A Wire Fire-proo1 Snutter.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 28th Dec., 1897
Complete Specification Left, 18th Apr., 1898-Accepted, 20th May, 1898
I, FRANCIS JOSEPH SMART, of No. 11, Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, in the Colony
of Victoria, Architect, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows;
-
This invention consists of a wire netting shutter or door closely fitted to openings
in buildings for the purpose of preventing the passage of fire. The said shutter
or door to be hinged, to slide, or to be attached with or without incombustible
framing and also where so required the said shutter, or door, or group of said
shutters, or doors to be moved with gearing.
A Wire Fire-proo1 Snutter.
I, FRANCIS JOSEPH SMART, of No. 11, Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, in the Colony
of Victoria, Architect, do hereby declare the nature of this 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 relates to a wire netting or perforated sheet metal shutter or door
designed for being closely fitted to openings in buildings for the purpose of
preventing the passage of fire and without excluding light or preventing the
circulation of air, or destroying the view.
The said invention consists of a metal shutter or door hereinafter more fully
described either fixed to the window opening or frame or working on hinges or
sliding in grooves or travelling by means of grooved wheels on a base rail or on
friction rollers and operated singly or in a series of shutters by means of gearing
or by any known methods such as are in common use for operating shutters
generally and to which various modes of operating same no claim is made for
novelty. The said fire-proof shutter or door is made of suitable metal consisting
of a single or double plating of wire laid together or interwoven so as to form a
network of gauzing of uniform mesh, or otherwise of perforated metal sheeting
similarly of uniform mesh the size of such mesh to be gauged to prevent the passage
of flame through it and so through the window or opening. Such wire gauze or
Prine 8d 1
DIRN

page_text: perforated metal sheeting is mounted in a frame fitting closely into or otherwise
covering the window space or opening to be protected, such frame having cross-
rails struts or bars to strengthen same, and such frame may be so constructed as to
admit of the mounting therein of two (an outer and inner) sheet of gauzing or
perforated plating. It is obvious that my said invention is equally applicable to
horizontal passages and vertical liftways in the interior of buildings as to openings
in the walls of buildings as before described.
The advantages I claim for my said invention are economy in cost, and that it
permits of a view into the interior of the building by which means or by the glare
of the flame the exact locale of the fire would be disclosed immediately to the
watchman, fireman or others and that such wire gauzing or perforated plating
would not when under the influence of great heat shrink or buckle as sheet metal
or other solid metal shutters in common use have been found to do under such
conditions. And further that such wire gauzing or perforated plating when heated
so influences the atmosphere in its near vicinity as to cause a partial vacuum so that
the flames although they may lick or traverse the surface of such wire gauzing or
plating, will not pass through the gauzing or plating, therefor that such gauzing or
perforated plating will act as a complete check or barrier to the spread of.
fire.
The said fire proof shutter or door may also be constructed of a sheet of wire
netting or gauzing strengthened by thin metal ribbons or rods which are inter-
woven with the gauzing, such a construction of shutter having been found less
liable to buckle or warp by heat than when solely of wire gauzing or perforated
plating. As an alternative my said shutter or screen may be constructed wholly
of an interlacing of thin metal ribbons, straps or bands. I also provide in each
shutter or screen, or in one or more of a series of same as required, a panel which
may be opened or closed at will to serve as a manhole to admit firemen, or serve for
the insertion of a hose so as to obviate the necessity of cutting away or otherwise
injuring the shutter. In addition to applying the said meshed material before
described as a shutter, it is obvious that it may be fitted and applied in suitable
mountings as a fire screen or barrier in the spaces between inflamable edifices
such as wooden houses and the like, and may also be set up as a palisading or flame
barrier above the walls of buildings to such height as to protect the roofs of such
buildings from the play thereon of flames sparks and burning fragments, from a
fire in its near vicinity. It is obvious that when applied to the interior openings
of buildings such as doors, stairs, liftways and the like my said improved shutter
will serve materially in confining and limiting a fire to the floor in which the fire
originates for a sufficient time to admit of its extinction.
In order that my said invention may be more clearly understood I will now
describe same having reference to the accompanying drawings throughout the
figures of which similar letters serve to denote similar parts.
Figure 1 is an elevation shewing the exterior of a shutter or screen suitable for
a window opening.
Figure 2 detail view of the straps as secured on the interior face of shutter.
Fig
igure 3 a sectional view of shutter taken on line a a Fig. 1 and
Figure 4 a sectional view of same on line 6 6 Fig. 1.
Figure 5 a section of the shutter shewing its mode of connection with the window
opening.
In Figures 1 to 4, A is the metallic marginal frame of shutter made up of an
inner and outer frame between which the interlaced gauze or perforated material is
clamped. B are vertical and horizontal cross bars shewn made up of T iron and
secured to inner surface of frame A. D are bolts securing the cross bars B and
frames A together. E are the straps or rods interwoven in the gauzing of
shutter. F the wire gauzing clamped at its edges between the double frames or
plates of the frame A. In Figure 5 the inner frame of A is of angle section and
secured by means of bolts D¹ to the masonry or wall forming the window opening
and thus shewing the method of attachment when the shutter is fixed permanently.

page_text: It is obvious that a single shutter may be fitted to work or hinges or to slide
vertically or horizontally or in any manner suitable to local circumstances or
conditions, and that perforated sheet metal may be substituted for the wire gauzing
without impairing or otherwise materially altering my said invention. To render
the gauzing or perforated plating less liable to waste by rust or corrosion a thin
coating of an inflammable material such as asbestos paint may be applied thereto.
It is also obvious that a panel opening on hinges may be provided in the shutter
without shewing it in the drawing.
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:-
1. A fireproof shutter for window and other openings in buildings composed of
wire netting, gauzing or perforated sheeting either permanently secured over said
opening or supported in a framing and mounted on hinges or so as to slide substan-
tially as herein described and explained.
2. A fireproof shutter for window and other openings in buildings composed of
a sheet of wire netting or gauzing having metallic ribbons or rods interwoven with
said sheeting and which is further supported in a marginal frame by which the
shutter is secured or otherwise fitted over said opening substantially as herein
described and explained.
3. A fire proof shutter for window and other openings in buildings made up of
the parts marked A, B, E and F, substantially as herein described and illustrated
in the drawing.
4. The arrangement in a fire-proof shutter for window and other openings in
buildings of a hinged or movable manhole or door as and for the purposes described.
5. As a fire proof shutter for the purpose specified a single or double interwoven
cross-lacing or lacings of steel or other suitable metal ribbons or bands set a given
distance apart so as to form a uniform mesh or blind covering set and secured in
a frame substantially as herein described and explained.
6. A fire-proof shutter or shield for protecting roofs of buildings from flames and
sparks constructed by projecting a wire netting or gauge screen above the walls of
buildings and covering the roof with such a screen substantially as herein des-
cribed and explained.
Dated this 10th dox of Annil 1800