New or Improved Apparatus or Appliances for use with Drain Plugs or Stoppers.
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 16th June, 1898-Accepted, 16th July, 1898
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
New or Improved Apparatus or Appliances for use with Drain Plugs
or Stoppers.
We, ROBERT GEORGE LAING BURN, JOHN DAVID BURN, and LEWIS ALEXANDER
BURN, of 23, and 24, Charing Cross, Whitehall, in the County of London, Sanitary
Engineers, 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:-
Our invention relates to new or improved apparatus or appliances for use with
drain plugs or stoppers, such as are composed of inflatable bags, by which such
stoppers can be applied to drains delivering into traps of the type of the "Buchan
trap," it having been heretofore difficult to place the stoppers into position in
these traps, because they are frequently located at a considerable distance down
from the surface of the ground.
In order to effect the placing of such a stopper according to our invention we
provide an apparatus or appliance which we insert through the ventilating shaft
of the drain, the appliance having means by which the position of the drain to
the plugged can be ascertained; the apparatus is now drawn up and the inflatable
bag having been fixed to the end thereof, is lowered to the required depth, ascer-
tained by the previous operation.
The bag is next partially inflated and it is forced laterally into the drain by a
sideway motion which is mechanically communicated to the lower end of the
apparatus.
In order that our invention may be more readily understood we will now
describe with reference to the accompanying drawings an example of the afore-
said apparatus or appliance.
Fig. 1 is a side elevation and Fig. 2 is an end elevation shewing the lower end
of the apparatus or appliance. Fig. 3 is a sectional side elevation of a "Buchan "
trap shewing in side elevation our apparatus and inflatable bag in position, this
being drawn to a smaller scale than the previous figures.
The apparatus is composed of a metal rod A having a clip A' at the lower end
to hold the metal connection B of an inflatable bag C, the upper end of the rod A
being screwed for the connection thereto of an ordinary malacca drain rod D the
latter being shown at Fig. 3. On the metal rod A we provide laterally project-
ing guides E E, to receive an operating rod F capable of motion parallel to the
rod A; the upper end of the rod F is screwed to receive ordinary malacca drain
rods G (Fig. 3) while the lower end is bent somewhat and pivotted at F¹ to a
connecting link H, which in its turn is pivotted to about the centre of a lever
arm J the latter being jointed at one end to the metal rod A near the lower part
of same.
The lever arm J may be extensible in length to suit ventilating
shafts of varying diameter.
From the metal connection of the inflatable bag a flexible tube K extends by
which the bag can be inflated.
The apparatus is inserted through the ventilating shaft with the lever arm J

page_text: turned at about right angles to the rod A and directed towards the drain to be
plugged, and by the entry of the end of the arm into the drain opening the depth
at which same is placed can be ascertained, and a mark made on the rods Dat
the ground level.
The apparatus being withdrawn the inflatable stopper is attached and pushed
down the ventilating shaft until opposite the drain to be plugged. Air is then
pumped into the bag C by the tube K, and as it becomes inflated it is pushed into
the drain by the depression of the rod F Fig. 1, which acts through its link H
to move the lever J from the position shewn at Fig. 1 to that shewn at Fig. 3,
and the end of the lever arm J coming into contact with the side of the ventilating
shaft the lower end of the apparatus is moved laterally and the partially inflated
bag is pushed into the drain after which it is fully inflated and the drain is
ready for testing.
After the test the operating rod is pulled up, thus releasing the lever, and the
bag is easily withdrawn by deflating same and turning the rods slowly round thus
expelling the air, when the apparatus can be drawn up the ventilating shaft.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what we claim
is:-
1. For inserting drain-stoppers, of inflatable bag type, through ventilating
shafts, into drains which run at an angle to the said shafts (such for example as
illustrated), an apparatus or appliance having means for attaching the bag to the
end thereof for insertion down the ventilating shaft, a tube for inflating the bag,
and mechanical means whereby the lower end of the apparatus can be moved
laterally within the ventilating shaft, and the bag thereby forced into the drain
to be afterwards fully inflated and the drain stopped thereby, substantially as set
forth.
2. An apparatus or appliance for inserting drain-stoppers of inflatable bag type
through ventilating shafts into drains which run at an angle to the said shaft,
consisting of a supporting rod, a clip on the end of the rod to carry the drain-plug
or stopper, an operating rod carried in guides on the supporting rod, a lever arm
pivotted on the supporting rod, and a link pivotted at one end to the operating
rod and at the other end to the lever arm, whereby the latter can be moved into
contact with the ventilating shaft, to force the lower part of the apparatus later-
ally, and thereby insert the plug into the drain, substantially as and for the
purpose herein before described.
3. The construction and combination of parts composing our apparatus or
appliance, for use with drain plugs or stoppers and whereby the position of the
drain in the ventilating shaft can be ascertained and the plug afterwards inserted,
all arranged and acting substantially as described with reference to the
accompanying drawings.
Dated this 16th dow of Iun 1000