Improvements in Flushing Sewers and Apparatus therefor.
Year: 1887

page_text: Improvements in Flushing Sewers and Apparatus therefor.
I, WILLIAM THOMAS, of Gallewm, Port Talbot, in the county of Glamorgan,
surveyor, 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:-
This invention consists in a system of tanks and syphons preferably placed below
the ground level and so contrived and arranged as to flush by a series of sudden
discharges or rushes of water a sewer to which the system is applied.
The water for flushing is supplied to a first tank by a pipe from any convenient
source, the supply being capable of control by means of a valve or cock. The
said first tank communicates by a syphon with a smaller tank placed at a lower level
than the first. From the top of the second tank there extends to the ground
level an open air pipe. The second tank communicates by a syphon with a smaller
tank placed at a lower level. This third tank is likewise fitted with an air pipe
extending to the ground surface. The third tank is connected with the sewer,
the connection being made at one side of the tank and towards the top of that side.
The connection constitutes a third syphon which, as also that which connects
the second and third tanks, is larger than that which connects the second and
first tanks.
The arrangement of tanks and their respective syphons is such that when the
water admitted to the first tank fills it, the syphon by which the first tank com-
municates with the second is brought into operation and the second tank becomes
charged with water. When the water has risen in the second tank to a level which
brings the larger syphon, by which it communicates with the third tank, into
operation, the water therein passes rapidly through it into the third tank and thence
by the third syphon into the sewer pipe.
As soon as the water falls in the third tank to a sufficient level, the air from the
air pipe passes into the syphon between that tank and the second tank and stops
the flow of water in that syphon. Meantime the second tank is being refilled from
the first, and, when filled, the flushing effect is repeated and continued at intervals
until the supply in the first tank is exhausted to a degree at which the action ceases.

page_text: Referring to the accompanying sheet of illustrative drawings, the figure shown
thereon illustrates an arrangement of apparatus by which this invention is carried
into practical effect.
The line indicates the ground level. To the tank a water is supplied by the
pipe p controlled by the cock or tap t. The tank a communicates by the syphon a¹
with the tank & situated, as shewn, at a lower level. An air pipe extends upwards
from the top of the tank b to the ground level.
с
An air
By the syphon 1, of greater capacity than the syphon a', the tank b communicates
with a third tank c which in turn communicates by the syphon c¹, of approximately
the same bore or sectional area as the syphon with the sewer pipe d.
pipe m extends upwards from the top of the tank c to the surface of the ground.
The flushing effect in the sewer is produced in the manner following:-When
the water supplied to the tank a has filled the tank, the syphon a' is brought into
operation, the water flowing rapidly through it into the tank b.
When the incoming
water rises in the tank to the level indicated by the dotted line shown therein
the syphon is brought into operation, and by it the water in the tank 6 is discharged
with a rush into the third tank e and thence by the syphon c¹ into the sewer pipe d.
When the tank has been emptied the water falls in the tank e to the level indicated
by the dotted line shewn therein. By the syphon c¹ the water continues to be drawn
from the tank c and the syphon becomes unsealed. The air entering from the
tank now closes the syphon b. Meantime the tank is being refilled from
the tank a, and when filled, as before, the flushing effect is repeated and so continued
at intervals until the supply in the tank a is exhausted.
A succession of sudden rushes of water is thus produced for flushing the sewer.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed I, declare that what I claim is :-
The combination of a series of tanks such as a, b and c (the last two furnished
with air pipes such as land m), connected by syphons such as a', and c¹, constructed
and arranged to afford a succession of sudden discharges of water into a sewer,
the syphons whereby the second and third tanks and the third tank and the sewer
pipe respectively communicate being of greater sectional area or bore than that
by which the first and second tanks communicate with each other, substantially
as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying sheet of illustrative
drawings.