IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR REGULATING AND CONTROLLING THE SUPPLY OF WATER FOR DOMESTIC AND OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Morris, the younger, of Kent Water-
works, Deptford, in the County of Kent, Engineer, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR REGULATING AND CONTROLLING THE
SUPPLY OF WATER FOR DOMESTIC AND OTHER PURPOSES."
Scaled the 21st April 1871, and dated the 23rd February 1871.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Morris at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
23rd February 1871.
I, WILLIAM MORRIS, the younger, of Kent Waterworks, Deptford,
in the County of Kent, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR REGULATING AND CON-
TROLLING THE SUPPLY OF WATER FOR DOMESTIC AND OTHER PURPOSES," to be as
follows:-
This Invention relates to an improved construction of ball tap
O intended to be used in connection with waste preventing service boxes
for regulating or controlling the supply of water to waterclosets, urinals,
stand posts, and other purposes.

page_text: The object of the said improved construction is to reduce the liability
to injury of the seating of the said ball tap, and to simplify the
machinery or mechanism of waste preventing service boxes. For this
purpose it is proposed to make the seating moveable instead of fixed,
the said seat being either attached to a loose fitting disc, or to a flexible
diaphragm, or it may be formed on a sliding tube or otherwise arranged
so as to accomplish the same object.
This Invention further relates to another arrangement of apparatus
for preventing continuous waste of water (by controlling the flow thereof
and for ensuring the delivery of a regulated quantity and no more
at one operation.
This apparatus is also applicable to waterclosets, stand posts, and
other purposes, and consists of a sliding discharge pipe or nozzle
working partly inside a cylinder or water chamber communicating with
the supply pipe in combination with a moveable seating or valve; the
seating or valve being attached either to a loose or to a tight fitting
piston, or to a flexible diaphragm inside the said cylinder or water
chamber. When a tight fitting piston or a diaphragm is employed one
or more perforations are to be made therein so as to permit the water
in the cylinder to pass from one side to the other of the piston or
diaphragm, the same result being thereby obtained as when a loose
fitting piston is employed.
In these modifications the discharge of water is limited or restrictod
to the time during which the valve or scating is moving or falling on
to the inuer mouth of the discharge tube, that is to say, during the
time the water is passing from one side to the other of the piston or
diaphragm.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Morris in the Great Scal Patent Office
on the 23rd August, 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
MORRIS, the younger, of Kent Waterworks, Deptford, in the County of
Kent, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing dato the Twenty-third day of February, in the

page_text: .
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the
thirty-fourth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said William Morris, the younger,
Her special license that I, the said William Morris, the younger, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
William Morris, the younger, 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 "INPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR REGULATING
AND CONTROLLING THE SUPPLY OF WATER FOR DOMESTIC AND OTHER PURPOSES,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Morris,
the younger, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my hand and scal, should particularly describe and
ascertain the nature of the said Invention, 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 William Morris, the younger, do
hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement reference being had to the accom-
panying Drawings, and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that
is to say) :-
My said Invention relates to an improved construction of ball tap
intended to be used in connection with waste preventing service boxes
for regulating or controlling the supply of water to waterclosets, urinals,
standposts, and other purposes.
The object of the said improved construction of ball tap is to reduce
the liability to injury of the seating thereof, and to simplify the
machinery or mechanism of waste preventing service boxes by dis-
pensing with the spring between the ball lever and the spindle of the
closet valve, hitherto required in this class of apparatus. For this
purpose it is proposed to make the scating moveable instead of fixed,
the said scat being either attached to a loose fitting disc or to a flexible
diaphragm, or formed on a sliding tube, or otherwise arranged, so as to
accomplish the same object.

page_text: This Invention further relates to a slightly modified arrangement of
apparatus for preventing continuous waste of water (by controlling the
flow thereof) and for ensuring the delivery of a regulated quantity, and
no more, at one operation.
This apparatus is also applicable to waterclosets, stand posts, and
other purposes, and consists of a sliding discharge pipe or nozzle working
partly inside a cylinder or water chamber communicating with tho
supply pipe in combination with a moveable seating or valve, the seating
or valve being attached either to a loose or to a tight fitting piston or
to a flexible diaphragm inside the said cylinder or water chamber.
When a tight fitting piston or a diaphragm is employed one or more
perforations are to be made therein, so as to permit the water in the
cylinder to pass from one side to the other of the piston or diaphragm,
the same result being thereby obtained as when a loose fitting piston is
employed.
In these modifications the discharge of water is limited or restricted
to the time during which the valve or seating is moving or falling into
the mouth of the discharge tube, that is to say, during the time the
water is passing from one side to the other of the piston or diaphragm.
And in order that my said Invention may be fully understood, I
shall now proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that
purpose shall refer to the several Figures on the annexed Sheet of
Drawings.
Figure 1 represents my improvements in ball taps. A is the service
box of a watercloset; B, the valve for flushing the closet, shewn open
or lifted in my Drawing; O is the valve spindle connected by the
links D with a lever E in connection with the pull of the closet. On
the top of the valve spindle at the point a and between the links D rests
the lever arm F of the ball or float G, the said lever arm working on a
fulcrum in the short link b, which couples it to the body of the ball
tap for supplying the service box with water. This peculiar tall tap
consists of a disc c litting loosely inside the cylinder d, and having its
under face covered with leather, india-rubber, or other suitable material
to form a valve seat; e is a sliding discharge tube jointed at its lower
end to the lever of the ball float, whilst its upper end, when the ball
tap is closed, as shown in my Drawing, bears against the moveable
scat c, this tube works through a leather packing in the lower end of
the cylinder d, the upper end of such cylinder being closed by the cap

page_text: or cover. The water from the main has free access to the back or top
of the valve or disc c, and the unbalanced pressure acting on the area of
the discharge tube e keeps the valve or disc c always tightly shut down
upon the top of the discharge tube in any position, as shewn, but when
the tap is opened by drawing down the top of the discharge tube below
the shoulder then the valve or disc c rests upon that shoulder whilst
the discharge takes place freely through the tube e into the service box.
When the proper level of water has been attained the float will close
the tap by lifting the top of the tube e against the disc or valve c. By
using a loose rising and falling valve or seat c the said seat is not so
liable to be injured or cut by the forcible pressure of the end of the
tube e against it produced by the lifting of the closet valve spindle C
and through it of the float lever F and tube e. Moreover the spring
which has hitherto been interposed at a between the float lever and the
closet valve spindle to allow of the latter lifting without lifting the float
lever is dispensed with.
Figures 2 and 3 are sectional clevations of another modification of
waste water preventer, which ensures the delivery of a given quantity
of water, and no more, at one operation. In both these Figures A is a
sliding discharge pipe working inside a cylinder or water chamber B
through a stuffing box C, and provided with a knob or handle 1) for
opening and closing the valve. E is, the service pipe which opens direct
into the cylinder B; and F is a loose or a tight fitting disc or piston
working in the upper or the lower part of the cylinder, as the case may
bc, and provided with a leather washer a to form a water-tight valve
or seat for the end of the sliding discharge pipe A to close against.
When made tight-fitting one or more passages should be made
through the piston for the ready displacement of the water from one
side to the other thereof, but if made loose fitting then the water can
flow readily past the sides of the piston. This apparatus is represented
as closed, but in order to open it the pipe A' is to be suddenly drawn
down or pulled up, as in Figure 3, whereupon the disc or piston F
(Figure 2) will commence to descend more or less slowly according to
the amount of space left for the passage of the water to the upper side
of the said piston, during which time the discharge takes place through
the open pipe A and lateral apertures a', a', into the outlet pipe G. In
Figure 3 the handle or knob D is above the cock in this case. A spring
His inserted for the purpose of raising the disc or piston F, which in

page_text: Figure 2 falls by gravitation. When the valve reaches the bottom of
the cylinder or the end of the pipe A the discharge ceases, and the pipe A
and piston may be again returned to their normal positions in
readiness for the next discharge, the water which had gained access
to the one side of the piston being now displaced to the opposite side
again.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used
or carried into effect, I would observe in conclusion that what I con-
sider to be novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention
secured to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is-
First. The construction of ball taps with moveable gravitating scatings,
substantially as and for the purpose herein-before described.
Second. The combination in water waste preventers of a cylinder or
water chamber with a moveable valve working therein, and a sliding
discharge tube, operating together, substantially in the manner and for
the purpose herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Morris, the younger,
have to this my Specification, set my hand and scal, the Twenty-
first day of August, One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one.
WILLIAM MORRIS. (L.S.)