US109734A - Improvement in flood-gates - Google Patents

Description

NATHANIEE HINGKLEY, OF vlllARS'IGNS MILLS, MASSACHUSETTS.

Letters Patent No. 109,734, dated November 29, 1870,' antedated November 26, i870 IMPROVEMENT IN FLOOD-GATES.

The Schedule referred to in these fetter-s Patent and making part of the same.

yTo all whom it may concern: Be it known that -I, NATHANIEL HrNcKnnY, of Marstons Mills, in the town and county of Barnstalble, in the State of Massachusetts, have invented `an Improvement in Flood-Gates for Dams as a security against freshets; and I do hereby declare that the following, taken in connection with the drawing which accompanies and forms partof this specification, is a description of my'invention sufficient to enable-those skilled in the art to practice it.

The object of my invention is to provide a novel means for automatically opening Hood-gates set in dams .made across streams, which shall operate to open such gates whenever, by rise of water, the pressure against the dams shall become so great as to endanger their stability. y

Gates are usually found in dams, hut they'are not made automatic in their action, and have to be raised byan attendant or watchman, and it sometimes occurs that, during `his absence, or in the night, a heavy rain so swells the stream that the increased pressure against the dam carries it, vor a part thereof, away, causing much loss and danger.

Small streams, particularly in hilly districts, are

`specially liable to sudden rise, and it forms a disagreeable part of the duty or business ofthe mill-owner or attendant, on stormy and tempestuous nights, to watch the rise ofthe stream, so as to be ready to raise the flood-gate if necessary, and to close it again to prevent loss of the headot" water which it is desirable to' maintain.` I

My invention consists in the combination ot' devices for automatically opening and closing flood-gates iu case of freshets, as hereinafter described.y

Figure l of' the drawing is afront elevation of a dam provided with antomatically-openin g and closing floodgates, depending for their action on the rise and fall of water back of the dam or in the mill-pond.

Figure 2 isa vertical section taken on the line a: x, through the ood- Tatc shown at the left of hg. 1.

Figure 3 is a vertical section taken on the line y y, through the dood-gate shown in the center of fig. 1.

- Figure 4 is a vertical section taken on the line z z,

through' the flood-gate seen at the right oi' fig. l.

arepresents the mill-pond, into which the stream discharges and accumulates. i

b Arepresents the dam, which has in its face or width, not shown in the drawing, a waste-way at about the height or level at which, under ordinary circumstances, it is desirahle'to keep the water, removable and interchangeable ush-boards being used at the waste-way to vary the water-level `within ordinary ranges, as is thecommon practice. i p

.The automatically-operating safety-gates c c' c" are -hung on pivots, and vibrate in opening from, and in made as a spout or trough, so that when the level ot" the water reaches the edges of the trough, where it is let into and secured to the gate c, the water will flow down the trough into the tank j, and will4 there act as a weight to open the gate and cause it to assume the position indicated in dotted lines, which opens an aperture through the dam, and relieves it from pressure by lowering the water-head.

The float e is xcd at such a position that Ithe water pi'esses it upward when it reaches a height at which it will flow into the tank f, and so aids the water-weight in the tank in starting open the gate,

The tank j is perforated with a small hole, through which the water in the tank will drainout after the head of water is lowered, so that it -ceases` to run through the trough into the tank, and when the tank is drained the pressure ofthe water fin the pond a will shut gate c, and keep it closed until such time as the head of waterlshall rise suliiciently to again act on the float c and runinto. the tank j, when the result'will he as before described.

lhus it will vbe seen that a gate so arranged is automatic in its operationin both opening andclosing, and it follows that thel services of a watchman or `:tn-attendant to open gates to preserve the dam from'v Y i being washed awayin time of' freshets, and to close them to prevent unnecessary waste ot' water, may bel dispensed with.

I claimv The trouffhed lever carr in@ a float at one end and a tank at the other, and connected to operating the gate at av point between the float and tank. substantially as shown and described. Y

' NATHL. HINGKLEY. Witnesses:

J. B. CROSBY, L. H. LATIMER.

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