IMPROVEMENTS IN VALVES FOR BARRELS, CASKS, OR SIMILAR VESSELS
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Robert Lake at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 19th February 1880. A communication
from abroad by C. G. Singer, of the United States of America.
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co., Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, London. "IMPROVEMENTS IN VALVES FOR BARRELS,
CASKS, OR SIMILAR VESSELS." [A communication from abroad by C. G. Singer,
of the United States of America.]
The object of this Invention is to provide simple and offective means for closing
the tap holes of barrels before the tap is applied to draw off the contents of the
barrel, and after the barrel is empty and the tap withdrawn, thus preventing rain
water or air from entering the barrel, which is a cause of much trouble and expense
to the manufacturer, as the inside of barrels thereby often become so sour or musty
that some weeks must clapse before they are in a fit condition for further use, and
sometimes the destruction of parts or the whole of the barrels is necessitated.
According to this Invention I employ spring flap valves in such a manner that
all objections to the use of valves for this purposo are fully overcome by clongating
the holes by means of which the flap is pivotted to the body of the valve, so that
as the flap is pushed away from the valve face by the end of the tap coming in
contact with its centre, when the tap is passed through the hole in the cask or
barrel head, it leaves the valve face in a parallel direction until the pivot rod
comes in contact with the ends of the clongated holes of the flap, which then
swings round on the rod to allow the end of the tap to slide beyond its face; on
withdrawing the tap from the cask or barrel the flap is closed by a spiral spring
surrounding the pivot rod, one end of which bears against the centre of its back,
and the other end bears against the body, thus swinging the flap round on the rod
as a fulcrum until it is in close proximity to the valve seat, when it is parallel
thereto and reaches all parts of the surface of the seat at the same time, thus
preventing the rubbing action that takes place between the flaps and valve seats of
all flap valves heretofore made, said rubbing action being due to the different
angular velocities of the various parts of the flap as they come in contact with the
scat.
To ensure a perfectly tight joint between the body of the valve and the barrel
head to which it is attached by screws, I provide it on the under side with two
concentric raised heads or projections between which the screw holes are placed,

page_text: said concentric raised projections pressing into the wood of the head or into an
india rubber washer which I generally place between them, thus preventing any
leakage between these surfaces.
In carrying the said Invention into practice I provide a valve whose body is a
flat ring, around the central hole of which is a raised seat, and it is provided with
two ears or lugs having holes in which a rod fits; these ears extend upward some
distance, the object of which will be hereafter described. This rod also passes
through elongated holes in two arms of the flap; the face of the flap is provided
with a disc of india rubber held thereto by a large round headed rivet, and it is
held against the valve seat by a spiral spring surrounding the rod between the ears
or lugs; one end of this spring rests against the edge of the body, and its other is
bent so as to bear against the back of the flap at its centre.
The body of the valve is secured to the head of a barrel concentric with the tap
hole by means of screws. On the under side of the body just outside and inside
the holes through which the screws pass are formed concentrically raised pro-
jections, which press into the wood (white lead or other suitable cement being
previously applied), or into the india rubber packing ring placed between the wood
and the body of the valve, and thus obviate any chance of leakage occurring at this
joint.
It is obvious that the holes in the arms of the flap instead of being elongated
may be made considerably larger, or of any shape providing there is considerable
space between the lower edge of the holes, and the underside of the rod, so that on
tapping a cask or barrel provided with this valve, the end of the tap after passing
through the tap hole and coming in contact with the round headed rivets of the
flap, pushes the flap away from the seat in a parallel direction thereto, which thus
leaves the seat without any rubbing action until the ends of the clongated or
enlarged holes in the arms come in contact with the rod, when it swings on the rod
as a fulcrum, the round head of the holding rivet allowing the end of the tap to
slide freely past it. The reverse action takes place when the tap is withdrawn from
the tap-hole.
The object of making the two ears or lugs on the body to extend upwards is to
provide stops to prevent the flap being moved back by accident, or otherwise, so
far as to set the spring, and thus cause it to imperfectly close the flap on to the
valve seat.
The tap-hole may be closed with a cork as usual when the barrel is filled, more
to ensure that the valve will not be pushed open from the outside than to prevent
leakage, which cork may be withdrawn from the hole before driving in the tap, or
may be driven into the barrel by the tap as is now gonerally done.