US530434A

US530434A - Burglar-alarm

Info

Publication number: US530434A
Authority: US
Publication date: 1894-12-04
Anticipated expiration: 1911-12-04

Description

(No Model.) A Y J.' H. LOWE.

BURGLAR ALARM.

No. 530,434. Y Patented Deo. 4, 1894.

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UNITED STATESv PATENT GFFICE.

JOHN H. LOWE, oF NEosHo, AssIGNoa or ONE-HALF To ARTHUR H.

WAITE, F JoPLIN,-MIssoURI.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Iletters Patent No. 530,434, dated December` "4, 1894.

Application led .Tuly 20,1394. Serial 110.518,115.` (No model.)

To wZZ whom it may concern,.- p

Be it known that I, JOHN H. LOWE, of Neosho, in the county of Newton and State of Missouri, have invented a new and Improved Burglar-Alarm, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to improvements in burglar alarms and particularly to such as are adapted to indicate when a safe or an analogous article is being tampered with; and the object ot' my invention is to produce a very simple electrically-operated `arrangement, which is adapted to sound an alarm in case any attempt is made to reach a safe, and also to produce a device which, on the closing of an electric circuit will fill the room containing the safe with noxious vapors, which render it impossible for a person to live in the room while such vapors are therein contained, and which thus serve to protect the safe, but audible signals may be used in connection with the-vapor distributer, as hereinafter described, so that the safe is not only protected but an alarm rung inin case an attempt is made to rifle it.

. To these ends my invention consists of certain features of construction and combinations of parts, which will* be hereinafter described and claimed. l

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this speciication, in which similar figures and letters of refer ence indicate corresponding parts in al1 the views.

Figure 1 is a sectional elevation of my improved apparatus, as applied to a safe. Fig. 2 is a sectional plan of the same, the circuit in Figs. 1 and 2 being indicated in diagram. Fig. 3 is a detail vertical section of the vapor distributer. Fig. 4 is an inverted plan of the vapor distributer with its valve held in closed position; and Fig. 5 is a similar view t0 Fig. 4, but with the valve in open position.

The safe 10 or other article is inclosed by a cage 11 which is of metal and may be arranged in any convenient way, the cage. as illustrated being supported on insulating blocks 12 which rest on the safe, and it has 4a door 1la to permit the safe door to be reached without removing the cage. Loosely suspended within the cage and entirely surrounding but not touching it, are contact plates 13,`which are of conducting material such as metal strips, Woven wire or anything suitable for the purpose, and the plates, as

illustrated, are hinged at the top, as shown'- at 14, and are also hinged together at necessary intervals on theside edges, as shown at 15, so that in case any movement is given to the cage the plates will swing freely and contact with the safe.

reach the safe, one of the plates contacts with the safe, thus closing the circuit and sending in an alarm, the circuit being from the battery A through the wire a, the safe, the contact plates 13, the wire a and the bell 16 back to the battery. I have shown the apparatus arranged in an open circuit so as to ring the alarm by closing the circuit, because this is a simple way to illustrate my invention, but it will be understood that the apparatus may be arranged in a closed circuit as Weil and the connections madeso as to ring the alarm when the circuit is broken by the displacement of one of the plates.

Asa further protection, I have shown the wires a and a connected by wires a2 and a3 with contacts 17 adjacent to an ordinary wire mat 18 which is arranged in front of the safe and which, on being stepped upon, is depressed so as to engage, the contacts and close the circuit. As a still further protection, the

vapor distributer shown in' Fig. 3 may be artranged in the room with the safe, which distributer comprises a case 19 having therein a transverse diaphragm 20 which separates the .upper portion or chamber of the case from the lower perforated chamber 2l, and the upper chamber is provided with a nipple 22 to permit air to be pumped into it under pressure for the purpose explained below.

The diaphragm 20 has a central opening which is closed by a valve 23 secured to the IOO upper end of a stem 24 which projects downward through the bottom 25 of the case 19, in which it is threaded, and the stem has secured to ita laterally extending handle 26 which is normally pressed by a spring 27 so as to turn down the stem and open the valve 23, but the handle is held, so as to keep the valve closed, by an armature latch 28 which engages the handle and behind which is a magnet 29 which may be included in the bell circuit already described 0r in a separate circuit if desired, and when the magnet is energized it pulls on the 'armature latch 28, releases the handle 26, and permits the spring 27 to open the valve.

In normal condition the valve is closed and the upper chamber is partially filled with a mixture of equal parts of bisulphide of carbon and chemically pure prussic acid or other deadly luids, and air is pumped in under heavy pressure and retained above the iluid inthe case. If now the burglars, in an attempt to enter the safe, close the circuit referred to, the magnet 29 is energized, the latch 28 pulled from the handle 26, and the spring 27 swings the handle in a way to turn the valve stem 24 and open the valve 23, so that the air pressure quickly forces the fluid poisons downward into the perforated chamber of the case 19, from the perforations of Which the fluids issue in the form ot' vapor, being atomized by the perforations, and the poisonous vapors lill the room, thus making it impossible for the burglars to stay therein and Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patentl. The combination with a safe, of an inclosing casing movable relatively to the same and provided with electric contacts adapted to contact with the safe when the casing ismoved,

and an electric circuit including an alarm,

the said contacts forming one terminal of the circuit and the safe the other, substantially as described.

2. The combination, with the safe, of the cage or envelope inclosing the safe, contact plates suspended from the envelope and held out of contact with the safe, and an electrical circuit including an alarm, the contact plates' and also hinged at the top, and an electric circuit including an alarm, the circuit having the contact plates forming one of its terminals and the safe the other, substantially as described.

4. The combination, with the cage adapted to inclose a safe, the ease containing noxious fluids, and separate and independent from both the cage and the safe, the circuit closing mechanism in the cage, and electrically-operated mechanism in connection with the circuit closing device and adapted to open the fluid containing case, substantially as described.

5. The combination, with the cage, of the case containing noxious iluids under pressure,

the valve-controlling the outlet of the case,

an atomizing device in the case, the circuit closing mechanism in the cage, and means for opening the case valve by the closing of the circuit, substantially as described.

6. The combination, with the cage and the circuit-closing mechanism therein, of the case having an upper and lower compartment separated by adiaphragm, the walls of the lower compartment being perforated, a valve in the diaphragm, magnet-operated mechanism.

for opening the valve, and means for energizing the magnet by the circuit closing mechanism in the cage, substantially as described.

7. The combination, with the case adapted to contain noxious fluids and provided with upper and lower compartments separated by a diaphragm, the Walls of the lower compartment being perforated, of a valve in the diaphragm, a stem secured to the valve and threaded. in the case bottom, a handle on the stem pressed normally open by a spring, an armature latch to hold the handle and Valve in closed position, a magnet opposite the armature latch, and a circuit closing device controlling the current through the magnet, substantially as described.

8. The herein described burglar alarm apparatus, comprising a cage to loosely envelop the safe and provided with freely swinging gravity contacts to engage the safe and complete the circuit, a valved noxious-duid receptacle in the room with the cage, and an electrical circuit in whichare included an alarm, the safe, the swinging contacts and the valve mechanism of the said Huid receptacle, substantially as described.

JOHN H. LOWE.

Witnesses:

D. W. MARTIN, JAMES H. PRATT.

IOO