US623441A - Automatic fire and burglar alarm - Google Patents

Description

No. 623,-44l. Patented Apr. l8, I899.

H. E. THOMPSON.

AUTOMATIC FIRE AND BUBGLAR ALARM.

(Application filed Apr. 16, 1898.)

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WITNESSES: INVENTOR M L A Hen U T/ronyson,

4A1 Am llnrrnn rates PATENT @rricm HENRY E. THOMPSON, OFCAMERON, NORTH CAROLINA.

AUTOMATIC FIRE AND BURGLAR ALARM.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 623,441, dated April 18, 1899.

Application filed April 16, 1898. serial No. 677,803. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, HENRY E. THOMPSON, a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident of Cameron, county of Moore, State of North Carolina, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Automatic Fire and Burglar Alarms, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to an automatic fire and burglar alarm system for use especially in large buildings like hotels and office-buildings or factories.

The object of the invention is to produce such a system that upon the occurrence of a fire in any room or forcible entrance into the room by a burglar an alarm will almost immediately be given automatically to the occupant and at the office, where there will be given also an announcement of the number of the room. The object is further to make an invent-ion by which although an alarm is given only in that room where there is a fire, yet the operator at the office maysend a current which will cause an alarm of fire in every room. The organization comprises an electric bell in a shunt-circuit to an easily-fusible and low-resistance conductor, both the bell and the resistance-conductor being located in each room. This fusible conductor extends all around the room, so as to be in the neighborhood of the heat produced by the initial fire. The resistance of the electric-bell magnet is purposely high, and the electric bell is so proportioned-that. upon an increase of current the bell will ring. I provide automatic means so that when the fuse breaks and the high resistance of a bell is alone in circuit the diminished current caused thereby partially deenergizes a relay-magnet. A local circuit including an electric bell is thereby closed and the bell rings in the office. The operator throws in additional battery for the electric bells in the rooms of sufficient strength to overcome their resistances and to ring them, their own battery being always too weak for this purpose while the principal part of the current is passing through the fusible wire.

In order to understand the invention in all its details, drawings are annexed and described.

Figure 1 is a diagram of the complete system. Fig. 2 is a section of a room, showing the fusible wire arranged around it and arranged to give an alarm when the door is opened. Fig. 3 shows a modification of a switch .for including an extra battery in parallel circuit with the other instead of in series.

a represents the electric bells, located, re: spectively, in the rooms of a building. The fusible conductors form loops around the bells. These may consist each of a continuous easily-fusible wire or of short pieces of copper wire soldered or otherwise fastened together by easily-fusible metal.

0 is a battery for the bells a, which are in series circuit.

d is a relay-magnet included in the circuit of the battery 0, which is always closed. The magnet-(l therefore holds open the circuit closer e of the local circuit having the battery fand the hello. This magnet dis of such a resistance that the circuit-closer 6 will fall away and close the local circuit g when the current in the main circuit of the battery 0 is made less by the rupture of the low-resistance conductor 2). Hence the bell a will ring at the office when any conductor?) melts.

his a circuit-closer for the battery 0, normally closing said circuit at the terminals *6, and it is suspended by an insulator which carries and separates the terminals j of the extra battery 70.

' When the clerk in the office hears the alarm a and feels confident that it is because of a fire, in a manner hereinafter set forth he moves the terminals j to the terminals 1', thereby opening the circuit-closer h and including the battery 7a in series with the battery 0.

.He need be in no doubt, for the annunciator will'indicate the room whence the alarm was sent for the following reasons: At Ais a magnet in series with one of the bells a and in shunt to one of the fusible wires Z2. When the latter breaks, the magnet A attracts the armature B and closes the circuit ofthe battery C through the annunciator D. A modified automatic circuit-closer for the annunciator is the extension E on the vibratory part of the bell a in circuit With the annunciator D, so that the circuit of the battery 0 will be closed when the bell rings. A further modification is the low-resistance magnet F in circuit with one of the fusible wires 1), and

therefore normally energized and holding the armature-circuit closer G open. When the fuse breaks, the annunciator operates because the circuit-closer G is in circuit with the battery G.

In order that the occupant of the room may ring for ice, hot water, and other articles, the push-button 0 is provided in the annun ciatorcircuit.

In Fig. 3 the battery it is shown adapted to be placed in parallel with the battery 0 by a switch 1, movable to be in contact with the terminal it alone of the main line or in circuit also with the terminal m of the battery 70, the other end of the circuit-closer Z being connected permanently to the battery 0.

I claim as myinvention- 1. In an automatic fire and burglar alarm system, the combination of electric alarms in the respective rooms of a building of definitely high resistance, a fusible conductor of low resistance forming a loop around each alarm, and including in its circuit a circuitcloser operated by a door, Window or other movable object, a battery for feeding the electric alarms, and normally closed through the same, a relay in circuit with said battery, a local alarm-circuit at the office of the build-' ing controlled by said relay, an extra battery, means for including said extra battery in circuit with the other battery, an annunciator in the said ofiice, and means, controlled automatically by the breaking of a fuse, for operating said annunciator.

2. In a fire-alarm system, the combination of a battery, a main-line conductor normally energized by said battery, electric alarms included in circuit with said conductor and said battery, fusible conductors in circuits that are shunt to said alarms, an office-alarm controlled and operative by the breaking of any of said fuses, a second battery, and means for manually introducing said second battery into the circuit of the other battery.

Signed this 5th day of April, 1898.

HENRY E. THOMPSON. [L. s.]

Witnesses: i

M. MoL. MCKINTHEN, LIZZIE B. OULBERsoN.

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