US1028373A - Pressure-medium container. - Google Patents

Description

H. M. MGGASLIN.

PRESSURE MEDIUM CONTAINER.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 2, 1909.

1, 02,373 Patented June 4, 1912.

2 SHEETSSHEET 1.

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PRESSURE MEDIUM CONTAINER. APELIOATION FILED JUNE 2, 1909.

1,028,373 Patented June 4, 1912.

2 SHEETS SHEET 2.

UTED STATES HARRY M. MCCASLIN, OF ELMIRA, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR T0 AMERICAN-LA FRANCE FIRE ENGINE COMPANY, OF ELMIRA, NEW YORK, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

PRESSURE-MEDI UM CONTAINER.

Patented June 4, 1912.

Original application filed February 21, 1908, Serial No. 417,150. Divided and this application filed June 2,

1909. Serial No. 499,808.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HARRY M. MoCAsLIN, a citizen of the United States, and resident of Elmira, in the county of Chemung and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Pressure- Medium Containers, of which the following is a specification.

My present application constitutes a division of my prior application, entitled fireextinguishing apparatus, filed February 21st, 1908, Serial No. 417,150 Patent No. 995,978, issued June 20, 1911. In said prior application I have described and claimed a fire extinguisher provided wlth a novel form of pressure medium container, and the container itself forms the subject matter of the present invention.

While this container is primarily designed and suited to form a portion of a fire extinguishing apparatus, it will of course be understood that it is capable of more general use and may, in fact, be employed in any apparatus where it is desirable to apply pressure in this manner.

For the .purposes of illustration I shall show and describe the container as applied to fire extinguishing apparatus.

In the drawings Figure 1 is a sectional elevation illustrating the container, or cart-ridge, as it is commonly termed in this art, applied to the device for charging it. Fig. 2 is a transverse sectional view taken on the line II-II of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is an underneath view of the operating stem shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a top View of the sealing nut. Fig. 5 is a sectional elevation of a slight-1y modified form of cartridge shown applied to adjacent parts of a fire extinguisher top. Fig. 6 is a sectional elevation illustrating this form of cartridge and the charging device, and Fig. 7 is a side view of the sealing nut preferably used with this form of cartridge or container.

One form of cartridge is shown at 17, of cylindrical form and consisting of a drawn steel tubing, permanently sealed at the bottom as by means of they welded bottom disk 18. A centrally apertured disk 19 is fastened to the upper end of the cylinder and is centrally screw threaded to receive a neck 20 having the central supply and discharge orifice 21. In the side of the neck 20 is a charging socket 22, screw threaded to receive the charging pipe 23 (see Fig. l), which may be connected to a supply of carbonic acid under high pressure. Central of the neck 20 is a chamber 24 communicating with the socket 22 as most clearly appears in- Fig. 1. It will be most convenient to first describe the means of charging the cartridge.

When a cartridge is to be charged, the socket of the neck 20 is screwed upon the end of charging pipe 23, bringing the socket in communication through the passages 25, 24, 21, with the interior of the cartridge. A sealing nut 26 is screwed into the internal screw thread of the upper end of the neck 20 and has attached to its lower end and sealing its axial chamber 27 a brass disk or diaphragm 28. It will be seen that when this sealing nut is in the upper position shown in Fig. 1, the chamber 24 is open to both the passages 25 and 21 and the char mgv pipe 23 is thus in communicationwit the cartridge, but when the sealing nut is screwed down the sealing disk 28 covers both of the passages 25, 21, and effectually seals the cartridge. An annular lead gasket 29 placed on the bottom of the chamber 24 with apertures in the line of the passages 25, 21, perfects the sealing action of the disk .28 when the sealing nut is down. I do not, however, detpend entirely upon the sealing nut 26 and isk 28- when. filling or charging the cartridge, but by preference attach to the neck a filling cap 30 having the internal screw thread engaging an external thread on the neck 20, and seating when screwed down tight, against a lead gasket 31, interposed between its lower edge and a shoulder 011 the said neck. An operating stem 32 extends axially through the filling cap and throu h a stufiing box 33 thereon, and is p-rovi ed'at its upper end with a nut or paned surface 34, and at its lower end within the chambered portion of the cap with a head 35, fitted to engage rectangular or otherwise paned exterior of the sealing nut 26.- When the filling cap is applied to the neck of the cartridge and the latter screwed upon the filling pipe 23, the operating stem 34 is turned to raise the sealing nut 26 to the position shown in Fig. 1, thus opening the communication between the pipe 23 and the cartridge and carbonic acid gas under suitable pressure is supplied thereto under control of any usual or preferred valve mechanism. When a sufficient quantity of carbonic acid in compressed or liquid" form has entered the cartridge, the supply is stopped, the stem 32 is turned in reverse direction, the sealing nut turned down so as to force the sealing disk 28 tightly against the upper ends of passages 25, 21, and the fillin cap and stem may now be removed and t e cartridge removed from the filling pipe 23, leaving the cartridge thoroughly sealed and in form suitable for use or Shlpment.

In Fig. 5 a cartridge is shown applied to the extinguisher for use. Before the head or cover 7 is applied to the extinguisher, the neck 20 of the cartridge is screwed within the neck 10 of said head, in which position the lower end of a sliding stem 37 engages within the chamber 27 of the sealing nut, bringing the teat 38 on 1t s lower end immediately above the sealing disk 28. The stem 37 has a head 39 with a sufliciently broad upper surface to enable it to be struck sharply by the hand without discomfort.

when its lower end is to be used for perforating the disk. The stem has a sufficiently loose fit in the axial opening 40 of the head 7 to enable gradual changes of pressure occurring in the extinguisher to communicate with suflicient freedom through said axial seat, and thus prevent that gradual evacuation, or siphoning of the extinguisher which would be caused by repeated changes of pressure of the confined air in the extinguisher due to temperature changes. The stem has the enlarged portion 41 immediately above the teat 38 substantially filling the cross sectional area of the chamber 27 so that when the stem has been struck smartly down and the disk 28 perforated and the confined gas within the cartridge forces its way upthrough the aperture in the disk and against the lower endof the stem and the tapered lower surface of the enlargement 41, the stem will be thrown up to clear the teat 38 from the sealing disk and force the upper or shouldered surface 42 of the enlargement 41 against the lower end of the axial seat 40. The engaging surfaces of the shoulder 42 and the lower end of axial seat 40 are preferably made with a ground joint so that at this point the extinguisher is effectually sealed to prevent the escape of the confined pressure, which is all thus directed to operation, through the openings 11, on

. the surface of the extinguisher fluid.

It will be seen that the apparatus explained is capable of subjection to the highest tests to obtain a suflicient safety factor, to which end the cart-ridge, after assembling and attachment of the neck, is subjected in practice to a heavy hydrostatic pressure of say six thousand pounds to the square inch. When the sealing nut with the disk seal have been introduced, they are tested to a hydrostatic pressure of say thirtyfive hundred pounds, the purpose being to have the sealing disk set at such strength as to yield first to undue expansion and correspondingly high pressure within the cartridge so as to allow the gradual escape of the contained pressure within the cartridge and avoid a rupture of the main body thereof which might be dangerous. The disk seal, therefore, acts as a safety blow-out, as a permanent seal, as a temporary seal during charging, and as a means for gradually letting off the pressure into the extinguisher when the latter is put in use.

In a preferred embodiment of my invention shown in Figs. 5, 6 and 7, the transfer of the filling socket from the cartridge neck to the filling cap, enables the shortening of the neck and the simplifying of its construction somewhat. As shown here, the cartridge neck 20 is made without a filling socket and shortened in height. This construction does away with the port 25. The socket 22 is made in the filling cap 30 (see Fig. 6), and when the filling pipe 23 is connected thereto and the pressure turned on to fill the cartridge, the fluid finds its way from the interior of the cap 30 down between the outer walls of nut 26 and the inner face of its seat in the neck 20the outer wall of the nut being to this end preferably made with one or more paned surfaces or ports 25 (Fig. 7) to permit the passage of the fluid from the upper part of the filling cap to the chamber 24 within the neck 20 below the diaphragm 28, and thence to the interior of the cartridge. Furthermore, the diaphragm being only attached at one point (or at two diametrically opposite points), by a drop of solder, to the under surface of the nut 28, it will readily permit the fluid to pass downward by bowing as shown in Fig. 6, while the filling is going on, and thus enables the fluid, which reaches the chamber 27 of the nut by passing through the loose fit between the head of the nut 26 and the wrench head 35 of the filling stem 32, to pass on to the cartridge. Further free passage of the fluid to the interior of chamber 27 is preferably supplied by apertures 25 through the wrench head 35.

It will be apparent that while I prefer to use all of the devices shown for insuring the passage of fluid from the interior of the cap, to the interior of the container 17, some may be used without the others.

With this form of the invention, the operation of filling and sealing the cartridge is performed in the same way as with that first described, but it will be seen that when the sealing nut is turned down it only seals the one passageviz., that leading into the cartridge body. A considerable saving of cost and additional simplicity of construction and certainty of operation are effected by putting the filling connection only on the relatively few filllng caps at the charging station instead of on all the cartridges sent out with individual extinguishers.

While I have shown and described certain forms of my invention, it is obvious that the same may be modified in many ways without departing from the essential principles thereof which are set forth in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A device of the character described, comprising in combination a container for compressed fluid, having a fluid passage, a sealing nut therein having a recess forming a continuation of said fluid passage, and a puncturable sealing diaphragm constituting a control valve carried by said sealing nut and seated and unseated thereby to close and open the container during charging.

2. A device of the character described, comprising in combination a container for compressed fluid, having a fluid'passage,

a sealing nut therein having a recess forming a continuation of said fluid passage, a puncturable sealing diaphragm controlled by said sealing nut and seated and unseated thereby to close and open the container during charging, a filling cap adapted to be secured upon said container to prevent the escape of charging fluid into the atmosphere during charging, and an operating member fon said sealin nut, having its operating head disposed wlthin the filling cap and its operating stem extending through the filling cap to a point without. I

3. Apparatus of the character described, comprislng in combination, a container for compressed fluid having a fluid passage, a sealing nut having a fluid passage in communication therewith, a sealing diaphragm controlled by said sealing nut to establish or close communication between said passages and a filling cap having an interior chamber communicating with said sealing nut passage and having means of connection with an external source of compressed fluid.

4. Apparatus of the character described, comprising in combination a container for compressed fluid havinga fluid passage, a seahng nut having a fluid passage 1n communication therewith, a sealing diaphragm controlledby said sealing nut to establish or close the communication between said passages, a filling cap having an interior chamber communicating with said sealing nut passage and having means of connection with an external source of compressed fluid and an operating member for said sealing nut having its operating head disposed within said interior chamber of the filling cap and its operating stem extending through the filling cap to a point without, whereby said sealing nut may be operated vduring the charging of the container to control said sealing diaphragm.

HARRY M. MoCASLIN.

Witnesses:

A. E. RHODES, WM. B. EDSON.

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