IMPROVE- MENTS IN APPARATUS TO BE USED FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRES
Year: 1854

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Edwin Moore at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 12th January
1854.
I, THOMAS EDWIN MOORE, of St. Marylebone, in the County of Middlesex,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN APPARATUS TO BE USED FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRES" to be as follows :-
My said improvements consist, firstly, in a peculiarly constructed cylindrical
boiler shaped vessel, formed of strong plate iron, set on a suitable carriage
frame supplied with wheels, and carrying on each side communicating reser-
voirs for water, having also in front a sliding door and circular mouth-piece,
at which to supply the requisite materials for its operation, and at its back end
a suitable pipe for attaching a hose to lead to the part on fire; and, secondly,
to a syringe or plunger for charging the apparatus at the sliding front door
before named, by the rapid action of a suitable piston.
I form a cylindrical case of boiler plates rivetted together, the whole about
six feet long; to each side backwards are attached two flattened cylindrical
vessels or water tanks, each having a plug screwed into a suitable aperture at the.
tap used when filling them with water, and each has also a pipe and stop-cock at
the bottom, by means of which water may be drawn from them into the centre
casing; and from the back end of one of these tanks a water pipe, secured by a
stop-cock, runs to the back end of the outer casing. The body or case of this
apparatus has at the top a small safety valve, and below at one side, a guage

page_text: to measure its liquid contents; and at front, a cock by which to draw off' such
liquid as occasion may require. About centrally, the front and back ends are
each supplied with a circular aperture and a short wide tube set therein; the
front tube or mouth-piece has behind it a sliding door, acting like a slide valve
to close it, and the back tube has an external screw for connecting with it the
hose leading to the fire to be extinguished.
This apparatus is intended for the speedy and continuous application of the
vapour of water and gases which do not support coinbustion to the extinguish-
ing of fires, and may be supplied for that purpose with any of the known
suitable chemical mixtures which most readily and economically afford the
requisite gases and vapour. Such being the object of my Invention, I con-
struct the interior of the casing just described, with three concentric cases,
giving a cellular construction to the whole; the first of these is a plain sheet
iron division, forming a space of two or more-inches all round between its
sides and those of the outer casing; within this space are two or more pipes
descending to the bottom, then rising upwards until they enter the top of this
inner casing, being there secured in proper collars. The second interior casing
is a semicircular perforated roof or crown a few inches from the under side of
the top of the first internal casing; and the third internal casing affords a
space of a few inches from this last case, and descends on each side to the
bottom of the apparatus, and has a few rows of holes centrally on each side;
about the centre internally it carries an iron grating defended on each side by
iron guard plates; the grate is placed a little below the sliding front door used
for charging, and below this grate is an oblong sheet iron tray or box to.
receive the residium of chemical action, the bottom being double, with water
below; the refuse falling through an oblong aperture in the dished top or cover
thereof.
.:
·*.
My mode of charging is by filling a light sheet iron cylinder with the
requisite materials, and by means of a piston and rod forcing the contents
rapidly through the aperture in front, and so on to the grating, and then
sliding back the door.
Chemical ingredients that require water can be supplied therewith from the
side tanks by turning the stop-cocks on any of the three pipes attached to
them. and the body of the apparatus never need be over-charged with liquid,
as it may be drawn off at intervals by the water cock in front.