Improvements in Traps for Drains or the like.
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 19th Feb., 1898-Accepted, 19th Mar., 1898
Improvements in Traps for Drains or the like.
A communication by HIRAM THOMAS BUSH, of 825, Jefferson Avenue, Detroit, in
the County of Wayne and State of Michigan, United States of America,
Manufacturer.
I, WILLIAM PHILLIPS THOMPSON, F.C.S., M.I.M.E., of the Agency for Foreign
Patent Solicitors, 6, Lord Street, Liverpool, and 6, Bank Street, Manchester, both
in the County of Lancaster, 118, New Street, Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, and 322, High Holborn, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do
hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement
This invention relates to traps of that class which are to be used where it is
impossible or undesirable to ventilate the trap; and its especial object is to
produce a trap from which all the seal water shall be emptied, and fresh supply of
seal water introduced at every time the trap is used; and also to produce a trap
from which it is impossible to siphon out the seal water.
In the drawings,
Figure 1 shows the trap in sectional elevation.
Figure 2 shows it in horizontal cross section at the line x-x of Figure 1.
A indicates the body of the trap, which is a closed vessel provided with screw
closed openings at the top and bottom.
C indicates the waste pipe, which emerges from the trap at a distance above the
bottom of the vessel A, its particular location being such that the space above it
and the space below bear certain proportions, which will be further pointed out in
the specification.
D indicates the inlet pipe, the mouth of which, opening into the vessel A, is
arranged as nearly as possible tangential thereto, and as near the bottom as
practicable (as indicated in Figure 2), so that the water entering the vessel A
through the pipe D impinges against the contained seal water at its edge, and
produces rotary motion in the seal water, which continues to the surface thereof
and causes whatever solids there may be in the trap to be carried by the rapidly
circulating water upward and over the edge of the trap into the waste pipe C.
In the vessel A, at an elevation above the inlet into the pipe C, is an air space B,
which of course is generally empty or filled with air only, but which is of a
capacity to receive and hold a mass of water sufficient to more than fill the space B¹,
at the bottom of the vessel A; which space B¹ is that below the upper edge that
bounds the inlet mouth, leading from the pipe D into the vessel A. The vertical
distance from the normal surface of water in the trap (that is, from the lower
edge of the outlet into the pipe C) to the upper edge of the inlet-mouth from the
pipe D, should be equal or substantially equal to the horizontal diameter of the
vessel A, and the volume of the space B, as heretofore described, should be equal
to the volume, or somewhat in excess of the volume of the space B¹.
The tangential connection between the inlet pipe and the vessel A, tends to
produce a rapid rotary motion of the water, and carries out from the trap anything

page_text: which may be contained therein; even pieces of metal of considerable size will be
lifted and carried over into the outlet; and should there be any tendency at any
time to empty the trap by siphonage, enough water will accumulate in the space B
to fill the trap to the upper edge of the inlet pipe D; the accumulated water will
be held in the space B until the siphon breaks, and will then drop down and reseal
the trap; and whenever water passes into and through the trap, the incoming
water first of all lifts the seal-water that was previously in the trap, and the old
seal-water passes off through the waste pipe, leaving a fresh quantity of seal water
therein.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me
by my foreign correspondent, I declare that what I claim is :-
A trap consisting of a tight vessel provided with a tangential inlet, an outlet
located vertically higher than the inlet by a distance substantially equal to the
cross diameter of the vessel, and a chamber above the outlet having a capacity to
hold sufficient water to seal the trap, substantially as described.
Dated this 18th day
ebruary 1070.
WM. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
Agents.