IMPROVEMENTS IN SELF-ACTING STEAM AND FLUID SAFETY GAUGES, THE SAID IMPROVEMENTS BEING APPLICABLE TO COCKS OR TAPS AND VALVES."
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Ambrose Coffey, Consulting Engineer, of
No. 32, Great Saint Helens, in the City of London, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN SELF-ACTING STEAM AND FLUID SAFETY GAUGES, THE
SAID IMPROVEMENTS BEING APPLICABLE TO COCKS OR TAPS AND VALVES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Ambrose Coffey
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 2nd March 1867.
I, JOHN AMBROSE COFFEY, Consulting Engineer, of No. 32, Great Saint
Helens, in the City of London, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SELF-ACTING STEAM AND FLUID SAFETY GAUGES,
THE SAID IMPROVEMENTS BEING APPLICABLE TO COCKS OR TAPS AND VALVES," to be
as follows:-
I construct the cocks or taps of self-acting steam and fluid safety gauges
leading from and to the boiler or other vessel to which the safety gauge is
applied in the following manner:-I form in the body of the key, plug,
or stopper a hollow part or valve chamber or chambers, with a seating or
seatings for a spindle or other valve or valves fitted free to work in the said
key, plug, or stopper, and by the said spindle or other valve or valves the
said hollow part, chamber or chambers, is or are subdivided into parts opened
into or shut off from each other by the aforesaid spindle or other valves

page_text: or valves. Two or more of these subdivisions should have openings into
them through the key, plug, or stopper for steam or fluid ways, and also
air or pressure openings if necessary. When in action this construction
keeps the valve or valves open, but when the glass or tube of the gauge
becomes broken, the pressure being then too great on one side, the valve or
valves, it or they, become closed. Upon turning the key, plug, or stopper,
so that the ways of the same are shut off, the action becomes identical with
that of an ordinary key, plug, or stopper; instead of the valve chamber or
chambers being situate in the key, plug, or stopper, it or they may be placed
in another part of the cock or tap, and be opened or shut by an ordinary or
suitable key, plug, or stopper. In cocks or taps of any description than those
used in gauges, similar arrangements to those described would be adopted.
The above arrangements are specially applicable to force or suction pump
valves by which an immediate control action is obtained.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Ambrose Coffey in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 2nd September 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
AMBROSE COFFEY, of 32, Great Saint Helens, in the City of London, Con-
sulting Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Second day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirtieth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her beirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
John Ambrose Coffey, Her special licence that I, the said John Ambrose
Coffey, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
John Ambrose Coffey, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN SELF-ACTING STEAM AND FLUID SAFETY GAUGES, THE SAID IMPROVEMENTS
REING APPLICABLE TO COCKS OR TAPS AND VALVES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said John Ambrose Coffey, my executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their bands and
scals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention,

page_text: and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to
be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Ambrose Coffey, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
forined, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
upon
This Invention consists in improvements in self-acting steam and fluid gauges
(such as Coffey's patent self-acting steam and liquid gauges) which so act that
upon the breaking of the glass tube of such gauges the steam, hot water, or
fluid will be immediately shut off, the arrangements for effecting which here-
tofore known or used, have been subject to the objection that when used for
marine boilers or under analogous circumstances, a liability existed of the valves
of such gauges closing without breakage of the glass tube, as for instance
the rolling of a vessel at sea or upon the vibration from the concussion
of a shot or shell upon the vessel, or in locomotives from the sudden stoppage
of the momentum, or in other engines from other causes. With the view to
provide a remedy for all these objections I adopt and use in lieu of the valves
arranged horizontally in the ducts between the cock and the boiler, a vertical
valve and seating in the interior of the cock or tap itself, that is to say, I
form in the body of the key, plug, or stopper of the cock or tap a seating
for an upright spindle valve, with the seating placed midway between the inlet
and outlet of the gauge cock before mentioned, so as to effectually stop or open
the communication between the interior and exterior of the boiler or vessel
having pressure upon it. This valve by its guides (the top and bottoni
spindles), for which due play must be provided, remains open by its own gravita-
tion under ordinary circumstances, but when the glass tube breaks the pressure
from the boiler or vessel is sufficient to close the same and shut off all external
communication. In vacuo by reversing the action of the valves it will be
obvious that the effect will be precisely the same from the external instead of
the internal pressure. Thus instead of using a solid key, plug, or stopper for
the cocks or taps of the said steam or liquid gauges I use a key, plug, or stopper
in the body of which is a hollow part or valve chamber or chambers which is
or are in direct communication with the inlet and outlet ducts, with a seating
or seatings for a spindle or other valve or valves fitted free to work in the said
key, plug, or stopper, and by the said spindle or other valve or valves the said
hollow part, chamber or chambers, is or are subdivided into parts opened into
or shut off from each other by the aforesaid spindle or other valve or valves.
Two or more of these subdivisions should have openings into them through

page_text: the key, plug, or stopper for the steam or fluid ways, and also air or pressure
openings if necesssary. When in action this construction keeps the valve or
valves open, but when the glass or tube of the gauge becomes broken, the
pressure being then too great on one side of the valve or valves, it or they
thereby become closed. Upon turning the key, plug, or stopper so that the
ways of the same are shut off, the action becomes identical with that of an
ordinary key, plug, or stopper. Instead of the valve chamber or chambers
being situate in the key, plug, or stopper, it or they may be placed in another
part of the cock or tap, and be opened or shut by an ordinary or suitable key,
plug, or stopper. In cocks or taps of any other description than those used in
gauges similar arrangements to those described would be adopted. The
above arrangements are specially applicable to force or suction pump valves
by which an immediate controllable action is obtained, that is, by two valves
on one spindle with two seatings in the same plug or key. The valves and
seatings of these cocks may be easily cleaned, as the plug or key may be easily
removed without letting in steam or other pressure, and replaced with the
greatest expedition. The Drawings illustrate the construction herein-before
described, and will be readily understood as the parts are named thereon.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that
I claim the improvements in steam and fluid gauges applicable to cocks, taps,
and valves herein-before described, but I do not claim the constituent parts
herein described, taken per se and apart from the purposes of my said
Invention as herein-before set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Amborse Coffey, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Second day of September, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven.
JOHN AMBROSE COFFEY. (L.S.)
Witness,
J. WILL. GAULEY,
Managing Director of the Inventors
Patent Right Association, Limited,
21, Cockspur Street,
Charing Cross,
London.

page_text: The top of the guage is precisely the same with the exception
that the stuffing box of the top portion points downwards as
usual and the small cock at bottom for cleaning glass tube &c.
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