The whole summer passed, many had taken trips to Europe and back, when about the middle of September Mr. Morgan notified the chairman that he had received the expert’s report and requested him to call a meeting of the subscribers to hear it. I went to the meeting with mingled hope and apprehension. Mr. Morgan read a long letter from the expert containing an elaborate argument against the patent which he concluded by saying that he could not recommend its acceptance. When Mr. Morgan had finished reading the letter he continued: “Mr. Chairman, I am tired of this man’s delays and quibbling, and I now advise you that Mr. Porter has performed his contract, and it only remains for you to perform yours.” This was the harvest from the seed I had sown six months before.
The following is the Reissue on which the patent expert hung up our business for six months. The specification was written by me, the disclaimer and claims were written by Chief Examiner Fowler.
UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE
John F. Allen of Brooklyn, Assignor to George T. Hope, of Bay Ridge, N. Y., and Charles T. Porter, of Philadelphia, Pa.
Balanced Valve.
SPECIFICATION forming part of Reissued Letters Patent No. 9303, dated July 20, 1880.
Original No. 167865, dated September 21, 1875. Application for reissue filed June 2, 1880.
To all whom it may concern:
Be it known that I, John F. Allen, formerly of the city, county, and State of New York, but now of Brooklyn, New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Balanced Slide Valves, of which improvements the following is a specification.
My invention relates to that class of balanced slide-valves in which the valve is practically relieved from the pressure of the steam, this pressure being sustained by a plate supported above the valve, but so nearly in contact with it that the space between them will not admit steam enough to affect the valve. Such plates are designated as “pressure” plates, and have been made in some instances adjustable, in order that they may be closed up to the valve as the faces of the valve and its seat become worn. Heretofore such adjustments have been affected by different mechanical devices, among which there was, in one instance, a spring to move the plate laterally or crosswise of the valve while the pressure of the steam held the plate down; and in other instances screws were used to move the plate in two directions, both in line with the movement of the valve, and to hold the plate in its adjusted position. All of these devices, however, are liable to objections well understood by engineers.