IMPROVE- MENTS IN TRAPS, TO BE APPLIED TO CLOSETS, DRAINS, SEWERS, AND CESSPOOLS
Year: 1849

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
MARSDEN, of the Kingsland Road, in the County of Middlesex, Marble
Paper Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twentieth day of
September, One thousand eight hundred and forty-nine, in the thirteenth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Charles Marsden, my exors, admors, and assigns, Her especial licence,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Charles Marsden, my
exors, admors, and assigns, and such others as I, the said Charles Marsden,
my exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times during the term of years. therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed,, my Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN TRAPS, TO BE APPLIED TO CLOSETS, DRAINS, SEWERS, AND CESSPOOLS;"
in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that 1, the said Charles
Marsden, should cause a particular description of the nature of my said

page_text: Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her said
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as
in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at
large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Charles Marsden, hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, are fully described and
ascertained in and by the present Specification thereof, reference being had to
the Drawings hereunto annexed, that is to say:-
⚫ The said Invention has for its object the better prevention of the rise
of deleterious effluvia from closets, drains, sewers, and cesspools, and the
said Drawings exhibit exemplifications of its practical application.
Figure 1 is a vertical section of a trap for a street sewer, construced
according to this Invention, Figure 2 a back elevation of the same, and
Figure 3 an under view of the apparatus with the part E removed. A, A, is
the external grating; B, B, the brickwork of the gully leading to the
sewer; C, a hood of the peculiar form represented; D, a broad rim or flange
by which the hood rests upon and is suspended from the brickwork, this
flange being made air-tight all round by cement; E is a drum or wheel which
turns upon two pivots F, F, within the under half of the hood C; H, H, are
two partition plates by which the drum is divided into four equal compartments,
having no communication interiorly with each other, forming thus in effect four
separate receivers or buckets; I, I, I, I, flaps of vulcanized india rubber or any
other suitable flexible substance, which overhang the four compartments of
the drum; these flaps being secured by rivets or screws at their upper ends,
to ledges b, b, projecting from the inner surface of the lower half of the hood,
but left loose at their lower ends; and K, K (see Figure 3), are two more
flaps of vulcanized india rubber, which press sidewise upon the flaps I, I, I, I,
and seal up the ends of the drum. The street drainage falling through
the grating passes first into the upper half of the hood, from which it descends
into one of the compartments or buckets (whichever happens to be uppermost
at the time), and as soon as that bucket becomes filled it tilts over of its own
weight and empties itself into the drain M, while another bucket ascends
from the opposite side to take its place. One of the buckets is thus
always being filled, a second in the course of emptying itself, and the two
others on their ascent to be filled and emptied in their turn, while any upward

page_text: escape of effluvia during these successive changes is effectually prevented by
the overhanging flaps I, I, I, I, and end flaps K, K. To prevent the evil
effects which sometimes result from the accumulation of deleterious gases in
sewers and their escape into the streets, a ventilating pipe may be carried
from the space immediately below the revolving drum of the trap before
described into some adjoining chimney, or the pipe may be carried by itself to
the tops of the adjoining houses (two or three feet above the chimney-pots will
be preferable), by which means the gases will be discharged at an elevation
where they can do no harm.
Figure 4 is a sectional elevation of a watercloset fitted with a trap, the
same in all respects as that just described. By the adoption of this trap the
soil is at once delivered into the soil pipe without having to pass over any bend
in the pipe, which generally forms a great obstruction and occasions a choking
of the closet pipes. A, A, is the closet pan or basin which terminates at
bottom in an opening of the form of the oblong rounded at the ends, as shewn
in Figure 5, which is found to discharge better and also to be more readily
cleansed than one of the usual circular form. B is the retainer or case upon
which the basin is placed, and which holds the trap C. D is a ventilating
pipe for carrying off the effluvia from the drain and discharging the same at
some point above the chimney tops, as before proposed.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I desire it may be understood that I do
not restrict myself to the division of the drum into four compartments only,
for that the same may be divided into a smaller or greater number of com-
partments without affecting the action thereof, as also that the flaps may be
made of metal or other rigid material, being in that case hinged to their
respective bearings. And I declare that what I claim is the construction of
traps for closets, drains, sewers, and cesspools, of a drum or series of buckets
caused to revolve by the weight of the matters falling into the same, and
made air-tight by overhanging and side flaps of vulcanized caoutchouc or other
suitable substance, as before described. And also the forming of the discharge
aperture of the closet pans of an oblong form rounded at the ends, as repre-
sented in Figure 5, or of an oval form.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Marsden, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of March, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty.
CHARLES (L.s.) MARSDEN.

page_text: "
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Nineteenth day of March,
in the year of our Lord 1850, the aforesaid Charles Marsden came
before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the
Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and
specified, in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was
stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Twentieth day of March, in the fear of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty.