AN IMPROVED FIRE-PROOF POWDER MAGAZINE
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Snell, of 22, Parliament Street;
Westminster, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED FIRE-PROOF POWDER
MAGAZINE." A communication from abroad by Rufus Slocum
Sanborn, of Ripon, in the County of Foad-du-Lac, State of
Wisconsin, United States of America.
Sealed the 22nd May 1868, and dated the 29th January 1868.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said William Snell at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and
Declaration, on the 29th January 1868, pursuant to the 9th Section
of the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
SNELL, of 22, Parliament Street; Westminster, send greeting:
WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention for "AN IMPROVED
FIRE-PROOF POWDER MAGAZINE," and have petitioned Her Majesty to
grant unto me, my exccutors, administrators, and assigns, Her Royal
Letters Patent for the same, and have made solemn Declaration that
it has been communicated to me from abroad by Rufus Slocumi

page_text: Sanborn, of Ripon, in the County of Foad-du-Lac, State of Wisconsin,
United States of America.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Snell, do hereby declare
that the following Complete Specification, under my hand and scal,
fully describes and ascertains the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, in and by the following
statement:
The object of my Invention is the preserving gunpowder or other
explosive materials from all danger of explosion when the magazine
or vessel in which they are contained is exposed to the action of a
high degree of heat.
And I do hereby declare the following to be a full and correct
description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying
Drawings in which Fig. 1 represents a form of magazine adapted to
the practical application of my Invention or discovery; and Fig. 2
one of the water vessels with a part of one side cut away to show the
interior.
In the course of my experiments with the safes which I have
invented and patented it occurred to me that gunpowder and other
explosive materials might be secured from explosion when the
magazine or containing vessel is exposed to a high degree of heat
by surrounding the powder by a bath of steam. I tried the experiment
by exposing one of my water-lined safes in which powder was deposited
for hours to the action of fire raising it to a high degree of heat.
The powder was not only perfectly preserved from explosion, but
when taken from the safe and dried it retained all its original properties
unimpaired. Frequent repetitions of the experiment were made and
always with the same result. A discovery so important in its practical
consequences led me to modify the construction of my steam safe
so as to adapt its form and proportions to the requirements of a
powder magazine.
My Invention consists in the preservation of a gunpowder or other
explosive material from explosion when the magazine or vessel which
contains it is exposed to a high degree of heat by immersing it in a
bath of steam however produced or supplied.
The accompanying Drawing shows the form of magazine which I
have devised for the purpose of applying my discovery in practice,

page_text: but I do not in this application claim the magazine, as I conceive
it fully covered by the Patents already granted to me for my
improvements in safes.
In the Drawing A marks the body of the magazine; B, the
door jambs; C, the interior; D, the inner door; E, the outer door;
F, the water vessels; and a, the valves. The walls of the magazine
are made of metal and hollow for the reception of the water vessels F.
The top, bottom, sides, door jambs, and doors are all provided with
water vessels. The interior walls are perforated as shown to allow
of the free passage of steam from the water vessels to the interior of
the magazine. The water vessels may be provided either with spring
valves, as shown at a, Fig. 2, or with fusible plugs of an alloy so
compounded as to melt below the boiling point of water. When the
magazine is exposed to a sufficient degree of heat to raise the water
in any of the vessels F to the boiling point the valve a is forced
open by the enclosed steam, or the fusible plug is melted by the
same agency and the steam escapes and passes into the interior of
the magazine completely enveloping the packages of powder therein
contained. Powder thus surrounded is as before observed perfectly
secure from explosion.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention or discovery,
and one mode of making it practically available, what I claim and
desire to secure by Letters Patent is, the application of a bath of
steam to the interior of a magazine or other vessel for the reception
of gunpowder or other explosive materials in order to secure the
contents from explosion when the magazine or vessel is exposed to a
high degree of heat.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Snell, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of January,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
sixty-eight.