IMPROVEMENTS IN DRAWING OFF LIQUIDS AND PREVENTING THE REFLUX OF SAME, OR OF GASES THROUGH PIPES, AND IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF AUTOMATIC TRAPS OR VALVES AND FITTINGS CONNECTED THERE WITH."
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Robert Meldrum at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 15th January 1878.
ROBERT MELDRUM, of Edinburgh, in the County of Mid Lothian, North Britain.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN DRAWING OFF LIQUIDS AND PREVENTING THE REFLUX OF
SAME, OR OF GASES THROUGH PIPES, AND IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF AUTOMATIC
TRAPS OR VALVES AND FITTINGS CONNECTED THERE WITH."
The purpose of this Invention is to supply an automatic or self-opening and
closing trap or valve for soil, drain, or other pipes, possessing all the qualities of the
water-lute tap or valve, quite elastic and self-cleansing by the flow of the liquid,
clean or foul, through it, yet perfectly free of the most serious drawback of the
water valve, namely, its awkward quality of frequently allowing gases to escape
backwards; and further, in providing a new or improved simple means of jointing
such pipes perfectly tight by simple, portable, and easily applied washers or sleeve
pieces of india-rubber or other elastic or flexible material.
And the first part of the Invention consists in the use of an india-rubber tube
(vulcanized or not, as may be found to suit best) properly tempered, and of the
necessary strength and elasticity to close of itself, preferably by having a spiral twist
or twists in its length, or it might be by a separate spring surrounding it, to make
a self-closing valve like a tobacco pouch (of this material) placed nearly perpen-
dicularly. But in horizontal or slightly inclined pipes or drains it may be used
without the twist, the pipes and drains in such case being specially prepared for it
by a slight kneed fall or break in the run or level; or in other words, give the tube
a nearly perpendicular bend or fall, so as to knee it upon itself, thus making it
perfectly close at this out-fall kneed end, which may be weighted at the extreme
end as found convenient. This trap may be short and fitted portably between two
lengths of the piping, and attached thereto by means of flanges and screws, or
clamp rings, or other equivalent node of making a fixed tight joint, either to flange
or faucet pipes; and it would matter little to its perfect working whether the pipe
so treated be perpendicular, inclined, or even horizontal; and it may or may not be
encased in the piping, having its inlet end only attached, and its outflow end left
loose, having a spiral twist, or left plain, as previously mentioned. And it may also
[Price 2dl

page_text: be used as a terminating discharge valve, pure and simple, terminating the end of a
pipe or otherwise, as stated.
This improved construction of trap is applicable to all such purposes as water-
closets, and soil or drain pipes from cisterns or houses, to which water-lute traps or
valves are applied at present, as well as for all mechanical valves at present used for
like purposes; and further, to all such purposes of liquid outflows which require a
ready egress and automatic or self-closing valve to prevent reflux either of gases or
liquids. This form of trap or valve may also be used in connection with, and as
forming part of the sectional ventilating drain hoods, for which Provisional Pro-
tection was granted to the Petitioner, dated 24th October 1877, No. 3935.
The new or improved mode and means of jointing these drain or other pipes
applies essentially to the spigot and faucet joints of pipes, and consists in making
these, where they enter or overlap each other, to form the joint, slightly tapered or
conical, with sufficient space between them, and with a hollow collar or shoulder
at the root of the spigot to overlap the extreme end of the-faucet, all for the inser-
tion of a thin sleeve pipe piece or collar made of vulcanized or native india-rubber,
gutta percha, or other equivalent elastic or flexible material, which, whether first
put on to the spiggot end, or into the faucet, makes a perfectly fluid-tight joint by
the mere tight insertion of the spiggot end, which turns the outer part of the thin
joint ring or sleeve round between the end of the faucet and spigot shoulder, all
without the use of screws or snugs, though these may be used, when desired, as
an additional security against the opening or separation of the parts at the joint.