US11184A - Ventilating- sewers - Google Patents

Description

UNYDED y STArns PATENT ernten ENOCH THORN, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

VENTILATING sEwERs.

To aZZwwm t may concern.'

Be it known that I, ENooH THORN, of the city and county of Philadelphia and State of Pennsylvania, have invented or discovered a new and useful Improvement in the Method ot Relieving Common Sewers from Compressed Air, and Thereby Preventing Them from Bursting or Choking; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, 'and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which-.

Figure l, represents a transverse section, and Fig. 2, a top plan, with a portion broken away to show the parts underneath it.

Similar letters in both figures denote like pfarts.

I am fully `aware that a flap valve has been used at the end of a sewer, whichoperates precisely like a tide gate, but such contrivances cannot relieve a sewer from the pressure of air, to which on more flat locali-` ties, they are subject, and which may come first from one direction and then from another, while such flap valve` can only open in The cause of the bursting `of sewers under' the accumulated pressure of air within them is this, that the main sewer may lill up at the upper and the lower ends at the same time, while the space between the ends is filled with air; the descent of the water by its accumulated weight behind this column of air, compresses it, until the sewer must give way, it having no escape or else the water must be driven out into the streets through the inlets. It will not do to allow the air to escape through the inlets into the sewer, because then you are subject to the escape of the foul air at all times. Besides to attempt to let it escape at that -point would destroy the cess pool, and cause another evil almost as great as the one I propose to cure, by allowing everything to pass into the sewers, which are liable to be choked up by such means, and can only with the greatest l.

trouble and expense be cleaned, and would cause an unendurable stench.

`No provision, that I can learn, has ever been essayed for overcoming this evil, until I first applied the self-acting valve. Now I am aware that a weighted or self acting valve has been used in a variety of ways, but I do not claim a self acting valve, independent of its application, as thatis, and has been for years, common property, but I have made a new and useful application of a self acting valve, to a newI and useful purpose, one to which it has heretofore never been applied, and I have by so doing made an invention to all intents and purposes under the most rigid construction of the patent laws.

rIhe nature of my invention relates to the application of a spelt1 acting valve to a common sewer, for the purpose of allowing the sewer to relieve itself of the compressed air which at times accumulates in it, so as t0 prevent the bursting up of the sewer, or its overflow.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to de- .scribe the same with reference to the drawings.

The sewer with its inlets, bridges, cess pools, drip stones, &c., may be constructed in any of the well known methods, the application of my invention to them not involving any change of construction, or taking from them any of the waterway, `on the contrary by relieving the sewer of the air, I give to it its very Jfullest capacity for the transmis sion of water, by relieving it of the air. The laperture in which I .arrange the self acting valve is made in the crown of the arch of the common sewer, in which* A, is the valve box, extending up to a level ,with the pavement of the street.

B is a valve fitting snugly therein at the top and on a level with the pavement, to which is attached a connecting rod C, on its underside, said rod extending down far enough to be operated by the counterbalanced lever E. The rod C, is jointed at c, and provided with check nuts e e, which limit the opening of the valve, by striking against the guide bars D, D, which keeps the rod in proper p-lace. The counterpoise lever E, aids in opening the valve and by regulating its weight, the valve may be made to rise when the pressure inside of the sewer amounts to a pressure oit' one, or more common sewer, for the purpose of allowing the sewer to relieve itself of the compressed air, which 'at times accumulates in it, so as to prevent the bursting of the sewer, or of its 15 overflow into the streets, substantially in the manner set forth.

ENOCH THORN.

Witnesses:

M, O. B. KENNEY, C. HAIGHT, Sr.

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