IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR EMPTYING CESSPOOLS
Year: 1881

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Edwin Ambrose Brydges at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 18th March 1881. A communication
by Urban Götzenbrügger, of the City of Vienna, in the Austrian Empire.
EDWIN AMBROSE BRYDGES, of the Firm of Brydges & Co., Engineers &
Patent Solicitors, of 73, Koeniggraetzer Strasse, in the City of Berlin and German
Empire, and 6, St. Leonard's Terrace, Upton, in the County of Middlesex.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR EMPTYING CESSPOOLS." A communication
by Urban Götzenbrügger, of the City of Vienna, in the Austrian Empire.
This Invention relates to apparatus for emptying cesspools. In this apparatus
the matter to be removed is not drawn through the cylinder of a pump as hereto-
fore, but a vacuum is created by means of a double acting air pump in a vessel
intended to receive the night soil or focal matters. On opening a valve in this
vessel, the pressure of the atmosphere forces the matter into the same through a
pipe or hose connected with the vessel and reaching down into the cesspool. Should
the vacuum in the vessel not be sufficient and continued pumping be required to
fill the vessel, the air which is pumped out of the vessel, and which is charged
with foul gases may be driven by the pump into a furnace where it is purified by
heat.
For conveying the matter great distances, special railway cars may also be
provided, and the same pump be used for forcing the night soil from the common
wooden transport vessels into these railway cars. The pump belonging to this
apparatus is peculiarly constructed for this purpose. Besides being provided with
suitable check valves, it has a reversing cock connected with the latter by means
of which the pump may easily be changed from suction to pressure, and vice
vered. The pump is also provided with vacuum and pressure gauges for indicating
the vacuum or pressure in the tank or vessel operated upon.
The pump has motion imparted to it by treadles suitably connected to cranks
by connecting rods. A fly wheel provided with a balance weight regulates the
motion of the crank shaft. The whole apparatus, together with the furnace, is
mounted on a frame upon wheels.
The pump cylinder is secured to a frame, and in front of this cylinder and on
the same level a crank shaft is journalled in bearings, also secured to the frame.
On this shaft a fly wheel with balance weight is keyed. The shaft has three

page_text: cranks, which are so arranged with regard to each other that no two of the dead
centres can occur at the same time. Two of these cranks are connected by rods
to treadles, and the third crank to the piston.
In front of the fly wheel is placed a furnace for burning or purifying the foul
air produced by the pumping operation, and it is provided with suitable inlet and
outlet pipes.
The entrance and escape of the air into and from the cylinder is regulated by
four ball valves, only two of which operate at a time, one for suction the other for
pressure. From the valves there are channels leading into the cylinder and into
ports respectively. These ports are provided with flanges onto which a reversing
cock is secured. In this way two valves are always in correspondence with two
pipes which converge into the box of a cock having five ports, two of which lead
to the two pipes, the third to a pipe leading to a transport vessel, the fourth
into a pipe leading to the furnace, while the fifth communicates with the external
air. Into this box fits a plug provided with four ports or apertures which
correspond with four of the ports in the box; while the fifth of the latter is closed
by the web of the plug.
The transport vessel is of wood, barrel shaped, and provided with bands or hoops
not only on its outside but on the inside to resist the pressure of the atmosphere
when a vacuum is produced in the vessel. Within the upper part of this vessel a float
valve is placed, so that when the contents reach a certain height, the opening into
the pipe leading from the five-way cock will be closed.
On the head or end of the transport vessel is a gate valve consisting of a box
and slide; the latter is provided with a sharp cutting edge on its lower side, so that
it will on being closed cut its way through any obstacles which may be in the
valve. From the valve projects outwardly a short tube or nipple forming part of
a pipe or hose coupling. This tube is provided with an external double thread for
receiving a lock nut.
The aperture of this tube or nipple is conical. The counter part consists also of
a short tube or nipple tapering on one end so as to fit into the aperture of the
main portion. A nut slips over the counterpart nipple, as in an ordinary coupling,
and is provided with two inside clips or prongs fitting into the screw threads of
the main part, and two outside handles for screwing it tight. The two parts
fitting conically into each other make a tight joint, rendering a packing of any kind
unnecessary.