US111358A - Improvement in disinfecting and ventilating burial vaults - Google Patents

Description

, No. 111,358. PATENTED JAN. 31, 1871.

15. L'YFORD. DISINPEOTING AND VENTILATING BURIAL VAULT.

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dlniirh first BENJAMIN F. LYFORD, or SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA.

Letters Patent No. 111,358, dated January 31, 1871.

IMPROVEMENT IN DlSlNFECTING AND VENT|LAT|NG BURIAL VAULTS.

The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making part of the same.

To all whom. it may concern:

Beit known that I, DR. BENJAMIN F. LYFORD, of. the city and county of San Francisco and State of California, have invented a. new and Improved Proccss oflVentilating and Disinfecting Gharnel Vaults; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full,

'clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawing forming a part of this specification, in which The Figure is a sectional elevation. One of the, greatest nuisances to which charnci vaults are subject is the presence in them of the noxious gases that exhale from the decomposition of the corpses deposited therein, and that escape from the caskets wherein such corpses are placed.

, These gases 'are extremely deleterious to human constit-utions, always exerting a banefnl effect upon those who enter the vault,- and ,sometirnes even rendering them insensible.

Nor is the injury from this cause confined to the limits of vaults, inasmuch as the gases escape out of the latter and poison: the. surrounding atmosphere,

producing much mischief especially where cemeteries are located within the .city limits, as they often are, so that the removal of this nuisance is a positive hygienic necessity.

The object of .myu invent-ion'is to .rprovide a direct means of communication between each cofiiu or casket stored in a charnel Vault and the external air, in order that the gases that proceed. from corpses may be conducted outside the vault without being able in any manner to diffuse themselves through its interior; and also to'provide a means for thoroughly disinfecting such gases during theirpassage from the casket in order that when they issue into. the external atmosphere they may be divested of every particle of noxiousmattcr. And I here state that I donot intend to limit myself to the devices hereinafter described for-accomplishing this object, but-reserve the right to employ any and all such mechanisms as may constitute the mechanical equivalents thereof.

Referring to the drawing, where is shown a vault of ordinary construction, and divided into separate compartments for the reception of caskets containing corpses-- a, are the caskets, each of which is fitted with a stop-cock, 1), opening into its interior.

0, are flexible pipes, that connect the cocks b with I cocks d, that open into a pipe, 0, placed in any convenient position with reference to the caskets;'said pipe being, preferably, inclined upward from, its middle toward each end, and being suitably connected at its extremeties with vessels f, placed above it and held in position by any suflicient means; the

said pipe, preferably, passing through the bottom of each vessel f and extending upward a little way within it.

The office of the pipe 0 isto conduct into the vessels f the gases discharged into it from'the several caskets through the flexible tubes 0.

The vessels f are furnished with diaphragms 9, consisting of perforated plates or strong wire-gauze 'which extend across the vessels above the mouths of the pipe c, and are, preferably, concave on their lower and convex on their upper sides.

Upon and covering the whole upper surface of each diaphragm is spread a piece of felt or other strong and porous material, and above the felt is located a'snitable quantity of some such chemical com,-

pound as will'servc t-o disinfect the gases poured into the vessel by the pipe 0.

The perforations and pores of the diaphragms and felt allow the gases to rise freely through them so as to percolate among the particles of the compound, and the office of the felt is to prevent the chemicals from falling downward through the diaphragms'.

Horizontal disks i are supported or suspended above the mouths of the pipe 0 for the purpose of deflecting the gases-as they pour out from the pipe beneath the disks.

Each vessel, f, should have a space, It, above its quantum of chemicals into which the gases, now completely disinfected, may rise. But the gases in the spaces is though divested of all the noxious matters derived from the corpses, are charged with chemical molecules, absorbed during their percolation through the disinfecting material.

To. force the gases fromsuch chemical molecules they are conducted through pipes Z into the lower part of a vessel, in, wherein the pipes 1 curve upward and meet at a common point of discharge, likewise furnished with a deflecting disk, Ki;

The vessel in is also provided with a perforated diaphragm and a superincumbent felt, above which latter is located a suitable quantity of some such compound as 'may serve to free the gases, during their ascent through it, of the molecules received in the vessels f.

The vessel on is provided with a verticahdischargepipe, 12, of sufficient height to create a strong draft from the caskets upward and discharge into the external atmosphere entirely purified the gases'that are generated in the corpses beneath.

The stop-cocks I) and d are provided, to enable fractures in the pipes c to be repaired without the discharge into the vault of gas, either from the caskets or pipe e.

The compound that is placed in the vessels f is carbolate of lime, andthat inthe vessel m is permanganate of potassium pulverized; to which add an equal hat I claim 41.8 new, and desire to secure by Let;

quantity of pulverized calcined bone. This is to preters Patent, isv vent (leliquescenee. The process herein described of ventilating and These are only two out of many compounds that; disinfecting chzu'ncl vaults.

may be used, and are recommended for their cliez p- Witnesses: B. 11. LYFORD, M. D.

ness and efficiency. SOLON U. KEMON,

Having thus described my invention, GEO. E. BROWN.

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