US1013963A - Apparatus for controlling the condition of closed receptacles. - Google Patents

Description

APPARATUS FOR GONTROLLI E. B. SMITH. NG THE CONDITION APPLICATION FILED OUT. 3,

OF CLOSED REGEPTACLES. 1910.

Patented Jan. 9. 1912.

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s ATES EDWIN B. SMITH, OF FREMONT, OHIO.

APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING THE Specification of Letters Patent.

CONDITION OF CLOSED REGEPTACLES.

Application filed October 3, 1910. Serial No. 584,990.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWIN B. SMITH, a

citizen of the United States, and a resident of Fremont, county of Sandusky, and State of Ohio, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Apparatus for Controlling the" Condition of Closed Receptacles, of which the following is a specification, the principle of the invention being herein explained and the best mode in which I have contemplated applying that principle, so as to distinguish it from other inventions.

It has become more or less general, instead of burying dead bodies underground, to provide a mausoleum in which are constructed any number of separate vaults. The bodies are placed in these vaults and each vault is separately and hermetically sealed.

The present invention provides ap aratus for utilizing that method, whereby h e conditions within the vault may be controlled after it has been sealed vithout again opening the vault.

To the accomplishment of these and related ends, said invention, then, consists of the means hereinafter fully described and particularly pointed out in the claims.

The annexed drawing and the following description set forth in detail certain mecha nism embodying my invention, such disclosed means constituting, however, but one of various mechanical forms in which the principle of the invention may be used.

In said annexed drawings :-Figure 1 is axbroken side elevation, more or less diagrammatic, of a-vault equipped with my mproved apparatus; Fig. 2 is a vertical section of a check valve employed in the apparatus.

The separate vaults or receptacles may or may not be built in a mausoleum, but the installation will usually be eniplo ed in connection with each of a plurality o vaults or receptacles constructed in a mausoleum. Since each vault will betreated as a unit, however, I have indicated but one vault or receptacle 1 with its two adjacent vaults. I

At a convenient place near the vaultI connected with the vault near provide a pump of any suitable type.

The pump 2 is fitted with a piston 23 in which are placed the usual valves 24 which lie on the side of the piston opposite the inlet but seat toward the inlet. The pump 2 is shown as a force pump connected to an Patented Jan. 2, 31912.

inlet pipe, but obviously a suction pump in the return pipe will be just as effective. I furthermore provide at a convenient location a tank 3 into which depends a partition 4 reaching almost to the bottom of the tank, the partition itself being provided near its bottom with an opening 5. The only opening inthe tank is tightly closed by means of a plug 6. A pipe 7 leads from the outlet side of the pump 2 into the tank 3 and is provided with a suitable valve 8. A pipe 9 extends froni the tank 3 through the Wall of the vault 1 and is provided with a hand valve 10. The pipe 9 and other pipes which enter the vault 1, hereinafter referred to, are designed to be builtinto the vault when the latter is constructed so that after the vault is sealed it is absolutely closed, except for the openings through the pipes. An automatic check valve 11 is disposed in the pipe 9 and opens toward the vault 1. The check valve 11 and the valves 15 and 1S hereafter referred to are detailed in Fig. 2, and comprise a casing 25 provided with an inclined valve seat 26, a pivoted valve 27 seating thereon, and a removable cap 28. A pipe 12 connects pipes 7 and 9 around the tank 3 so that it forms a bypass around the tank, the pipe 12 being pro vided with a valve-controlled branch pipe 22 and with a hand valve 13. A pipe 1 1 with a valve. 21 extends from the vault 1 to the inlet side of the pump 2 and is provided with an automatic check valve 15 opening away from the vault 1. A pipe 16, haying any desired outer connection, is also con nected with the inlet side of the 1 to a suitable place of safety and is provided with an automatic check valve 18 opening away from the vault. A pipe 19 is the bottom "thereof and leads to any desired place of pump 2. Still another pipe 17 extends from'the vault safety, pipe 19 being provided with a hand valve 20.

In the operation of the illustrative apparatus herein described, the pump will be suitably supplied with any pressure-fluid. Any givensubstance which it is desired to admit into the vault will be placed in the receptacle 3 through the opening therein, and as the fluid is forced by the pump into the tank, the substance therein will impregnate the fluid, being thoroughly mixed by the currents induced in the tank by the par tition. This mixture will then be forced from the tank to the vault, and the check valve in the pipe 9 will automatically be forced open to admit the mixture into the vault. The current of the mixture will continue from the vault through the pipe 14, and the check valve therein will automatically open to permit such egress. The mixture is then led to the in et side of the pump where it begins its circuit over again. This circulation will be maintained for any desired length of time, whereupon the pump will be stopped and the valves 11 and 15 will automatically close air tight so that the vault will be just aseifectually sealed as if the pipes were not connected therewith. If, at any time it is not desired to utilize the tank 3, the pipes leading into and from the tank may be closed by their valves and the by-pass valve opened so that the circuit will still be complete, but will not include the tank. In such case, any desired substance may beintroduced into the circuit through pipe 22. If it is not desirable to force a circulation through the vault, the pipe 1a may be cut out, and pipe 16 connected, so that the vault maybe merely blown out, or a substance may be thus forced into the vault through pipe 22 and allowed to remain there for a time. If the generation of gas within the vault, or the pressure exerted by the pump through the circuit, creates excessive pressure within the vault, the excess will automatically open the valve 18 and the excess of the gas or liquid, as the case may be, will pass ofi through the pipe 17 to any suitable trap or other place of safety. When it is desired to drain the vault of any liquids therein, it may be done through the pipe 19.

The apparatus described herein, therefore, provides means by which a burial vault may be normally maintained with an air tight closure and yet allow the freest circulation therethrough of any substances which will modify or control the chemical or sanitary conditions within the vault.

Although for the purposes of illustration I have shown the apparatus permanently installed in connection with the vault, I do not mean to limit myself to such an installation. It is contemplated that the several vaults constructed in a mausoleuinwill have permanently connected with them the separate pipes including the check valves. The remainder of the apparatus, however, will preferably be mounted upon a truck so that it may be readily moved to a position near any given vault and the desired connections there made with the pipes permanently installed in the vault.

Broadly speaking, therefore, my invention provides for treating the dead body after it is hermetically sealed, and for purifying and modifying the conditions surrounding it without exposure, and with safety to the living.

My invention will also be found useful in testing crypt construction and in locating the defects or leakages, if any, before or after the placement of the body therein, and foreleaning pipes thereto connected.

Other modes of applying the principle of my invention may be employed instead of the one explained, change being made as regards the mechanism herein disclosed, provided the means stated by any of the following claims or the equivalent of such stated means be employed.

1 therefore particularly point out and distinctly claim as my invention 1. In apparatus for controlling the condition of closed receptacles, the combination of a closed conduit circuit including a receptacle and a pump, and means normally closing the conduit adjacent the points at which the receptacle is connected in the circuit, said means being adapted to be opened by fluid pressure upon the operation 01. said pump.

2. In apparatus for controlling the condition of closed receptacles, the combination with a closed receptacle, of a closed tank, a first pipe leading into said tank, a second pipe leading from said tank to said receptacle, a third pipe leading from said receptacle, a pump connected with said first and third pipes, and valves disposed in the sec- 0nd and third pipes, said valves being normally closed and being adapted to open on operation of said pump.

3. In apparatus for controlling the condition of closed receptacles, the combination with a closed receptacle, of .a closed tank, a first pipe leading into said tank, a second pipe leading from said tank, to said receptacle, a third pipe leading from said receptacle, a pump connected with said first and third pipes, valves disposed in the second and third pipes, sald valves being normally closed and being adapted to open on opera-- tion of said pump, and a plpe connected with said first and second pipes and arranged to form a by-pass around said tank.

4. In apparatus for controlling the condition of closed receptacles, the combination with a closed receptacle, of a pump, a conchit l'eaaing from time outlek side 01%? said Sigmd by me, this 29 ciay 0;? Septemlbexy puglp t3 said. recepmcie, a chick-valve in M10. sai co'n' uitQ enin toward sai ICEEE me a, 1 m "1" a second con uit le ading framsaid ecap- EDWIN 15 male to film inlet sidm of saii plmap, and a, Attasted bycheckwmiva in said second mew-a owning MARGARET HUNT, from said receptacle. HARRY GARN.

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