AN APPARATUS FOR AUTOMATICALLY CLOSING THE APERTURE IN CLOSET SEATS
Year: 1885

page_text: I, JOSEPH EASBY 161 Spring Vale Road Sheffield in the County of York
Whitesmith do hereby declare the nature of my said invention for AN APPARATUS
FOR AUTOMATICALLY CLOSING THE APERTURE IN CLOSET SEATS to be as follows:-
My invention of an automatic apparatus for closing the aperture in the seats of
Water closets, Dry closets, and ordinary closets, has for its object the prevention of
any unpleasant smell entering the apartment in which the closet is fixed, and also
to automatically close the opening so as to hide the contents.
In carrying out my invention, I fix to the underside of the cover or seat, (or to
a removeable portion of such cover or seat) a pair of doors arranged to close the
opening, the division being in the centre, from back to front; each door being
supported by an axle resting in bearings.
At the front end of each axle 1 fix a lever, to one end of which a weight is
secured, its function being to close the door, and connected with the other end
of the lever is a vertical rod, which passes through the seating of the closet and
supports the cover a few inches above the seating.
A ring of indiarubber or other elastic or suitable material is fixed round the
opening for the doors to close against.
It will therefore be seen that in its normal condition, the doors of the apparatus
are closed tightly against the elastic ring by the power of the weights, and the
cover is slightly elevated in front.
1
When the cover or seat is pressed down the action of the vertical rods on the
levers, raises the weights and opens the doors; the moment the pressure of the
person on the seat is removed, the doors close tightly against the elastic ring.
The whole of the apparatus may be fixed to a removeable portion of the seating,
so that it may be detached and lifted bodily away for repairs.
Springs may be placed between the seating and the cover to take the weight of
the latter off the rods before mentioned.

page_text: Closet Seats.
I, JOSEPH EASBY 161 Spring Vale Road, Sheffield in the County of York,
Whitesmith do hereby declare the nature of my invention for APPARATUS FOR
AUTOMATICALLY CLOSING THE APERTURE IN CLOSET SEATS and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement :-
The object of this invention is to prevent any unpleasant smell, and also to close
the opening so as to hide the contents.--I construct my improved apparatus of
Brass, Zinc, and Cast Iron, but any other suitable material may be used;-In the
accompanying sheet of drawings,-Figs 1 & 2 show the arrangement of my
apparatus. A pair of doors a, a¹ are supported by, and work in axles to which are
attached levers and weights so arranged as to keep the doors a, a¹ closed, when not
in use, as shown in Fig. 1. Short vertical rods 66¹ Figs 1 & 2 are also connected
with the levers, and support the cover or seat.
The doors close tightly against an elastic ring d, fitted round the opening and
the cover is raised slightly in front, as shown in Fig. 1.-When the cover or seat
is pressed down Fig. 2 the action of the vertical rods 6 6¹ on the levers, raises the
weights e&e and opens the doors a a¹, and on the pressure being removed the
doors close, as shown Fig. 1.
The apparatus is attached to a wood frame, and is easily fixed to any ordinary
closet, without having the seat removed, by sawing a hole sufficiently large to
admit the insertion of the frame, and also one in the cover, or flap; of the same
size as the opening of the apparatus.
The cover then becomes the seat and rests upon rods as shewn in Figs 1 & 2
these rods can be fixed either back or front of the seat, if at the back, the hinges
must be placed in front.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what
I claim as the invention secured to me by the herein in part recited Letters
Patent is
Improvements in apparatus as herein described and drawn, applicable to ordinary,
dry Ash, Earth, or Water Closets, for the purposes herein specified.
In witness whereof, I the said Joseph Easby have hereunto set my hand and
seal, this Seventeenth day of September in the year of our Lord one
thousand eight hundred and eighty five.