US2371152A

US2371152A - Device for exterminating rats

Info

Publication number: US2371152A
Authority: US
Publication date: 1945-03-13
Anticipated expiration: 1962-03-13

Description

March 13, 1945. J, coATEs DEVICE FOR EXTERMINATING RATS, ETC

Filed Sept. 30, 1943 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 A 5 m. a w m m w M m I J a m w w a w n INVENTOR. PORTER J. Con TES fi H L' IT I A I TOPNEYS March 13, 1945: P. J. coATEs DEVICE FOR EXTERMINATING RATS, ETC

Filed Sept. 30, 1943 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Mar. 13, 1945 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE DEVICE FOR EXTERMINATING RATS, ETC.

7 Porter J. Coates, Cleveland, Ohio Application September 30, 1943, Serial No. 504,464 Claims. ((01. 43-147) This invention relates a means for exterminating such pests as rats, mice, cockroaches etc. because of their damage to rugs, silks and other fabrics and furnishings. v V

Such damage is suffered especially in the sales rooms, show rooms and ware houses of large establishments that handle this line of merchandise; and, as will be quite obvious, valuable merchandise of this character may suffer irreparable damage from such cause in a very short time unless there be taken some precautionary measure against the same.

, The old use of traps on such a large scale is considered not to be at all feasible or practical for this purpose; and it involves too much labor to manually distribute poison at suitable points about the rooms that are infested by such pests.

Also, it should be observed that, in spite of modern-day manner of construction, these pests do find their way into practically all buildings that might attract them. p

7 Therefore, it is the object of this invention to devise a system that can be installed in a store building or the like for the purpose of distributing a powder form of poison to suitable points about the room or rooms of the building, and by which such distribution may be effected from one central point, as for instance the basement of the building where the operating means therefor is installed.

A more specific object is to devise such a system in which compressed air may be employed for forcing the powder form of poison through the same and in which there is provision to ensure equally efiective discharge of the poison at all points throughout the system.

Another object is to providesuch a system with means for selecting any one room at a time for distribution of the powder poison thereto and to the exclusion of all other rooms at that particular time.

Another object is to provide such a system with its parts so constructed and arranged that it may be operated in such manner as to keep the same in practically clean condition at all times.

-A-further object is to devise "such a system that can be manufactured and sold as a selfcontained equipment capable of installation in either a building that is already completed or one that is in process of construction, without requiring any alteration in the plan of the building itself.

Other objects will appear from the following description and claims when considered together with the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic vertical view of my system;

Fig. 2 is a horizontal view of a part thereof;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged view of the discharge outlets on one floor;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged view of the means for establishing delivery connection to any one floor.

Fig. 5 is an enlarged view of the closure for the butt end of a transverse pipe Ill; and

Fig. 6 is an enlarged View of the discharge outlets on the several floors.

. It is to be undertstood that the present form of disclosure is merely for the purpose of illustration and that there might be devised various modifications thereof without departing from the spirit of my present invention as herein set forth and claimed.

Briefly, my invention contemplates the distribution of a, poison in powder form about the several floors of a store building or the like, this being accomplished by means of a system of pipes which extend from the basement to the several floors and through which the powder is forced by compressed air from the basement.

Experience indicates that rats, mice etc. as a rule are found only upon the first three floors of a building and accordingly it may not be necessary to extend this system to any higher floor although there is no limitation in this respect.

According to the present form of invention, the poison will be distributed to only one floor at a time, and I have provided means for establishing such delivery connection from the basement to any ne floor to the exclusion of the other floors at that time. This selective regulating means is manipulated from the basement.

In the basement I have provided a conventional air compressor I which will store compressed air in a conventional tank 2 for delivery through the connecting pipe 3 to the upright pipe 4. The supply of compressed air to the pipe ,4 may be controlled by means of the hand valve 5.

The cylindrical drum 6 contains the supply of poison powder and its gravity flow to the transverse pipe 3 may be controlled by the hand valve" 1. The bottom part of the drum 6 is of conical form so as to accommodate a rotary agitator 8 that is of like form and is operatable by a small electric motor 9. may be regulated bya conventional hand switch and in this way the flow of the powder may be ensured during the operation of the system, it being understood that this agitator may be used The operation of this motor at all times that the distributing system is employed.

Then, with the powder supplied to the transverse pipe 3 and in the path of the compressed air, this powder may be forced up through the pipe 4 to any one of the several floors of the store or other building in which this system is installed.

The pipe 4 extends up through the floors of the building to the height desired and is closed at its upper end, that is at the point of the upper-most floor to be served by this system.

Each of the several floors of the building is provided with a transverse pipe I!) which has means of connection with the upright pipe 4 and which extends about the base board of the room or rooms on that floor, this transverse pipe l being elevated a suitable distance above the floor so as not to interfere with the access of the rats or mice to the powder upon the floor. The upright pipe 4 may enter a room at one side of a door D and the pipe in may terminate at the other side of the same door, as indicated in Fig. 2. At suitable intervals along each transverse pipe 10, that is to say one or two feet, there are a number of downwardly extending discharge pipes II which have screw-threaded engagement so as to be rotatably adjustable for proper positioning in the pipe I0. These discharge pipes are all completely open at their lower ends and have upper openings ['2 that are so located as to receive the powder as it is forced through the pipe l0 and to discharge the same onto the floor in mall piles therebelow. That portion of each discharge tube that extends upwardly within the pipe 10, serves as a means for deflecting or directing a portion of the powdered material downwardly through the discharge tube and onto the floor of the room.

The sizes of the openings l2 in the succession of discharge pipes H, and the capacity of the powder-deflecting means, increase in direct accordance with the distance from the source of the compressed air, thereby ensuring substantially equal distribution of the powder at all openings in these pipes on any one floor.

In all instances, it is to be understood that the force of the compressed air will be sufficientonly to ensure the deposit of the powder in small piles upon the floor at the points below the discharge pipes H. I

For the purpose of selectively establishing connection between the upright pipe 4 and the transverse pipe In on any one 'floor, I have provided a pivoted valve 13 to control this connection in each instance. That is, at each floor the valve 13 is so mounted within the pipe connection that it can be adjusted to close the passage through the upright pipe 4 and at the same time open the passage into the transverse pipe l'0 for that particular floor. By having the pipes 4 and IU of the same size, this simple arrangement is made possible, although there may be adopted any other suitable form of means for this purpose. Each valve [3 has a crank or lever l3a extending outside from is pivot point and a rod l4 extends therefrom to the basement for manipulation.

Thus it will be seen that by means of the rods [4 any one of the transverse pipes l0 may be connected with the upright pipe 4 to the exclusion of the other transverse pipes Ill, the idea being to service one floor at a time. When all of the floors have been serviced, that is to say when each floor has been supplied with the desired amount of the poison powder'in suitable piles about the region of the base board, the vale will first be closed so as to ensure that all of the powder is discharged from the system and then the valve 5 will be closed so as to discontinue the air pressure through the system.

The transverse pipe II], on each floor, terminates in a butt end which has a readily removable closure I5 topermit periodic cleaning out of any of the powder that might have collected at these points.

Throughout the entire system of pipes, all corners are rounded so as to facilitate the passage of the powder without danger of accumulating at such points.

The pipe used in my system may be of standard size, let us say 1 or 1 inches, and some of the other parts may be of conventional form. All of this equipment may be assembled and sold together and installed without any particular difficulty.

In case there should be more than one room to be serviced on any one floor, the horizontal pipe I0 may be extended through the wall between the two rooms.

This entire system can be operated and controlled from the basement and it eliminates the labor involved heretofore in distributing thepoison by hand. Thus I have devised a systematic method of distributing the poison for the extermination of the rats, mice etc., with the consequent elimination of .the damage that often results.

What I claim is:

1. In combination, a container for holding a supply of powdered material, a pipe connected to said container for delivery ofthe powdered material, said pipe extending to the space that is intended to receive the powdered material and being arranged along the bottom part of the wall of such space and elevated above the floor thereof and having openings at intervals therealong for discharge of the powdered material, means located within said pipe for directing a portion of the powdered material downwardly through the respective openings onto the floor, and air means for forcing the powdered material through said pipe to said discharge openings.

2. In combination, a container for holding a supply of powdered material, a pipe connected to said container for delivery of the powdered material, said pipe extending to the space that is intended to receive the powdered material and being arranged along the bottom part of the wall of such space and elevated above the floor thereof and having openings at intervals therealong for discharge of the powdered material, means located within said pipe for directing a portion of the powdered material downwardly through the respective openings onto the floor, air means for forcing the powdered material through said pipe to said discharge openings, a valve for regulating the supply of the powdered material from said container, and a separate valve vfor regulating the operation of said air means, said air valve being located rearward of said other valve.

3. In combination, a container-iorholding a supply of powdered material, a pipe connected to said container for delivery of the powdered material, saidpipeextending to the spacethat is intended to receive the powdered material-and being arranged along the bottom part of. the wall of such space and elevated above the floor thereof and having openings at intervals therealong for discharge of thepowdered material, means located within said pipe for directing a portion of the powdered material downwardly through the respective openings onto the floor, and air pressure means for forcing the powdered material through said pipe to said discharge openings, said pipe terminating in a butt end and having a readily removable closure at the end thereof to permit cleaning out powdered material that may be forced past the discharge openings.

4. In combination, a container for holding a supply of powdered material, a main pipe having means of connection to said container and extending to a room, an auxiliary pipe extending horizontally about the lower part of the room and being connected with said main pipe, discharge tubes for said auxiliary pipe, said auxiliary pipe being elevated above the floor of the room and having openings leading into said discharge tubes, said tubes extending downwardly and terminating suitable distance above the floor of the room, said discharge tubes each having a wall extending into the auxiliary pipe to serve as a means for deflecting a portion of the powdered material downwardly through the respective openings onto the floor, and air pressure means for forcing the powdered material through said pipes and discharge tubes, the height of the deflecting walls of the discharge tubes increasing in direct accordance with their distance from the point of entry of the powdered material into the auxiliary pipe.

5. In combination, a container for holding a supply of powdered material, a main pipe having means of connection to said container, said main pipe extending to a plurality of rooms, an auxiliary pipe extending about the lower part of each of said rooms and having means of connection with said main pipe, valve means for establishing connection between said main pipe and the auxiliary pipe of any one room to the exclusion of the other rooms, said auxiliary pipe in each instance being elevated above the floor of the room and having openings for discharging the powdered material onto the floor of the room, means located within each of said auxiliary pipes for directing a portion of the powdered material downwardly through the respective openings onto the floor, and air pressure means for forcing the powdered material through said pipes.

6. In combination, a container for holding a supply of powdered material, a main pipe having means of connection to said container and extending to a plurality of rooms, a horizontally disposed auxiliary pipe extending about the lower part of each of said rooms andhaving means of connection with said main pipe, valve means for establishing connection between said main pipe and the auxiliary pipe in any one of the rooms to the exclusion of the other rooms, said auxiliary pipe in each instance being elevated above the floor of the room and having openings for dis-' charging a portion of the powdered material onto the floor of the room, means located within each of said auxiliary pipes for directing a portion of the powdered material downwardly through the respective openings onto the floor, air pressure means for'iorcing the powdered material through said pipes, valve means for regulating the flow of the powdered material from said container,

and valve means for regulating said air pressure means, all of said valve means being capable of manipulation from the same region.

-7. In combination, a container for holding a supply ofpowdered material, a main pipe having means of connection to saidcontainer. and extending to a plurality of rooms, a horizontally disposed auxiliary pipe extending about the lower part of each of said rooms and having means of connection with said main pipe, valve means for establishing connection between said main pipe and the auxiliary pipe in any one of the rooms to the exclusion of the other rooms, said horizontal pipe in each instance being elevated above the floor of the room, downwardly extending discharge tubes connected to each of said auxiliary pipes and terminating a suitable distance above the floor of the room, each of said discharge tubes having a wall portion extending upwardly into the auxiliary pipe for deflecting a portion of the powdered material downwardly through said discharge tubes onto the floor, the height of the deflecting wall portions increasing in direct accordance with their distance from the point of entry of the powdered material into the auxiliary pipe, air pressure means for forcing the powdered material through said pipes, valve means for regulating the flow of the powdered material from said container, and valve means for regulating said air pressure means, all of said valve means being capable of manipulation from the same region.

8. In combination, a container for holding a supply of powdered material, a pipe connected to said container for delivery of the material contained therein, said pipe extending to the space that is intended to receive the powdered material and being arranged along the bottom part of the wall of such space and elevated above the floor thereof and having openings at intervals therealong for discharge of the powdered material in piles upon the floor, air means for forcing the powdered material through said pipe to said discharge openings, and means located within said pipe for deflecting the powdered material downwardly out through said openings, said deflecting means increasing in capacity in direct accordance with the distance of the said openings from the source of the air pressure.

9. In combination, a container for holding a supply of powdered material, a pipe connected to said container for delivery of the powdered material contained therein, said pipe extending to the space that is intended to receive the powdered material and being arranged along the bottom of the wall of such space and elevated above the floor thereof and having openings at intervals therealong for discharge of the powdered material in piles upon the floor, air means for forcing the powdered material through said pipe to the discharge openings, and deflecting means located within said pipe and at each individual opening for directing the powdered material downwardly out therethrough, said deflecting means increasing in capacity in direct accordance with the distance of the said openings from the source of the air pressure.

10. In combination, a container for holding a supply of powdered material, a main pipe having connection with said container for delivery of the powdered material therefrom and extending to a room that is to receive the powdered material, a horizontally disposed auxiliary pipe extending about the lower part of the room and being connected with said main pipe, said auxiliary pipe 4 vs am-1, 11;

being elevated :above the :floor of we mom and having openings at :spaced fintenzals thereaalong, discharge tubes arranged :in said openings and extending within .said auxiliary pipe and downwardly to a suitable distance above the :floor ot the room, each rof ,sa-id dischargemuhes having a w.a11-por1;ion extending upwamdly withimsaidmm- W 13i tor deflecting .-a portions! the mow. dened material .downwandly bhnough said 1115- charge .tu and ontothe floor of (she room, and air pnessune :means for towing :the -powdered ma,-