Improvements relating to Water Closets. and Flushing Apparatus therefor.
Year: 1897

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements relating to Water Closets. and Flushing Apparatus
therefor.
I, HENRY CLAY, of 7, Grant Street, in the City of Liverpool, Plumber, do
hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
The object of my invention is to obtain a syphonic discharge from a water closet
basin; to avoid having the soil pipe in contact with or beneath or passing through
the floor; to do away with special bends or traps; and to construct the basin,
and its connections, so that a syphonic discharge will be effected each time it is
flushed, independently of the direction, length, fall, or position of the soil pipe
branch to which it is connected.
To set up the syphonic discharge, and to re-seal the basin trap after the discharge,
the special flushing cistern hereinafter described is arranged to deliver the quantity
of water required to set up syphonage, and then to restrict the supply of water,.
thus breaking the syphonic discharge and holding back sufficient water to refill the
basin to its normal water level.
I prefer to employ a basin having its outgo at the back, and I conduct the
discharge through a syphon trap, the long leg of which is interrupted by a bend
which diverts its course to the side of the basin, where it is again turned in any
direction to the main soil pipe. As a modification of the above, I may divert the
course of the long leg of the syphon trap in a backward direction instead of carrying
it to the side.
In basins having the outlet at the back, the slope of the bottom of the basin,
from front to back, gives the level of the dip in the syphon trap. The back of
the basin is preferably straight and upright, being rounded at the corners to
meet the ourve of the sides. It may be that a, basin with a straight or slightly
curved back and slightly splayed inwardly, will be found suitable, in which
case the syphon trap will follow the lines of the basin instead of being upright.
The flushing rim of the basin may be any of the usual forms, as only require
that the bulk of the flushing water may be delivered from the front in the direction
of the outgo, and straight down the back of the basin into the mouth of the
outgo.
When the soil pipe is carried to the side of a pedestal basin, the supporting
base will be continued from the sides and back of the basin to the walls, but when
the outlet connection is arranged at the back such continuations are not necessary
for support and may be omitted.
I also provide a flushing cistern arranged to supply the flushing water effectively
to the syphonic basin, consisting of a cistern of ordinary form supplied by a
ball valve and having its overflow disposed in one of the outside walls. The
cistern is divided across the centre or at any other point-by a partition in such
a manner as to allow of about half the contents being supplied to the basin before
the syphonic discharge through the main syphon is broken by the lowering of
the water level to the bottom edge of the bell. cover forming the short leg of such
main syphon inside the cistern. The bell cover is arranged to start the main
syphon, which in turn sets up a syphonic discharge through a secondary syphon

page_text: the short leg of which is disposed in the secondary compartment of the cistern, the
long leg of the secondary syphon being disposed in the long leg of the main
syphon. The height of the partition determines the level of the bottom inside
edge of the overflow connection, and also the level of the water in the compartment
containing the main syphon.
The stand pipe of the main syphon, inside the bell, will stand slightly above
the outside walls of the cistern, and the lower side of the bend of the secondary
syphon will also stand above the outside walls of the cistern.
The water level in the compartment containing the float ball will be the usual
distance below the level of the overflow pipe.
By altering the position of the partition, so as to have a smaller secondary
compartment, and by increasing or diminishing the size of the secondary syphon,
the cistern will be applicable to general use.
Other well known means may be used instead of the bell and stand pipe, for
discharging the main compartment and inducing a syphonic discharge through
the secondary syphon.
I may adopt a cistern having three compartments and three syphons. In this
case the bell and stand pipe will be situated in a small compartment at the ball
valve end of the cistern, and the water from the ball valve will flow directly into
it and fill it to the level of the partition (which latter stands slightly below
the level of the outside walls of the cistern) over which it then flows and fills the
main compartment up to the level of its partition, which may be lower than the
first mentioned one, when it again flows over into the compartment containing
the float ball, and closes the valve. The partition dividing the compartment con-
taining the float ball determines the position of the overflow pipe as previously
described.
Dated this 19th day of March
207
J. A. COUBROUGH,
Registered Patent Agent (Qual. by Exam.),
10, St. George's Crescent, Liverpool,
Agent for the Applicant.
Improvements relating to Water Closets and Flushing Apparatus
therefor.
I, HENRY CLAY, formerly of 7, Grant Street, in the City of Liverpool, and
now of 32, Cleveland Square, in the City of Liverpool, Plumber, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:—
The objects of my invention are, to obtain a syphonic discharge from a water closet
basin to avoid the necessity for the soil-pipe coming in contact with, or passing
beneath the floor; to do away with special bends.or traps; and to construct the
basin and its connections so that a syphonic discharge will be effected each time
it is flushed, irrespective of the direction, length, fall or position of the soil-pipe-
branch to which it is connected.
I construct and employ a water closet basin with its outgo at the back thereof,
and I conduct the discharge through a syphon trap, the long leg of which may be
bent and diverted in any direction above the floor level, or may pass straight
down through the floor, or be otherwise conducted in order to join the soil-pipe-
branch.
. The basin back has preferably an upright plane flat surface, which is rounded

page_text: at the corners to meet the sides of the basin, and the outgo of the basin is disposed
at the bottom of the basin back. The slope of the basin bottom, from front to back,
determines the depth of the dip in the syphon trap, that is to say, the lower edge
of the dip is in line with the inclined plane of the basin bottom.
My objects in so constructing, the back, the bottom, the dip, and the weir, of
the basin, are, firstly, to obtain the form of trap necessary to set up a syphonic
discharge, secondly in order that the flushing water and contents of the basin
are projected straight into the mouth of the outgo, thirdly to secure the proper
water sealing in the trap at all times, fourthly in order to obtain a large shallow
water area, fifthly in order that the short leg of the syphon may be approximately
rectangular in cross-section, so that it may be formed on the flat back of the
basin, give a wide weir, and to render the basin and trap a compact structure.
In order that the flushing water and contents of the basin may be projected
straight down the inclined bottom and flat back of the basin into the mouth of the
outgo, I employ a flushing rim and fan spreader which will discharge the bulk of
the flushing water at two points, namely, at the front of the basin, and down the
back of the basin, and this can be accomplished by the ordinary rim and fan
spreader, but the latter should be sufficiently perforated to discharge a considerable
body of water down the flat back.
For the purpose of flushing a closet basin constructed as above described, I
employ a flushing cistern of two or more gallons capacity, which is arranged to
supply a primary flush sufficient to effect a syphonic discharge of the basin, and
a secondary flush whose function is to supplement the residual water remaining
in the basin.
In Sheet 1 of the drawings hereto annexed Figure 1 is a side elevation, Figure 2
a sectional elevation, Figure 3 is a plan, Figure 4 a front elevation, and Figure 5
a rear view of my improved water closet basin. a is the inclined bottom of the
basin; the plane of which, continued, determines the depth of the dip or lower
edge of the flat back e, of the basin. is the outgo of the basin, and e is the short
leg, and the long leg, of the syphonic trapped outlet of the basin.
flushing horn, h the flushing rim, and i the fan spreader.
g is the
One of the chief advantages of my improved form of basin is that it is not in
any way dependent upon the position of the branch soil-pipe, it being so designed
and constructed that it will easily discharge itself by syphonage as shewn in the
drawings without any other connections or pipes, and, on this account, it will
allow of the trap ventilating pipe being attached to the branch soil-pipe close up
to the end of the outgo, without interfering with the syphonic discharge of the
contents of the basin.
Amongst other advantages of this form of basin are: That the contents are
rapidly syphoned out, without creating the offensive odour usual with the commoner
forms; that the short leg of the syphon trap retains sufficient water to reseal the
trap; that the basin exposes a large surface and snallow body of water, to receive
and cool the soil, as well as to absorb and cool down the fumes arising during the
deposition of the soil, thus preventing the air of the water closet apartments- and
the adjoining rooms from being polluted to the same extent as is usual with other
forms of water closet closet basins.
In addition to the straight back being advantageous in the formation of the trap,
it also gives to the basin its greatest width, where such width is required, namely at
the back, thus preventing the fouling of the basin to the same extent as occurs
in other forms. The front of the basin is narrowed down so as not to present
a larger area than is necessary at this point. The straight sides and wide
back, together with the large water area, and the proximity of the latter to the
user, prevents the fouling of the basin as well as the splashing which occurs in
basins having a longer drop, or in basins having the mouth of the outgo in the
centre.
In Sheet 2 of the drawings hereto annexed, Figure 6 is-a sectional elevation
and Figure 7 a plan of a flushing cistern constructed according to my invention.

page_text: The cistern thus illustrated comprises two compartments j and k. The larger
compartment is fed by a ball cock which is controlled by a ball disposed in the
compartment. The contents of the larger compartment are discharged by two
syplions, namely the main syphon formed by the bell Z, and stand pipe m, operated
by a chain pull, and the secondary syphon n. The stand pipe m is led into
a chamber at the bottom of the cistern. Into the chamber o is also led the
flush pipe 7, the orifice of the latter being disposed in the upper portion o¹ of
the chamber o. In this way the stand pipe m and flush pipe are trapped. The
long leg of the secondary syphon is led into the mouth of the flush pipe p, so
that when syphonage takes place in the main syphon, the secondary syphon is
started also, by the rarifaction of the air therein.
It will be noted that the sectional area of the stand pipe m, is greater than
the sectional area of the secondary syphon n, and also that the lower edge of the
bell (when in its lower position) is higher than the orifice of the short leg of the
syphon a. The effect of this construction is that upon the bell 7 being raised, a
comparatively large volume of water will be discharged down the flush pipe p,
which discharge will continue until the level of water in falls below the lip
of the bell 1, when syphonage will be broken in the main syphon. The large
volume of water thus discharged effects a syphonic discharge of the closet basin
above described. The smaller and secondary syphon n, however, continues to
discharge the compartment j until the water level therein falls below the orifice
of the short leg of said syphon, and the water thus discharged is used to supplement
the residual water in the basin and to raise it to the normal level. The compart-
ment is discharged by the small syphon q which is led into the portion o' of the
chamber o. The action of this syphon is also started by the rarifaction or pull of
the main syphon. The long leg of the syphon q is so disposed in the portion o¹
of the chamber o that it discharges into the chainber o and so serves to replenish
this chamber with water.
The height of the partition r of the cistern determines the level of water in
the compartment and when the latter is full, the water will overflow the
partition and raise the level of water in the compartment k until the ball therein
shuts off the ball cock. The water level in the compartment & may be the usual
distance below the overflow s. The position of the overflow will in most cases be
determined by the height of the weir r, as shewn at s, but to meet the requirements
of water companies I may dispose the overflow so that the level of the weir gives
the top inside edge of the overflow pipe, as shewn in dotted lines.
The walls of the cistern, as shewn in Figure 6, will be at a higher level than the
orifice of the stand pipe m and the bend of the secondary syphon n, to prevent
splashing and to carry the fulcrum of the bell lever, the ball cock, and the overflow
connection. It will be seen on reference to the plan, Fig. 7, that a slot s¹, is made
in the end of the cistern, and this slot is continued downwards below the level of
the orifice of the stand pipe m, and effects the purpose of an auxilliary overflow
in the event of the ordinary overflow being blocked, and prevents the water from
being wasted by flowing over the orifice of the stand pipe m.
The syphonic discharge of the basin is set up in the following manner:-The
flushing water from the cistern enters the basin through the flushing horn, a
portion of which passing straight down the back, and the remainder being forced
round the flushing rim to the front, where the two streams meet and form a
wave from the front to the back of the basin. The two streams of water thus
projected down the back and inclined bottom of the basin, respectively, force the
contents of the basin straight into the mouth of the outgo, at such a speed and in
such a volume that the water in the short leg of the syphon trap is lifted bodily over
the weir of the trap and into the funnel shaped or tapered long leg, so as to
charge the latter full-bore and so set un syphonage, which syphonage continues
until the water level in the basin falls below the dip. Air is then drawn under
the dip, breaking the syphonic action, and the water in the short leg falls back

page_text: and seals the basin trap, this seal being supplemented, and the water level of the
basin raised to the level of the weir, by the secondary or restricted flush from the
cistern.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said in-
vention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is:-
1. In a water closet basin having a syphonic trapped outlet, the inclination of
the basin bottom in line with the dip of such syphonic trap, substantially as and for
the purpose herein set forth with reference to the drawings.
2. In a water closet basin having a syphonic trapped outlet, the flat formation
of the basin back, substantially as and for the purpose herein set forth with
reference to the drawings.
3. The particular form and construction of a water closet basin herein set forth
and illustrated in the drawings hereto annexed.
4. In a flushing cistern for a water closet basin having a syphonic trapped
outlet, the combination with the main syphon thereof of a secondary syphon of
smaller area and whose short leg reaches to a lower level than that of the main
syphon, arranged and operating, substantially as and for the purpose herein
set forth with reference to the drawings.
5. The particular construction, arrangement and disposition of cistern, main and
secondary syphons, weir, and overflows, forming a flushing cistern, herein set forth
and illustrated in the drawings hereto annexed.
6. The combination with a syphonic water closet basin, constructed substantially
as herein set forth and illustrated in Sheet 1 of the annexed drawings, with
a flushing cistern constructed substantially as herein set forth and illustrated in
Sheet 2 of the annexed drawings.
Jated this 18th day of December 1897.
J. A. COUBROUGH,
Registered Patent Agent (Qual. by Exam.),
10, St. George's Crescent, Liverpool,
Agent for the Applicant."