Extinguishing Fire.
Year: 1887

page_text: Extinguishing Fire.
We WILLIAM MAYALL of Bottoms Mill, Mossley in the County of Lancaster, Cotton
Spinner and THOMAS THOMASSON, of 57, Egmont Street in the same place, Engineer
do hereby declare the nature of our invention and in what manner the same is to
be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
This invention refers to improvements upon that class of Sprinkler for which
Letters Patent No. 1372 were granted to one of the present applicants on the
28th day of January 1887 and consists of the novel application thereto of an annular
chamber hereinafter called "an expansion ring" and which improvements are equally
applicable to other classes of sprinklers for the purpose of cushioning the valvo
employed and so rendering the same water tight under all pressures.
On the accompanying drawing Fig. 1 is an exterior view and Fig. 2 a transverse
section of one of our Patent Sprinklers (the subject of Letters Patent No. 1372 as
aforesaid) with our present improvements applied thereto.
These improvements consist in forming the valve seating at one end of an adjustable
nozzle or connecting piece (a) the other end of which is connected with the water
supply and in order to obtain the necessary elasticity and provide for the fluctuations
in pressure which may occur in a water supply we provide in the length of this nozzle
an annular chamber or expansion ring (6) formed of thin copper or other suitable
metal as illustrated and which is brazed in position. This expansion ring in operation
becomes expanded by the pressure of the water and so constitutes a cushion for the
valve (c) thus relieving the valve of a portion of the strain and rendering the
apparatus water tight under all pressures. The extremity (d) of the nozzle (a) is by
preference formed of a soft metal alloy and thus constitutes the seating for the
valve (c).
We
We prefer to mount the expansion ring in the nozzle as illustrated as the apparatus
is thus complete in itself and is ready for fixing, the adjustable nozzle also affords a
means of adjusting the valve to its seating to the greatest nicety but we do not
confine ourselves to this position as the expansion ring may equally well be applied

page_text: for instance to any other part of the sprinkler situated between the inlet and the
valve seating. We wish it further to be understood that we do not confine ourselves
to mounting the expansion ring upon the sprinkler itself as the same may be affixed
with approximate results upon the length of the pipe leading to the sprinkler or
beyond the same.
It will thus be apparent that the expansion ring so applied as aforesaid constitutes
the essential feature of our present invention and although only illustrated as applied
to one of the improved sprinklers as aforesaid it will be obvious that the expansion
ring is applicable to all other classes of sprinklers or similar apparatus containing an
orifice closed by a valve for fire-extinguishing purposes.
Having thus particularly described and ascertained the nature of our inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what we
claim is
1st. The use and application to sprinklers or other valve apparatus for extinguishing
fire or the supply pipes thereof of an expansion ring substantially as and for the
purposes hereinbefore described.
2nd. The improved construction of automatic sprinkler substantially as herein-
before described and illustrated on the accompanying drawing.
JOHN G. WILSON,
Agent for the Applicants.