IMPROVEMENTS IN STOP-COCKS OR VALVES
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Anderson, of Glasgow, in the County
of Lanark, North Britain, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
STOP-COCKS OR VALVES."
Sealed the 16th May 1876, and dated the 13th December 1875.

page_text: valcanised rubber or other suitable flexible material, held and acting as
in what is known as the Lambert tap. The water or other fluid has access
to the under side of the diaphragm by a central opening in the seat, and
passes off when the diaphragm is lifted by an annular channel which is
by this Invention contracted by a ring or flange on its outer side to
reduce the area exposed to pressure. The diaphragm has a metal centre
or spindle attached to it, and this centre is connected by a screw to an
upper spindle which last passes out through a hole in the cover of the
valve body. The cover is made with a cavity in which a spring, by
preference, of rubber is placed so as to be compressed when the spindle
is raised to lift the diaphragm and open the valve.
The spindle may be lifted by any of the contrivances already known
and in use for opening valves by a lifting motion, but an improved.
contrivance is, by preference, employed consisting of a double rolling
cam formed with a handle and jointed by a cross pin to the valve spindle.
When the handle is turned down to either side the cam rolling on the
outside of the cover moves the cross pin outwards, and thereby lifts the
spindle. A small bore is formed through the metal centre of the
diaphragm so as to communicate with the space in the cover, and when
the handle is let go after opening the valve the spring nearly closes the
diaphragm, but without suddenness or concussion, and immediately
afterwards the water or fluid getting to the upper side through the
small bore in the metal centre insures the complete and tight closing of
the diaphragm.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Joseph Anderson in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 10th June 1876.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
ANDERSON, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of December, in the

page_text: year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in
the thirty-ninth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Joseph Anderson, Her
special licence, that I, the said Joseph Anderson, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Joseph
Anderson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN STOP-COCKS OR VALVES," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Joseph Anderson, my executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or
one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was
to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal
Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after
the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Joseph Anderson, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement in writing, reference being had to the
accompanying Drawings, that is to say :-
My said Invention has for its object the constructing of stop-cocks or
valves in an improved, simple, and economical manner, and so as not
easily to get out of order.
The closing detail of my improved valve is a diaphragm or washer of
vulcanised rubber or other suitable material, held and acting to a certain
extent as in what is known as the Lambert tap. I apply a spring to
close the diaphragm, and at the same time contrive the parts, so that
the water pressure itself keeps the diaphragm closed in consequence of
having access to its upper side, the arrangement being such that the
valve closes without suddenness or concussion.
Another improvement consists in applying a kind of double rolling
cam for opening the valve,

page_text: Anu in order that my salu
the same may be properly understood, I hereunto, append a Sheet of
explanatory Drawings to be herein-after referred to, and representing
two modifications of stop-cocks or valves as made with my improvements.
In these Drawings the same reference numerals are used to mark the
same or like parts wherever they are repeated.
Figure 1 of the Drawings is a plan of one modification as with the
cover removed; and Figure 2 is a transverse vertical section.
Figures 3 and 4 are elevations as at right angles to each other of the
cover and actuating detail. In this modification the inlet end 1 of the
stop-cock body communicates with a central opening 2 in the valve face,
and an annular channel 3 formed round the central opening 2 com-
municates with the discharge nozzle 4. The opening 2 and annular
channel 3 are covered by a vulcanised rubber diaphragm or washer 5
which is held in the joint between the body and the cover 6, and which
joint is secured by screws in the usual way. The washer 5 has a metal
disc 7 fixed to it by means of a nut screwed on a nipple which is entered
down through a central hole, and the disc 7 has fixed to it a spindle 8
which passes up into a central hole in the top of the cover 6. Between
the washer 5 with its disc 7 and the top of the cover 6, there is
interposed a. spring consisting of two or three rings 9 of vulcanised
rubber, and which tends to keep the washer down. The valve is opened
by means of a double cam piece 10 formed with a handle or thumb
piece 11, and which is jointed to the spindle 8 by a cross pin 12, whilst
it rests on the outside of the cover 6. When this cam piece 10 is
turned to either side it rolls or partly rolls on the cover, and because of
its form lifts the spindle 8 in doing so, and thereby gives free passage to
water or other fluid from the inlet 1 by the central hole 2 under the
washer 5, and by the annular channel 3 to the outlet 4. When the
valve piece 10 is let go the spring 9 moves the washer 5 down again;
but it does not at once completely close. A small passage 13 is formed
through the disc 7, and its nipple so that fluid from the inlet 1 can pass
into the space in the cover 6 above the washer 5, and the fluid thus
getting in above the washer finally closes it completely down. When
the valve is opened the fluid is forced to return back by the passage 13,
and it is prevented from leaking through the top of the cover by the,

page_text: rnbber rings 9. The top of the annular passage 3 is contracted, as shown,
in order to reduce the area on which the fluid pressure acts when the
valve is closed.
'
In the modification shown in Figures 5 and 6, the arrangement of the
inlet and outlet is reversed as regards their communication with the
valve face. The inlet 1 communicates with the annular channel 3 and
the central opening 2 communicates with the discharge nozzle 4. The
water or other fluid has access to the space above the washer 5 by. a
small perforation over the channel 3, and it gets away from that spaco
by a perforation at the centre of the washer. The spindle 8 does not
require to be fixed to the washer 5 in this modification, but has a metal
disc 7 fixed at its lower end which closes the central perforation in the
washer. The cam piece 10 is shown as having a handle or thumb
piece 11 formed at one side of it as also indicated by dotted lines in
Figure 4. When the spindle 8 is raised it opens a passage for the water
or fluid from the inside of the cover 6 out through the central hole in
the washer, and then the pressure in the annular channel 3 lifts the
washer to its full open position. Afterwards on the spindle 8 being let
go the central hole is first closed, and the water or fluid entering the
space in the cover without getting away causes the speedy but not
sudden closing of the washer.
The spindle 8 may be lifted by means of any suitable one of the
various contrivances already known and in use for opening valves by a
lifting motion, and a swan neck may be jointed to the discharge part 4
of the stop-cock or valve, or any other convenient connection may be
made with the parts constituting my improved valvular apparatus.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention, and the manner
of performing the same, I have to state that I do not restrict myself
to the precise details herein described or delineated; but that what I
believe to be novel and original, and claim as the Invention secured to
me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,—
1. The combination of the diaphragm or washer (5) with the
spring (9), and with a space in the cover (6) above the diaphragm into
and from which space the water or fluid has ingress and egress,
substantially in the manner and for the purposes herein-before
described.

page_text: 2. The combination of the spindle (8) with the rolling cam piece (10),
substantially in the manner and for the purpose herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Anderson, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Ninth day of June, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
six.
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,
Glasgow.
JOSEPH ANDERSON. (L.S.)