. The plates K have the lips L bent down on each end to
hold the frame in place. The solder joint in the frame is strengthened by the use
of the balls M which also insure the separation of the plates as soon as the solder
is weakened by heat. The balls M, M, are inserted into holes in the arms of the
U-shaped plates K made slightly concave, when the solder weakens the strain
on the opposite ends of the two U-shaped plates K, K, forming the frame, causes
the balls to turn and enter between the plates, thus separating the soldered
surfaces.
In the modified form shown in Figures 6, 7 and 8, the plates K are placed
vertically, they are bent up into the U-shape and their vertical flat sides are
secured together by solder, they are preferably bent so that the solder-joint is
inclined to facilitate the ready separation of the parts,-the balls M, M, may be
used with this solder-joint in the same manner as in the frame of the preferred
form. In the frame of the modified form a portion of the vertical plates at each
end are bent at right angle to form the plates n, n, which rest on the block G, the
lips 1, 1, are bent over the plate of the block G to secure the frame.
The soldered portions of the U-shaped plates K, forming the retaining frame,
are placed outside the block G so that the heated air can pass between them and
the parts of the sprinkler to which the frame is connected, as is shown in Figures 5
and 8 by arrows. By thus separating the solder-joint from the sprinkler the joint
is much more readily affected by the rising heated air, the sprinkler is more
sensitive, being released much quicker.
An automatic fire-extinguisher-installation provided with automatic-sprinklers
such as herein described will protect a cotton-picker room, or a room in which
naphtha or other gas is liable to explode, against loss by fire, such sprinklers being
so sensitive to heat that an explosion will instantly release most of the sprinklers
and arrest any fire in its incipiency.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is:
Claim 1. In an automatic fire-extinguisher, the combination with the nozzle
provided with the arched frame, the valve-disk for closing the nozzle outlet, a
distributor secured to the arched frame opposite the nozzle outlet, the thrust-screw
and the thrust-block, of the struts H, H, and the U-shaped plates K secured
together with fusible solder whereby the valve is held to its seat and the sprinkler
is opened by the rise of temperature due to an incipient fire, as described.
2. In an automatic fire-extinguisher, in combination, the nozzle provided with a
screw-thread for connection with the fitting of the installation, the arched frame,
the distributor, and a valve-disk for closing the nozzle, of the devices, substantially
as herein described, for holding the valve-disk against the nozzle-outlet, and a
detached frame consisting of two plates secured together by solder the solder joint
of which extends outward on opposite sides of the holding devices whereby the
heated air more readily affects the solder and releases the sprinkler, as described.
3. In an automatic-sprinkler, the combination with the nozzle, the arched frame,
the distributor, and the valve-disk by which the nozzle is closed, of the struts H, H,
the hollow block G, the adjusting-screw F, and the U-shaped plates K, K, secured
together by a solder fusible at a low temperature, as described.
4. The combination, as herein set forth, with the nozzle, the arched frame, the
distributor and the valve-disk of an automatic-sprinkler, of the adjusting-screw F,
the hollow block G, the struts H, H, and the U-shaped plates secured together by
solder, the soldered parts of which extend outside of the hollow block whereby the
heated air more readily affects the solder, as described.
5. The combination with the parts of an automatic-sprinkler by which the nozzle
is closed against the internal pressure in the automatic fire-extinguisher-installation,
of a frame, substantially as described, for holding the parts in the closed position
and consisting of plates, secured together by solder, having the balls M, M,
imbedded in the frame, whereby the solder-joint is strengthened and its rupture
insured when heated on the breaking out of a fire, as described.
6. In an automatic fire-extinguisher, the combination with the nozzle, the valve-
disk for closing the nozzle outlet, the arched frame C, the cone D, the screw F, the
distributor E secured by the nut F, of the hollow block G the interior and exterior
of which is exposed to the air, the struts H, H, and the frame composed of the
U-shaped plates K, K, secured together by solder and provided with the lips L, 1,
by which the plate is secured to the hollow block, as described.
7. In an automatic fire-extinguisher, the combination with the nozzle A, the
arched frame B, the valve I for closing the nozzle, the screw F and a deflecting
distributor, of the struts H, H, the hollow metal block G, and the frame K
consisting of bent vertical plates secured together at the adjacent vertical planes
by solder fusible at a low temperature, said soldered plates extending along the
sides of the hollow block and away from the same, whereby the heated air has free
access to the soldered plates and the sprinkler is released more quickly on the
breaking out of a fire, as described.
Dated this 23rd day of Mar AD 1896
ROBERT WILKINSON NEWTON.
Haseltine, Lake & Co.,
45 Southampton Buildings, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.