Year: 1889

page_text: We, WILLIAM COWELL, and WILLIAM WITHERS CHAPMAN, of No. 5 Pilgrim Street
Newcastle-on-Tyne, Ironmongers, 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 defect in the construction of lock-taps of the ordinary construction, which it is
the object of our invention to remedy, is, that they do not afford a sufficient
security.
The keys for instance are so much alike that a duplicate key may easily be had,
and, failing that, it is possible to open the usual form of lock-tap from the underside
by slackening the screw which holds the plug in the barrel of the tap, and then,
either to turn the plug from below, or, by knocking it upwards so as to loosen it that
the liquid it is intended to guard, flows out between the plug and the barrel of
the tap.
It is of course possible to construct a tap which may be free from these defects by
having, for instance, complicated locks and keys and by having a protecting cover for
the screw at the bottom, but such extra precautions are objectionable from the con-
siderable increase of cost involved. Now we by our Invention provide a tap of a
very simple and cheap construction, which is easily locked and when locked secure
against the means of tampering we have referred to.
The actual form of tap may vary in detail without variation from the principle of
our invention and we will therefore, to illustrate that principle, describe a simple form
of lock-tap according to our invention, without being understood to confine our
invention to the precise form described.
We construct the body and plug of the tap just like any ordinary open tap, that is
to say with the usual cross-piece for opening and shutting on the upper part of the
plug, that cross piece being in a line with the passage through the tap when the tap is
open, and at right angles to it when the tap is shut; we fix on the body of the tap
what might be called a second cross-piece, turning on a pin or rivet about a quarter
circle, so that when at the extremity of its movement in one direction this second
cross-piece is parallel to and in close proximity to the cross-piece of the plug when
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page_text: shut, and prevents the turning of the plug, and when the second cross-piece is at the
other extremity of its movement it is clear out of the way of the movement of the
cross-piece of the plug, which can therefore be turned like any ordinary tap.-We
may drill a hole through both cross-pieces so that the holes coincide when what we
have called the second cross-piece is laid against the first, and then insert a padlock-
bow through both holes and lock it. We may arrange that the holes through the
cross-pieces shall be so nearly the size of the bow of the padlock that even if the screw
at the bottom of the tap is loosed the plug cannot be raised out of its place, or we may
make a small projecting flange on the second cross piece with a V recess so as partly
to embrace the cross piece of the plug, which shall effectually lock the plug into its
place. We may also arrange the padlock alternatively so as to lock through a
projecting part of the second cross-piece only as shewn in dotted lines, as shewn in
Figs. 3. and 4.
F.
Fig. 1. represents a side view of the tap when shut and locked, the same letters
being used for the same parts in each view.
Fig. 2 is the same view when the tap is open.
Fig. 3 is an end view of the tap when locked and Fig. 4. the same view when
open.
A. is the ordinary cross-piece of the tap and B. is what we have called the second
cross-piece; The line C. D. is the centre of movement of the plug of the tap and the
line E. F. the centre of movement of the second cross-piece.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said Inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is:
:: The construction of Lock-taps, with-locking-piece, substantially as described.
Dated this Twenty eighth day of March 1889.