IMPROVEMENTS IN ENGINES, MACHINES, APPARATUS, OR MEANS FOR EXTINGUISHING OR STOPPING THE PROGRESS OF FIRE IN ANY Room; OR PART OF DIFFERENT BUILDINGS WHICH MAY HAVE. BECOME IGNITED,
Year: 1841

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, OVID
TOPHAM, of Whitecross Street, Saint Luke's, in the County of Middlesex,
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-first day of December, in the fifth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Ovid Topham, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said Ovid Topham, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, and such others as I, the said Ovid Topham, my executors, adminis-
trators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to
time and at all times during the term of years therein mentioned, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and
the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in all Her Majesty's Colonies and
Plantations abroad, and in the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark,
and Man, my Invention of " IMPROVEMENTS IN ENGINES, MACHINES, APPARATUS,
OR MEANS FOR EXTINGUISHING OR STOPPING THE PROGRESS OF FIRE IN ANY
Room; OR PART OF DIFFERENT BUILDINGS WHICH MAY HAVE. BECOME IGNITED,

page_text: BUCH AS NOBLEMEN OR GENTLEMEN'S MANSIONS, HOUSES, FACTORIES, STORE AND
WAREHOUSES, AND CONSEQUENTLY PRESERVING THEM FROM DESTRUCTION, AND
PREVENTING THE LOSS OF LIFE;" in which said Letters Patent is contained
a proviso obliging me, the said Ovid Topham, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature
of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
and to cause the same to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of
the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being
thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Ovid Topham, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference being
had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures. marked
thereon (that is to say) :—
My improvements in engines, machines, apparatus, or means for extin-
guishing fire in buildings, consist in the arrangement of hydraulic engines
and their appendages, for forcing water to any height; or to any part of a
house, factory, warehouse, or other building, and which arrangement will be
particularly applicable to Her Majesty's Dockyards, the 'Parliament Houses,
churches, and other public buildings or works. .A tank or reservoir of water
is to be placed in any convenient situation, either on the top of the building
or on. any other contiguous; place, from whence ranges of stationary connecting
pipes are to be laid for leading the water in such directions: as may be desired;
and these being furnished with cocks in certain places, will afford an abundant
supply of water, to be led off by flexible hose.screwed on.to the nozzles of such
cocks to any parts of the building or premises where the fire may happen to
take place. As the forms of buildings, and the number and arrangement
of the apartments therein, must vary, it would be impossible for me to
shew in one Plan all the details or the precise disposition of the parts
which my Invention is intended to embrace. I have, however, for the
sake of illustration, given, in the accompanying Drawing, a plan and sec-
tional elevation of a building in which one arrangement of my contrivance is
represented.
Fig. 1 is a plan of a series of apartments, say on the basement story, of a
house, warehouse, or public office. Fig. 2 is a sectional elevation of a part of
the same exortion. In the elevation a is the tank placed in the roof, which

page_text: should be kept full of water at all times. b, b, b, a pipe leading from the
tank which descends perpendicularly or otherwise, and being always full of
water supplied by the tank conveys it to every story of the building.
c, c, c, c, are cocks inserted into the descending pipe at every floor. To the
nose of any of these cocks a flexible hose with its jet pipe may be affixed by
a socket screw or union joint, and in the event of fire occurring in any part
of the building, the flexible hose is to be attached to the nose of. that cock c
which may be nearest to the fire, when, by opening the way of the cock c, the
water will flow from the tank a down the pipe-b, and by the superincumbent
pressure will be forced out at the jet .and thrown to any part of the premises
to which the jet may be directed. In the event of the tank of water being
situated in the lower part of the building, or on the ground contiguous, I
employ a double force pump, represented at d, which, in the event of fire, is
to be worked by the hands of labourers. The water by that means will be
forced up the pipe b, and thence pass through any one of the cocks when
opened, and through the flexible hose and jet as before described. The upper
part of the pipe 6 is represented in Fig. 2 as having two branches, each with
a stopcock. The stopcock e belongs to that branch which leads from the
lower part of the elevated tank a, and should be kept open for the purpose of
allowing the pipe b to be at all times full of water. When the tank is to be
filled the cock e must be shut and the cock fopened; the force pump & may
then be employed to raise water into the tank, but at all other times the
cock fis to be kept closed.
d
By the two Figures of the Drawing thus described I have shewn my
improved mode of arranging engines, machines, apparatus, or means for
extinguishing fire. It will, however, be obvious that I do not intend to confine
myself to the precise arrangement of those represented, as that must be subject
to great variety, according to circumstances; I therefore desire these Figures
to be taken only as a general illustration of my intention, claiming as the
improvement or Invention secured to me under the above in part recited
Letters Patent such an arrangement of apparatus, upon the principle above
shewn, as will afford an immediate and ready supply of water to any story of
a building for the extinction of fire.
In witness whereof, I, the said Ovid Topham, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-two.
OVID (L.B.) TOPHAM.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Twenty-first day of June, in
the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Ovid Topham came before our Lady
the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid,
and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written. And also
the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute,
in that case made and provided.