IMPROVEMENTS IN SEWAGE TANKS, AND IN THE MEANS OF EFFECTING THE INTERMITTENT DISCHARGE OF LIQUID FROM THEM OR OTHER VESSELS BY SYPHONS
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Rogers Field, of No. 5, Cannon Row, West-
minster, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN SEWAGE TANKS, AND IN THE MEANS OF EFFECTING THE
INTERMITTENT DISCHARGE OF LIQUID FROM THEM OR OTHER VESSELS BY
SYPHONS."
Sealed the 11th January 1873, and dated the 11th November 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Rogers Field at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
11th November 1872.
I, ROGERS FIELD, of No. 5, Cannon Row, Westminster, in the County
of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN SEWAGE TANKS, AND IN THE MEANS OF EFFECTING THE
INTERMITTENT DISCHARGE OF LIQUID FROM THEM OR OTHER VESSELS BY SYPHONS,"
to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to the construction and working of vessels
fitted with syphons, whereby sewage or other liquid is collected and
discharged intermittently, means being provided when required of
trapping the supply pipes of such vessels. For this purpose I form a
vessel of iron, earthenware, or other suitable material, and when it is
used for sewage I place it by preference outside the house or building

page_text: to which it is appplied. I provide this vessel with a cover which may
be made moveable to give access for cleansing. This cover may have
through it a trapped opening for the admission of liquid to the vessel,
or the cover may be closed and the liquid may be supplied to the vessel
by a trapped pipe entering it. From the upper part of the vessel a
pipe may be led upwards for the escape of foul air, and may be carried
into a flue. The vessel is provided with a syphon, the one limb of
which has its mouth at a little distance from the bottom, leaving
below it when necessary space for solid matter deposited from the
liquid. A strainer may be provided to prevent solid matter from
entering the syphon.
The bend of the syphon is situated a little above the inside top of
the vessel, or the upper part of the vessel is formed with a contracted
area, so that a small quantity of liquid entering the vessel after the
level of the bend has been attained causes a considerable rise of liquid
in the syphon bend. The longer limb of the syphon is carried down
into a discharging trough, which may be fitted to the syphon limb in
such a manner that the trough can be turned round on it as on an axis,
so as to discharge the liquid in any desired direction. The mouth of
the limb extends downwards to near the bottom of the discharging
trough, and between this mouth and the outlet of the trough there is
a rib forming a weir which rises to about the level of the mouth
of the syphon. Through this weir there is a small passage which
preferably is a notch cut through the upper edge of the rib, forming a
narrower weir at a lower level.
Liquid flows into the vessel and is collected therein until it reaches
the level of the syphon bend, and during this time solid matter may be
deposited from it. An additional supply of liquid having to rise in a
contracted space overflows the bend and runs down the longer limb
into the discharge trough. If this additional supply be sufficient it
raises the level of the liquid in the discharge trough so as to seal the
mouth of the syphon, and then charges the syphon so as to bring it
into action, whereby the liquid is discharged from the vessel and over-
flows the wider weir. If the additional supply be insufficient to fully
charge the syphon it runs away over the narrower weir leaving the
discharge mounth of the syphon unsealed, whereby any partial action of
the syphon is stopped.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Rogers Field in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the Sth May 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROGERS
FIELD, of No. 5, Cannon Row, Westminster, in the County of Middle-
sex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most. Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in
the thirty-sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Rogers Field, Her
special license that I, the said Rogers Field, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as 1, the said Rogers Field,
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, excrcise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention
for IMPROVEMENTS
<<
IN SEWAGE TANKS, AND IN THE MEANS OF EFFECTING
THE INTERMITTENT DISCHARGE OF LIQUID FROM THEM OR OTHER VESSELS BY
SYPHONS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Rogers
Field, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my, or their, or one of their hands and scals, 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 Rogers Field, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, reference being had to the accompanying
Sheet of Drawings, and to the figures and letters marked thereon,
that is to say :-
This Invention relates to the construction and working of vessels
fitted with syphons, whereby sewage or other liquid is collected and
discharged intermittently, means being provided when required of

page_text: trapping the supply pipes of such vessels. For this purpose I form a
vessel of iron, carthenware, or other suitable material, and when it is
used for sewage I place it by preference outside the house or building
to which it is applied. I provide this vessel with a cover which may
be made moveable to give access for cleansing. This cover may have
through it a trapped opening for the admission of liquid to the vessel,
or the cover may be closed and the liquid may be supplied to the vessel
by a trapped pipe entering it. From the upper part of the vessel a
pipe may be led upwards for the escape of foul air, and may be carried
into a flue. The vessel is provided with a syphon, the one limb of
which has its mouth at a little distance from the bottom, leaving below
it when necessary space for solid matter deposited from the liquid.
A strainer may be provided to prevent solid matter from entering the
syphon.
The bend of the syphon is situated a little above the inside top of
the vessel, or the upper part of the vessel is formed with a contracted
area, so that a small quantity of liquid entering the vessel after the
level of the bend has been attained causes a considerable rise of liquid
in the syphon bend. The longer limb of the syphon is carried down
into a discharging trough, which may be fitted to the syphon limb
in such a manner that the trough can be turned round on it as on an
axis, so as to discharge the liquid in any desired direction. The mouth
of the limb extends downwards to near the bottom of the discharging
trough, and between this mouth and the outlet of the trough there is
a rib forming a weir which rises to about the level of the mouth of the
syphon. Through this weir there is a small passage which preferably is
a notch cut through the upper edge of the rib, forming a narrower weir
at a lower level.
Liquid flows into the vessel and is collected therein until it reaches
the level of the syphon bend, and during this time solid matter may
be deposited from it. An additional supply of liquid having to rise
in a contracted space overflows the bend and runs down the longer
limb into the discharge trough. If this additional supply be sufficient it
raises the level of the liquid in the discharge trough so as to seal the
mouth of the syphon, and then charges the syphon so as to bring it
into action, whereby the liquid is discharged from the vessel and over-
flows the wider weir. If the additional supply be insufficient to fully
charge the syphon it runs away over the narrower weir leaving the

page_text: Fig. 1 represents a vertical section, and Fig. 2 a plan of a syphon
sewage tank constructed and arranged according to this Invention, and
Fig. 4 represents a vertical section of a modified arrangement of such
tank.
A is the tank provided with a cover B which can be removed as
occasion may require to give access for cleansing.
A sink C may
be fixed to or made in one piece with the cover B, and its pipe provided
with a bend D to act as a trap, as shewn in Fig. 1. Or the tank may
be supplied by a pipe E carried down so as to dip into the liquid
at its lowest level, or by a side pipe E', as shewn in Fig. 4. The
inlet pipes may be trapped as shewn in Figs. 1 and 4, or in any
other known manner. The cover B is made to close the tank air-
tight so as to prevent the escape of effluvia, and an air pipe F may
be connected to the tank, by which effluvia escaping from its contents
may be carried to a flue or other discharge. A perforated diaphragm
G is placed within the tank to act as a strainer, preventing the
larger fragments of solid matter from entering and choking the
syphon H.
It will be seen by the Figures that the bend of this syphon reaches
a little above the top of the tank. When the tank has been filled up
to the top a small additional supply of liquid, as it can only risc in the
contracted area of the pipes D, E, or E', and of the syphon pipe, serves
to fill the latter up to its bend and overflows the same, whereby the
longer limb of the syphon outside the tank becomes charged. This
exterior limb enters a discharging trough K, of which a transverse
section is shewn in Fig. 3. This trough is by preference made to turn
round the limb of the syphon as an axis, so that its mouth may be
directed as may be required for discharge, as indicated by the dotted
lines K' in Fig. 2, and it is made with a cover which can be removed
to give access for cleansing. Across the trough K is formed a weir L
rising to about the level of the mouth of the syphon limb, and in this
weir is cut a notch M forming a smaller weir a little below the said
level. These weirs acting in combination with the clevation of the
syphon bend above the top of the tank have the effect of causing

page_text: the syphon to be charged and to come into operation for emptying the
tank, when after the tank has been filled a sufficient quantity of fluid
runs in to fill the outer limb of the syphon, but they prevent a partial
action of the syphou in the manner described above.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I claim,--
First. The combination in syphon tanks of a syphon bend rising above
the top of the tank, with weirs arranged at the discharging mouth of
the syphon, substantially in the manner and for the purpose herein
described.
Second. The construction of syphon sewage tanks with trapped
supply pipes, and a strainer in combination with a syphon and
discharging weirs such as are above referred to, substantially as herein
described.
Third. The construction and arrangement of a discharging trough
provided with weirs such as are above referred to, and capable of being
turned round so as to vary the direction of discharge from syphon
tanks, substantially as herein described.
In witness whereof, I the said Rogers Field, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Sixth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three.