Year: 1889

page_text: Date of Application, 9th Apr., 1889
Specification Accepted, 1st June, 1889
I, ADOLF TROETZER, of the City of Warschau, in the Empire of Russia, Engineer,
do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
The value of a fire engine is determined more by its efficiency, simplicity of its
working parts, and facility of management than by its cost of manufacture. Although
fire engines which have a water tank are for many reasons preferable to those
where the suction hose is connected with the water supply direct, the latter are
sometimes favoured because there is less risk of anything getting out of order,
while, when this unfortunately does happen there are fewer parts to undo and less
risk of obstruction.
My invention relates to improvements in fire engines with a water tank, and I
believe that the improvements are of such a nature that the disadvantages above
described as attaching to such fire engines, are done away with while the advantages
are not interfered with.
The manner in which I carry my invention into effect is shewn in the
accompanying drawings Fig. 1 being a side view and Fig. 2 an end view.
The suction water reservoir A, which may be of any convenient shape and size,
is provided with the two openings 6 & 6' which can be made air tight when closed.
Both the said openings are provided with equally threaded nozzles so that the hose
can be screwed on to either of them. The said water reservoir rests on the axle
tree d Fig. 2 which is supported by the wheels 1. A man hole is made in the
reservoir which when closed is air tight. The bottom part of the valve box g serves
as lid to the man hole f, over which it closes airtight.
g
The valve box 9 is partitioned off by means of the cross partition h, into valve
chambers, of which each one is provided with a rubber ball-valve i.
A fire engine with two cylinders K, as shewn in the drawings, would have
eight valve chambers, that is to say four for each cylinder, of which two are suction
and two are pressure valves.
The access to the ball valves, is rendered in this way very easy, all that is necessary
is to remove the lids when all the valves are accessible.

page_text: The reason why each cylinder is provided with two ball valves of each kind is
to save space, inasmuch as one large ball valve with the same effect as two smaller
ones, takes up more room than the latter.
To the bottom of the valve box is attached the suction hose M, the lower end
of which widens out and ends near the bottom of the reservoir.
An extra smaller reservoir N, is also provided and is for the purpose, that in
case of need, water may be poured into it, thus reaching the main reservoir through
the opening b. The opening b is provided with a sieve or grating which retains any
particles introduced with the water and likely to choke or otherwise interfere with
the working of the mechanisms.
When the engine according to my invention is mounted on two wheels only, as
shewn in the drawings, then I provide an additional support p Fig. 2, which can
be removed while driving and readily put down when the fire engine is at a
standstill.
The pumping lever G is made in three parts, connected by hinges so that they
can readily be put together.
The fire engine above described is worked in the usual manner and for the usual
purposes. The action of the pumps tends to create a vacuum in the reservoir A
which therefore sucks water from the supply with which connected.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
In fire engines:
1. The combined suction and water reservoir substantially in the manner as and
for the purposes described.
2. The arrangement of the partitioned valve box G containing all the pumping
valves separated from, and independant of each other, substantially in the manner
as and for the purposes described.
1000