Improvements in or relating to the Cleansing and Disinfecting of Pipes or the like.
Year: 1893

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or relating to the Cleansing and Disinfecting of
Pipes or the like.
A communication from LARS PETER JENSEN, of Copenhagen, in the Kingdom of
Denmark, Painter.
I, ALFRED JULIUS BOULT of 323 High Holborn in the County of Middlesex,
Chartered Patent Agent, lo 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 an arrangement enabling discharge or waste-pipes of
sinks, wash-kitchens and the like to be effectively and thoroughly cleaned, even if
the inner walls of the pipes should not be quite smooth and straight.
The apparatus of which the accompanying drawing represents a sectional view,
consists of two cases b and c screwed on to a tube a and provided externally with
an annular groove.
Above the said tube an india-rubber or other elastic receptacle or pocket is
arranged, being retained in position and connected to the cases and c by cords,
wires or equivalent d. The receptacle e is surrounded or enveloped by a net of
any suitable strong material adapted to carry knobs or projections / preferably
serrated on their outer faces to act as scrapers, and brushes g made preferably
partly of hard and partly of soft hairs.
In use the apparatus is first partly filled with air or liquid through the tube a
and its extension b, to a sufficient extent to inflate it so as to occupy the whole
of the inner space of the pipe to be cleaned; after which it is only necessary to move
the device backwards and forwards. It will be readily understood that owing to
the internal pressure, the receptacle e will have its walls together with the scraping
knobs and brushes g, pressed against the inner surface of the pipe with sufficient
tightness to enable it, when worked to and fro to effect a thorough cleaning of
the interior of the pipe including any curves or recesses or unevennesses it may
contain.
The pressure within the flexible receptacle or balle need not necessarily be
always uniform, but may be adjusted according to requirements, so that the pressure
of the brushes and scrapers may be varied to suit the particular circumstances
of each case. This may be provided for, for example, by making a series of
perforations in the top casing b whereby part of the contents of the tube a forced
into the flexible receptacle through apertures such as j may be again forced into
the tube at k and ejected therefrom at h. For this purpose water or any other
cleansing or disinfecting liquid may conveniently be used, so that it assists in
cleaning the waste-pipe, while at the same time it serves to vary or control the
pressure with which the cleaning-device is applied to the walls of the pipe to be
cleaned; such incidental flushing of the pipes with disinfecting agents being
obviously in itself a most desirable sanitary improvement in certain cases.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this said
invention 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 :-
A cleaning and disinfecting apparatus for waste-pipes or the like, mainly
consisting of an elastic receptacle, pocket or ball enveloped externally in a net of
any suitable strong material, carrying a number of scraping heads or knobs and
brushes which, when the ball e is inflated by air, gas or liquid are pressed outwardly
against the inner walls of the pipe to be cleaned fitting any unevennesses recesses
or curves therein while apertures such as ik and h may be provided to enable the

page_text: pipe which is being scraped to be at the same time flushed and disinfected
substantially as described and illustrated in the accompanying drawing.
Dated this 30th day of March 1893.
W. P. THOMPSON & BOULT,
Agents for the Applicant.