IMPROVEMENTS IN HYDRANTS OR FIRE-COCKS
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Chrimes, of the Firm of Guest and Chrimes,
of Rotherham, in the County of York, Brassfounders, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN HYDRANTS OR FIRE-COCKS."
Sealed the 14th March 1865, and dated the 17th September 1864.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Chrimes at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents; with his Petition, on the
17th September 1864.
I, RICHARD CHRIMES, of the Firm of Guest and Chrimes, of Rotherbam,
in the County of York, Brassfounders, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN HYDRANTS OR FIRE-COCKS," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in the employment of a small valve in combination.
with a sluice valve in such a manner that when the sluice valve is open and:
the hydrant or fire-cock in use the small valve will be shut, and vice versa.
When the sluice valve is closed, the hydrant or fire-cock being out of use,.
the small valve is opened by a projection on the valve of the sluice pressing.
upon a lever, which is connected with the small valve, thus opening such small-
valve, and allowing the water to flow out of or escape from the elbow-pipe, so.
as to empty the same and prevent it from being frozen.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Richard Chrimes in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
16th March 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
CHRIMES, of the Firm of Guest and Chrimes, of Rotherham, in the County
of York, Brassfounders, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-eighth year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said Richard Chrimes, Her special license that I, the said
Richard Chrimes, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Richard Chrimes, my executors, administrators, or 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 law-
fully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN HYDRANTS OR FIRE-COCKS," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said Richard Chrimes, my executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 Richard Chrimes, 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, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings, and
to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say :-
. My said Invention consists in the employment of a small valve in combi-
nation with a sluice valve in such a manner that when the sluice valve is
open and the hydrant or fire-cock in use the small valve will be shut, and
vice versa. When the sluice valve is closed, the hydrant or fire-cock being
out of use, the small valve is opened by a projection on the valve of the sluice
pressing upon a lever, which is connected with the small valve, thus opening
such small valve, and allowing the water to flow out of or escape from the
elbow-pipe, so as to empty the same-and-prevent-it from being frozen.
And in order that my said Invention may be fully understood, I shall now

page_text: proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose I shall
refer to the several Figures on the Sheet of Drawings hereunto annexed, the
same letters of reference indicating corresponding parts in all the Figures.
:
Fig. 1 of my Drawings represents a side elevation and partial section of a
bydrant having my improvements applied thereto, and connected to a fixed
street-watering stand post, the sectional portion showing the hydrant valve
closed and the frost valve fully open, the stand post and hydrant being in.
consequence completely empty, and therefore not liable to injury from frost.
Fig. 1 represents an enlarged section of a portion of this hydrant, showing
more clearly the arrangement of sluice and frost valves. A is, the street stand
post provided with the usual screwed nozzle at B for the attaching of a bose;
C is the hydrant elbow, to which the stand post, is secured in any well-known
or other convenient manner. The communication between the elbow C and
the main or other water supply pipe at D is opened or closed, as required, by
the sluice valve E, operated upon in the usual manner. On the back of this
sluice valve there is formed a small projection a, which after the orifice of the
sluice valve is closed, and before such valve is completely home in. its seat,
presses upon the tail of a short lever b, the opposite end of which is connected
with the frost valve c, situate between the,sluice valve and the stand pipe, and
opens such frost valve so as to allow the stagnant water in the hydrant elbow,
and stand post to. flow off after the sluice valve has been closed. The pro-
jection a is so placed with regard to the lever b that the sluice valve will be
actually closed before the frost valve c is opened, whilst, on the other hand,
the frost valve c will be closed by its own gravity before the sluice valve is
opened, there being sufficient play in the sluice valve after its orifice is closed
to permit of the opening of the frost valve. It will thus be seen that by this
arrangement it is impossible to place the valves in such a position that both
will remain open, which position would cause an unnecessary waste of water
through the frost valve. d represents a screwed nozzle, to which a pipe may
be fitted for carrying off the waste water from the frost valve into a drain or
sewer. Precisely the same combination of sluice valve and frost valve, with
the means for opening and closing the same, is comprised in the various
arrangements of bydrants illustrated by Figs. 2, 3, 4, and 5, and therefore
I have not considered it necessary to illustrate the same in each of these
Figures, which are merely given in order to show the various forms and arrange-
ments of hydrants to which my Invention is applicable. Fig. 2 represents
a side elevation of a hydrant for stand pipe hose connections, with separate
street surface boxes F, G, shewn in section, the one covering the bydrant
opening screw, and the other the stand pipe hose connections. Fig. 3 is a

page_text: side elevation of hydrant for stand pipe hose connections with one street
surface box H, shewn in section, sufficiently large to cover both the bydrant
opening screw and the stand pipe hose connections; Fig. 4 is a side view of
hydrant for screw hose 'connections with separate street surface boxes F, G,
shown in section, one to cover the hydrant opening screw, and the other the
hose screw; and Fig. 5 is a side elevation of hydrant for screw hose connections,
with a single street surface box H, shown in section, sufficiently large to cover
both hydrant opening screw and hose screw.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried
into 'effect, I would observe in conclusion that I am aware that what are
called frost valves for emptying 'hydrants and stand pipes when the hydrant
valve is closed have been proposed and used, and therefore I lay no claim to
the exclusive use of such valves; but what I consider to be novel and original,
and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the herein-before in
part recited Letters Patent is, the application and use of a small supple-
mentary frost valve, combined with and operated by a sluice valve in such a
manner that the frost valve shall be opened after the orifice of the sluice
valve is closed, and closed before the orifice of the sluice valve is opened;
substantially as herein-before described and illustrated by my Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Chrimes, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Fourth day of March, One thousand eight
hundred and sixty-five.
RICHARD CHRIMES.
(L.S.)