IMPROVED APPARATUS AND MEANS FOR GIVING ALARM IN CASE OF FIRE, APPLICABLE IN PART AS IMPROVEMENTS IN ALARMS OR ALARUMS GENERALLY
Year: 1865

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Matthew Cartwright at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 81st
January 1865.
I, MATTHEW CARTWRIGHT, of 21, Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, in the
County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVED APPARATUS AND MEANS FOR GIVING ALARM IN CASE OF FIRE,
APPLICABLE IN PART AS IMPROVEMENTS IN ALARMS OR ALARUMS GENERALLY,"
to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in certain apparatus, and means used in conjunction
therewith, of the character and construction hereafter described, whereby when
a fire occurs in any room or warehouse, or in any cabin, compartment of a
ship, or compartment of a railway carriage or vehicle, or in any other place or
situation, an alarm or notification thereof may be afforded or communicated to
any person or persons at or near any given place or position as may have been
prearranged.
I carry round the rooms, by preference near the ceiling, or inserted in the
walls, wires or gutta percha cords, which at the corners are united to bell

page_text: crank levers, or carried over pulleys; and, supposing the apparatus to be
applied to a house or warehouse, I carry these cords or wires round each
room or compartment, terminating at an alarm hereafter described, placed
by preference at the lower part of the building, and in a conspicuous position.
The wires or cords are held in tension at certain points in each room or
compartment by being inserted in a vessel or case filled with a fusible
substance, composition, or mixture, alloyed so as to make it more or less
sensitive to heat, such, for instance, as tallow or other fatty substance, mixed
with wax, gutta percha mixed with pitch or any substance, composition, or
mixture which will hold the end of the wire or cord securely; and so long as
the wires are so retained, the alarm cannot go off or work, but upon a fire
taking place, or on a given degree of heat being generated in the said room
or compartment, the composition retaining the wires or cords softens, and the
said cords thus losing their holding power release a lever or levers in con-
nection with the alarm, and set it into action. Separate wires or cords are by
preference led from each distinct compartment or room to the alarm, which
latter is provided with a dial plate, and according to the cord or wire which
has been released by the heat, so the dial indicates the compartment from
which the said cord or wire has been released, and in this manner the room
or compartment in which a fire exists is readily ascertained.
For some
purposes I find it advantageons to apply to the dial a light, which is generated
by the lever which sets the alarm in action, communicating motion to a wheel
carrying phosphorus, which striking against a roughened surface, ignites a
wick or other burner, and thus the dial plate may be readily seen at night,
and the room in which the fire exists ascertained as readily as during the day
time.
.
The apparatus before described may be used with or applied to alarms or
bells of the ordinary description; but for effectually carrying out the purposes
of my Invention, I prefer an apparatus as hereafter described. In a suitable
box or frame I fit a spring barrel, with teeth or notches thereon, taking into
which are the ends of hammers or strikers, placed in a row or rows, moving
on a central rod, and striking against several gongs or bells, which I make by
preference cup-shaped, and placed partly one within the other, for economy of
space. By releasing a stop or catch upon the spring barrel (and this, when
used with the appliances before described, is effected by the release of the
wires or gutta percha cords) the spring will act (having previously been
wound up), and cause the barrel to revolve, the width of it allowing the
several hammers or strikers being set in a row or rows. They will at each
stage of the movement strike on several gongs or bells, thereby emitting a

page_text: loud and continuous sound for some time. A coil, cord, or chain with weights
may be substituted for the spring barrel, if desired.
The arrangements just described will be useful for alarms or alarums in
general.