US1078030A - Fire-extinguishing fluid. - Google Patents

Description

UNITED STATES PATENT ()FFICE.

:roNAs w. AYLswoRTH, OF EAST ORANGE, NEW JERSEY, AssreNon. or oNE-HALF 'ro FRANK L. DYEB, or MONTCLAIR, NEW JEnsEY.

No Drawing.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, J ONAS W. AYLswoR'rH, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of East Orange, in the county of Essex and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in F ire-Extinguishing Fluids, of which the following is a description.

This invention relates to fluid compounds for extinguishing fires of various natures, particularly those caused in whole or part by burning gasolene or other volatile liquids.

The object of the invention is to provide an agent which shall more eiiectively extinguish such fires with a relatively small proportion of the extinguishing substance, which shall provide flame-extinguishing vapors at temperatures below the point at vwhich gasolene and similar volatile liquids begin to boil, and which preferably shall continue to evolve such vapors through a wide range of temperatures.

The compound is well adapted not only for extinguishing fires in gasolene and the like, but also for smothering and putting out fires of various kinds, including electrical fires.

For extinguishing the flames of gasolene and the like, c-arbon-tetra-chlorid has previously been used with a fair degree of success. I have found, however, that a much greater efliciency is secured in such cases if a liquid agent is used having a lower boiling point than the flaming liquid, or capable of rapidly evolving flame extinguishing vapors at .a temperature below the boiling point of the flaming liquid, and miscible with such liquid.

Carbon-tetra-chlorid is volatile and miscible with gasolene benzene and like substances, and is eiiective as a flame extinguisher therefor when a suflicient amount is used so that a 'suflicient quantity of vapor may be evolved to constitute a flame extinguishing atmosphere above and around the burning liquid. Carbon-tetra-chlorid however, and equivalent known extinguishing liquids, are much heavier and of higher boiling points thangasolene, for example, which renders necessary the employment of acomparatively large amount of the extinguisher. I believe this to be because, first, the higher specific gravity of the substance, as carbontetra-chlorid, causes it when applied to a gasolene fire for example, to first to a con- Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 11, 1913.

Application filed-January 23, 1913. Ser'i'a.1No.743,843.

siderable extent pass through the flaming fluid. An appreciable time then elapses before it becomes thoroughly mixed and appears at the surface and volatilizes. Secondly, the inflammable vap'ors of the gasolene are evolved more rapidly from the sur-' 3 face of the burning fluid than are the com- 2 bustion-arresting vapors of the carbon-tetra- @chlorid, and consequently a larger proportion of the extinguishing fluid must be used ithlan if the extinguisher volatilized readily at a lower temperature. ilene, it should be, remarked, is a mixture 5 including various hydro-carbons of low boil- Commercial gasoing point, such as petroleum ether. On testing gasolene, I have found it to begin to boil at about 49 C'. and between that temperature and) 66 (3., at which the gasolene was in considerable ebullition, a good deal of fluid had distilled over. Carbon-tetrachloridboi-ls at about 76 C.

I overcome the above-described disadvantages by providing a liquid whose boiling point is lower than that of gasolene or other similar liquid. The substances which I find effective as having the necessary low boiling point are, like carbon-tetra-chlorid, higher in specific gravity than gasolene although not so high as carbon-tetra-chlorid. Owing to their lower boiling points, however, they immediately get in violent ebullition upon striking the fire, and evolve vapors more rapidly than the gasolene, so that a much smaller proportion of these substances is required than of carbon-tetrachlorid to produce the desired flame-extinguishing atmosphere. Liquids which I-have found to fulfil the above requirements are dichloro-ethane, (boiling point 36 (3.), dichloro-metha-ne (boiling point 41.8" 0.), and di-chloro-ethylene (boiling point 55 (1), or admixtures of the same with carbon-tetrachlorid or with each other. i

In order that my composition may be applicable to fires of various natures, I prefer to compound the low-boiling-point liquid with carbon-tetra-chlorid, and also preferably with other bodies of higher boiling point than that of carbon-tetra-chlorid, for the purpose of furnishing flame-extinguishing vapors at higher temperatures after all the lower and more volatile liquids have been driven ofl. Such bodies, in solution or mixture with carbon-tetra-chlorid are de scribed in my application Serial No. 498,358,

, hcxa-chloro-benzcne, etc.

filed May 25, 1909, and arethere described as perhalogenized organic radicals, such as perchlorinated naphthalene, dl-phenvl, hexachloro-cthane, perchloro-trl-phenyl-benzene, As stated in said application the carbon tetra-chlorid volatiliies at a point which is sufliclently low, 1n the case of fires of various characters which are well under way, as to be expelled largely by the heat upon being applied to the fire, for which reason the higher boiling substances referred to were added. By compounding a substance such as di-chloroethane or methane, carbon-tetra-chlorid, and one or more of the higher-boiling point substances referred to above, -I can obtain a liquid which evolves flame-extinguishing vapors over a range of temperature from below 60 0. to and over 315 0., all of which vapors form a smothering combus tion-arresting dry blanket or atmosphere above and around the seat of combustion.

The ingredients described above may be used in various proportions through a considerable range. If carbon-tetra-chlorid and di-chloro-ethane or di-chloro-methane comprise the compound, substantially equal proportions give good results. The higher boiling' point halogenized organic radical which may be dissolved in the carbon-tetra-chlorid may be for example, from 2 to 20 per cent. by weight of the carbon-tetra-chlorid.

When the compound is designed for general applicability it may also contain in suspension, certain metallic salts, such as finely divided tungstate of soda, which will deposit upon the charred carbon or substance burned, as a fire proof coating, to retard the smoldering of the substance. Some of the perhalogenized organic constituent in solution, if the latter is used, such as perchlorinated naphthalene, is also thrown down on the burnt material as an electrically nonconducting deposit, which is of advantage in the case of electrical fires.

I determined by test that, to extinguish a given volume of burning gasolene, requires about an equal volume of carbontetra-chlorid. Less than one-fifth the volume of the gasolene of di-chloro-methane sufficed to extinguish the 'fire, under the same conditions, and about one-fifth the volume of the gasolene of a mixture of equal proportions of carbon-tetra-chlorid and dichloro-methane sufliced.

In the term perhalogenized organic radicals mentioned above, I do not mean to limit myself to substances in which all the hydrogen has been replaced by chlorin or other halogen, but only to substances in which the greater part of the hydrogen has been so replaced.

The vapors of the substances described above are all non-poisonous, dry and combustion-arresting.

constitute a flame-extinguish ng atmosphere 1 above and around the seat of combustion.

2. A flame extinguishing compound comprising a chlorin derivative of a hydro-carbon having a boiling point lower than 60 0., compounded with a body having a boiling point higher than 60 0., said derivative and body, when applied to a fire, both evolving vapors to constitute a flame extinguishing atmosphere above and around the seat of combustion.

3. A flame-extinguishing compound comprising di-chloro-methane and carbon-tetrachlorid.

4. A flame-extinguishing compound comprising a chlorin derivative of a hydro-carbon having a boiling point lower than that of gasolene, said derivative being miscible with gasolene, and carbon-tetra-chlorid.

5.A fiame-extinguishing compound comprising di-chloro methane, carbon tetrachlorid, and a perchlorinated organic radical having a boiling-point much higher than that of the carbon-tetra-chlorid.

6. A flame-extinguishing compound comprising di-chloro methane, carbon tetrachlorid, and a halogenized benzene derivative dissolved in the carbon-tetra-chlorid and having a boiling-point much higher than-that of the carbon-tetra-chlorid.

7 A flame-extinguishing compound comprising a liquid having the property when heated to a temperature below the boilingpoint of gasolene, of rapidly evolving vapors to constitute a flame-extinguishing atmosphere, and of evolving further flame-extinguishing vapors when heated to temperatures above the boiling-point of gasolene.

8. A flame-extinguishing liquid compound comprising at least three ingredients, which boil at different temperatures, at least one of which is below 60 0., and at least one of which is much higher than that, and all of which, 'upon being volatilized, by application to a fire, evolve vapors to constitute a flameextinguishing atmosphere above and around the seat of combustion.

9. A flame-extinguishing liquid comprising carbon-tetra-chlorid having dissolved therein a substance having a higher boiling point than that of the carbon-tetrachlorid, compounded with a liquid having a lower boiling-point than carbon-tetrachlorid, said substance and last named liquid both having flame-extinguishing propgasolene, having a boiling point lower than erties. I that of the lowest boiling point constituent 10. A flame-extinguishing liquid comprisof gasolene, and which is adapted, upon be- 15 ing an ingredient which boils and evolves ing applied to flaming 'gasolene, to evolve fiame extinguishing vapors at temperatures combustion-arresting vapors with greater below 60 (3., and ingredients which evolve rapidity than gasolene vapors are evolved. flame extinguishing vapors only at higher This specification signed and witnessed temperatures, and a substance adapted to this 21st day of January 1913. form a deposit upon the seat of combustion J ONAS W. AYLSWORTH. and retard the burning thereat. Witnesses:

11. A fire-extinguishing compound com- DYE-R SMITH, prising a water-free liquid, miscible with SOPHIE M. BAEDER.