Improvements in Automatic Watering Apparatus for Cattle and other Live Stock.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 25th May, 1897-Accepted, 10th July,
1897
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Automatic Watering Apparatus for Cattle and
other Live Stock.
'
I, JOHN KIRKWOOD, of the Town of Lenox, in the County of Berkshire, in the State
of Massachusetts, United States of America, Mechanical 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 apparatus for supplying water to troughs for cattle, fowls,
and other live stock, the object being to ensure the water in the trough or troughs
being automatically maintained at a practically uniform level; the supply being
obtained from a suitable tank or reservoir which may be filled either by hand or from
a service-pipe, as convenience or circumstances inay dictate.
In the accompanying drawings, two embodiments of the invention are shown, one
adapted for watering cattle or horses, and the other a portable device for watering
fowls.
Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the apparatus as adapted for watering stock, and Fig. 2
is a section of one of the troughs on the line 2 in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a vertical mid-
section and Fig. 4 a plan of the apparatus adapted for watering fowls.
The construction illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2 will be first described.
A represents a hermetically closed supply tank for water, sufficiently elevated to
allow the water to flow therefrom to the trough or troughs by gravity. The water
may be supplied to this tank from a service-pipe a, controlled by an ordinary
ball-cock . This mode of supplying the tank is not, however, essential to my
invention. B is a trough to be supplied from the tank A. This trough may be of
any suitable shape and have any required dimensions. The water is supplied to the
trough from the tank by a pipe C, preferably controlled by a cock c. An air-pipe D
leads from the top of the tank A, above the high water-level therein, to the trough B,
extending down therein to about the level to which it is desired the water shall rise
in the trough.
The operation is as follows:-The tank A having been charged with water and
hermetically closed, the water flows to the trough B, rising therein until it seals the
pendent end d of the air-pipe D, whereupon the further flow of the water is arrested
owing to the admission of air to the tank (to replace water escaping therefrom) being
cut off. On the water level in the trough sinking sufficiently to unseal the pendent
end of the air-pipe, air will flow into the tank with the result that the deficiency of
water in the trough is made good; the flow ceasing as soon as the water again rises
high enough in the trough to seal the air-pipe.
Only one trough B has been described; but obviously any desired number may be
supplied from the tank A, one trough Bx being shown, which supplied from the
tank through the trough B by means of the pipe Cx. The water will rise and fall in
the trough B to the same extent that it rises and falls in trough B. Of course each
trough may be independent and have an independent air-pipe, and this may be
desirable in some locations; but where the troughs are arranged side by side, or in a
series, the construction shown in Fig. 1 will suffice. The troughs may be arranged
at any desired distance from the supply-tank A.

page_text: Figs. 3 and 4 illustrate a portable device or apparatus, operating on the same
principle as that already described, for supplying water to fowls.
In this construction, E represents a tank, preferably of cylindrical form, with a
conical top and provided with a pail-bandle F for carrying it. This tank is provided
at the top with a filling nozzle, which is closed hermetically by a screw-plug. About
the lower part of the tank is an annular trough G, secured to the tank, and in the
wall of the latter near its bottom is an outlet aperture g, through which the water
flows to supply the trough. This outlet is adapted to be closed by a slide g*, mounted
in suitable guides on the side of the tank..
An air-pipe H leads from the top or upper part of the tank E into the trough, its
lower end h descending to the water-level therein.
The operation is the same, in substance, as that described with reference to Fig. 1.
By removing the screw-plug e the tank may be filled with water, the outlet g being
closed during the filling by the slide g. The screw plug having been replaced and
the tank thereby hermetically closed, the apparatus is put in position in the chicken-
house or yard as desired, the slide g* is drawn up and the water allowed to flow to the
trough G. It will rise in the trough until it seals the end h of the air-pipe, and will
be maintained substantially at that level until the water in the tank E is exhausted.
The object in making the top of the tank E conical is to prevent the chickens or
other flowls from alighting on it.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this invention and
in what manner the same is to be performed, I claim :-
1. The improved means for automatically supplying water to drinking troughs and
maintaining same at a constant level arranged or operating substantially as described
with reference to the accompanying drawings.
2. An improved automatic watering apparatus for cattle or other live stock,
comprising a hermetically closed supply tank, an open trough adapted to be supplied
by gravity from said tanks, and an air-pipe extending from said supply tank from
above the high water-level therein to the trough; the open end of said pipe being so
disposed in the trough as to be sealed by the water in the trough on the predetermined
level therein being attained, substantially as set forth.
3. An improved automatic watering apparatus for cattle or other live stock,
comprising an elevated hermetically closed supply tank A, a trough B connected with
said tank by a cock-controlled supply-pipe C, and an air-pipe D, connecting the top
of the supply tank with the trough, the lower end d of the said air-pipe being situated
at about the predetermined water-level in the trough, whereby the rise of water in
the trough effects the sealing of the pipe d, substantially as set forth.
4. An improved automatic watering apparatus for poultry comprising a tank E
communicating with an annular trough G by means of a regulated opening g, and an
air-pipe H proceeding from the upper part of the tank and descending into the trough
to about the predetermined water-level therein; the tank being furnished at the top
with a filling nozzle and closing stopper e, substantially as set forth.
Dated this zoɔth day of May 1991.
For the Applicant,
G. G. M. HARDINGHAM,
191, Fleet Street, London, E.C., Chartered Patent Agent.