Fire alarm deterrent

• US 4,081,796 A
• Filed: 05/10/1977
• Issued: 03/28/1978
• Est. Priority Date: 05/10/1977
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Prymas M. Tabron
• Original Assignee: Prymas M. Tabron
• Inventors: Tabron, Prymas M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hall, George T.
• Application Number:
  US05/795,646
• Time in Patent Office: 322 Days
• Field of Search: 220/18, 220/3.8, 174/66, 174/67, 340/287, 340/304
• US Class Current: 340/304
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/12 Manually actuated calamity alarm transmitting arrangements emergency non-personal manually actuated alarm, activators, e.g. details of alarm push buttons mounted on an infrastructure

Abstract

A housing for fire alarm boxes which positively marks a person turning in an alarm, frustrates attempts to use a hook or other tool in place of the hand for actuating an alarm, and which permits rapid actuation of the alarm but slows withdrawal of the hand from the housing; the housing forms an enclosure around and below an alarm box large enough for access of a hand upward from the bottom; a dye-covered resilient door at the bottom affixed to the front of the housing extending up and toward the bottom of the fire alarm box guards the access to the alarm, and must be deflected upwardly forcefully by a hand reaching for the alarm; withdrawal of the hand requires simultaneously a slow twisting of the hand to free it from the edge of the resilient door; the twisting covers all parts of the hand with dye so that evidence of turning in the alarm cannot be concealed short of concealing the entire hand.

Claims

1. In a guard against false alarms employing a housing for covering a fire alarm box and having dye associated with a portion thereof for marking the hand of a person sounding an alarm, the improvement comprising:

the housing having structure, including a front wall, proportioned for forming an enclosure around a fire alarm box with the front wall spaced out a distance permitting manual access for fire alarm sounding, said structure defining an opening in the housing bottom;

a door having a free edge, the door resiliently affixed across said opening with the free edge at an upwardly inclined angle, the door proportioned for requiring an upward deflection of the free edge to produce manual access for fire alarm sounding, said resilient affixing of the door requiring sufficient force for said upward deflection for causing the free edge to produce a painful pressure on the hand of a person withdrawing a hand from the housing unless the hand is twisted during withdrawal, and the dye being applied adjacent the free edge of the door in position for spreading on a hand being twisted.

2. In a guard as recited in claim 1, said door filling the width of the opening and said affixation being at the lower portion of the front wall.

3. In a guard as recited in claim 2, the door being integral with the front wall.

4. In a guard as recited in claim 2, the door being proportioned for overlapping a fire alarm box in bottom plan view when undeflected.

5. In a guard as recited in claim 4, a pair of flanges for supporting the guard, and top structure proportioned for preventing access to a fire alarm box.