IMPROVEMENTS IN JOINTING AND LAYING PIPES IN SHIFTING SOILS OR UNDER WATER
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Harry Frank Stanley at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 15th March 1880.
HARRY FRANK STANLEY, of No. 2, Alfred Terrace, Gillespie Road, Highbury, in
the County of Middlesex. "IMPROVEMENTS IN JOINTING AND LAYING PIPES IN
SHIFTING SOILS OR UNDER WATER."
In laying iron pipes in trenches cut in shifting soils, such as running sand and
gravel containing water, or under water great difficulty is experienced in getting
them fixed down at their proper level in consequence of the soil and water running
into the trench from the sides as fast as it is taken out of the bottom. To overcome
this difficulty it is customary to shore up the sides of the trenches with timbers,
but this is very expensive and often ineffectual.
To provide for the more convenient fixing of the pipes I joint the pipes together
in the following manner :-
The socket end of the pipe is curved inside to the segment of a circle, and the
spigot end of the pipe is also made curved at its end so as to fit the curve of the
socket. The result is that the pipe has a ball and socket joint, which is a flexible
joint, so that when several pipes are put together they may be moved out of a
straight line to an angle with one another without disconnecting them or in any
way impairing the joint. To prevent one pipe from drawing out of the socket of
the next when so moved lugs are cast on two opposite sides of each end of the pipe
with bolt holes and bolts and nuts, the bolt holes being tapered to an elongated or
oval form towards the ends, which face one another so that the bolts may have
room to adjust themselves to the altered position of the pipe without binding on
the bolt holes; or for the same purpose a groove is made in the spigot end of the
pipe and filled in with lead or other suitable metal, and as the inside of the mouth-
of the socket is smaller than its middle part opposite the groove in the spigot the
metal packing will prevent the pipes from drawing away from each other whilst
the packing is securely retained in the groove; or the packing may be made in
segments of harder metal and be introduced into the groove after the pipes have
been put together, a recess being formed in the spigot end and in the inner face
of the socket to allow the pieces to be inserted, and when they have been inserted
the pieces can be prevented from escaping from the groove by giving a partial turn
to one pipe end within the other, so that the recesses shall not be opposite one
another when the pipe ends are bolted up together.

page_text: To make the joints tight they may be filled with yarn, or yarn and lead, and
caulked, or with any other suitable material in the ordinary manner.
In fixing these pipes, instead of excavating the trench down to its proper depth
and so laying the pipes at the bottom of it, the trenches are not excavated at all or
very partially, but the pipes are laid on the top of the ground and several joined
together, and with shovels, and picks, and hoes, and grafting tools, and other suitable
tools the soil is excavated along the sides of the pipes as near their bottom as.
possible, and as fast as the material is taken out the pipes sink by their own weight,
so that presently they get down to their proper level. Whatever movement takes
place in the ground caused by the presence of water, instead of filling the trench
up and so preventing the pipes from lowering, only assists the pipes in sinking by
their own weight. In fixing, the pipes being laid in a line, the last pipe laid has
its end kept up above the trench, so that the next pipe can be readily joined on to
it, and after this is done, by excavating under the joint just made the pipes are
lowered. Pipes jointed together in the above manner can also be laid under water,
being put together above the water level, and lowered down as they are coupled up
one to the other.