Untitled record

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D. FITZGERALD.

FIRE-PROOF SAFE.

No. 174,129. Patented Feb. 29, 1876..

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N.PETERS, PHOTO-LITHOGRAPHER, WASHINGTON. 0. C.

United States Patent Office.

DANIEL FITZGERALD, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

IMPROVEMENT IN FIRE-PROOF SAFES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 174,129, dated February 29,1876; application filed

August 28, 1875.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Daniel Fitzgerald, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Protection of Safes and Valuables; and the following is a description thereof.

Fire-proof safes are constructed on the principle of resisting or repelling the heat by means of moisture emitted at the time of the fire from a filling provided for the purpose in the wall of the safe. Such fire-proof safes have hitherto consisted of a large receptacle or chamber for valuables, with the fireproofing material arranged around it iu a layer or stratum, and when exposed to excessive and long-continued heat, aud even by the lapse of time, are liable to be dried out, the filling or fireproofing losing its capacity to act. The necessary result is, that in an entensive conflagration they must be consumed with their contents.

The object of my invention is to afford a greater security for valuables than is obtained in such safes, by insuring against the filling being dried out in the severest fires. I therefore reverse theprevious order of construction, and use a large body of fireproofing material, in combination with a small cavity or aperture, to receive the articles to be preserved. Such aperture is made in the form of a separate receptacle, connected with and fed by the large body of fireproofing; or there may be two or more large bodies or masses, the one made to communicate with and feed the other.

Referring to the annexed drawing, Figure 1 represents, in partial section, a portion of a building having my improvements introduced therein; and Fig. 2 is a horizontal section of one of the masses or bodies of filling in bulk, taken through the line x y of Fig. 1.

A represents a large body⁷ of fireproofing material, such as plaster-of-paris, alum, and clay, or other substance or substances capable of giving off moisture when attacked by heat. Said material is deposited within a room or inclosure having metal walls C. Immediately over, or otherwise arranged to com municate with, such depository is a like body of fireproofing, A', in an inclosure, B. The latter has an opening, D, in the center, and communicates with the mass A beneath. It also has small cavities 1 2, for the reception of valuables, accessible through the doors 3 4. The mass or body of material A' is represented in Fig. 2 as intersected by tbe line of a partition, C', tp fit it for the use of parties iu different apartments.

The body⁷ of fire - proof may itself be protected by solid masonry⁷ of brick, and by an interposed stratum of the fire-proof material I between the masonry and the metal wall B or 0. This applies to A or A'.

F is a safe receiver and protector, being essentially⁷ a recess or incasement, having nozzles or openings G communicating with the opening D. Such receiver is intended to take in a safe, as II, adapted thereto by having openings to receive the nozzles G. It also has a large body of fire-proof material massed in its back or other suitable place.

The safe-receiver F is adapted to admit of the removal of the safe of one tenant, and the insertion of that of· another. The masses A aud A' I also make portable, when desired.