IMPROVEMENTS IN VALVES FOR REDUCING OR REGULATING FLUID PRESSURE
Year: 1876

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Frederick Deacon, of Liverpool, in the County of
Lancaster, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN VALVES
FOR REDUCING OR REGULATING FLUID PRESSURE."
Sealed the 28th November 1876, and dated the 1st June 1876.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Frederick Deacon at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 1st June 1876.
GEORGE FREDERICK DEACON, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster,_Civil
Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN VALVES FOR REDUCING OR REGULATING FLUID
PRESSURE."
This Invention relates to improvements in valves for reducing or regulating the
pressure of water in water mains, and some parts of it are applicable to valves for
reducing the pressure of steam and other fluids.
The object to be attained is a valve of simple construction, which, however variable
the velocity of the fluid passing through it, and the initial or inlet pressure, will
reduce that pressure to any desired constant or nearly constant pressure, which I
term the resultant pressure, the effect of most reducing valves being to diminish the
initial variable pressure to a pressure varying more or less as the initial pressure
varies, or if they reduce the initial pressure to a nearly resultant pressure they do
so by more complex or costly means than are desirable, while they are generally so
constructed that when used for waterworks the wear is considerable, on account of
the large rubbing surfaces, between which grit or other foreign matter find its way
and creates friction.
I cause the resultant pressure to act upon a piston or rain capable of moving
longitudinally in a cylinder, and held against that pressure by a counter pressure,
which may be either a weight or a spring. The piston or ram is attached to a
balance valve, in such a manner that when the resultant pressure on the piston or
ram exceeds or falls short of the counter pressure the piston or ram tends respec-
tively to close or open the valve and thus to maintain the approximate constancy of
the resultant pressure. By this arrangement the initial pressure has little or no in-
fluence over the resultant pressure, which depends upon the relation between the
area of the piston or valve and the counter pressure.
The balanced or equilibrium valve has two seats of equal or nearly equal diameter,
between which the fluid enters, and unless there is some object in keeping the inlet
and outlet at the same level, I simplify the construction by enlarging the valve
[Price 6d.]

page_text: spindle and making it hollow, so that half the water entering around the spindle,
which may now be called a trunk, and passing one of the seats turns into the trunk
and issuing at the other end thereof joins the remaining half issuing from the valve
seat at the same end. With the same object in view of simplifying the apparatus I
may form the two valves in one casting, and insert them both through an opening 5
in one end of the valve casing, passing the first valve inserted through the seat of
the second valve, and at the same time avoiding the necessity of making the second
valve seat larger or much larger than the first by making a cylindrical projection on
the second valve enter the seat, which it should fit closly just before closing. The first
valve should evidently have upon it a similar cylindrical projection, fitting closely 1
to and entering the first soat to the same extent. If now the motion of the valvo
be stopped only by the first seat, or by some part independent of either seat, the
effective area of both valves may be made the same.
In order to be enabled to alter the resultant pressure to any desired amount, not
being greater than the initial pressure, the amount of counter pressure on the piston
is made capable of easy adjustment either by altering the amount of the weight or
the strength of the spring.
It is sometimes desirable, as for example in connection with water mains during
a fire, to restore the full pressure and afterwards to revert to the reduced pressure.
This object is attained either by applying the pressure of the water in the main on
the counter side of the piston, and thus causing the valve to open full, or by
screwing the valve open after the manner of an ordinary stop valve, or by tempo-
rarily increasing the counter weight or pressure of the spring, the reduced pressure
being reverted to by restoring the former conditions. Or I may attain the same
end automatically by making a connection between the counter side of the piston
or ram and the water in the main, such connection being controlled by a valve or
cock, which under ordinary conditions closes the passage, but allows the counter
side of the valve to communicate with the air.
When a fire takes place the valve, in order to maintain the resultant pressure at
the constant amount for which it has been set, opens much wider than under
ordinary conditions, and in so opening I cause some part connected with it to apply
an additional but temporary counter pressure by opening the communication
between the counter side of the piston and the water in the main, a small stream of
which flows through the cylinder in which the piston works, thereby producing
sufficient additional counter pressure upon the piston or ram to open the valve and
keep it full open until the excessive flow ceases and the resultaut pressure on tho
piston exceeds that of the normal and temporary counter pressure at which the valve
begins to close and to cut off the temporary counter pressure. This is the original
resultant pressure for which the valve is set restored.
Many reducing valves are liable to produce shocks when changes of velocity take
place, and such valves when used in connection with water mains are liable to cause
great damage. The shock generally takes place immediately after a diminished
flow and momentary increase of resultant pressure, when the momentum of the
valve and its connection causes it for an instant to close further than is necessary
to keep down the resultant pressure, and thus the flow is suddenly checked. All
valves, such as the mushroom valve, in which a small rise gives a largo waterway,
are subject to this, and where the objection has been overcome the mode adopted
has generally involved increased friction I retain the advantages of the mushroom
valve, and meet the difficulty by placing upon each valve a cylindrical projection of
such form that it contracts the waterway and causes it to increase in a less ratio
than the distance of the valve seat from the touching surface of the valve. Or the
same object may be attained by permitting the resultant pressure to reach the piston
or ram only after the water has been withdrawn in order to retard the opening and
closing of the valve. Or the device known as a cataract may be applied on the
counter side of the piston or ram, in such a manner as to prevent the valve from
moving quickly.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by tho
said George Frederick Deacon in the Great Scal Patent Office on the 1st
December 1876.
GEORGE FREDERICK DEACON, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Civil
Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN VALVES FOR REDUCING OR REGULATING FLUID
PRESSURE."
My said Invention relates to improvements in valves for reducing or regulating
the pressure of water in water mains, and some parts of it are applicable to valves
for reducing the pressure of steam and other fluids.
In order to effect my object I employ a valve of simple construction, which will
so act that while the velocity of the fluid passing through it may be variable, and
also the inlet pressure, which I call the initial pressure, may be variable the action
of the valve will reduce that pressure to any desired constant or nearly constant
pressure, which I term the resultant pressure.
The effect of most reducing valves is to diminish the initial variable pressure
to a pressure varying more or less as the initial pressure varies; or if they
reduce the initial pressure to a nearly constant resultant pressure they do so by
more complex or costly means than aro desirable, while they are generally so con-
structed that when used for waterworks the wear and friction are considerable, on
account of the large area of their rubbing surfaces, between which grit or other
foreign matter finds its way.
Further, when used in connection with waterworks they are most inconvenient
in case of fire, when the highest available pressure is required.
In the reducing valve constructed, as herein-after described, with my improve-
ments the resultant pressure acts upon a piston or ram capable of moving
longitudinally in a cylinder, and held against that pressure by a counterpressure,
which may be either a weight or a spring or other equivalent, which is usually
made to act at the end of a lever. The piston or ram is attached to a balanced
valve in such a manner that when the resultant pressure on the piston or ram falls
short of or exceeds the counterpressure, the piston or ram being no longer balanced,
tends respectively to open or close the valve, and thus to maintain the approximate
constancy of the resultant pressure. By this arrangement the initial pressure bas
little or no influence over the resultant pressure, which depends upon the relation
between the area of the piston or valve and the counterpressure.
In order that my Invention may be clearly understood I will proceed to describe,
by the aid of the annexed Drawings, the arrangement of such a valve, and how iny
improvements upon it may be carried into practical effect.
În Figure 1, for example, H is the piston or ram. In order to reduce the friction
to a minimum the use of a stuffing box or cup leather may be dispensed with, and
instead thereof grooves may be cut in the circumference of the piston or ram,
which, as is well known, have the effect of greatly retarding the flow of water,
which would otherwise take place between the piston or ram, and the cylinder J.
By this device, and by the use of the balanced valve hereafter described, the resist-
ance to motion is so greatly reduced that the moving power, that is the weight, may
be greatly reduced, and need not even be placed at the end of a lever, while the area
of the piston or ram the pressure of water upon which balances the weight may be
reduced in like proportion. It may however be sometimes desirable to use a cup
leather or stuffing box; and my Invention, as hereafter described, is equally
applicable in such a case.
The kind of balance valve to which I apply my Invention is an equilibrium valve
of that kind frequently known as a double beat valve. Ordinarily this valve
consists of two discs or valves of the kind known as mushroom valves connected
and kept apart by an axial spindle. These discs or valves close upon circular
openings provided with valve seats in two opposite sides of a chamber. The fluid
enters between them and finds egress through the holes when the valves are moved

page_text: •
from them. In this arrangement it is clearly necessary to bring the two streams
which issue at opposite sides of the chamber together again. To avoid the more
or less complicated casing which this involves, and in order to stiffen the connection
between the two valves, which unless rigidly connected do not work well together,
and generally to simplify the construction I enlarge the spindle, make it hollow,
and term it a trunk. The whole double valve may then be conveniently cast in one
piece, as shown at Figure 1, where A, A, is the inlet or initial pressure chamber; BB,
Figure 1 a section of the double valve shewn of larger size in Figure 3; C, C, are the
valve seats. When the valve B, B, is lowered a flow of water takes place past the
lower seat up the trunk, and joins a similar flow from the upper seat to the
resultant pressure chamber D, D.
In some cases, as, for example, when it is important to have the inlet and outlet
on the same level, it may be convenient to retain the old form of valve without
the hollow spindle; and the parts of my Invention, as hereafter described, are equally
applicable in either case.
In order to be enabled to remove the valve without removing a scat, and to
permit of the two valve seats being the same diameter, and the pressure on the two
sides of the valve therefore balanced, I cause the valve to be stopped only by that
seat towards which the trunk moves when the valve opens or by some part inde-
pendent of either seat. By this device I am enabled to draw out the valve through
one of the seats. For example, in the section the valve B, B, opens downwards
against the lower seat C, C¹, the valve is stopped, but the upper end of the valve
having no diameter greater than that of the two valve seats is capable of being
passed out through the lower seat when the cover E, E, is removed.
In order to make the valve sufficiently tight against the seat, which does not
stop thalve when closed, I make a cylindrical continuation of it enter that seat,
and bear closely against the parallel sides thereof, when the other end is stopped by
the other seat, or by some part independent of either seat.
Many reducing valves are liable to produce shocks when changes of velocity take
place, and such valves when used in connection with water mains are liable to
cause great damage. The shock generally takes place immediately after a diminished
flow, and consequent momentary increase of resultant pressure, when the momentum
of the valve and parts connected therewith causes it for an instant to close further
than is necessary to keep down the resultant pressure, and thus the flow is suddenly
checked.
All valves such as the mushroom valve, in which a small riso gives a large
waterway, are subject to this, and where the objection has been overcome the mode
adopted has generally involved increased friction, I meet the difficulty and at the
same time retain the advantages of the mushroom valve by curving the cylindrical
continuation above spoken of and curving the other end of the valve within the
other valve seat similarly in such a manner that the waterway is contracted, and
caused to increase in a less ratio than the distance of the valve seats from the
touching surfaces of the valves; in the diagram, for example, the cylindrical con-
tinuation of the valve is shown at F, F, and the curved portions by which the
waterway is contracted at an increasing rate as the valve approaches the scats are
shewn at G, G. The same object may be attained or assisted by permitting the
resultant pressure to reach the end of the piston or ram which, as above explained,
controls the motion of the valve, only after the fluid has been wire drawn in order
to retard the opening and closing of the valve by having passed through a small
aperture, on the same principle as the well known device called a cataract; in the
Diagram, for example, such an arrangement is shown at K, Figure 1; a large portion
of the area of the ram is exposed to the fluid in the chamber K, and until that fluid
has been pressed out through the space between a loosly fitting piston rod L, and
the opening through which it passes or through some other hole the valve cannot
open. Exactly, the converse takes place when owing to an increase of initial pressure
the valve partly closes; a similar arrangement may evidently be applied at the other
end of the piston, as at K, in Figure 2, and either the fluid from the pipe may be used

page_text: to control the notion, or any other fluid, such for example as oil or mercury, but
in the latter case a separate chamber must be provided for the oil or mercury to be
pressed into so that it may not be lost. The principle in either case is the same as
that involved in the device well known as a cataract.
In the Diagram, Figure 1, the weight which balances the resultant pressure is
shewn at M; if this weight is increased the resultant pressure is no longer able
to support it by pressing on the ram H, and the end of the piston rod L, and it
therefore presses open the valve until the resultant pressure in D, D, has increased
sufficiently to balance it. It is clear also that by altering the amount of the
weight M, or the strength of the spring, or its equivalent which may be substituted
for it, either acting directly or at the end of a lever, any required resultant pressure
may be maintained in D, D, notwithstanding any change of the initial pressure
in A, A.
Under some circumstances it may be very desirable to have a reduced pressure,
and under others, to have the full pressure in the resultant pressure chamber D.
In a town for example the pressure of water in the distributing water mains
should be reducod under ordinary circumstances to that pressure which is necessary
to raise the water a few feet above the highest houses in the district supplied by
that main, but when a fire takes place it is most desirable to bave the full pressure
of water.
I in some cases cause the valve to open full, and thus restore the full pressure by
screwing it open with an ordinary fireman's key, applied to a spindle provided for
the purpose. In the diagram such a spindle is shown at N, and a nut at O. By
screwing down such a nut the weight or spring, as the case may be, and with it the
valve are pressed down and opened.
The same object may similarly be attained by any equivalent device which
actually or relatively to the fluid pressure on the piston or ram gives preponderance
to the weight or pressure of the spring. For example an additional weight may
tomporarily be allowed to rest upon the normal weight, or upon the spring of
sufficient amount to keep the valve open. Or if the end of the cylinder furthest
from the resultant pressure end be closed and a pipe brought from the main to it,
the fluid pressure in the main way be brought upon that end of the piston or ram
by simply opening a subsidiary tap or valve controlling that pipe. The fluid
pressure on the two ends of the piston or ram will then evidently be nearly balanced,
and the weight or spring will instantly open the valve. Or when the end of the
cylinder next to the resultant pressure chamber is closed in order to wire draw the
fluid before it presses upon the piston or ram as above described, the weight or
pressure of the spring will be increased relatively to the fluid pressure on the piston
or rain, and thus caused to open the valve full by simply opening a communication
between the resultant pressure end of the cylinder and the atmosphere. In either
case if such a communication be made by a pipe controlled by a tap or valve, the
opening of that tap or valve will leave the pressure on the two ends of the piston
or ram nearly balanced, and the weight or spring will instantly open the valve.
In the case of distributing water mains the flow for the ordinary supply is
generally small in comparison with the flow which takes place when a fire occurs in
a district. To maintain this increased flow and the resultant pressure for which the
weight or spring is adjusted, the valve opens abnormally wide, but still only
sufficiently wide to maintain the reduced pressure. I make use of this exceptional
movement to open the subsidiary tap or valve above described, and thus obtain
automatically the full pressure of water. In the Diagram, for example, at Figure 2,
the desired object is attained by leading the pipe P, P, from the main to the upper
side of the cylinder. That pipe is controlled by a tap Q, which if opened at once
nearly balances the pressures on the two ends of the ram, and allows the weight to
open the valve. If for the normal supply of the district, the bottom of the weight
never reaches the dotted line R, and any movement below that line causes a sub-
sidiary valve S to open by pressing upon its spindle T; then when a fire takes place
in the district, and water passes through such a reducing valve to quench it," this

page_text: abnormally low position of the weight will be assumed, the subsidiary valve S will
be opened, the pressure on the two sides of the ram balanced, and the valve opened
full by the weight. Exactly in the same manner is the valve opened by the
weight M, if, as in Figure 1, the tap or subsidiary valve is on a pipe from the lower
end of the cylinder to the atmosphere.
In either case the original condition may be readily restored by closing the tap or
valve, but in order to ensure this being done when the fire has ceased I cause a
small quantity of water from either end of the cylinder to flow, when the subsidiary
valve or cock is opened over the footway, or into the channel, or into some other
conspicuous place, and thus attract attention. I have also produced the same result
automatically when a fire has ceased by making the outlet from the resultant
pressure side of the cylinder so far smaller than the inlet that when the pressure
has risen higher than the valve before permitted, or than was obtained during the
great flow due to the fire, the pressure in the cylinder against the piston or plunger
is greater than that of the weight or spring. The valve then partly closes, and allows
the subsidiary valve or cock to be closed by a spring or weight, when the pressure
is immediately reduced as before; or I may cause the water from the valve end
of the cylinder to flow into a chamber and displace air, which it presses out through
a small hole in the upper side of that chamber. When it has filled this chamber
back pressure commences, and the weight is once more raised by the pressure of the
water on the piston or rain, and the subsidiary valve closes; thus at the end of the
time required to fill the chamber the normal condition is restored.
Having thus described the nature of the apparatus upon which I have made
improvements, and of the improvements which I have made, I claim as new the 2
parts and combinations of parts following:-
First. The use of a trunk equilibrium valve in connection with reducing valves
for the purpose of simplifying the construction, as set forth; and in combination
with it the curved portions of the valve, which when the valve is closed or only
slightly open, are within the valve seats, for the purpose of contracting the water- 3
way at an increasing rate as the valve approaches its seats, and thus preventing
shocks, as herein described.
Second. The arrangement, substantially as described, in combination with any
equilibrium valve, by which the pressure on the two ends of the piston or ram is
rendered nearly equal by opening by hand a subsidiary tap or valve on a pipe com-
municating between the main and the end of the piston or ram furthest from the
resultant pressure chamber, and thus giving preponderance to the weight or pressure
of the spring, and allowing it to open the valve fully.
Third. The arrangement, substantially as described, by which the subsidiary tap
or valve nained in the last claim, and used in combination with any valve for
reducing the pressure of water, is caused to open automatically, when by reason of
a fire an abnormal flow takes place.
Fourth. The arrangement, substantially as described, in combination with any
equilibrium valve, by which preponderance to the weight or pressure of the spring
is given relatively to the pressure in the chamber K by opening by hand a sub-
sidiary tap or valve on a pipe communicating between the resultant pressure and of
the piston or ram and the atmosphere.
Fifth. The arrangement, substantially as described, by which the subsidiary tap
or valve named in the last claim, and used in combination with any valve for
reducing the pressure of water, is caused to open automatically.
Sixth. The arrangements, substantially as described, by which the normal reduced
pressure is reverted to when the fire is over, by causing the increased pressure con-
sequent upon the cessation of the abnormal draught to act upon the piston or ram
and close it far enough to allow the subsidiary tap or valve to close by pressure of a
spring or otherwise, and thus restore the normal condition; or by causing the

page_text: water passing through the subsidiary tap or valve to fill a chamber, and thus cause
back pressure, and produce the saine effect.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Frederick Deacon, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-six.
GEORGE FREDERICK DEACON. (L.S.)