IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH SLUICE AND OTHER VALVES, AND IN MACHINE TOOLS FOR MAKING THEM
Year: 1876

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Stephen Alley at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 21st October 1876.
STEPHEN ALLEY, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain, Engineer.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH SLUICE AND OTHER VALVES, AND IN
MACHINE TOOLS FOR MAKING THEM."
This Invention comprises various improvements in the constructive details of
sluice and other valves, and of accessory parts and in machine tools for making the
valves.
In one modification of the improved sluice valves the casing is made with a
single joint about midway between the pipe and the top, and the screw spindle for
opening and closing the sluice piece is kept stationary longitudinally by a collar on.
it held between the top of the casing and an internal bridge piece, which latter rests
on snugs on the lower part of the casing. The screw bolts for holding and adjusting
the stuffing box gland are jointed to the neck, and the gland is made with open
jaws for the bolts, an arrangement which not only facilitates the repacking of the
stuffing box but also prevents the nuts or bolts from being misplaced or lost.
In the case of large sluice valves the sluice piece is cast with a central hole (to be
afterwards closed), such hole being large enough to pass a boring bar through, so
that both sides of the piece can be machined with one setting or fixing. The piece
is fixed on a table capable of angular adjustment horizontally to allow of the faces
being formed at the required inclination to each other, the table being also
adjustable vertically and fitted with screw or other grippers for securing the sluice
piece, whilst turned stop pins are fixed in it to determine the positions in which it
has to be set. The seats for the brass facings can be bored in the casing in the
same machine, thus ensuring perfect accord between the sluice piece and casing. A
single boring head is employed with cutters on both sides, those on one side acting
when the casing is in one angular position, and those on the other doing so when
the casing is set in its other position.
In the case of small sluice valves the sluice pieces and casings are fixed rigidly
and are acted on by cutters carried by two headstocks fixed or adjusted at the
proper inclination to each other.
In an improved arrangement of air valves for water pipes, the valve balls are
placed in independent baskets having the air apertures in their upper parts, so that
a rush of air may not carry the balls up to close the outlets.

page_text: When two or more valves are combined, one is fitted at a slightly higher level so
as to allow small residual quantities of air to escape.
Where a stand post is used for drawing water from a street main or the like, an
improved valve arrangement is provided for emptying the stand post so as to avoid
injury by frost. In this arrangement a simple inverted ball or conical valve is
suspended at the under side of an outlet valve seat at the bottom of the post, by a
rod passing up inside to a disc, which last when water is being drawn off is borne
up by the current so as to close the bottom outlet, but which drops again on the
main being shut off, and so allows the post to be emptied.
The Invention also comprises a simple arrangement of float valve in a casing,
which is to be fixed against the outside of a steam boiler at about the proper water
level. The valve closes internally up against an outlet pipe, and when the water
which has access to the casing becomes too low in level the float lever opens the
valve and allows steam to issue and sound a whistle or act in any other known way
to produce an alarm or obtain a supply of water, or the valve in being opened by
the float lever may admit a supply of water.
In some cases a basin or open vessel is attached to the float and is filled with
water, the weight of which renders the descent of the float more certain when the
general water level gets too low.