IMPROVE- MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CLOSING OR EMPTYING WATER PIPES OR OTHER FLUID CONDUITS, PART OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE APPLICABLE GENERALLY FOR SHUNTING ELECTRIC CIRCUITS
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Herbert John Haddan at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 10th February 1880. A communication
from abroad by Franz Fried, of Frankfort on the Main, in the German
Empire.
HERBERT JOHN HADDAN, of the Firm of Herbert and Company, Solicitors of
Patents, of 67, Strand, in the City of Westminster, Civil Engineer. "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CLOSING OR EMPTYING WATER PIPES OR OTHER FLUID
CONDUITS, PART OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE APPLICABLE GENERALLY FOR
SHUNTING ELECTRIC CIRCUITS." A communication from abroad by Franz Fried,
of Frankfort on the Main, in the German Empire.
The Invention relates partly to the peculiar construction of valves and their
accessories for establishing or interrupting the communication between two sections
of a fluid conduit, also in the manner of connecting and actuating two of the said
valves, further in the method of actuating fluid conduit valves or equivalent devices
from a distance, and in the automatic working of fluid conduit valves (or
equivalents) by variations of temperature. The peculiarity of the construction of
the said valves and accessories consists in equilibrating them by admitting water
(or fuid) on both sides of the valve, and in providing means for opening or closing
the equilibrium conduit at will. The valve may be constructed as a vertical piston
valve provided with leather packing, and resting with its base on the valve seat
through which the fluid enters, while the top of the cylinder in which the piston
moves communicates through a small perforation with a small equilibrium channel,
which leads from the supply pipe to the discharge pipe. That part of the
equilibrium channel which lies between the said small perforation and the discharge
pipe is provided with a small auxiliary valve for cutting off the access of fluid to
the discharge pipe, whereby the fluid enters through the said short perforation
over the top of the main valve or main piston and causes the latter to close on its
seat. When, however, the communication with the discharge pipe is open, the fluid
in the equilibrium channel passes to the discharge pipe instead of pressing upon
the top of the piston valve. The small auxiliary valve above mentioned is
preferably an equilibrated piston valve, the bottom of the piston communicating
through a small perforation with its top, so as to partly balance the pressure on the
bottom of the piston valve. In the case of water conduits the discharge pipe and
its continuation is emptied, if desired, by a second valve placed near the main
valve and also equilibrated, but instead of being a loose piston valve it is preferably

page_text: attached to a disc of leather or other suitable flexible material fixed at the
circumference, and movable in the centre so as to close the valve upon its seat
when the equilibrium channel admits fluid to the top of the disc, and to be lifted
with the valve when the fluid pressure on the bottom of the latter is not balanced by
means of a small auxiliary valve analagous to the auxiliary valve of the main
valve. The main valve and the emptying valve may be worked by any suitable
means, either separately or together, but it is preferred to actuate them
simultaneously and by electricity as follows:-The two auxiliary (piston) valves
act with their rods upon the two ends of a double armed lever having or being
connected with a third arm, which carries at its end the anchor plates of two
electro-magnets, between the poles of which the end of the lever arm can oscillate.
A shunting apparatus of any ordinary construction, or the automatic apparatus
hereinafter described, is provided for sending an electric circuit (obtained in any
known manner) at will either through the coils of the first magnet or through
those of the second magnet, so that either the one or the other attracts the said
third lever arm, and thereby closes one or the other of the two auxiliary valves, as
may be desired. The two valves, or only one of them, can however be worked in
many different ways without departing from the substance of the present
Invention, which consists chiefly in the opening or closing of fluid conduit valves
by electricity. For actuating the valves automatically the wire from the battery
is connected with a vessel containing mercury, which rises through a narrow neck
when the temperature is raised. Two (parallel) conducting rods pass through
stuffing boxes in the cover of the mercury vessel, reaching down into the empty
part of the latter. One rod, reaching down further than the other, has an arm
which carries a (vertical) sleeve, through the centre of which passes a wire so as
not to touch the sleeve, said wire passing down within the reach of the mercury
when the latter stands high and upwards as far as to touch in its highest position
an arm of the second rod. In its lowest position the wire rests with a collar on
the top of the sleeve and thus lets pass the current through the first rod and the
conduit attached to it, while when the temperature rises, and the mercury thereby
lifts the wire, the top of the latter comes in contact with the second rod and
conducts the electric current through the conduit attached to it.