IMPROVEMENTS IN SEWER
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Robert Benjamin Cole at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 5th October 1877.
ROBERT BENJAMIN COLE, of Nile Street, Hoxton.
OR DRAIN TRAPS."
"IMPROVEMENTS IN SEWER
The object of this Invention is to provide means for the complete prevention of
sickness, and of damage to property which now sometimes arises from the overflow
of sewage from the drains into streets and the basements of houses and other places.
Also to prevent the escape of noxious smells from drains.
For this purpose in applying my Invention to street sewers or drains, I do not
necessarily alter the appearance, as seen from the street, of the gratings at present in
use, but I make a box or casing, say, about twelve inches deed, of which the grating
is the top, the four vertical sides being closed, and the bottom is provided with a
circular aperture, round which at its under side I attach an elastic ring of india-rubber
or other suitable substance.
To the bottom of the casing and clear of the circular aperture, I attach some
light open wire work, or a wire cage leading down vertically any suitable depth
into the drain. Within the cage I place a spherical float made of sheet metal,
india-rubber, or any suitable substance. The casing is made with a rim projecting
horizontally from the outside of its bottom edges, by which it is held firmly in its
position by the superincumbent roadway. The bottom of the casing may be made
to slope downwards, so that the sewage from the street may more readily flow down
through the circular aperture in the bottom of the casing.
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The action of the apparatus is as follows:-When the sewage rises in the drain
its overflow into the street is prevented by the spherical float, which is carried
upwards by the rising sewage until it fits into its elastic seating at the bottom of
the casing, thus preventing the further rising of the sewage, and the overflow of the
same into the street, as also the escape of pestilential effluvia.
By a slight modification of the above method my Invention may be applied to the
prevention of overflow from waterclosets, for which purpose I make the pipe
leading downwards from the pan, with a recess at the side, large enough to hold a
spherical float which beds against a circular aperture a little below the bottom of
the pan. A couple of wire or metal rods cross the pipe from the bottom of the
CD..
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page_text: recess, which rods prevent the float from falling down the pipe. The top and bottom
of the recess and the wire rods slope in an upright direction so as to facilitate the
action of the float.
When the sewage rises in the pipe, on reaching the level of the recess, the spherical
float floats upwards out of the recess to the circular aperture and seating, thus
preventing the further upward flow of the sewage.
For the prevention of noxious effluvia from yard drains, I make a circular
aperture in the iron, stone, or other drain plate, immediately underneath which I
place I box, open at the top, and having one of its four sides cut down a little lower
than the other three, at which height the water level is constant. In the box I
place a spherical float which the water in the box causes to press upwards against
the aperture in the drain plate or flag, thus preventing the escape of noxious
smells.
When water is poured into the drain, the spherical float gives way so as to allow
it to pass down and over lowest of the sides of the box into the sewer.