US648367A - Fire-alarm system and apparatus. - Google Patents

Description

No. 648,367. Patented Apr. 24, 1900. n. A. sum.

FIRE ALARM SYSTEM AND APPARATUS.

(Application filed Aug. 31, 1899.) (No Model.) 3 sheetseshaet I.

No. 648,367. Patented 'Apr. '24, I900.

n. A. sum.

FIRE ALARM SYSTEM AND APPARATUS.

(Application filed Aug. 31, 1899,)- (No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 ms uonms versus 50.. Pucrp-umo msmmnm, n. c.

No. 648,367. Patented A r; 24, I900. n. A. SMITH.

FIRE ALARM SYSTEM AND APPARATUS.

(Application filed Aug. 31, 1899.)

3 Sheets8heet 3.

(No Model.)

7725265565.: A lnrewr Wu dwlm A Q MMZO,

mus virus :0, PNOYO-UTHO" WASNING'YON. n. c.

UNITED STATES.

PATENT OFFI E.

RIcIIARD ALEXANDER SMITH, or NORFOLK, VIRGINIA.

FIRE-ALARM SYSTEM AND APPARATUS.

' SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 648,367, dated April 24, 1900.

Application filed August 31, 1899. Serial N0. 729,054. No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, RICHARD ALEXANDER SMITH, a citizen of the United States, residing at Norfolk, in the county of Norfolk and State of Virginia, have invented new and usefullmprovementsin Fire-Alarm Systems and Apparatus, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates tofire-alarm-telegraph systems, and particularly to the central-office circuits and apparatus for such systems. In

such as may be purchased in the open market at low prices and aggregated by any skilled electrician or engineer working in accordance with my plans-that is to say, that the main part of the invention lies in the circuits and in the arrangement of ordinary apparatus, so that, for instance, instead of having to'purchase special parts, such as relays, ordinary estern Union relays andthe like. I

My switchboard consists, essentially, of a may be used alarm-boxes or the well-known,closed cironit break wheel type. Of course the system might be adapted to Work with normally-open loops; but as this is now considered very poor practice and as it would merely. necessitate reversals of the connections of relays entirely within the scope of the ordinary electrician I have not thoughtit necessary to illustrate or describe it. 1 Each loop has its relay in the central office, which controls a main gong and en gine-alarm circuit, and each loop has a no rmally-closed gap controlled by a relay which in turn is controlled by the gong-circuit. I have found by actual use of this arrangement of circuit that all signals may thus be repeated in a system of moderate size without the necessity arising for non-interference or other complicated apparatus. Heretofore there have been manysmall towns where a fire-alarm system would be very desirable that have been forced to do without such protection because the necessary repeaters would cost from one to three thousand dollars,whereas the entire system, without the repeater, in any ordinary case might be built for less than a thousand dollars. In my system the arrangement is such that even with good oper ative repeating no parts are required except with my invention.

ence letters and figures point out the same parts throughout.

Referring to the drawings, Figure 1' is a diagram showing the, arrange ment of, circuits and apparatus for a fire-alarm system having a single central station in accordance Fig. 2 is a front View of my switchboard. Fig. 3 is a side View of the same. Figs. 4, and 5 are. detail views showing the circuit-closer and the link-guide, respectively, used in connection with the gong to control the repeating relay-circuit.

Referring to Fig. 1, O, O, and C are loops extending out from the central office and each including in series a number of signal-boxes, as plainly indicated in the drawings. R, R and R are individual relays each included in one of the loops and adapted to control the gong-circuit. M M M? M are secondary or storage batteries each consisting of a duplicate set of cells, one set being adapted to be included in each of the loops while the other set, its duplicate, is being charged. G, G, G and G, are galvanometers, the first three of which, togetherwith the first three of the storage batteries, appertain to the three box-loops shown, while the fourth galvanometer and the fourth battery belong to the gong-circuit, which also extends out to a number of engine-houses, fire-chiefs houses, &c., in series. These are shown at O, 0', O

and O b, b, and b are single-stroke signal bells in the box-circuits. R, R and are 4 r second, to operate-the relay to close the charging-circuits properas follows: from-the s i 45 to and through battery M by wire; 46 to relays included in the local circuit controlled 1 by the gong andin turn controltheir respective box circuits or loops. The circuits of all of these pieces of apparatus will be traced and their functions made clear presently.

a The secondary batteries, which are now commonly used in fire-telegraph systems in place of the old-fashioned gravity-batteries, are usually charged in large installations by local generators especially installed for the purpose.

In "smaller installations they are charged from the city mains, as almost every lighting system.

town that would aspire to a fire;telegra ph system is already provided with an electric- I have therefore shown the wires 1 2, which-are supposed to lead-froma source of current suitable for charging the batteries, with'openends. They enter this installation through a fuse-block 'i and are connected to the station bus-bars 3 '4. These busbars'are connected,respectively, to the two sides ofa double-pole xknife-switch' P which, together with the Yammeter V and the relay R is locatedat anysuitable point in the room. This maybe v upjonythe switchboard,'ii desired, but not necessarily so, as

' thecondition of thecharging-wi'res is shown by the threefincandescen-t lamps I 1'13; The circuitsof the lamps and batteriesare asfolslows: from switch P by wire. 5 to ammeter V, by wire 7 to one side of lallyt'he'lamps,

through lamp Iby'branch 111, by wire-8 to the relay R and by wire 6 back to-theswitch and the bus-bar. This circuit isalways complete when the switch P is closed and serves for two purposese first, by means of the lamp .1 at the board to show that the charging current is onjand bythe ainmeter, which isusually located at the switch, that the current is upto-the proper amperage, and,

switch P by wires, 5 and 7 to the lamps I and 1 throughthese "lamps in parallel (the parallel resistancexthus obtained being [low enough to'insure the proper volume of char-g:- ying curr'ent and enabling the current-flow to.

befcut down itanybatteries are cutoutby simply cutting ofi'onelam'p at the key-socket, as shown inFig.-2,this of course doubling the resistance) by-wire, 9 to theiront contact m of the relay R through the armature r by wire 43 tothe'post 19 thence through the batteryM to post'p, by wire 44 to and-through.

the same connections ofbattery M by wire il ld through'battery M and by wire 47, back to the point 48 anduwire 6 to the switchiP".

The reason for havin'g the rel ayR control I oithis circuit is that when the currentceases to flow into the charging-main for-any reason ingbaek through the generator or generators at'the otherend-ot thewire's'l 2. Where-the current ceases because of the stoppage of the only one switch can be thrown into contact with them at once. Now each switch has one of the pair of secondary batteries included between its switch-blades. Thus the switch P is pivoted uponthe posts 19 and p 9, and one of the first pair of storage batteries at P is bridged between these posts. In a similar way the other one of the pair is bridged across the posts 19 and p upon which is pivoted the switch P Theuppermost pair ofposts 19 and p and the lowermost pair of posts p and p are connected in parallel through wires 20 and 21 to the'w'ire's 13, the boxes O, the switch Z, wire 14, relay R, wire 15, armature r, and the back contact thereof 'of relay'R, by wire 16 to switch Z, wire 17 to boardin thecharging-wires'43 44 45 46 47. It must thus'be :a'pp'arent'that by throwing the 'upperswitch down intocont-act with posts 19 and 19 as shown in Fig. 1, the battery connected with said switch is connected into the chargingcircuit, while by throwing the lower switch, down into contact :with theipos'ts p and p the other-battery of .the pair-"is connected into the loop-circuit for-service; Ob- Viously if both 'switch'es'fwere thrown up, as are P :and P in Fig.2, the connections of the batteriesas regards. charging? and dis- IOO IIO

charging would be reversed relatively. Each galvano neter 'G, & c,,- indicates at all times the condition of-i-ts-circuit. j The-bell b or b,

&c.', responds; t'olthe changes dueto signals pin-any particular loop; By the methodof repeating, which will be;described', it":w-ill be seen that these bellsalso respond to changes in'all the loops." Theiruselin Fig. 1-in the position shown does not necessarily mean thatthey are the only responsive devices in the loop-circuits. "They are intended to stand for whatever in the way ofi'signal-receiving devices may be includedJin'the loops either "at'the central. station-or outside. Thus each loop may hax e one o'r-m'ore engineehouses connected with it, and'in that case its responsive devices would all be closed-circuitdevices, such as those 'showna't'b.

Thus far I have described thecharging-circuits, the loop-circuits, and thebattery connection. The system would be operative with onlythese, 'for each loop would servefor the transmission of signals to its individual bell b b, &c. I will now describe the gong-circuit and the repeaters. B in Fig. 1 is any suitable electromechanical strokegong, which is arranged to work on a closed circuit and which is provided with a hammer H and clockwork mechanism for operating the same, normally held up against operation by the energization of a controlling-magnet. From the hammer H, I extend a link B into a box, preferably of cast metal, which I locate beside the gong in any suitable part of the room. This box and its arrangement of parts are best shown in Figs. 4 and 5. Referring to those figures, the link B extends through an orifice in the wall of the box and through the eye of a guide g. This eye is pivoted upon a small bridge g fastened to the back of the box, and its function is to give lateral play to the link B as the latter is swung by the hammer. Within the box a pair of springs q q are mounted upon a block of insulation (1 and are connected by wires 53 54 to suitable binding-posts. The spring q normally rests under considerable tension against a stop (1 and the spring q lies in the path of the end of the link B, so as to be pushed over and lift the twin spring from its support, thus making a good contact with it.

Returning to Fig.1, the springs q and q are connected in a local circuit, which containsa battery M, which may be composed of ordinary open-circuit cells, such as the Leclanch, and which also contains all of the relays R R 13 in series as follows: from battery Mby wire 49 to relay R, wire 50 to R wire 51 to R wire 52 to a switch g by which the circuit may be broken, if desired, and thence by wire 53 to spring q and from spring g by wire 54 back to the battery. When the springs q and q are forced together by the dropping of the hammer of the gong forastroke, all of these relays attract their armatures simultaneously, and each loop-circuit C, O,and 0 if in proper condition, will be broken for the moment, the bells b b b and such other bells as may be in the loops thus responding by giving one stroke, the same as the gong B. The circuit of the gong B, by which it is controlled, is by way of wire 31 to and through the loops O O 0, and O and wire 22 to and through the front stop and armatures of the relays R, R and R in series, and thence by the wire 38 to the galvanometer G and by the wire 37 to the switch and secondary battery P and by wire 34 to the set of switches L and thence by wire 32 back to the gong. With this arrangement if there is a break on any loop due to a signal the relay of that loop will release its armature and break the gong-circuit, thus giving the signal not only by the gong striking, but through the repeating-circuit 53 54, &c., to all the other loops. In Fig. 1, however, I have chosen to show the gongcircuit as switched out of the ordinary way by the switches at L These switches are part of a complete set extending across the face of the switchboard, of which there are three for each circuit, which I have lettered Z, Z, and Z for each group or for each loop. Of these Z and Z are the terminals of the loop wires 13 and 17 and normally rest upon contacts which connect these loop-wires through the magnet of the looprelay,as R,and through the armature and back-stop of the repeating relay, as B. This normal connection is shown in loop 0 at the left of Fig. 1. It will there be perceived that the switch Z has but one contact and that it is shown open. When closed, it short-circuits the contact 0* and the armature r of the relay B, so that the signals coming in from that loop will not affect the gong-circuit 22, &c. This position of the switch may be used when a test of the loop is desired or when for any reason the loop is placed out of service, as by a cross or short circuit.

When the switches Z and Z are thrown to the right, they break their loop-wires away from the normal connection to the relay and repeating magnet and throw them into connection directly with the gong-circuit. This condition is shown at the third set of switches L Here the loop-circuit coming from the boxes of the loop C is connected by the switch Z of the set L through wire to wire 38 at the point 61, thence to and through the gal- Vanometer and the rest of the gong-circuit by wires 31 and 22 and through the armature r and 1' by wire 62 to contact of switch Z, and thence by wire 17 to hell b galvonoineter G secondary battery at P and back onto the loop. The loop-circuit itself being thus united with and forming a part of the centraloffice gong-circuit, there is no necessity for a repeater nor for a loop-relay, and of course both of these are cutoff. All signals coming in over that loop affect the gong directly,

.while any other signals coming from other loops will affect the gong-circuit through their relays and inasmuch as the switched loop is a part of the gong-circuit will also affect it. This expedient may be resorted to when the relay or repeater of a loop is out of order, or if a repeater alone does not work the shortcircuiting switch Z would be used.

Included in the gong-circuit is a group of these switches, (indicated at L in Fig. 1.) In this roup when the upper pair of switches Z and Z are thrown to the left, as shown, they merely complete the circuit through a short wire 33. Then they are thrown to the right, however, they include a test-bell b in the gong-circuit. In using this bell for testing loops the short-circuiting switch to would be used to prevent the gong responding, which would of course repeat the test into all the loops. The switches Z Z Z and Z are also used to short circuit the loops 0, O, 0 and 0 so that the test-circuit will be past those loops by the switches and the wires 24, 25, 27, and 29 instead of by the wires 23, 26,

28, and so. The switch Z2 being thrown upon contact 40, it closes a short circuit through wires 39 and ll between the points 42 and 61 of the main-gong circuit, thus enabling tests of all the inside part of the circuit to be made with the switches Z Z thrown to the right without affecting any of the loops. During such a test loop-signals would come in on the bells b, b, and b coat,of wood or othersuitable material, mounted upon awall. 'Set out from this wainscoat a sufficient distance to permit-the passage of persons behind it is a frame having vertical members S S and horizontal members S S and S. This framing I preferably construct oftubular brass in short lengths connected by brass fittings. In this way a very flexible board is obtained, for by substitutinga T for an angle fitting at each upper corner I can add another panel when required. The vertical members are secured to the fioor by suitable fianges, and at their upper extremity horizontal members S connect the board with the wainscoat S. Theupper portion of the board consists of a panel 5, of wood, set into the frame and carrying a case siglazed in front and on the side and containing the relays R R B &c. The relays shown in Fig. 2 suffice for six loops, one of each pair being loop-relays and the others being repeating relays. The lid of the glazed case is hinged to permit of ready access to the relays for adjustment or repairs. Set into thepanel s below the box 5 is a fiber or ebonite' panel 8 carrying the groups of switches L L L 850.

This panel I secure by meansof a brass flange around it, which also serves to give it an ornamental appearance. The lower half of the board consists of a panel 3, of slate, carrying the switches P P, &c.

' this panel, upon brackets p, is a shelf 25, carrying the galvanoineters G G, &c. There are seven of these shown, six being for the loops and one for the gong-circuit. By constructing a switchboard in this way I attain at once three desirable ends-first, strength and durability; second, an ornamental appearance,

and, third, a possibility of aggregating the. parts or replacing any of them from the sup plies carried by any good electrical-supply dealer. No special apparatus is'required, the.

only extra work to be done after obtaining the parts and constructing the frame being to put in the relays into the glazed case, drill and fit the panels, and wire up.

In Fig. 3 I have not shown the wiring behind theboard, as it would convey no mean-' ing, as it shows in reality and would needlessly-complicate the drawing. It issuffi cientto say that the loop-wires and other circuit, cables and all, are brought up' or down onto the wainscoat S, where a suitable cross-connecting frame permits their arrange ment, from which suitable jumpers are car-- ried across by the members S of the frame Referring now to Figs. 2 and 3, S isa wains- Mounted just below .to the back of the board. The pilot-lamps I, I, and I are mounted'upon bracket-arms 'i, which extend over the front of the board. As. all of the construction back of the board is alien to my invention, I have not-shown this either.

I What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is-

1. In a fire-telegraph system a series of loops extending out from a central station and containing signal-sending and signalreceivin'g devices, a local circuit and responsive devices therein at the central office under the control of all the loops, a second local circuit and aseries of relays included therein controlling contacts in the various loops, and means whereby the responsive devices in the first local circuit may control the second localcircuit, substantiall-yas described. 1 v

2. In a fire-telegraph system a series of loops extending out from a central station, a

gong-circuit at the central station adapted to be controlled by all of the loops, a series of relays controlling contacts included 'in the loops, and themselves included in a local circuit, a gong in the gong-circuit, and mechanism controlled by said gong in its operation .to open and close the local relay-circuit, substantially as described.

3. In afire-telegraph system a series of loops, with signal-sending and signal-receiving in eansin each loop, a gong-circuit com mon toall of'the loops, and a series of relays ICO includedin the loops and controlling contacts in the gong-circuit; together with switching means for each loop whereby its relay may be disconnected and theloop'simultaneously brought into direct connection with the gongcircuit, substantially as described.

4. In a fire-telegraph system a series of loops, and a gong-circuit having one portion provided with contacts controlled'by relays in the loops, a normally-open shunt for said portion, and a normally-open contact with switches therefor and a test-bell adapted to and to a charging-circuit respectively and so arranged that one set of batteries may be connected to the signaling-circuits while its twin set isbeingcharged, the charging-circuit extending to the charging-switches in my hand, this 29th day of August, A. D. 1899, series, a short circuit or bridge across said in the'presenee of two witnesses.

ehar in -circuit and a relay therein therelay-e hnt acts being included inthe charging- RICHARD ALEXANDER SMITH 5 circuit between the relay itself and the charg- Witnesses:

ing-switches, substantially as described. CHAS. A. BRUCE,

. In testimony whereof I have hereunto set CORA V. GRIFFIN.

Images