A CERTAIN IMPROVEMENT IN COCKS FOR DRAWING OFF LIQUIDS
Year: 1830

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
DIXON, of Wolverhampton, and JAMES VARDY, of the same Place, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
did, by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing
date at Westminster, the Thirteenth day of December, One thousand eight
hundred and thirty, and the first year of His reign, give and grant unto us,
the said John Dixon and James Vardy, our exors, admors, and assigns, His
especial licence that we, the said John Dixon and James Vardy, our exors,
admors, and assigns, and such others as we, the said John Dixon and James
Vardy, our exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein
mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, our Invention of
"A CERTAIN IMPROVEMENT IN COCKS FOR DRAWING OFF LIQUIDS;" in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that we, the said John Dixon and
James Vardy, or one of us, shall cause a particular description of the nature
of our said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to
be inrolled in His said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within two
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said in part
recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had,
will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
James Vardy, for myself and for the aforesaid John Dixon, do hereby declare

page_text: that the nature of our said Invention, and the manner in which the same
is to be performed, is described and ascertained in manner following (that is
to say)
Our improvement in cocks for drawing off liquids is applicable to that
description of cock which contains a round plug or valve within the interior
of the cock, that plug being fitted to fill up and stop a corresponding aperture
or seat formed in the passage, through which the liquid is intended to flow
when it is drawn off. The said plug or valve can be pressed down into the
aperture of its seat by the power of a screw which is formed on the stem or
spindle of the plug or valve above the same, and which screw is fitted into a
corresponding hollow screw formed in the metal of the cock. When the
plug or valve (together with its screw) is turned, so as to screw it down into
its seat, the passage of the liquid through the aperture thereof will be
prevented, but by turning back the said screw (together with the plug or
valve), the latter can be raised up out of the aperture in its seat and with-
drawn therefrom into a suitable recess or enlarged part of the passage, where
there is room for the liquid to flow round the outside of the plug or valve,
and then it can pass through the aperture in the seat in order to draw off the
liquid. And whereas in the cocks of that description now in use, in order
that the said screw and internal plug or valve may be turned round by means
of an external turning handle or key, the upper end of the stem or spindle
of the valve or plug (and on the lower part of which stem or spindle the
screw is formed) is made to pass through from the inside of the enlarged part
of the passage for the liquid above the seat for the plug or valve, so as to
reach to the outside of the cock, a stuffing or collar of leathers being closely
fitted to the said stem or spindle to prevent the escape of the liquid. And
whereas the liquid is liable to leak by the said stuffing or collar of leathers
and escape round the said stem or spindle.
Our improvement consists in applying the action and force of the external
turning handle, by means of which the internal plug or valve and its screw
are to be turned round (in order either to raise the plug or valve out of its
seat or else to press the same down into the seat by means of a connexion
with the lower end of a small stem or spindle which projects downwards from
beneath the plug or valve, and passes through the centre of the aperture of
the seat; that external turning handle, and its connection with the lower stem
of the plug or valve, being constructed in the manner represented in the
Drawing hereunto annexed and herein-after more particularly explained.
And by virtue of our improvement the communication of the necessary motion
from the external turning handle to the internal plug or valve and its screw,

page_text: being made by means of a stem which descends from the lower side of the
plug or valve and beneath or beyond the seat into which the same is fitted
(instead of making the said communication by means of a prolongation of that
stem, which ascends from the upper side of the plug or valve above the seat).
No stuffing or collar of leathers or close fitting is required round the stem
whereby we communicate the turning motion to the plug or valve from the
outside turning handle, and, consequently, if the plug or valve fits tight into
its seat there is no other junction of moveable and fixed parts at which the
liquid can leak or escape from that part of the passage which is above or
before the seat.
Figure 1 in the Drawing hereunto annexed is an external elevation of a
valve cock constructed according to our said improvement. Figure 2 is a
section to shew the interior parts when the passage is closed by screwing down
the valve or plug; and Figure 3 is a corresponding section, representing the
valve or plug raised and the passage open for drawing off the liquid. A is the
passage through which the liquid comes into the cock from any pipe to which
the cock is soldered, or from any vessel into the side of which the cock is
inserted. B is the orifice or spout, at which the liquid runs out when it is
drawn off; C is the round plug or moveable valve; D is the chamber, in which
the valve or plug is contained when it is raised up out of its seat, as in Figure
3; and E is the seat to which the valve or plug is fitted, and into which it
descends when it is pressed down in order to stop the passage; A is the stem,
which rises from the upper part of the plug or valve, and which is cut with a
screw of six, seven, or eight spiral threads, winding rapidly around the stem,
with a great obliquity to the axis thereof. The screw is received into a cor-
responding hollow screw formed at 6 in the metal of the upper part of the
chamber D, but the hollow within which the screw is formed does not pass
through the metal at the top of the chamber. The seat E is formed in a
distinct piece of metal from the chamber D, and is united thereto by a screw
cut around the outside of the part into which the valve or plug fits, and screw-.
ing into a female screw cut within the lower part of the chamber D. The
lower edge of that chamber enters a little into a circular recess, which is ex-
cavated in the flat surface of the shoulder around the screw of the seat, and
to make a close joint a small ring of leather is dropped into that recess; the
lower edge of the chamber D is turned with sharp concentric rings to indent
into the leather, when it is forcibly pressed by screwing up the joint very firmly.
A short central tube e, e, descends from the underside of the seat E, and the
turning handle 1 is formed with a cylindrical socket 2, 2, which fits upon the
central tube e, e, so as to turn freely round about the outside thereof, the lower

page_text: part of the socket 2, 2, tapers downwards to form the spout B. 3.is the small
stem which projects downwards from the plug or valve C, and which passes
down through the centre of the aperture of the seat E and of its tube e, e, and
the end of the stem 3 descends below the end of the tube e, e, that it may
hang down in the centre of the spout B. Across the lower end of the stem 3
a small mortice hole is cut to receive a small cross key 4, which is fixed fast
into the mortice, and the two ends thereof project out each way from the stem
3, in order that they may enter into two upright grooves, which are cut out
withinside of the bore of the spout B parallel to the centre line thereof, and at
opposite sides of that centre line. The ends of the cross key being received
in the said grooves, they form our means of communication of the turning
motion from the external handle 1 to the plug or valvė C, but the ends of the
cross key are at liberty to rise and fall freely in those grooves; whenever the
handle is turned round the lower stem 3 of the plug or valve C, together with
the upper stem or screw a turn round with a corresponding motion, and by
the spiral threads of the screw a, working in those of their socket or hollow
screw b, the valve or plug c is lifted upwards out of its seat whenever the
handle is turned round one way or the valve or plug is pressed downwards
into its seat whenever the handle is turned in the opposite direction. The
rise or obliquity of the spiral threads around the screw a must be such
that the handle 1, together with the stem 3, the valve or plug c, and the
screw a, being turned round about one-fourth of a turn will raise the valve
or plug c sufficiently high out of its seat to admit as much liquid to pass
thereby as will supply a full bore to run out through the lower orifice of the
spout B. Note.-The turning socket 2, 2, from which the handlel projects
out is retained upon the outside of the tube e, e, and prevented from drop-
ping downwards thereon by two small screw studs 5, 5, which are screwed
hard through the metal of the socket 2, 2, at opposite sides thereof, and their
ends enter into a circular groove, which is formed around the outside of the
central tube e, e. Instead of a continuous groove extending all around the tube
e, e, it will be sufficient to form two separate portions of a continuous groove,
each portion extending a little more than one quarter round the outside of the
tube e, e; those portions being at opposite sides of the centre thereof in suitable
positions to receive the ends of the two screw studs 5, 5; a circular groove is
also formed all around the outside of the tube e, e, to admit a small strip of
leather over which the interior of the socket 2, 2, fits tight, and that leather
causes the handle 1 to move with a steady and pleasant motion when it is
turned. Note. Instead of fixing the cross key 4 in a mortice hole through the
stem 3, it may be made in one piece of metal with the stem 3; the valve or

page_text: plug c and the upper stem or screw a being also of the same piece. Note.-
Also, instead of making the seat E and its tube e, e, in a separate piece, to be
screwed into the lower part of the chamber D, as before described, the seat,
and the tube e, e, which descends from it, may be made in one piece with the
body of the cock, as shewn in the section 4; in which case a sufficient opening
must be left at the top of the chamber D over the seat to admit of the intro-
duction of a suitable tool to bore out the interior of the seat and of the tube
e, e, and also to admit of the introduction of the valve or plug C into its place;
and that opening must be stopped up by a screw cap or cover F, which is
screwed into the opening, with a ring of leather interposed in the joint in the
same manner as before explained of the screw joint, by which the seat E is
screwed into the lower part of the chamber D, as is represented in Figures
2 and 3. The said cover F has a prominent part 6 projecting down from the
centre of it, and that part is cut out with the hollow screw which is to receive
the screw a on the upper stem of the valve or plug C.
b
Having now described a cock constructed according to our said improve-
ment, I do hereby declare that what we claim as our Invention is the parts
marked in the aforesaid Drawings by numeral characters for reference in the
foregoing description; those parts being adapted to communicate the requisite
turning motion from the external turning handle to the internal plug or valve
(and to the screw on the upper stem thereof) by means of a connection which
is made, in the manner herein-before described, with the lower end of a stem
which descends from the under side of the valve or plug and passes through
the aperture of the seat thereof.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Vardy, have hereunto set my hand
and seal this Eighth day of February. One thousand eight hundred