Improvements in Manhole Covers.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 16th Nov., 1892
Complete Specification Left, 15th Aug., 1893-Accepted, 7th Oct., 1893
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Manhole Covers.
I WILLIAM WARNER Hope Drive The Park Nottingham Civil Engineer do
hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
:―
The object of this invention is to provide a better means of opening manhole
covers.
Manhole covers consist of frame and cover, which are built in brickwork and
roadway paving over sewers. When necessary to obtain entrance through the
manhole frame difficulty is experienced to remove the cover, it having become fast
by rust and dirt caused by traffic and the weather, and sometimes the covers are
broken in making them free to lift.
My invention consists in the construction of a manhole frame with one or more
openings in the top edge aud one or more corresponding openings in the manhole
cover. These openings are made sufficiently large to allow a crow-bar or pick
point to be inserted and the holes may be square or any shape to suit the bar used.
When the point of a crow-bar or pick is inserted into the openings in my
improved manhole and cover it is found easy to prize open the cover, the crow-bar
or pick forming a lever with its fulcrum on the edge of the frame near the point
inserted.
'
I thus provide a better means of opening them. These improvements may be
used in manhole covers and frames made square, round, oblong, or any shape, and
are also applicable when made of iron or any substance.
Dated this 14th day of November 1892.
WILLIAM WARNER.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Manhole Covers.
WILLIAM WARNER Hope Drive The Park Nottingham 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:-
The object of this invention is to provide a better means of opening manhole
covers.
I will describe my invention with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Figure 1, represents a manhole cover and frame in section, as placed over a
manhole in a roadway, showing the brickwork and paving, e represents the manhole
cover, the frame, g the brickwork, h the road paving.
Figure 2, represents a plan of a circular manhole cover and frame with hinge,
e represents the manhole cover, f the frame, the hinge, e represents openings
made in the edge of the frame, and illustrates part of my invention.
Figure 3, represents a section through a manhole cover & frame, showing details
of my invention. e represents a portion of a manhole cover in section through the
opening in the rim underneath, represents a portion of a frame in section,
showing the slot opening c in the edge. The openings c and d are made to come
nearly opposite each other when the cover is closed.
When the cover is about to be opened, a crowbar, pick, or other instrument is
passed through the slot opening c, into the hole d; the bottom of slot opening c
forming a fulcrum for levering the cover open.

page_text: When airtight covers are required, the hole may be closed at the back as shown
by dotted lines at k.
It is obvious that these improvements may be applied to all kinds and shapes of
manhole covers & frames, and it is also obvious that one or more openings of this
kind may be made in a cover and frame.
Having now particularly described. and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. A manhole cover & frame having one or more slot openings in the edge of the
frame, and one or more openings in the cover, as illustrated and described, and for
the purposes set forth..
Dated this 14th day of August. 1893.
WILLIAM WARNER.