US1085491A - Automatic spillway. - Google Patents

Description

G. SGHALLES.

. AUTOMATIC SPILLWAY. APPLIGATION-IILED-OGT. 15, 1913.

1 85, 19 1 Patented J an. 27, 1914.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

WITNESSES $0.? a J ATTORNEYS COLUMBIA PMNOORAPH 60., WASHINGTON, u. c.

, G. SGHALLES.

AUTOMATIC SPILLWAY. APPLICATION FILED 0(JT.15I 1918.

1,085,491, Patented Jan. 27, 1914.

3 SHEETSSHEET 2.

INVENTOR 02/1/ 4 2! ,fi/iakr ATTORNEYS COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH co..WAsmNc\TON. D. c.

G. SGHALLES.

AUTOMATIC SPILLWAY, APPLICATION FILED 00T.15, 191a.

Patented Jan. 27, 1914.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

ATTORNEYS wLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH CO WASHINGTON, u. c.

CHARLES SCI-IALLES, OF CORTEZ, COLORADO.

AUTOMATIC SPILLWAY.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 27, 1914.

Application filed 0c-tober 15, 1913. Serial No. 795,276.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, CHARLES SCHALLES, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Cortez, in the county of Montezuma and State of Colorado, have invented a new and Improved Automatic Spillway, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to artificial water courses, such as flumes, irrigation ditches or the like.

Among the objects of the invention is to providefa ditch of the character indicated having an automatically operated gate which, when the depth of water becomes too great in the ditch, will operate to relieve such overflow and hence prevent any objectionable circumstance which might be incident to such undesirable rise of water inthe ditch.

The foregoing and other objects of the invention will hereinafter be more fully described and claimed, and illustrated in the drawings forming a part of this specification in which like characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the views, and in which- Figure 1 is a side elevation of a preferred form of the invention, parts being in section to better illustrate the construction; Fig. 2 is a plan view corresponding to Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is an end elevation, the ditch being in section on the line 33 of Fig. 2; Fig. 4 is a partial longitudinal section on the line 44 of Fig. 2; and Fig. 5 is a detail on the line 55 of Fig. 2.

The several parts of the invention may be made of any suitable materials, and the relative sizes proportions, as well as the general design of the mechanism, may be varied without departing from the spirit of the invention hereinafter more fully set forth and specifically claimed. I wish it to be understood also that while for convenience of description I will hereinafter employ the term ditch as indicative of the waterway, such term is to be given an interpretation as broad as the character of the invention will warrant.

The numeral 10 represents a ditch of any suitable character along which water is to be conveyed in the direction of the arrow on Fig. 2. One wall of the ditch construction is provided with a gate llarranged to swing inwardly on a vertical pivot 12, the pivot being on the downstream side of the gated whereby the gate when open will act as a cutoff for the current and hence direct the current outwardly through the gateway. The structure of the gate with respect to the wall with which it cooperates is such that the body of water within the ditch serves normally to hold the gate shut substantially watertight.

The wall of the ditch on the side opposite the gate 11 is provided with overflow openings therethrough and shown at 13 and 14:. These openings may be arranged at any suitable elevations from the bottom of the ditch in accordance with the conditions to be determined thereby. The opening 13 is arranged at such an elevation as to cause water to overflow therethrough at the time the maximum desired depth of water is reached in the ditch. In other words, when the ditch is carrying an excess of water and the depth thereof should be reduced the water will overflow through the opening 13 and be directed therefrom by means of a spout 15 into a receptacle 16 suspended on the outside of the ditch so as to swing in a vertical plane. coming filled with water moves downwardly, and I provide some suitable connections between such receptacle and the gate 11 whereby the weight of the filled receptacle overcomes the lateral pressure of the water in the ditch and forces the gate open so that it will occupy the position indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 2. When the gate 11 is open, the water in the ditch will be free to escape through the gateway as above indicated. In

order to regnlate, however, the amount of discharge of the water in the ditch through the gateway or to maintain so far as possible the level of the water substantially uniform I provide a means made effective through the other overflow opening 14 to restore the receptacle 16 to its normal elevated position as shown in Figs. 1 and 2 and to reclose the gate 11. The means I show for this purpose, and which has proved satisfactory, comprises a counterweight receptacle 17 adapted to receive water through the overflow opening 14 by means of a spout 18. The latter opening should be arranged at some convenient point below the low water mark in the ditch so as to insure that a flow therethrough will always be secured within the purpose of the invention. Said opening 14:, however, is normally closed by a valve 19 of any suitable nature. Such valve The receptacle 16 on beis shown herein as being pivoted upon a horizontal pivot 20 above the opening and having connected thereto a bell crank 21 having loose slidable engagement with a rod 22 carried by the counterweight 17. The necessary pressure upon the valve 19 to maintain it closed against the internal pres sure of the water in the ditch may be secured through a spring 23 surrounding the upper end of the rod and acting between said bell crank and a nut 24 when the counterweight and rod are down. Each of the receptacles 16 and 17 is provided in its bottom with an automatically opening trap 25 whereby when either of these receptacles is carried downwardly with a charge of Water, the trap will open upwardly to discharge such water. The trap 25, however, automatically closes when the receptacle is in elevated receiving position.

Any suitable means may be provided to connectthe two receptacles for simultaneous operation and whereby either of them when loaded will cause the lifting of the other with a corresponding movement of the gate 11. The means I employ preferably for this purpose comprises a pair of parallel levers 26 and 27 of equal length and pivoted at 26 and 27 respectively to an u right portion of the frame supporting the ditch shown at 28. Each of the levers above mentioned may be arranged in duplicate and the receptacles are suspended from the opposite ends of both parts of the same by means of hangers 29. While the receptacles move in a vertical plane in arcs of circles, the hangers and compound lever connections will insure that the receptacles will not tilt or swing so as to interfere with the proper operation. A bell crank 30 is so connected through the lever 27 to the gate 11 as to provide for the swin ing of the gate on its vertical pivot on eacli oscillation of said lever 27. For this purpose the pivot post 12 is provided with an arm 31 and a connecting rod 32 reaches from said arm to the upper end of the bell crank 30. Said pivot post 12 is preferably mounted upon a step bearing 33 having vertically adjustable connection with the bottom of the ditch construction. The upper end of the step bearing is adapted to receive the point 12' of the lower end of the post 12. Said post furthermore is adapted to move with the gate 11 vertically in its bearings so as to enable the gate to ride over a stone or other obstruction in the bottom of the ditch.

From the foregoing description of the automatic construction, its operation may be briefly described as follows: With the parts in their normal position as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, a current of water will be understood as flowing along the ditch. WVhen the depth of the water becomes so great, however, as to overflow through the opening 13, the normally empty receptacle 16 will receive such overflow and become filled or sufiiciently filled to cause the oscillation of the levers 26 and 27 and the opening of the gate 11 against internal pressure of the water. Such downward swinging movement of the receptacle 16 in addition to opening the gate 11 will elevate the counterweight 17, causing the operation thereof to open the valve 19. Since the opening 14: is below the normal or desired level of water in the ditch, the receptacle 17 will be filled with water immediately after it is elevated. So long, however, as the flow of water is full or strong against the open gate 11, the counterweight will not be permitted to sink immediately. Then the pressure against the gate is'relieved, however,

by the fall of water in the ditch, the counterweight 17 will sink to its-normal position and restore the receptacle 16 to its elevated position and the gate will be closed due to the weight of water in the counterweight.

The valve 19 will also be restored to its closed position by the connections 21 and 22 above described.

At 34: I show an auxiliary gate hung on a vertical pivot 35 on the downstream side of the automatic mechanism above described. This gate 34.- is normally held suspended by means of a pin 36 and loop 37 so as not to obstruct the ditch. For the purposes of its manipulation the gate 34 is slidable vertically along its pivot support 35. The purpose of this auxiliary gate is to enable the ditch tender to determine at any time whet-her the automatic mechanism is in operative condition. By removing the gate 34 from its pin and lowering it in the current, it will be carried to the closed position shown in Fig. 2 by the current, and this will dam up the water so as to cause an overflow to take place through the opening 13 and setting the automatic mechanism into operation as already set forth. After the gate 11 is opened in this way, the auxiliary gate 34 being relieved from the pressure of the current, may be easily restored to its normal matically when the water in the ditch H reaches a certain predetermined depth, said automatic means including a receptacle mounted on the outside of the ditch and movable downwardly in a vertical plane when filled and also including connections between said receptacle and said gate, an

opening being provided through the wall of the ditch to cause the overflow to fill said receptacle.

2. In an automatic spillway, the combination with a ditch and a normally closed gate in one wall thereof, said gate being mounted on a vertical pivot and adapted to swing across the ditch into the current, of connections to the gate operative automatically to open the gate when the water reaches a certain predetermined depth, said automatic means including a receptacle mounted for reciprocations in a vertical plane, means being provided to cause the water to overflow when it reaches a certain level to fill said receptacle, and means to restore said receptacle to its normal elevated position and close the gate when the depth of water is lowered, substantially as set forth.

3. In an automatic spillway, the combination with a ditch and a gate normally closing one side thereof, said ditch having on the opposite side an overflow opening, of a receptacle adapted to receive water from said overflow, a member to which said receptacle is connected at one end, connections between said member and the gate whereby the filled receptacle will cause the opening of the gate, and means connected to another portion of said member to restore the receptacle to its normal position and close the gate.

4. In a device of the character set forth, the combination of a ditch having a normally closed gate, a normally open overflow opening and a normally closed overflow opening, a plurality of receptacles adapted to receive water in succession from said over flow openings, a member connecting said receptacles for simultaneous movement in opposite directions in a vertical plane, connections between said member and the gate to cause movement of the gate in accordance with the vertical movements of said receptacles, and means to discharge the water from each receptacle after it has caused through its load of water the required movement of said member and gate.

5. In a device of the character set forth, the combination of a ditch having a normally closed gate and a. pair of overflow openings, av bell crank lever, a pair of re ceptacles connected to opposite ends of said lever and adapted to become filled in succession from the several overflow openings, con-- nections between the bell crank lever and the gate whereby an oscillation of said member will cause a corresponding movement of said gate, and means under the control of one of said receptacles to normally close one of said overflow openings.

6. In a device of the character set forth, the combination of a ditch having a normally closed gate adapted to swing across the ditch to obstruct the current during the discharge of a surplus of water, automatically operated means made effective by the excess of flow in the ditch to cause the opening of said gate, and hand operated auxiliary means connected to the ditch and adapted to be swung across the same in the current to set said automatic means into operation, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

CHARLES SOHALLES.

Witnesses CLAYTON H. RUDY, PAUL STEINOU.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. 0.

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