IMPROVEMENTS IN VALVES OR ADJUSTABLE THOROUGHFARES
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Rawlinson, of the City of Westminster, Civil
Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN VALVES OR ADJUSTABLE
THOROUGHFARES."
Sealed the 6th March 1855, and dated the 14th September 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Rawlinson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
14th September 1854.
I, ROBERT RAWLINSON, of the City of Westminster, Civil Engineer, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN VALVES
OR ADJUSTABLE THOROUGHFARES" to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to the arrangement and construction of buoyant ball
valves, more especially intended for drainage and sewerage works, particularly
in towns or localities-which are subject to the effects of tidal or flood water.
The ball or spherical mass, answering as the valve or thoroughfare door, may
be made of tin, glass, iron, copper, gutta percha, or other material, so as to be
buoyant in water. This ball is arranged inside a pipe or valve chest in such
a position and manner that when it is exposed to pressure from below, it rises
and presses with its upper side against a valve seating above, thus preventing
the passage of any liquid upwards. Under its modification as a "single-action

page_text: valve," the apparatus is arranged with its ball resting, when in its bottom
position, upon 3 or more brass pins, screwed or otherwise attached to the
inside of the valve casing, thus allowing of a clear waterway from above, down
past the ball. If arranged for ordinary cellar or street drainage, the valve
casing or its over-head pipe terminates in a perforated diaphragm or grating,
through which the surface drainage may freely pass and flow down to the
sewer beneath, past the ball as supported upon its pins. So long as the action
is simply that of liquid descent, no movement takes place in the apparatus
itself, but in any attempt at an upward return current, the presence of the
liquid will cause the ball at once to shut off the thoroughfare above. In the
double-action valve, the ball, disposed in a similar casing, rests upon a valve
seat in the casing beneath, and in this way it acts as a stench trap. When
water passes into the pipe or casing from above, the ball floats & permits the
liquid to pass off beneath it, and then settles down as before. Similiarly, the
influx of water from below carries the ball up against its upper valve seat
to prevent overflow above.
S
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Robert Rawlinson in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
12th March 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
RAWLINSON, of the City of Westminster, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the eighteenth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Robert Rawlinson, Her special license that I, the said Robert
Rawlinson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Robert Robertson, my executors, administrators, or 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, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "In-
PROVEMENTS IN VALVES OR ADJUSTABLE THOROUGHFARES," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Robert Rawlinson, by an instrument in
writing under my hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain

page_text: 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 Robert Rawlinson, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following state-
ment, reference being to the accompanying Drawings, and to the letters and
figures marked thereon, that is to say :-
My said Invention relates to the arrangement and construction of buoyant
ball valves, more especially intended for drainage and sewerage works,
particularly in towns or localities which are subject to the effects of tidal or
flood water. The ball or spherical mass, answering as the valve or thorough-
fare door, may be made of tin, glass, iron, copper, gutta percha, or other
material, so as to be buoyant in water. This ball is arranged inside a pipe or
valve chest in such a position and manner that when it is exposed to pressure
from below, it rises and presses with its upper side against a valve seating
above, thus preventing the passage of any liquid upwards through the pipe
or valve chest. When the ball is not acting by pressure from below, it will
rest upon a lower valve seating in the casing or valve chest, and in this way it
acts as a stench trap. When water flows into the pipe or casing from above,
the ball floats and permits the liquid to pass off beneath it, and then settles
down as before. Similarly, the influx of water from below carries the ball up
against its upper valve seat to prevent overflow above.
And in order that my said Invention may be more readily understood, I
shall now to describe and refer to the several Figures on the Sheet of Drawings
hereunto annexed.
Figure 1, on the accompanying Sheet of Drawings, represents an extended
side elevation, full size, of my improved tidal and drainage valve; Figure 2 is a
corresponding plan of the same; Figure 8 is a vertical section of the apparatus,
shewing the buoyant ball valve inside in an elevated position; Figure 4 is
a corresponding horizontal section of the same taken along the line 1, 2;
Figure 5 is a vertical section of the valve, taken at right angles to Figure 3,
and shewing the ball on its lower valve seat; and Figure 6 is a corresponding
sectional plan of the same taken along the line 3, 4. The same letters of
reference refer to the corresponding parts throughout the several Figures
herein-after described. The shell of the apparatus is made in three parts
A, B, & C; the upper portion A is in connection with the surface to be drained,
and is fitted with a perforated or other grating D; it is cast with two lugs

page_text: at E, E, and is secured by bolts to corresponding lugs on the upper portion of
the spherical or partially spherical valve chest or case B. This case is made
with an aperture sufficiently large to admit of the introduction of the buoyant
ball valve F, and when the same has been introduced therein, the case or
valvo chest is bolted at G, G, to the pipe C, which communicates with the
drain. A water-tight valve seating H, H', is formed at the upper and lower
apertures of the spherical valve chest B, by interposing a ring of vulcanized
india-rubber, leather, or any other suitable material between the junction
flanges, such packing rings being tightened up by the bolting together of the
parts to be joined.
When this valvo is subjected to pressure from below by the entrance of
tidal or flood water into the drains, as shewn by Figure 3 of the Drawings,
the buoyant ball F floats on the surface of the rising water in the spherical
chamber B, and is pressed against the upper valve seating H, which, being
water-tight, effectually prevents any water from rising up to the surface and
flooding the premises. As the flood or tidal water receeds again, the ball
valve gradually falls with it, and finally rests upon the lower valve seating H',
as shown in Figure 5 of the Drawings, in which position it acts as an effectual
stench trap, by closing up the mouth of the drain. This ball does not in any
way interfere with the surface drainage, for when a sufficient quantity of water
has entered the valve chest from above to float the ball, the escape aperture
will be opened by the rising of the ball, and the drainage water will flow
off, this action taking place periodically, or whenever a sufficient quantity
of water has accumulated in the valve chest to float the ball. As a small
quantity of water will always be left round the ball when in its lower
seating, it follows that the joint will be perfectly impervious to the noxious
gases in the drain, and consequently a most effectual stench trap will be
obtained.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried
into effect, I would observe, in conclusion, that I do not confine or restrict
myself to the preciso details or arrangements which I have had occasion to
describo or refer to, as many variations may be made therefrom without
deviating from the principles or main features of my said Invention; but
what I consider to be novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention
secured to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, is,-
First, the general construction and arrangement of valves or adjustable
thoroughfares, as herein-before described.
Second, the application and use of a single buoyant ball valve, for the

page_text: purposes herein-before described, in combination with an upper and lower
valve seating, as shewn in the Drawings.
Third, the application and use of the buoyant ball valve, herein-before
described, in conjunction with one upper seating only, when applied to
drainage and sewerage works for the purpose of preventing the overflow of
premises by flood and tidal waters.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Rawlinson, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Twenty-first day of February, One thousand
eight hundred and fifty-five.
ROBERT KAWLINSON. (LS.)