US245884A - Heney a - Google Patents

Description

'(No Model.)

H. A. STEARN$.

AUTOMATIG FIRE EXTINGU-ISHER.

,No. 245,884. Patented Aug. 16,1881! WITNESSES INVENTORI UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE,

HENRY A. STEARNS, OF LINCOLN, ASSIGNOR OF TWO-THIRDS TO JOSEPH R. BROWN, OF PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND, AND JOHN M. HALL, OF

VVALLINGFORD, CONNECTICUT.

AUTOMATIC FIRE-EXTINGUISHER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 245,884, dated August 16, 1881.

Application filed February 5, 1881.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, HENRY A. STEARNS, of Lincoln, in the county of Providence and State of Rhode Island, haveinvented a new and useful Improvement in Automatic Fire Extinguishers; and I hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification.

This invention has reference to an improvementin self-acting fireextinguishcrs secured to a system of pipes distributed through a building, and consisting in the peculiar construction of the distributer and the means for closing the outlet, as will be more fully Set forth herein-atter.

The object of this invention is to simplify the construction, facilitate the cleaning of the distribul er, and insure the prompt action of the device.'

Figure l is a view of my improved automatic fire-extinguisher. Fig. 2 is a sectional view of the same, showing a nipple the end of which is closed, with a ball secured in the nipple by means of solder fusible at a low temperature, and a perforated rosesprinkler, the lower part of which is provided with a large hole, in which the ball rests when released.

In the drawings, a is anipple, provided with the screw-thread b, by which it can be screwed onto a pipe, and the screw-thread c on its other surface,to receive the rose-sprinkler d. The end of the nipple a is provided with a seat to 5 receive the ball 0. The ball a and the seat on the nipple are trimmed, and the ball is secured to the nipple by a solder made of bismuth or similar material, so as to melt at a low temperature.

The device is used suspended below the system of pipes, with the opening pointing down- (No model.)

ward, so that the ball 6 will drop from the seat in the nipple a and open the outlet by gravity as soon as the solder is melted.

An ordinary rose-sprinkler may be loosely 5 screwed over the nipple, as thejoint need not be water-tight, and such a rose or other sprinkler may be removed from time to time to clean the same; but I prefer to use a sprinkler such as is shown in the drawings, in which all the holes are on the upper half of the sprinkler, so as to spray against the ceiling, and the large hole f nearly as large as the ball c--is placed at the lower part below the ball, so that the sprinkler can be cleaned without being removed, and 5 that the hole will be closed by the ball when released and the water be forced through the perforations. By this arrangement any of the .old systems in which rosesprinklers are used,

and which are supplied with water from a sys- 6o tem of pipes operated by means of valves, can be made automatic by making nipples of the proper size, soldering a ball into the end ofthe nipple, and interposing the nipple between the pipe-outlets and the rOsesprinkler. Each outlet will then open automatically when influenced by a fire sufficientto melt the solder, and the available water-su ppl y will be concentrated on the sprinklers near the fire, avoiding excessive damage by water and confining the damage by fire.

Having thus described my invention, Iclaim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent- The combination, with the nipple a, of the ball 0, secured by solder, and the sprinkler d, provided with the holef, constructed substantially as and for the purpose described.

HENRY A. STEARNS.

Witnesses:

J. A. MILLER, J r., JOSEPH A. MILLER.

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