IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR THE PROTECTION OF LIFE AND PROPERTY BY THE AGENCY. OF ELECTRICITY
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Timothy Morris, Robert Weare, and Edward Henry
Cradock Monckton, all of 4, Trafalgar Square, (Patent Office,) in the
County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR THE PROTECTION OF LIFE AND PROPERTY BY THE
AGENCY. OF ELECTRICITY."
Sealed the 14th November 1862, and dated the 19th May 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Timothy Morris, Robert
Weare, and Edward Henry Cradock Monckton, at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the 19th
May 1862.
We, TIMOTHY MORRIS, ROBERT WEARE, and EDWARD HENRY CRADOCK
MONCKTON, all of 4, Trafalgar Square, (Patent Office,) in the County of
Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR THE PROTECTION OF LIFE AND PROPERTY
BY THE AGENCY OF ELECTRICITY," to be as follows:-
In the various methods that have from time to time been suggested with a
view to the application of electricity. to the purpose of preventing robbery by
the entrance of a thief into a dwelling-house or other building, the inconstancy
of the battery used to produce the electricity has been one of the chief dis-
advantages, inasmuch as any system of apparatus devised to be operated upon

page_text: by such batteries was rendered altogether uncertain in its efficiency whenever
its action should be suddenly called into requisition.
It has been the same with regard to alarm in cases of fire and other
causes.
Now, in our system the constant battery of our own construction, according
to our Patent dated September 14th, 1861, N° 2298, and our induction coil
according to our Patent dated October 24th, 1861, N° 2661, form the chief
features. An induction coil is attached to one of our constant batteries, and
from the induction coil wires are conveyed to all parts which require to be
protected, and by suitable arrangements either a bell is set ringing or the
thief effectually secured, or both simultaneously. The induction coils above
alluded to are especially applicable to this Invention, because the greatest
effect is produced with the least possible battery power, thus rendering the
system sure in its efficiency at any and every time when it may be called into
operation.
By completing the circuit of the electric current, and vice versa, windows
and doors when opened may be caused to set a bell or alarum in action, or
upon a thief attempting an inner door or an outer door (as either may be
rendered secure) the contact of his hand with the fastening or other metallic
portion thereof establishes an electric current of such an intensity as to retain
the hand clasped firmly thereto, thus paralyzing the fingers and securing the
person.
The induction coil is brought into contact or connection with the inner or
outer door, as is considered advisable. By the ordinary methods at
present in use a person is secured and caught by his merely taking hold of
the handle of a door or safe, but in our system it can be arranged if necessary
that the handle should be turned before contact is effected and the current
established.
In those places where we are anxious to make sure that the thief or house-
breaker shall alone be caught, we place a slight door or cover over the true
door or fastening, the result of which is that as no honest person would break
open a door or other security, if any one does so in order to get at property
and he is caught we may rest assured that there is no accident in the matter
and that the person caught is the thief.
Again, in the ordinary methods if a thief puts a glove on he defies any
instrument as at present constructed, but by our general arrangement of parts
and by the excessive intensity of the current induced as above indicated,
gloves and such like coverings are rendered of no avail.
To cause alarm in case of fire two wires are inserted into a tube communi-

page_text: cating with a chamber containing mercury, and in communication with this
chamber a tube is brought from another chamber which is air-tight and which
contains atmospheric air.
The elevation of temperature caused by fire expands the air in the chamber
and forces the mercury from its chamber up its tube till it reaches the ends of
the wires from the battery and thus establishes a metallic circuit and actuates
the alarum.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Timothy Morris, Robert Weare, and Edward Henry
Cradock Monckton, in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 19th
November 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, TIMOTHY
MORRIS, ROBERT WEARE, and EDWARD HENRY CRADOCK MONCKTON, all
of 4, Trafalgar Square, (Patent Office,) in the County of Middlesex, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-fifth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said Timothy Morris, Robert Weare, and Edward Henry Cradock
Monckton, Her special licence that we, the said Timothy Morris, Robert
Weare, and Edward Henry Cradock Monckton, our executors, admini-
strators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Timothy Morris,
Robert Weare, and Edward Henry Cradock Monckton, our 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS AND APPARATUS
FOR THE PROTECTION OF LIFE AND PROPERTY BY THE AGENCY OF ELECTRICITY," upon
the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Timothy Morris, Robert
Weare, and Edward Henry Cradock Monckton, our executors or admini-
strators, by an instrument in writing under our, 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

page_text: calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Edward Henry Cradock Monckton, do
hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement:-
Our Invention consists in the application of a galvanic battery and
induction coil, but we prefer to use batteries of our construction. Ac-
cording to our Patent dated September 14, 1861, N° 2298, and our
induction coil according to our Patent dated October 24th, 1861, Nº 2661,
an induction coil is attached to a galvanic battery, and from the induction
coil wires are conveyed to all places which it is intended to protect; thus we
join one pole of the battery to one terminal of the primary wire of the
induction coil; we connect a wire from the other terminal with a stud, pin,
or spring, attached to the door or other means of entrance to the place to be
protected; and a wire from the other pole of the battery to the latch knob
or handle of the fastening of the door or other means of entrance to the place
it is desired to protect, but insulated from it, but so arranged that the lifting,
turning, pulling, or otherwise moving such latch, knob, or handle, the stud,
spring, or pin will be brought into contact with this wire, and thus complete
the electric circuit, the arrangement, however, being such that the return of
the latch, knob, or handle to its former position shall not break the electric
circuit when once completed.
The first end of the secondary wire of the coil we either connect with the
earth or with a metallic plate of sufficient size fixed to that part of the floor
upon which any person attempting to open the door of the place so pro-
tected, would be compelled to stand; but such plate may be concealed by
being covered with a mat, carpet, or other covering.
The other or last end of the secondary wire of the coil we connect with the
knob, latch, or handle of the door before referred to.
A burglar or thief by lifting, turning, or moving such fastening as before-
described establishes an electric circuit or current of such intensity as to cause
his hand to be paralyzed and remain firmly clasped thereto, and thus at once
causes the person making the attempt to be captured and retained a prisoner
till released by the circuit being again broken.
Having now described the nature of our said Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, we do not limit ourselves to the precise
details herein expressed, as the same may be modified without in any way
departing from the same, but what we claim is the application of induction

page_text: coils and constant batteries to the better protection of life and property by
detecting and securing the persons or the intending burglars or thieves, as
herein specified.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Henry Cradock Monckton
have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of
November, One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
Witness,
ALEX. PRINCE,
Office for Patents,
4, Trafalgar Square,
Charing Cross.
E. H. C. MONCKTON. (L.S.)