AN IMPROVED CART FOR COLLECTING PANS CONTAINING NIGHT SOIL APPLICABLE TO OTHER SIMILAR PURPOSES
Year: 1884

page_text: I, WILLIAM BLACKSHAW of N° 77 Colmore Row Birmingham in the County of
Warwick Gentleman do hereby declare the nature of my Invention for "AN
IMPROVED CART FOR COLLECTING PANS CONTAINING NIGHT SOIL APPLICABLE
TO OTHER SIMILAR PURPOSES" and in what manner the same is to be performed
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement, to
be as follows, that is to say -
•
The vans and carts hitherto used by sanitary authorities for collecting the pans
containing night soil and other refuse and excretia have been heavy cumbersome
vehicles and generally badly designed in detail and in consequence they have been
a much greater nuisance to the to the public than was absolutely necessary causing
unnecessary exposure when standing at the front of dwelling houses and the closing
has not been so effective as is desirable. Besides these faults needless expense bas
been caused by the vans and carts being too heavy through defective design thus
causing constant expense in dead weight having to be continually hauled from
place to place.
Now my improved cart for collecting pans containing night soil which is also
applicable to other similar purposes is invented to obviate the above faults in a
very great measure so as to render the collection of the pans as little disagreeable
and unsightly as possible besides lessening the dead weight to be drawn to a large
extent and affording greater facility for rapid and convenient transit through the
streets of towns. Also while standing before a dwelling house there never need
be more than one pan exposed at once thus minimising the unsightlyness and
other disagreeable effects produced.
In order that my Invention may be more clearly understood and more readily.
carried into practice I have appended hereunto five Figures of Drawings :-
Figure 1 is a side elevation of one of my carts designed to collect twenty four
pans or pails.
Figure 2 is a sectional plan of the same cart,
Figure 3 is a back elevation.
Figure 4 is a longitudinal elevational section of the same and

page_text: The cart is so framed together as will be seen on the Drawings as to give three
stories 1, 2 and 3. The stories 1 and 2 are divided each into four compartments
4, 5, 6 and 7 as shown by the plan Figure 2, and each of these compartments is
designed to carry three pans in each which is twenty four pans in the two
stories 1 and 2. The top storey 3 is only for the purpose of carrying two empty.
pans when the cart stands out collecting as will be hereinafter more fully explained.
Access is obtained to division 4 by a wedge shaped door A on the near side of the
cart. This door-as is all the doors in stories 1 and 2-is mounted in slides as
shown by D Figure 5-One side may be grooved into the post Cand, the other into
the Hiron E or they may be both H irons or both posts. The doors lift up to
open and slide down into the recess or grooves which are either tapered the full
depth or only at one or two parts of the depth. Division 5 in bottom story 1
would have its door F outside but the corresponding division in story 2 directly
over it would have the inner door G because by this means the upper and lower
doors could be each lifted separately. These two doors F and G would generally
slide one side in the post and the other in a guide H iron as shown by Figure 5.
Division 7 in storey 1 and 2 would be worked with doors J and K in a similar
manner. Division 6 top and bottom would also be worked as explained for
division 5 except that the door would in most carts run in an iron H guide on
both its edges as such guides would occupy less width than timber.
Each division would be lined with zinc so that the whole could easily be
washed out with water and the bottom is so designed as to fall each side to the
centre trough M which runs along the bottom of the cart sufficiently low to enable
all liquids to gravitate into it through the longitudinal slot m¹. The end of this
trough or pipe would finish outside at the back end with a brass cap which could
be easily removed to drain the cart of all moisture.
Each of the nine divisions of the cart is fitted with an angle iron runner N as
shown in Figure 4 and in division 4 the runner being turned into a semi-circular
end at the back of each of the nine divisions, and thus shaking is avoided and but
little room is occupied between each pan or pail.
I will now explain the loading:-The cart would start out upon its journey with.
twenty four empty pails or pans two being in N° 3 story which may be fitted
with an ordinary flap door as the pans carried in this division would always be
clean and empty. In any-one of the other eight divisions there would only be one pan
and thus only twenty four pans in the nine divisions. When the cart arrived at
the first house of call to collect a full pan the division containing the one empty
pan would be opened and that pan taken out and carried to replace the full pan
taken from the first house of call and thus the first full pan would be placed at the
top end of the division without lifting any empty pans into the street. At the
second house of call an empty pan would be taken out of one of the divisions in
stories 1 or 2 and lastly the two empty pans would be taken from the top division
the cart returning home with the top division quite empty.
•
My carts are thus mounted upon a cranked axle with only two full sized wheels
and springs P by preference under the body.
Having now described my Invention of an improved cart for collecting pans
containing night soil applicable to other similar purposes I would have it
understood that what I claim is:-
First: The plan herein described of dividing pan carts into two or more stories
as herein described and illustrated upon the Drawings.
Second: In carts for collecting pans the improved L iron guides for economizing
room.
Third: In carts for collecting pans the draining pipe M for concentrating the
liquid at a convenient point for drawing it off.

page_text: Fourth: The arrangement of a spare division or storey 3 for the storing of two
or more spare pails for convenience of collecting without undue exposure.
Fifth In collecting carts the system of wedge shaped doors running in
corresponding grooves.