A Method and Apparatus for the Automatic and Continuous Watering of Plants in Pots or Vases.
Year: 1896

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
A Method and Apparatus for the Automatic and Continuous
Watering of Plants in Pots or Vases.
A communication from Dr. GIOVAN BATTISTA MARTINETTI, of Castiglione Fibocchi
(Prov. d'Arezzo), in the Kingdom of Italy)
I, ALFRED JULIUS BOULT of 111 Hatton Garden in the County of Middlesex,
Chartered Patent Agent do hereby declare the nature of this invention and
in what manner the same is to he performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement :-
The present invention relates to the watering of plants in pots or vases and has
for its object a new system and apparatus for automatic and continuous watering
by capillarity, the new apparatus consisting mainly of suitable means for conducting
by capillary action water from any reservoir to the earth surrounding the roots of
plants in pots or vases. In the example described and illustrated these means
consist of a diaphragm combined with a cylinder or tube arranged inside the
flower pot.
By this new system and apparatus a moderate, automatic continuous and uniformn
watering is attained which has the advantage of suppressing the trouble of every
day watering, of filtering the water for the purpose of removing substances and
animals injurious to the plants and finally the advantage of avoiding the excessive
washing off of earth produced by ordinary watering, whereby this earth loses many
of its fertilising components.
The invention is hereinafter described, and a practical application of it is
illustrated in the accompanying drawing in which
Fig. 1 represents a vertical section of a pot provided with a diaphragm and a
cylinder.
Fig. 2 is a plan of the diaphragm and
Figs. 3, 4 and 5 show in vertical section (and in plan as well in Fig. 3)
different constructions of the cylinder.
The pot or receptacle constructed according to the present invention, instead of
having a hole in the centre in the bottom, as is usual in ordinary flower pots, has
that hole D in its side wall, that is to say, laterally. The interior of the pot or
receptacle A is divided horizontally into two parts or chambers by a diaphragm B
slightly convex towards the top and placed above the hole D. In the middle of
this diaphragm in a suitable opening E is placed a cylinder C supported or
suspended on the diaphragm by means of an upper flange F, the diaphragm being
provided with preferably four equidistant notches at its circumference as shown in
Fig. 2.
In pots or vases having the shape of a truncated cone the diaphragm fits exactly
in consequence of gravity, to the inner walls of the pot, so that it seems to be of
one piece with the pot, whereas if the ve-sel be of cylindrical or other shape its
walls must be provided with continuous or interrupted projections or flanges or
brackets for supporting the diaphragm.
The diaphragms for use in large pots or vases could if necessary have two or
more cylinders in them.
The cylinder C which may be hollow or solid of clay or other porous material,
is of such diameter as to be easily introduced into the opening E till its top-
flange F (Figs. 1, 3, 4 and 5) which serves to support it, touches the diaphragm.
Its length, which is in proportion to the height of the chamber and of the pot,

page_text: for which it is to be used, is such that, when this cylinder is put in place, its
bottom is very near the bottom of the pot but does not touch it. Of course the
cylinder and the diaphragm may also be made in one piece. In the present
example they have been mentioned as made of clay or other porous material, but
they can be also made of any other material such as for instance, metal, glass,
glazed porcelain and so on. In such case the cylinder which can be solid when
made of porous material will have to be hollow and perforated with many small
holes in its lower part (as in Fig. 5) in order to enable porous matter to he
introduced into its cavity in order that the water passing through the small holes
may rise by capillarity to the top.
When the diaphragm and the cylinder have been put in place in the part (Fig. 1)
the latter will be divided into two chambers or compartments, the upper one receiving
the earth and the plant and the lower one I receiving water. The latter compart-
ment will be hereinafter termed the "water chamber." In earthenware pots and
in the pots made of permeable material such as for instance wood or the like, this
chamber will be made watertight by means of a suitable varnish, so that the water
contained therein does not ooze through.
Such a varnish is evidently superfluous in vases or pots made of impermeable
material such as for instance metals, glass, porcelain and the like.
If the conducting cylinder is hollow, its interior is filled with porous substances
which can produce capillary ascent of the water.
When it is desired to water the plant in the usual manner, the water poured out
on the earth contained in the chamber H of the pot will pass through said earth and
through the recesses or between the edges of the diaphragm and the walls of
the pot and enter into the inner or water chamber I of the pot.
In case when the pot, diaphragm and the cylinder are made of one piece-it
is desired to fill quickly the water chamber I, the water can be introduced through
the hole D, which may be plugged or not, according to requirements.
The working of the apparatus is very simple and easy to understand. The water
contained in the water chamber I rises in consequence of capillary action, in the
cylinder to the diaphragm thus supplying in a continuous and uniform manner
sufficient humidity to the roots of the plants placed in the earth in the chamber H
and evaporating at the surface of that earth after having passed through it from
one end to another.
The present invention may also be applied to an arrangement in which any desired
number of flower pots can be supplied with water from a single reservoir common
to all. In this case the lateral hole D as well as the water chamber I will be
dispensed with and the bottom of the pot or vase will serve as a diaphragm and will
be provided in the described manner with a cylinder or cylinders C dipping into
the water of the common reservoir, which latter can be supplied with water in
any suitable manner or may be replaced by a conduit with running water. The
working in this case also is substantially as described above for the prece ling eas
Finally always in accordance with the spirit of the present invention which is
based on the special quality of porous materials to conduct water-on their
capillarity the same result can be attained by means of a vase provided with a
diaphragm without a central opening and without the conducting cylinder. In such
case the capillary ascent of water from the water chamber I to the chamber H is
effected through the porosity of the material forming the inner walls of the pot or
vase, which walls must be necessarily varnished on the outside or made impermeable
in any other manner.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion as communicated to me by my foreign correspondent and in what manner the
same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is ;-
1. A new method of automatically and continuously watering flowers or plants
cultivated in puts or vases or other vessels based on and attained by means of the
capillarity of porous material placed between the vessel containing the earth and

page_text: the roots of the plant one one side and any reservoir of water on the other side
the reservoir being in one piece with or separate from the vessel substantially
as described.
2. For the practical application of the new method of automatic capillary watering
as per Claim 1 a diaphragm of strong material either porous or non-porous placed
in the interior of a pot vase or vessel for flowers or plants in such manner as to divide
said pot horizontally into two chambers or compartments, the upper one containing
the earth and the plant and the lower one or water chamber the water for watering
the diaphragm being provided on its circumference with notches and in case of a
water conducting cylinder being used with a central opening for the passage of the
latter substantially as described and illustrated in the accompanying drawing.
3. For practical application of the automatic capillary method of watering as
per Claim 1, a solid or hollow cylinder made of any porous material or a hollow
cylinder made of non-porous or varnished material filled in such case with porous
material and having its bottom perforated with small holes the said cylinder being
arranged and made so as to be capable of conducting by capillary action the water
from any reservoir to the earth contained in flower pots substantially as described
and illustrated in the accompanying drawing.
4. For practical application of the automatic capillary watering method claimed
in Claim I the combination in a pot vase or any vessel of any material for flowers
or plants of a diaphragm as per Claim 2 and of a cylinder or tube as per Claim 3,
so that the said cylinder the lower extremity of which is immersed in the water of
the water chamber passes with its upper end through an opening in the diaphragm
and is supported or suspended on the upper surface of the latter by means of a
flange or by some other means or is of a single piece with the diaphragm substan-
tially as described and illustrated in the accompanying drawing.
5. For the practical application of the automatic capillary watering method as
per Claim 1 a pot vase or other vessel for flowers or plants of any shape or
material characterised by the combination of a vase open at the top and closed at
the bottom with a diaphragm of any material provided with notches at its edge
and with an opening in the centre which diaphragm divides the vase or pot
horizontally into two parts or chambers the upper one containing the earth and
the plants and the lower one the water for watering introduced through a hole in
the side wall and a cylinder as per Claim 3 arranged by capillarity from the
reservoir to the chamber containing the earth the said vase diaphragm and cylinder
being either separate or in one piece substantially as described and illustrated in
the accompanying drawing.
6. In the application of the automatic capillary watering method as per Claim 1
a pot vase or other vessel for holding flowers or plants characterised by several
holes in its bottom or in its walls through which holes pass one or several cylinders
of the kind set forth in Claim 3 which dip with their lower ends in the water of
some reservoir or into a conduit of running water their purpose being to conduct
this water by capillarity into the earth surrounding the roots of the plant in the
pot substantially as described and illustrated in the accompanying drawing.
7. For the practical application of the automatic capillary watering method set
forth in Claim 1 a pot vase or other vessel for flowers or plants as per Claim 5
with the modification consisting in the conducting cylinder being dispensed with and
replaced by making the walls of the vase porous on the inside so that they conduct
by capillarity the water contained in the lower or water chamber these walls being
varnished or made impermeable on the outside in any other manner the diaphragm
baving no central hole in consequence of the absence of the conducting cylinder
substantially as described.
CT1000
BOULT & WADE,
Agents for the Applicant.