CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CON- STRUCTION OF COCKS OR TAPS FOR DRAWING OFF FLUIDS
Year: 1839

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
HANSON, of Huddersfield, in the County of York, Plumber and Glazier, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Seventh day of November, in the third year of Her reign, and
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine, did, for
Herself, Her heirs, and successors, give and grant unto me, the said George
Hanson, her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I,
the said George Hanson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and such
others as I, the said George Hanson, my executors, administrators, or assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CON-
STRUCTION OF COCKS OR TAPS FOR DRAWING OFF FLUIDS;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said George Hanson, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and
ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after
the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same,
reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, 1, the said
George Hanson, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference being
had to the Drawings hereunto annexed and to the letters and figures marked
thereon, that is to say:-
My improvements in cocks or taps for drawing off fluids are comprised
under the four following heads :-First, in certain peculiar constructions of
the barrels or cylinders of cocks and valves; second, a novel mechanism for
working the plug or cylinder of a valve or cock; third, the adaptation of
cupped leather packings to cocks or valves; and, fourth, a novel mode of
forming elastic metallic packings.
In the accompanying Drawings, Fig. 1 represents a longitudinal section of a
stop-cock; a, a, and b, b, are two tubes or cylinders connected together in the
middle by a screw extending from the end of one taking into the end of the
other, and having a leather collar and packing between. A flange at the outer
end of each cylinder is for attaching them to the conducting pipes through which
the liquor is to flow; on the outside of these cylinders a tube c, c, is made to
slide for the purpose of opening and closing the apertures or ways for the
flow of the liquor. This outer tube c is rendered tight on the outer surface
of the cylinders a and b by a packing of leather d, d, forced up to their
bearing by screw collars, and the tube c is slidden to and fro by the rotary
movement of an axle e and crank arm f. The handle or winch by which the
cock is to be worked being placed on the square end of the axle e, the crank
arm may be moved round in the arc shewn by dots. The end of the crank
arm f'is connected to a rod g, which moves upon a pivot in a stud h, fixed to
the flange of the cylinder a; hence, as the crank is moved in its arc to one or
other of its angular positions, the outer tube c will be slidden along the outer
surface of the cylinders. Supposing the sliding tube c to be in the position
shewn in the Figure, the liquor from the cylinder a will pass through the
lateral openings 2, z, into the cavity y, y, in the sliding tube, and from thence
will proceed through the lateral openings x, x, into the cylinder b, and flow
on by a conducting pipe to its destination. On bringing the crank arm f to
the reverse position the tube c will be slidden forward until the internal
flanges w, w, are brought up against the stop or packing i, i, when the flow
of the liquor will be cut off from the cylinder a, a, through the opening z, z,
and consequently the way of the fluid closed. Fig. 2 is also a longitudinal
section of a bib cock, in which the end of the cylinder is enclosed within a
tube b, b, and the sliding valve tube c is placed between them. A crank

page_text: arm f is worked by a winch or handle on the outside, which moves it in the
arc shewn by dots. The end of the crank is connected to the sliding tube c
by a rod g, and the tube c is thereby moved to and fro to open and close the
liquor. way from the cylinder a through the openings z, z, to the discharge
tube b, the end of the cylinder being stopped or closed. Fig. 3 is a longi-
tudinal section of another construction of stop-cock, something like Fig. 1, tho
cylinders a and b being in one piece and having a partition in the middle.
The liquor flows from the cylinder a through the lateral openings z, z, z, into
the outer tube c, c: This tube sliding on the outside of the cylinder a, b, has
two internal compartments y, y, and w, w, which are separated by the leather
packings v, v; confined between flanges as seen. In the position of the sliding
tube, shewn in this Figure, the waterway is closed, its passage from the
chamber y, y, being stopped by the packing leathers v, v, but when the outer
tube is slidden back so that the ingress passages z and egress passages x, x,
are both open to the chamber w, w, then the liquor flows freely through from
the cylinder a to the cylinder b, and onward. Fig. 4 shews another modifi-
cation of a stop-cock in which a straight cylinder a, b, is made to slide within
the pipes or tubes d, e, and the cylindrical box c, c, which connects the tubes
d, e, together. The sliding cylinder has lateral apertures z, z, z, com-
municating with the interior of the box c, c, and a stationary plug or
piston fis placed within the cylinder for the purpose of dividing it into two
compartments and occasionally stopping the, apertures z, z, so as to prevent
the liquor from flowing from the cylinder a into b. The plug or piston f
is held by an arm g, extending from a transverse bar h which is confined
across the end of the box c, and passes through an aperture in the cylinder.
In the arm g an axle i is mounted; which passes also through openings in
the cylinder, and carries a crank arm-k, connected by a rod to a bridge
piece m, fixed in the end of the sliding cylinder. The axle i, which extends
to the outside of the cylindrical box c, being turned, the crank arm will move in
the are shewn by dots, and cause the rod to slide the cylinder a, b, to and
fro. In this Figure the ways zaře shewn open; but when the crank arm is
in the reverse position, the apertures 2, z, z, will be brought against the plug,
and the flow of the liquor effectually stopped, by shutting up the communi-
cation between the box c and the further end of the sliding tube marked b.
My improved mechanism for working the plugs or cylinders of liquor cocks
is shewn in the Drawings at Figs. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. Figs. 5 and 7 are
external elevations of a cock, with the improved mechanism attached thereto;
Fig. 6 is a vertical section of the same. a, a, is the barrel cylinder of the
cock;. b; b, is the cylinder, which is made to move, up and down within the

page_text: barrel, between cupped leather packings c, c. The manner of raising and
depressing the cylinder is one of the subjects of novelty in this construction.
The upper end of the plug is attached to a rod e, which has a crosshead f, f.
above. From the outer part of the cylinder two arms g, g, extend, which are
hollowed, to form spherical sockets for the balls i, i, at the ends of the bent
rods h, h, and the upper ends of these bent rods are hooked on to eyes at the
ends of the crosshead f. The position of the cylinder shewn at Fig. 6 is
such as to shut off the liquor, that is, prevent its passing from the pipe k to
the nozzle ; but by turning the bent arms h, h, with the rod e into the
positions shewn in the external elevation and vertical section, Figs. 8 and 9,
the cylinder will be drawn up, as seen in Fig. 9, and the liquor, allowed
to flow through openings z, z, and discharge itself at the nozzle / below.
In the construction of large cocks I sometimes use a shorter cylinder, as
shewn in the vertical section, Fig. 10, and adopt a thimble or short tube m,
with a stem n, upon which the lower part of the cylinder 6 slides. The
advantage of this thimble is, that the lower packing leather is always kept
expanded and tight, for when the cylinder descends, its lower part presses
against the thimble and pushes it down, at the same moment that the cylinder
enters the packing, prevents the packing from collapsing, and when the cylinder
rises again the thimble is raised again by the stem n into the position shewn.
The third feature of my improvement is the adaptation of cupped leather
packings to the working parts of cocks and valves, either internally or
externally, not only in the situations shewn in the several Figures, but
wherever they may be applicable, which, when hardened by heat, I find to
be a more tight and enduring packing than any that has been heretofore
employed for the purpose of water or beer cocks.
Lastly, my elastic metallic packing is formed by binding a curved strip of
thin plate metal round a cone. Fig. 11 shews the form of a strip of thin
plate metal which I employ for producing my packing. The dimensions must,
of course, depend upon the size of the cone and of the cylinder in which it
is to be applied. Fig. 12 is a section of a cock or tap with two of these
elastic packings applied thereto at a and b, the packing a being for the
external packing of the cylinder, and that at 6 for the internal packing of
the same. Figs. 13, 14, and 15 are detached views of this improved packing.
Fig. 16 shews a method of protecting the packing from expanding when
lifting out the cylinder, either in leather or metal. Fig. 17 is a sectional
view, shewing the metallic packing and manner of working another hot water
or steam cock, the packing of which is wound round a cone commencing with
the small end, and concluding with the broad one. This packing I either use

page_text: alone, or in conjunction with any fibrous material firmly wove.
The outside
covering of the fibrous packing is cut circular, the inside one straight. The
two, when coiled to their proper diameters, are stitched together at the top,
and the metal slidden between them, and pressed to their place by the screw
tubes.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Hanson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Ninth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty
1.5.)
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Ninth day of April, in the third
year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, the said George Hanson
came before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged
the instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and
specified, in form above written. And also the instrument aforesaid was
stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the fifty-fifth year of
the reign of His late Majesty King George the Third.