IMPROVEMENTS IN STOP-COCKS OR VALVES
Year: 1856

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William McCulloch and Thomas
Kennedy at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
"Petition, on the 31st December 1856.
$
We, WILLIAM MCCULLOCH, of Kilmarnock, in' the County of Ayr, North
Britain, Plumber, and THOMAS KENNEDY, of the same Place, Water' Meter
Maker, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN STOP-COCKS OR VALVES," to be as follows, that is to say -
This Invention relates to the arrangement and construction of stop-cocks or
valves intended for the regulation of the flow of water, steam, and other
liquids and aeriform bodies, in such manner as to insure fluid tightness, and a
general satisfactory working action. As adapted for use in common domestic
stop-cocks, the details of the improved apparatus consist' of a main shell or
enlarged tube forming the reception chamber for the water coming from the
main, by a lateral branch by which the shell is screwed on to the main.
This shell or chamber is open throughout, and it has near its back end an
internal shoulder for sustaining an elastic washer or disc of any suitable elastic
material, such washer being of a diameter to fill the bore of the chamber,
whilst it is set up in position by an end screw plug. The opposite or front
end of the chamber is screwed internally for the reception of an external screw
formed upon the moveable discharging branch of the stop-cock. This dis-
charging branch has its inner entered end plainly squared off, and it is so
contrived, that when screwed up in the internal screw or nut of the main shell,

page_text: this squared end comes in forcible contact with the elastic end disc or washer
already alluded to. The branch is encircled by a cup piece or disc of some
soft or elastic material, for the purpose of making a tight junction with the
front end of the main chamber where it is entered, this cup piece being
covered and set up by a milled edged washer or dise screwing on to the outside
end of the main shell. The discharge branch is of considerably smaller
diameter than the bore of the main shell, so that the water from the main has
free access all round it, the lateral branch from the main being connected at a
part of the shell between the internal shoulder at one end and the screwed or
nut portion at the other. The outer projecting end of the discharge branch is
of course curved in the usual manner. When the user turns the curved end
of this branch in one direction, the screw action forces the open inner squared
end of the entered portion of the branch hard up against the elastic end
washer, so as most effectually to prevent the access of water from the main
shell into the open end of the branch; but when turned in the reverse
direction, the screw action withdraws the pipe end from its elastic face, and
and permits the water to enter the open end and flow right out by the curved
branch.
This stop-cock can be made to discharge water at any part of the revolution
of the discharge branch, by setting up the end elastic washer more or less, as
may be required.
This stop-cock or valve may obviously be modified in various ways, and
fitted up with various details, as may be demanded under the special cir-
cumstances of its application.