Improvements in Machines for Cleansing Sewers or Drain Pipes.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 30th Sept., 1899-Accepted, 25th Nov., 1899
[Communicated from abroad by PATRICK J. HEALEY, of 96, Business Street, in
the Town of Hyde Park, in the County of Norfolk and State of Massa-
chusetts, United States of America, Labourer.]
Improvements in Machines for Cleansing Sewers or Drain Pipes.
I, HENRY HARRIS LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake & Co., Patent Agents,
45. Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex, 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:-
-
My invention relates to improvements in machines for cleaning sewers or drain
pipes, in which a shovel operates in conjunction with a rolling platform and the
object of my invention is the removing of sand, dirt or other obstacles in sewers
or drains which are too small in diameter to permit the workmen to enter.
Referring to the accompanying drawings,
Figure is a plan view of my machine;
Figure 2 is a side elevation;
Figure 3 is a vertical, longitudinal section of the entire machine;
Figure 4 is a vertical cross section on line 44 in Figure 3;
Figure 5 is a front end view, and
Figure 6 is a detail of a modification.
:
Like letters refer to similar parts throughout the several views.
:
A designates the frame work of the machine, of which a¹ is a rectangular plat-
form or truck body, mounted on three small wheels, H, H' and H2; the wheel H
being vertical and situated under the middle of the platform a near the rear
end and the wheels H and H2 being placed one on each side of the front end
of the platform a¹, which is reinforced at that end by a heavy block a³ fastened
to the top surface of a'. The platform and each side of a³ for a short distance
from the front are bevelled and on these bevelled surfaces are attached round
discs with hangers h¹ projecting to hold the shafts on which revolve the two
wheels, H and H2. The effect of their construction is to give the two wheels an
outward slant so that the machine may be easily propelled on a curved surface
like the bottom of a drain or sewer pipe.
Attached to the front end of the frame A by a pin a journalled at the end of
two arms a is the shovel B. the blade of which is represented as of cylindrical
shape. This represents a blade which is to be used in round drains or sewers.
If the drain or pipe is square, arched or rectangular, the shape of the blade b
must be varied to conform to the bottom of the drain. In the shovel B, is a
block fitted into the back of the shovel and 2 is an arm projecting from the
back of the shovel by means of which the shovel is attached to the frame A.
When in use the blade of the shovel rests on the bottom surface of the drain but
it may be tilted up on the pin a5 as a pivot. The top of is flat and inserted in
this block is a metal rod 63 bent into a form like an inverted letter V and bent
at the top to form a loop or hole. This bent rod serves as a lever for the purpose
of lifting the shovel around the pin a³ as a pivot and then enabling the shovel

page_text: to pass over obstructions in the bottom of the drain. Around the neck 6 of the
rod just below the loop at the top is fastened a rope F, which is carried back
to the pulley D, which is attached to a sloping arm C, by a staple c³, or any other
suitable means. Passing through the pulley D, the rope F turns back and goes
through the loop in the rod 63, so that when the rope is pulled it will exert a
backward pull on the rod and lift up the front of the shovel B, and when the
rope is released the weight of the shovel will cause it to fall back on the bottom
of the drain.
At the rear end of the platform a¹ is placed a curved arm C, which slopes back-
ward and upward. The rear end of the platform at is reinforced by a block a² of
about the same thickness as the platform w¹.
The arm C is secured to the platform a¹ by being bolted between two upright
standards a and at the upper end of C is a small wheel 2 journalled between two
armis c¹. The purpose of the arm C is to prevent the rear end of the machine
tilting upward when in use and being pulled through a pipe. The wheel is
in contact with the upper inner surface of the drain and the arm C being immov-
able, the rear end of the machine is kept in its proper place.
When my machine is being used in a drain or sewer pipe, it will preserve its
equilibrium in the pipe, notwithstanding a strong pull forward. The weight of
the shovel and the platform keeps the front end of the machine and the edge of
the shovel on the bottom of the drain; the two oblique wheels H¹ and H2 prevent
the machine from oscillating sideways in its progress through the pipe; and the
wheel in contact with the upper surface of the drain keeps the rear end of the
machine from tilting or ascending.
i
It will be observed that in the preferred embodiment of my invention shown in
the drawings, the shovel-tilting rope F and the propelling device, preferably made
up of the jointed rigid pieces E, e¹ and so on, are operated from the shovel end
of the machine. That is, when the shovelling operation takes place, the machine
is pulled or drawn towards the matter to be removed instead of being pushed
against it, and for this reason it is practically important that the propelling device
be rigid in order that it may be used to push the machine away from the initial
starting place, preliminary to the shovelling operation. But independently of
the rigidity of the propelling device when it is to be used as a pusher, there is
an important practical advantage gained by making the machine in such wise that
its shovel will shovel when the machine is pulled towards the operator, the
advantage lying in the fact that the operator can more clearly see the character
of the matter or obstruction with which the shovel engages than he could if he
were pushing the truck and it were between himself and the matter or obstruc-
tion engaged by the shovel. The lights or lamp may be placed on the shovel end
of the truck and no part of the machine except the shovel will be between the
operator and the matter of obstruction.
The upwardly-extending arm or keeper C is mounted preferably at the rear end
of the truck and its free end is best in the plane of the central lengthwise axis
of the truck; so that when its free end is against the top of the sewer wall, the
arm cooperates with the slanted wheels to keep the truck properly in place, the
sewers being commonly circular in cross-section, and the wheels on each side of
the truck having their lower peripheries slanted outwardly from the vertical
while the arm C, preferably topped with the roller c² works along the top wall of
the sewer.
In my preferred construction, the rear end portion of the shovel (in the present
construction, the block b¹) has its upper surface below the upper surface of the
truck so that the rear of the shovel may not obstruct light from a lantern or
other light placed on the platform a¹. This is an important feature of the machine,
as it is practically important to make as much light as possible available for
lights carried on the platform and without casting shadows in the sewer to obstruct
the views of the workmen.
It will be obvious that some of the important features of my invention may

page_text: be availed of even if the truck-propelling and shovel-tilting device pass rear-
wardly from the truck so that the latter is operated from the rear, but I have
described all the features of my invention in the best mode now known to me.
In order to propel my machine through the sewer or drain, I use short rods.
each about five feet long, which may be connected, one screwing into the other
as shown in Figure 3. On the front or shovel end of the machine set in a groove
of the block 3, and secured by metal hangers a' is a round rod E, with a metal
end or joint piece el, which is hollow with a thread on the inner surface. The
short rods have at one end a screw and at the other end a metal joint piece similar
to el so that one of these rods may be screwed into e¹ and then another rod screwed
into the first in the same manner, and so on. It is necessary to use short jointed
rods because the machine when being used is operated from a manhole and the
space is limited. If preferred, a rope may be used in place of the jointed rods.
This is necessary where the drain is curved in direction between two adjacent mán-
holes, as it would be impossible to use a straight rod.
Heretofore, in locating leaks in sewers, and what are called missing Y's therein
(that is, Y sections of pipe of which no records were made when the sewer was
laid,) it has been the general custom, so far as I am informed, to select bright,
sunny days for discovering the faults, one man, on the surface of the ground,
holding a mirror over a manhole, and another man in the sewer at the bottom of
the manhole holding a mirror into which rays of light reflected from the first
mirror were directed, the rays being thence directed along the sewer by a man
within the sewer using his mirror for that purpose. The man within the sewer
on discovering a fault, such as a leak, unlocated Y, or the like, would then guess
the distance of the fault from the manhole; then the distance so guessed would be
measured along the surface of the ground in the line of the sewer and the
labourers would then dig down and so to try to uncover the leak, missing Y or other
fault. Very frequently, the guess of the man holding the mirror within the
sewer would be a number of feet out of the way, frequently from twenty-five to
fifty feet out of the way, and the labourers who did the digging frequently would
be required to dig a considerable number of pits before finding the fault. It is
obvious that this clumsy and expensive way of discovering leaks and missing Ys
and other faults is highly objectionable. To overcome this objection, I provide
my machine with any suitable lights to light the interior of the sewer when the
machine is in use for discovering faults, and the main purpose of using the short
rods, each about five feet long and preferably just five feet long, is to utilize these
rods as measuring devices for determining approximately the exact distance of the
discovered faults from the manhole. The five foot length is desirable, because
it is the most convenient maximum length for inserting through ordinary manholes
into ordinary sewers; and sections of this length are conveniently carried about.
At the same time they are short enough to enable the workmen to judge of the
exact distance of the fault from the edge of the manhole by the number of five foot
lengths employed plus any fractional part of the last section used. Of course,.
any other predetermined lengths may be used for propelling the machine and
gauging the distance of the fault. The lights, candles, lanterns, electric lights,
supplied from storage batteries or the like, will be placed on the machine at a
known distance from the junction with the machine of the first section. It will
be seen that by using a propelling device, whether rigid or flexible, of prede-
termined length and made of sections of known length, the fault when discovered
may be located accurately for all practical purposes on the surface of the ground,
thus saving the labourers a great deal of work in digging out the earth for leaks
or other faults.
A modification of my invention is shown in Figure 6, in which a brush M,-
made of steel wires m m, set in a metal base m², may be attached by any suitable
means to the under forward surfaces of the platform a', either just in front of.
or behind the wheels H and H2. This brush is cut to correspond to the shape of
the blade of the shovel, which of course, depends upon the shape of the pipe or.

page_text: drain in which the machine is to be used. The purpose of this brush is to catch
any dirt or sand that may escape the shovel and thus thoroughly clean the pipe.
In using my machine, it is first lowered into a manhole, which in most sewers
are about three hundred feet apart and operated from the manhole. It is pushed
into the pipe rear end first and the rods are added until the rear end of the machine
appears at the next manhole. The apparatus is then pulled back and the shovel
catches all the sand or other dirt on the bottom of the sewer. If the edge of the
shovel strikes any fixed obstacle, then the rope F is pulled and the edge of the
shovel is lifted and passing over the obstacle, is then allowed to drop back. It
has been found absolutely necessary in practice, to have some contrivance for
lifting the front edge of the shovel, since there is always more or less cement pro-
jecting from the joints in the pipe which, in the absence of the lifting apparatus
would effectually bar the progress of the shovel. If the shovel becomes filled up
before it has completed the section, it may be run back to the starting point and
emptied.
Having now particularly, described and ascertained the nature of this inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me
by my foreign correspondent, I declare that what I claim is :-
1. In a sewer-cleaning and exploring machine, the combination of a truck body;
and suitable wheels therefor operatively mounted thereon with a shovel having
a hinge connection with the truck and its front end below the truck-body; a
propelling device for moving the truck along the sewer bottom; means for tilting
upwardly the front end of the shovel; and an upwardly extending arm carried
by the truck and adapted to engage an upper wall of the sewer.
2. In a sewer cleaning and exploring machine, the combination of a truck body;
and suitable wheels therefor operatively mounted thereon with a shovel at one end
of the truck and having a hinge connection therewith; a rigid propelling device
for moving the truck along the sewer bottom; a flexible shovel tilting
device having a connection with the rear portion of the shovel; a pulley
for said flexible device; and an upwardly extending arm at the other end of said
truck.
3. In a sewer-cleaning and exploring machine, the combination of a truck body
and suitable wheels therefor operatively mounted thereon with a tilting shovel
carried by the truck at one of its ends; an upwardly extending arm carried by
the rear end of the truck; means for tilting the shovel said means extending
forwardly as to the front end of the shovel; and a rigid propelling device extending
forwardly as to the front end of the shovel.
4. In a sewer-cleaning and exploring machine, the combination of a truck body
and suitable wheels therefor operatively mounted thereon, with a tilting shovel
operatively connected to the truck; means for tilting the shovel; an upwardly
extending arm carried by the truck and in the plane of the central lengthwise
axis of the truck; and means for propelling said truck.
5. In a sewer-cleaning and exploring machine, the combination of a truck
body; wheels therefor operatively mounted thereon with their lower peripheries
inclined outwardly from the vertical; an arín extending upwardly with its free
end in the plane of the central lengthwise axis of the truck; a shovel hinged on
the carriage; means for tilting the front end of the shovel; and a rigid propelling
device made up of sections of known length.
6. In a sewer-cleaning and exploring machine, the combination of a truck
body; suitable wheels therefor operatively connected therewith; a platform carried
by the truck a tilting shovel carried by the truck; means for tilting the shovel;
means for propelling the truck; and an upwardly extending arm carried by the
truck rearwardly of the shovel.
7. In a sewer-cleaning and exploring machine, the combination of a truck
body comprising a platform and suitable wheels therefor operatively mounted on
the truck a shovel mounted at one end of the truck; an arm which extends

page_text: upwardly from the truck back of the shovel; means for operating the shovel; a
truck propelling device comprising sections of known length; and a platform
carried by the truck; said upwardly extending arm being adapted to engage an
upper wall of the sewer to steady the machine in its passage through the sewer;
and the platform being above the wheels and shovel and adapted to support
lanterns, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.
Dated this 30th day of September 1899.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C.,
Agents for the Applicant.