On supporting science journalism
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
When gas or water pipes are laid, much time and labor are expended, and consequent expense incurred in joining the branch pipes to the main, and in connecting the supply pipes to the branch. The branch pipes are usually cut in two, their ends are then cut into a screw thread, and both tapped into a joint constructed on purpose. The method invented by W. Hudgin, of Washington, D.C., and patented by him April 6, 1858, is an ex- tremely simple and cheap method of saving labor, material and time, and forms in every way as perfect a joint as the plan at present adopted. Fig. 1 shows the joint as applied to a pipe already .laid down, and Fig. 2 is a sec- tion of the same. Similar letters indicate the same piece in all the figures. A is the pipe to which another is to be connected, and B' is the pipe that is to be connected to it. The pipe, B, is screwed into the pipe portion, b', of the clamp, b, and a hole is then cut with any suitable tool in the pipe, A, and seen at d, Fig. 2, and a washer of india-rubber or leather being placed around it, the clamp, b, is then passed over the pipe, A, and the screw, e, turned until the whole is perfectly secure. By this means a good joint is made, as can be seen from the engraving. Fig. 3 shows this clamp adapted to attaching two pipes to one, a hole being cut on each side of A, and a clamp being used which is tightened by the screw, c, passing through a female screw cut in a nanch on each side of the clamp, and Fig. 4 shows the method of attaching a pipe to a branch or main when both are laid down together. The saving of this invention is chiefly as before enumerated in labor and time. By the usual plan, a great number of small pieces of pipe are wasted, being cut off to make a joint at the proper place, and then it being more advantageous to place a length on next, instead of the short piece; these are all saved in the present invention, as the pipe is not severed, and the hole, d, can be made in exactly the same time and with as common tools as are used in cutting the pipe in two. Any further particulars can be obtained by addressing Messrs. Biggs Southwick, No. 84 Nassau street, New York.
