IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PREVENTING THE ENTRANCE OF SEWER GAS INTO BUILDINGS
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Alexander Melville Clark at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 8th June 1880. A communication
from abroad by Albert Frederic Pflughaupt, junior, of Brooklyn, in the County
of Kings, State of New York, United States of America.
ALEXANDER MELville Clark, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex,
Patent Agent. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PREVENTING THE ENTRANCE
OF SEWER GAS INTO BUILDINGS." [A communication from abroad by Albert
Frederic Pflugbaupt, junior, of Brooklyn, in the County of Kings, State of New
York, United States of America.]
The object of this Invention is to furnish devices for preventing the entrance of
sewer gas into buildings, so constructed as to operate automatically to discharge
the sewage into the sewer.
According to this Invention a close iron tank is interposed between the waste
pipe and the sewer, into which everything passing through the waste pipe is
discharged. The lower end of the waste pipe should never extend so low as to
reach the contents of the tank, and should be as nearly vertical as possible and
without any traps, and should pass up through the roof of the building. With the
upper part of the tank is connected the inner end of a pipe open at both ends, its
upper end being at or near the surface of the ground, so that the warm air from
the tank may pass up through the waste pipe and may be replaced by fresh air.
There is an outlet in the bottom of the tank leading to the sewer which is closed
by a valve, the stem of which passes up through the top of the tank and through
both ends or heads of a cylinder secured to the top of the tank or to some other
suitable support. To the valve stem within the cylinder, in such a position as to
be close to the lower end of the said cylinder when the valve is closed, is attached
a piston which works watertight in the said cylinder. Two pipes are connected
with the upper and lower parts of the cylinder, so that the piston may be moved
down and up to close and open the valve in the tank by water pressure. The
other ends of the pipes are connected with a pair of three way cocks, the second
outlets of which cocks have two discharge pipes for the waste water leading down
into the tank, the third outlets of the three way cocks being connected with branch
pipes leading to the water pipe. The three way cocks are attached to the ends of
a shaft mounted in bearings in supports rising from the tank, so that they will
always move together, and they are so arranged that when one is adjusted to allow

page_text: the water to pass from the water supply pipe into one end of the cylinder, the
other will be adjusted to allow the water to flow from the other end of the said
cylinder into the tank. In the upper part of the tank is placed a spherical or other
shaped float, the stem of which passes up through a hole in the top of the tank and
in a bracket attached thereto, the movement of said float being limited by a collar
on the stem. A lever arm which is attached to a sleeve placed upon the middle
part of the shaft bears upon the upper end or head of the float stem, and the sleeve
is provided with an oscillating arm, to the outer end of which is attached a weight.
These arms should stand at such an angle with each other that when the end of
the one arm rests upon the float stem, the weight will be upon that side of the
sleeve, so as to hold the arm and sleeve securely in place. As the float rises in the
tank, the float stem raises its arm and turns the sleeve carrying the weight to the
other side of the sleeve where the weight drops against a stop. Another weighted
arm is attached to the shaft and passes through a slot in the sleeve, so that the
shaft may be turned to adjust the three way cocks by the movements of the sleeve.
When the lever arm rests upon the float stem, the weight of the second arm rests
upon a stop. These stops should be formed of or cushioned with rubber or other
suitable material to prevent jar and noise when the weights come in contact with
them. The slot in the sleeve through which the second weighted arm passes,
should be of such a length and so arranged that when the sleeve is turned by the
rise of the float, the weight of the first arm will be carried so far past a vertical
position that its gravity will be sufficient to raise the other weight and shift the
three way cocks. The three way cocks are so arranged that when the float stem is
pressed upon, the second weight rests upon its stop, one cock will be in position to
allow the water to pass through the pipes to the upper part of the cylinder and
hold the valve down to its seat by water pressure, and the other cock in position to
allow the water from the lower part of the cylinder to flow into the tank. When
the cocks have been shifted by the rise of the float, the cocks will be in position to
allow the water to flow into the lower part of the cylinder, and the water in the
upper part to escape into the tank, opening the valve therein by water pressure
and allowing the contents of the tank to flow through the outlet into the sewer.
To the upwardly projecting part of the piston rod are attached two arms of a
length a little greater than the radius of the cylinder, and furnished at the outer
ends with a vertical rod, the lower end of which has a guide which moves up and
down in a groove or way on the side of the cylinder to keep the rod in a vertical
position. This rod has three tappets secured adjustably thereto by set screws, and
as the piston moves upward, the two upper tappets strike successively two lugs or
pins attached to or formed upon the sleeve, so as to turn the same and bring the
lever arm which bears on the float stem and the weighted arm back to their former
position. As the piston nearly completes its upward stroke, the third or lowest
tappet strikes a pin on the cock shaft and turns the said shaft and adjusts the
three way cocks to their former position, again admitting the water to the upper
part of the cylinder and closing the valve at the bottom of the tank. The apparatus
is thus automatic in its action.
To prevent the water from being shut off from the lower part of the cylinder
before the lowest tappet has carried the weight past a vertical position, the holes
in the plugs of the cocks are extended upon one side, the remaining part of the
movement of the cock plugs being completed by the gravity of the weight.