US154941A

US154941A - Improvement in preventing shafts of water-wheels, gates

Info

Publication number: US154941A
Authority: US
Publication date: 1874-09-15
Anticipated expiration: 1891-09-15

Description

, H. S. AKI NS. Preventing Shafts of Water-Wheels, Gates, 8L0

-- From Freezing.

No. 154,941 Pa tente-d Sep't.15 ;1 i7-4..

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THE GRAPHIC CO. F'H OTULITH.39S 4| PARK PLACER],

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFIoE.

HENRY S. AKI NS, BERKSHIRE, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN PREVENTING SHAFTS 0F WATER-WHEELS, GATES, &c., FROM FREEZING.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 154,941, dated September 15, 1874; application filed August 10, 1874.

level, and exposed to freezing, and through which watergate rods or shafts, as well as the shafts of water-wheels, pass, as is the case in most ordinary saw and other mills; and the nature of my invention will be apparent as I describe it. V

Figure l is an elevation of my device in a flume, and represents it applied to a rotating shaft of a'water-wheel gate.

In Fig. 1, a is a hand-wheel, by which the partial rotation of the gate rod or shaft bis made in opening and closing the two-parted gate at at its base. This shaft or gate rod goes through the tube 0, (seen in section,) and which tube is filled, to any degree necessary, with kerosene, oil, or similar fluid which floats on water, and does not congeal by cold, nor mingle with the water, and thus the gate rod or shaft is prevented from freezing.

The ordinary water-level in the flume is at or near the top of the flume, which flume is represented as made by various planks, f, in the figure. The front of the bulkhead or flume is represented as made of the tonguedand-grooved planks f and to which the tube 0 is held by the metallic straps c and 0 The shaft b in the tube 0 is supported at the top by the metallic arm d and at the bottom by the metallic step 11 The water-passage c (seen partially in section) leads to the waterwheel. It is apparent that the gate d may be. changed for a water-wheel without violence to the device of the tube 0 or shaft b, the handwheel a being replaced by a pulley, by which to drive the machinery of a mill, or to a cogwheel for the same purpose. It is also clear that the shaft b is the same, substantially as described, when it is not in whole or partially rotated, but, by a hand-lever, is simply raised and lowered in the tube 0 and its non-freezing fluid, as is the case in my use of liftinggates. The tube a is carried above the water, as far as is necessary, to prevent the overflow of the kerosene-oil or other fluid, and as far below the level of the level of the water as the freezing extends, with also allowance for the variation of the level of the water in the flume or bulk-head.

Practice with my tubes shows that kerosene and crude petroleum float long on the water,

as does oil; that in a bulk-head or flume, for

example, nine feet deep, a tube may be filled two feet deep or more with these or other like fluids, and is a perfect prevention of the freezing.

The further advantages and uses relating to my invention, for shafts and rods in millraces and flumes or bulk-heads, are apparent to those skilled in the art to which it appertains.

I claim- 1. The tube 0, fixed immovably about rods or shafts, passing through water in raceways, flumes, and bulk-heads, in combination with the movable rods or shafts b and the nonfreezing fluid in the tube and about the rods or shafts, as set forth. V

2. The tube 0, about the rod or shaft b, with its lower end below the water-level line, and its upper end above the water, and filled in part or wholly with kerosene, oil, or other nonfreezing fluid, substantially in the manner and for the purpose set forth.

HENRY S. AKINS. Witnesses:

S. J. PARKER, D. TARBELL.