IMPROVEMENTS IN INTERMITTENT SIPHONS
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Thomas Bean, of No. 5, Cannon Row,
Westminster, in the County of Middlesex, for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN INTERMITTENT SIPHONS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Thomas Bean at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 5th August 1881.
ALEXANDER THOMAS BEAN, of No. 5, Cannon Row, Westminster, in the County
of Middlesex. "IMPROVEMENTS IN INTERMITTENT SIPHONS."
My Invention relates to siphons employed for occasional discharge of measured
quantities of liquid,.as for flushing water closets, drains, and other purposes, and
my improvements have for their object to simplify the construction and facilitate
the action of such siphons. For this purpose I make the siphon of the annular
kind, consisting of a stationary central tube open at the top and connected at the
bottom to the flushing pipe, this tube being enclosed within a hood or dome open
at the bottom and of such diameter as not only to provide adequate annular area
for passage of liquid around the central tube, but also to contain a volume of liquid
sufficient for charging the descending limb of the siphon so as to start its action.
Instead of making the central tube of uniform diameter throughout its length, I
make it in the form of the vena contracta, that is to say, tapering inwards from
the mouth some distance downwards to a smaller diameter, and then for a greater
distance tapering outwards to its full diameter. By adopting this form the charging
of the siphon is greatly facilitated. On the exterior of the discharging tube I fix
a disc which nearly fits the interior of the annular hood. I attach this hood to a
lever with suitable counterbalance, so that it can be lowered by hand when it is
required to start the siphon, whereupon the liquid contained in the hood above the
stationary disc is displaced and is caused to flow into the descending limb of the
siphon, starting it into action. The hood thus descending rests against a fixed stop
with its mouth clear from the bottom of the cistern in which it is mounted, and
when it is in this position an enlargement provided in the hood coincides with the
edge of the disc, this enlargement giving sufficient area of passage for liquid around
the edge of the disc. According to a modified form I make the hood with an
inwardly projecting lip or flange at its bottom, this flange nearly but not quite
closely fitting the exterior of the stationary central tube throughout the greater
part of its length. When the hood is in its lowest position its flange coincides with
a recessed portion of the tube, giving sufficient annular area for passage of liquid
between the tube and the inner edge of the flange.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Alexander Thomas Bean in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
24th January 1882.
ALEXANDER THOMAS BEAN, of No. 5, Cannon Row, Westminster, in the County
of Middlesex. "IMPROVEMENTS IN INTERMITTENT SIPHONS."
My Invention relates to siphons employed for occasional discharge of measured
quantities of liquid, as for flushing water closets, drains, and other purposes, and
my improvements have for their object to simplify the construction and facilitate
the action of such siphons. For this purpose I make the siphon of the annular
kind, consisting of a stationary central tube open at the top and connected at the
bottom to the flushing pipe, this tube being enclosed within a hood or dome, open
at the bottom and of such diameter as not only to provide adequate annular area
for passage of liquid around the central tube, but also to contain a volume of liquid
sufficient for charging the descending limb of the siphon so as to start its action.
Instead of making the central tube of uniform diameter throughout its length, I
make it in the form of the vena contracta, that is to say, tapering inwards from
the mouth some distance downwards to a smaller diameter, and then for a greater
distance tapering outwards to its full diameter. By adopting this form the charging
of the siphon is greatly facilitated. On the exterior of the discharging tube I fix
a disc which nearly fits the interior of the annular hood. I attach this hood to a
lever with suitable counterbalance, so that it can be lowered by hand when it is
required to start the siphon, whereupon the liquid contained in the hood above the
stationary disc is displaced and is caused to flow into the descending limb of the
siphon, starting it into action. The hood thus descending rests against a fixed stop
with its mouth clear from the bottom of the cistern in which it is mounted, and
when it is in this position an enlargement provided in the hood coincides with the
edge of the disc, this enlargement giving sufficient area of passage for liquid around
the edge of the disc. According to a modified form I make the bood with an
inwardly projecting lip or flange at its bottom, this flange nearly but not quite
closely fitting the exterior of the stationary central tube throughout the greater
part of its length. When the hood is in its lowest position its flange coincides with
a recessed portion of the tube, giving sufficient annular area for passage of liquid
between the tube and the inner edge of the flange.

page_text: making the hood A with the bulge G, shewn in Figs. 1 and 3, I sometimes make
it, as shown in Fig. 4, with an inwardly projecting lip or flange H at its bottom
nearly fitting a cylindrical casing I which forms an external extension of the pipe D.
At the bottom of this casing is formed a recess K, which facing the internal lip H
when the hood is lowered gives free passage for the water past it. A similar
arrangement is shown in Fig. 5 as applied to a bent siphon.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, I hereby declare that I make no general claim to the
use of a moveable hood in connection with a siphon for starting it into action, but
I claim in respect of intermittent siphons, the action of which is started by moving
a hood,―
First. The combination of the siphon pipe D and its flange E with the moveable
hood A having the bulge or enlargement Ġ, arranged and operating substantially
as herein described with reference to Figs. 1, 2, and 3 of the accompanying
Drawings.
Second. The combination of the siphon pipe D and its cylindrical external
extension I having the recess K. with the moveable hood A, arranged and operating
substantially as herein described with reference to Figs. 4 and 5.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Thomas Bean, bave hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty third day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and eighty two.