IMPROVEMENTS IN CEn
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Clement Walker and William Thomas
Walker, of the Midland Iron Works, Donnington, near Newport,
Shropshire, Engineers, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN CEntre
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Charles Clement Walker
and William Thomas Walker at the Office of the Commissioners
of Patents, with their Petition and Declaration, on the 12th April
1870, pursuant to the 9th Section of the Patent Law Amendment
Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, CHARLES
CLEMENT WALKER and WILLIAM THOMAS WALKER, of the Midland
Iron Works, Donnington, near Newport, Shropshire, send greeting.
WHEREAS we are in possession of an Invention for "IMPROVEDENTS IN
CENTRE VALVES FOR GAS PURIFIERS AND OTHER APPARATUS," and have petitioned
Her Majesty to grant unto us, our executors, administrators, and assigns,

page_text: Her Royal Letters Patent for the same, and have made solemn declaration
that we are the true and first Inventors thereof.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Charles Clement Walker &
William Thomas Walker, do hereby declare that the following Complete
Specification, under our hands and seals, fully describes and ascertains
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, 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 :-
This Invention has for its object and consists of a new method of
covering and protecting the faces of centre valves used in gas works from
dirt, grit, tar, combinations of carbon, napthaline, or any other
obstruction, injury, or deposit of any kind.
The Drawings first shew a centre valve known as C. & W. Walker's
Patent centre valve, as used to work four purifiers upon a gas works,
working a quarter turn at a time, three of the purifiers being always in
action and one always out of action for changing.
We select this kind of valve first only to illustrate our Invention more
clearly; but we would have it clearly understood, as indeed it will be
self evident, that this Invention is equally applicable to valves for
working a greater or less number of purifiers than four, and for horizontal
valves of every description.
To illustrate this more clearly we have shewn the Invention applied to
a horizontal four-way centre valve.
Drawing, Fig. 1, is a plan of the body or lower portion of the centre
valve for working four purifiers, shewing its partitions and surfaced
facings, from which it will be seen by the arrows that Numbers 1, 2, and 3
purifiers are in action, and that purifier No. 4 is off or out of action.
It is clearly understood by all who are familiar with the construction
of these centre valves that this result is obtained by the valve or upper
portion having its partitions and surfaced facings differently arranged to
the partitions and surfaced facings of the body or lower portion, so that
the gas can pass over the partitions of the body from the outlet of one
purifier or other apparatus to the inlet of the next or to the main outlet.
But in all centre valves, as heretofore constructed in accomplishing
what has been described above, some of the surfaced facings of the body

page_text: or lower portion have been uncovered and exposed for various periods of
time to the deposit of accumulations of dirt, tar, carbon, or napthaline,
or other obstruction, see Drawings, Figures 1, 2, 5, & 6.
There are some combinations of carbon or other obstructions in a gas
works, which are sometimes carried and deposited by the gas, that will
settle on the surfaced facing of a partition exposed as described during
the time that clapses before it is necessary to give the valve a quarter
turn to change a purifier, which is frequently one or two days, which
combination of carbon or other obstruction is of so hard and so slippery a
nature as to cause the valve in turning to ride over it and not throw it
off, and thus the valve is caused thereby to leak, as the surfaced facings
are no longer in air-tight contact, but separated from each other by the
dirt, carbon, or other obstructions referred to. To provide a perfect
remedy for this is the object of this Invention, and such remedy is
accomplished by keeping the surfaced facings of the body always
covered and never exposed for deposits of dirt, etc., to settle upon them.
This desirable result is obtained by casting or otherwise fixing bars
across the valve without partitions, these surfaced bars always completely
covering the surfaced facings of the partitions of the body air and gas
tight, see Drawings, Figures 3, 4, 7 & 8. Thus there is a surfaced bar
facing in the valve without a partition where required, so that the surfaced
facings of the body are completely covered up, and the gas passes over
the bar in the valve as though the bar had no existence.
The Drawings will explain it more clearly, and it will be clearly
observed that, except at the instant of changing a purifier or other
apparatus by the quarter turn, the surfaced facings of the partitions
of the body are always completely covered by the surfaced facings of the
valve by the addition of the surfaced facings of the bars, cast or otherwise
fixed in the valve referred to, as well as the surfaced facings of the
ordinary partitions.
Having thus described and set forth the nature and use of our said
Invention and the manner in which the same is or may be used or
carried into effect, we would observe in conclusion that we do not confine
ourselves to the precise details or arrangements which we have described
or referred to, as variations may be made therefrom without deviating
from the principles or main features of this Invention; but what we
consider to be novel and original and therefore claim as the Invention

page_text: 'secured to us by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the
entirely covering and protecting of the exposed surfaced facings of centre
valves from dirt, grit, tar, carbon, napthaline, or any other obstruction
or any other injury.
In witness whereof, we, the said Charles Clement Walker and
William Thomas Walker, have hereunto set our hands and seals,
this Second day of April, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and seventy.