Kingston valve

A Kingston valve is a type of valve fitted in the bottom of a ship's plating that connects the sea to the ship's piping and storage tanks.

A Kingston valve is a type of seacock. It is arranged so that, under normal operating conditions, sea pressure keeps the valve closed. When opened from the ship's interior, the Kingston valve allows sea water to enter the tank.

The mechanism is named after its inventor John Kingston (1786-1847), an English engineer.

On surface ships, Kingston valves are fitted on ship systems such as fuel tanks, water tanks, and ballast tanks. The valve allows sea water to enter the tank. For fuel tanks, the purpose was cleaning the tanks. On water tanks, the Kingston valve gave ship engineers the ability to blow out increasingly salty water from the system, by safely and easily operating the valve from the interior of the ship. Sea water was used in the ship's steam-powered propulsion system, with water being injected and ejected from the boilers. Water, controlled by a Kingston valve, could be deliberately taken on board to act as ballast below the waterline. This provided additional stability and maneuvering.

Some shipboard safety systems may also incorporate Kingston valves. Uses include the fire extinguishing system and the system to flood the artillery magazine.

On vintage submarines, Kingston valves are fitted at the bottom of certain ballast tanks, such as safety, negative, and bow buoyancy tanks. The submarine's ballast tank valves are used to admit water when the submarine dives. The valves allow water to enter the ballast tanks, while the enclosed air escapes through the open main vents at the top of the ballast tanks. During peacetime the Kingston valves are closed when the submarine is on the surface, the valves and vents being opened to dive, but to reduce the time required for diving in wartime the Kingston valves are left permanently open when at sea, the water being kept out of the ballast tanks by the air pressure of the trapped air. This pressure is released when the vents are opened for diving, allowing the water to enter through the open Kingston valves.

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Wikipedia