IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRMS
Year: 1866

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Edward Casper, at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 4th October
1866. A communication from abroad by François Carlier, of Boulogne-
on-Seine, in the Empire of France, Doctor of Medicine.
I, EDWARD CASPER, of No. 38, Poultry, in the City of London, Merchant,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRMS," a communication, to be as follows:-
The said Invention relates to the novel construction of parts of a certain
fire extinguishing apparatus, known as the "Extincteur," English Patent
dated July 23rd 1862, and numbered 2096, in which carbonic acid gas is
generated, absorbed by water, and the gaseous water employed to extinguish
fire. The said apparatus consists of one or more closed vessels made of sheet
iron or other suitable material of such a form and strength as to resist the
strain they will be subjected to from the internal pressure of the gaseous
water. The said vessels are provided with one or more tubes having stop-
cocks and delivery nozzles or flexible hose. Within the outer casing of the
apparatus an inner cylinder or barrel is secured, extending from the top of the
said outer casing downward, its lower end being closed when required with a
plug or stopper. The vessel in which the gas is generated is filled with water,
to which is added bicarbonate of soda, or other one of the ingredients used
to generate the carbonic acid gas. The inner tube is then filled with the
remaining ingredients employed for generating the said gas, and is placed
with its lower end closed into the said vessel; the stopper is then removed

page_text: from the lower end of the tube, and the ingredients therein are allowed to mix
with the prepared water. Carbonic acid gas thus generated in large quantities
is taken up and absorbed by the water, and this gaseous water is ejected
through the pipes or hose upon the burning object.
The object of these improvements is to render the above-described apparatus
less costly and complicated of construction, and to facilitate the proper
combination of the chemicals employed therein.
In the apparatus as hitherto constructed the inner tube is closed by a cork
or plug, which is forced out when required by a screw attached to a ramrod
passed down the said tube. This allows the chemical ingredients contained
in the said tube to fall in a body into the water and combine with the other
ingredients therein, and thus produce suddenly, as by explosion, a large
volume of gas. The pressure of the said gas suddenly called into action and
exerted against the sides, top, and bottom of the vessel tends greatly to its
injury and liability to give way or burst.
By my improved method of construction these objections are obviated. The
cork for closing the tube and the ramrod for removing the said cork are
dispensed with. A colander or perforated metal stopper is employed instead
of the cork, the upper as well as the lower part of the tube being perforated
with small holes. When the said tube is filled with the proper chemicals, and
is placed in its position inside the apparatus, the combination of the said
chemicals with those held in solution by the water is effected gradually and
gently through these perforations. The gas is evolved slowly and regularly,
the prepared water takes it up as it is formed, the sudden shock to the outer
casing of the said apparatus is entirely obviated, and the object desired,
namely, the thorough absorbtion by the fluid of the carbonic acid gas is more
effectually obtained.