US1902758A - Flush-tank lever - Google Patents

Description

March 21, 1933. w CAMPBELL 1,902,758 I FLUSH TANK LEVER Filed March 2, 1951 Patented Mar. 21 1933 PATENT v OFFICE v WILLIAM B. CAMPBELIL, or NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE,

'FLUSH-IANK LEVER Application filed March 2, 1931. Serial No. 519,670.

My invention relates to an improvement in flush-tank levers.

The object of my invention is to insure prompt closing of the valve of the tank upon flushing the bowl. 7

A further object is to provide mechanism which is altogether practical and very simple to manufacture, and which can be produced as cheaply as the flush mechanism now on the market.

WVith these objects in view, this invention consists in a flush-tank lever composed essentially of three separate parts and combining. the principles of the rotary type lever and the double-acting type lever with a non-hanging feature. Combined with the lever is a revolving means studded with projections, a lever-arm and a reversible cam. The projections on the rotating means press down on the fixed cam, causing the lever to lift, and the projections press against the cam along its sloping surface until the high point of the lever is reached where the edge of the projections meet an edge on the cam and immediately starts the lever downward.

The passing of the two edges constitutes the non-hanging feature of the lever action.

In the accompanying drawing:

Fig. 1 is a view in side elevation showing the mechanism within the tank, a portion of the tank being shown in vertical section; and

Fig. 2 is a plan view, a portion of the tank being shown in horizontal section.

The numeral 1 represents a lever, which is fulcrumed through a pin 2 on the supporting-arm 3, which latter is secured within the tank in any approved manner, as for instance by means of the hollow bolt 4. A handle 5 has a stem 6, and a rotatable means 7 is rigidly secured to the stem 6 by a nut or other means 8. This rotatable means has a number of projections 9 thereon, four shown equally distant from one another,

and these projections are in position to traverse the edges of the cam 10 as viewed inFig. 1. I v Y i This cam 10 is rigidly secured by a setscr'ew 11 or otherwise to the short, goosenecked end of the lever 1. l r 1 It will be. observed that the cam, 10, has an edge 12, and it is the passage of the edge of one of the projections9 across the edge 12 that precludes the possibility of the lever everhanging, andby the time the edges I come together the lever has been lifted and the bowl has been flushed and the very weight of the lever 1 causes the edgesto slide back from point l2 on the cam, and the rotatable means to resume its normal position as shown in Fig.1. 7

A mechanism of this construction will not hang and hold the flush-valve up above the valve-seat, thereby l preventing the fiushvalve from returning and" seating itself 1 on the valve-seat and wasting water-as the present levers now on the market frequently do. On the contrary, theaction is perfeet, and the flush-valve always autoinatically returns to the -valve-seatwhen the tank is flushed as this lever has no dead center to cause it to h'angat any position.

By my construction I have acombination of the rotary principle and the double-acting principle all in one as applied to a flushtank lever; in short this device may be manufactured either as a rotary type, :a doubleacting type, or; as a combination of the, two types, either separately or collectively. 30

This change is. made: by loosening the set screw 11, removing the screw 14, whereupon the position of the cam 10 may be directly reversed by turning it through 180. This changed position of. the cam converts the 5 rotary lever into a double-acting lever. After having its position thus reversed, the screw 14 is inserted into a hole 15in the cam 10, which is now in registry with. a threaded hole 16 the lever which receives the screw 14. The set screw 11 and screw 14:

are now screwed tight until the cam 10 is rigid on the goose-neck of lever 1 in the position in which it has been adjusted.

The projection 13 on the cam is the means whereby the change is made from the rotary type to the double-acting type of lever.

The lever 1 is raised and lowered by pressing either right or left on the operating handle 5 located on the outside of the flush tank.

Whentheilever is used as a rotary leveror as a double-acting type of lever,-the' handle 5 will assume any of four positions as can be shown by drawing a straight line from center to center of any two of the "projections 9, and then starting from this straight line at a point one-half of the distance between any of the two projections 9, and drawing a straight line to the center of stem ,6. 'Tliis will show the four positions that the handle?) will assume in operating, when the lever is being used either as a rotary lever, o r 'a double-acting type of lever.

The action of the rotatable-means, with its projections coming in'contact with the "cam,involves a new principle of lever operation.

" When the lever is used as a double-acting lever, the handle 5 can assume any of fourpositions, namely-The position shown by handle5 in Fig. 1, or a po'sition'directly opposite this position, or hanging straight down, or straight up. By pushing down on the cam 10 until projection 13 on cam 10 is pushed down far enough to clear the projections 9, then by rotating handle 5- to any of .thef'our positions wanted, and then releasing the cam 10, the weight of the lever 1 willautomatically move the stop 13 on cam '10 to the position wanted, and it will then be ready for use by rotating the handle 5 accordingly as desired. It will only take a few seconds time to do this.

The lever can be used with ahandle shaped like a four-armed basin cock handle, or

shaped like a doorknob, instead of using a handle like the handle 5, shown in Fig. 1 of the drawing, I

While I have endeav'ored'to describe this invention as I have tested it out, at the same time, I do not wish to limit myself to the construction shown, the essential features being a flush-tank lever combining'the'prlnciples of the rotary type levers and the double-acting type lever with non-hanging features. Y Y

I particularly emphasize the following features, to wit:

(1') -'Means pressing down on the fixed cam causing the" lever to lift.

j (2 The edged means pressing against the camf along its sloping surface until the high point of the lever is reached, where the edge of the edged means meets the edge of the 'directiom'when used as having a stem-,"said stemhaving means thereon in position to engage and traverse the edges of the cam, the cam and said means 'having edges in position to meet and pass when the lever is actuated to prevent hanging, the projection formation on the cam acting as a stop, when the cam is properly set to limit the turn of the handle in either a double-acting lever. s 2. A lever mechanism for flush-tanks provided' witha lever, an'operatinghand'le, and a cam between the lever and handlea-"Iid having means thereon for convertinggthe operating handle from a rotary into a double-acting type of handle.

3. The combination of rotatablemeansya lever, a cam carried by the lever in the path WILLIAM B. CAMPBELLQV 595 of the rotatable means and rotatably-adjust-

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