Improvements in Apparatus for Indicating Temperature and Detecting Fire. HEAT AND FIRE ON BOARD SHIP AND IN DWELLING, AND WAREHOUSES ETC. ON SHORE
Year: 1888

page_text: Date of Application, 17th Oct., 1888
Complete Specification Left, 25th Oct., 1888-Accepted, 17th Jan., 1890
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for Indicating Temperature and
Detecting Fire.
BENJAMIN ANDERSON DOUGHERTY 128 Amersham Vale, New Cross, Kent H.M.'s
Indian Marine H.M.'s Dockyard Bombay India do hereby declare the nature of my
invention for THE DETECTION OF HEAT AND FIRE ON BOARD SHIP AND IN DWELLING,
AND WAREHOUSES ETC. ON SHORE to be as follows :-
The electrical test board is composed of any required number of metal negative and
positive strips, let into ebonite or otherwise and the whole let into a teak, mahogany
or other board or frame, and is part of No. 14790 of 15th October 1888. It is con-
nected to a battery by metal plugs. The negative wires from heat and fire detecters
are connected to its negative terminals, while the positive wires, are connected to metal
plugs, for plug holes on positive metal strips, with an electric bell in circuit from
battery.
When the negative wires are fast to terminals and the positive plugs are in, on any
of the heat and fire detecters making contact, the circuit is complete, and an electric
bell rings.
The compartments on strips being numbered and when required named with the
place in which the heat and fire detecters are placed.
To find the exact locality of heat or fire, is to take all the plugs out, and commencing
from No. 1 plug hole, plug up till bell rings, when the named or numbered compart-
ment on strip, will be the exact locality of heat or fire in the ships hold or other
place.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for Indicating Temperature and.
Detecting Fire.
BENJAMIN ANDERSON DOUGHERTY 128 Amersham Vale, New Cross Kent 1st Grade
Officer, H.M.'s Indian Marine H.M.'s Dockyard Bombay India do hereby declare
the nature of my invention for INDICATING TEMPERATURE AND DETECTING FIRE and
in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement:-
CONSTRUCTION AND ARRANGEMENTS OF THE INSTRUMENT.
The apparatus is composed of a Test Board, Battery with an electric bell in the
circuit and Detectors.
The Test Board is an ordinary piece of board with ebonite let in for brass
strips, terminals and connections to fasten to, as in the plan at L, M & N, the size
of which, would depend upon the number of compartments required for the number
of detectors to be used: the wires from the detectors although shown in the plan
from the front, for illustration, should be passed in from the back of the board,
through small holes and joined up to the terminals on the brass strips as a better
means of avoiding contact from continued use. Then with an electric bell in
circuit, the negative and positive wires from the battery, are joined up to the
Test Board as at o &r in the plan.
The number of cells or strength of the battery would depend on the amount of
current required, or the resistance to be overcome, in the distance to be traversed
071

page_text: a. y. z. show the compartments, which may also be indicated by numbers, or the
actual names of the places they represent in a ship hold, where the detectors are
placed.
The plan represents three tests for illustration, with detectors set for electrical
contact at 120°, 180° and 212°.
Any number of brass strips with corresponding compartments for levers as shown
in the plan may be added ranging for tests of a higher or lower number of degrees
than 120° or 212º.
One detector is shown on the 120° test strips in illustration, in the other cases the
wires are shown as led away from their respective negative and positive terminals to
places distant, where it is intended to test for temperature.
The negative wires from detectors are screwed permanently to the terminals on the
Negative strips at p. d. q; r terminal being for the Negative and o for the Positive,
Battery connections.
The positive wires from detectors are screwed permanently to the terminals, as
at a. c. f. with small metal arms, running down from a. c. and f as to b. e. and / to
which are attached small hand levers, numbered 1. 2. and 3. as at R working from
right to left, making and breaking contact, at will, with the metal positive strips.
The construction and connections for strips of 120°, 180° and 212° tests are the
same, and would be of the same construction for any number of additional strips
detectors and compartments.
As shown in the plan, on the mercury in any of the detectors making contact any-
where by an increase of temperature, the circuit being complete, the electric bell would
ring.
To find the exact spot where the increase of temperature has taken place with
the bell ringing, break the contact between the levers and the metal positive strip,
by moving the arm of the lever off the position of contact; commencing
with No. 1 and so breaking contact with all levers in succession till the bell stops
when the compartment consecutively numbered of the lever that has stopped the
bell will give the exact spot where electrical contact in the detector has been made
owing to increase of temperature.
The electrical apparatus as shown in the plan, is intended for ships' holds as a
permanent means for ascertaining the temperature and detecting fire in cargoes at any
time also for coal bunkers.
For houses, warehouses, ships' cabins and metropolitan and other fire stations, one
pair of metal strips as indicated in the plan for 120° would be sufficient.
In the same way the Test Board may be used at fire stations to indicate the

page_text: locality of contact. Say, for instance, 10 streets or houses were connected to a
Test Board at a fire station, the fireman or other person on duty in such street
or house could make electrical contact by hand, and so set the bell ringing at the
fire station, while the fireman on duty at the fire station could test in the same
way as for a ship's hold and immediately discover the street requiring the fire
engine, where electrical contact had been made, the compartments in this case
should bear the name of the street or house.
In the plan of the Test Board, metal strips, terminals and connections are let into a
teak wood, ebonite or other board and the Test Board may be hung up complete for
working in any convenient place.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed 1 declare that what I
claim is,
1. To be the sole
and detecting fire.
inventor of the apparatus in question for indicating temperature
2. The novelty in the apparatus is in the simple means of ascertaining by Test
Board the exact locality from any number of places where electrical contact is made.
Dated this 22nd day of July 1889.
B. A. DOUGHERTY,