An Improved Apparatus for the Automatic Delivery of Disinfectants to the Flush Water of Water Closets, Urinals and the like.
Year: 1898

page_text: An Improved Apparatus for the Automatic Delivery of Disinfectants
to the Flush Water of Water Closets, Urinals and the like.
I, JAMES LUVIAN WADE, of 28, West Kensington Gardens, London, W., do
hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:
As is well known various forms of illness and disease notably certain specific
fevers owe their origin to sewer gases, and to the foul odours arising from the
decomposition of excrementitious matter in the drains &c., of water closets,
urinals, and the like; and the benefits resulting from the judicious use of disin-
fectants as a palliation of the evil effects arising from this cause are also well
known.
The results obtained from the use of disinfectants for the purpose indicated
have hitherto always been more or less unsatisfactory as entailing either waste
of the disinfectant," an insufficient supply thereof in cases where the necessity
exists for an increased quantity or a liability of the apparatus to get out of order.
The objects of the invention herein presented are (1) to supply, at each flow,
automatically, to the water used for flushing water closets, urinals and the like a
quantity of the disinfectant, and (2) by modifying the size and shape of certain
parts of the apparatus employed, to regulate the quantity of the disinfectant to
the requirements of individual cases.
These objects I accomplish by placing in the flushing cistern which supplies
the closet urinal &c., a pot, jar, bottle, or other suitable vessel containing the
disinfectant to be employed but not wholly filled therewith.
The vessel in its most simple form is as follows: A straight jar from the
upper portion of which comes a tube opening just inside the vessel; this tube
rises some distance vertically, curves in a semicircle and thereafter pursues its
course in a downward direction terminating in an open end some distance above
the level of the bottom of the containing vessel. Another tube-in this case a
small-bore one-enters the vessel also on or near its upper surface. This tube
is straight about one inch in length, and as in the case of the larger tube just
described both of its ends are open, the outer one being flush with the surface
of the vessel.
When the vessel is filled with a solid soluble disinfectant up to a point falling
short of the small-bore tube within the vessel and is placed in the flushing cistern,
the air contained in that portion of the pendent part of the curved tube which is
immersed in the water, is forced upwards into the space comprised between the
upper surface of the disinfectant, the level of the water in the pendent portion
of the curved tube and the intervening walls of the curved tube and of the upper
portion of the jar. This causes an increase of pressure within the vessel until
sufficient air has escaped through the small bore tube to restore equilibrium;
there is then an inflow of water through the small-bore tube and the escape of a
corresponding quantity of air until the water in the interior of the vessel reaches

page_text: the level of the lower portion of the small-bore tube which then becomes filled
itself with water.
**ns
The water entering the vessel mixes with and dissolves the disinfectant. When
flushing takes place, the level of the water in the cistern falls and consequently
also of that in the pendent portion of the curved tube and the air in the latter
is thus given space to expand, the pressure in the interior being in this way
brought below that on the outside and a further inflow of water through the
small bore tube is the result.
At the next flushing the flush water contains a quantity of the disinfectant
which has been forced through the small-bore tube by the increased pressure
caused by the rise of the water in the curved tube upon the filling of the flush
cistern after the previous flushing. Again when flushing takes place the pres-
sure in the interior of the vessel falls below that on the outside (brought about as
above stated by the fall of the level of the water in the curved tube) and this
results in an inflow of water by the small bore tube to replace the fluid containing
the disinfectant which was previously ejected thereby. This inflow of course
ceases as soon as the level of the water in the flush cistern has fallen to the
level of the inlet of the small bore tube; it is necessary therefore to have a
sufficient depth of water above the inlet to ensure the replacement of the ejected
fluid disinfectant before the water (when a flush is taking place) falls below the
level of the inlet.
The curved portion of the larger tube must of course be somewhat higher than
the level of the water in the cistern.
Where necessary a greater increase of pressure in the interior of the vessel is
brought about by enlarging the pendent portion of the curved tube and thus
imprisoning, each time the cistern fills after flushing, a larger volume of air,
resulting of course in a correspondingly more copious ejection of the fluid disin-
fectant. In such cases the lower end of the curved tube may be made of a conical
or bell-mouthed shape.
The above description is meant only to embody the essential features of the
invention herein described. I do not, of course, limit myself to any fixed size or
shape of the containing vessel or of any of its parts.
Dated this 20th doxe of Annil 1908
An Improved Apparatus for the Automatic Delivery of Disinfectants
to the Flush Water of Water Closets, Urinals and the like.
I, JAMES LUVIAN WADE, Engineer, of 28, West Kensington Gardens, in the
County of London, 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:-
This invention for improvements in disinfectors for automatically delivering
disinfectant to a charge of water relates to that class of disinfector containing a
solid disinfectant more or less soluble in water, and which, each time a tank
or cistern is filled and emptied, delivers a small quantity of the dissolved disin-
fectant to the water, and has for its object to provide a disinfector that when
charged ready for use is applied by simply placing it inside the tank ar cistern
in which it should be more or less completely immersed when the tank or cistern
is full. This disinfector can thus also be easily removed for recharging or other

page_text: purpose. The disinfector is applicable more particularly to flushing cisterns,
water carts and the like.
This invention consists in a vessel for containing the solid disinfectant, a syphon
tube outside the vessel and whose shorter arm communicates with the top of the
vessel, and a small pipe extending a short distance inwards from the top of the
vessel.
In the accompanying sheet of illustrative drawings: Fig. 1 is a sectional eleva-
tion of a disinfector constructed according to this invention, and Fig. 2 shows a
slight modification.
The vessel a is provided with a syphon or-shaped pipe having its shorter
leg connected to the top of the vessel a. As shown there is a flange e on the
lower end of the leg to retain the hollow screw on the leg. This screw d
screws into a nut e soldered on the vessel and having an internal flange f.
The flange
c on the leg bis thus forced against the internal flange f and makes
a tight joint, an intermediate leather or other washer y being preferably provided.
By this arrangement the pipe can readily be removed for the insertion of fresh
disinfectant through the nut e. The longer arm of the syphon extends down-
wards outside the vessel to nearly the bottom. The vessel a is also provided
with a small pipe extending about one inch downwards from the top.
The disinfectant is inserted into the vessel a as above described through the
nute and the syphon pipe firmly secured in position. The whole apparatus is
then placed in the flushing cistern and becomes filled with water up to the
level of the lower end of the small pipe i as shown, and the water in the apparatus
becomes saturated with the disinfectant.
During the flushing operation, as the flushing cistern empties, the water con-
tained in the lower part of the leg falls and thus sucks water into the vessel a
through the pipe . As the cistern is again filled the water rises up the leg h
and forces out through the small tube i all the water above the lower end of the
small pipe that was drawn in at the previous flushing operation into the flushing
cistern and as this water is saturated with the disinfectant the charge of flushing
water is rendered disinfectant for the next flushing operation.
The bend of the syphon tube bh may be completely immersed or it may
extend out of the water of the cistern.
In the modification shown in Fig. 2 the longer arm is made adjustable so
that the quantity of disinfectant delivered to the charge of water can be varied.
It will readily be seen that the vessel a can be made of any shape to suit the
tank or cistern to which it is applied.
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 is :-
1. A disinfector consisting of a vessel, a syphon tube connected by its shorter
arm to the top of the vessel, and a small air tube extending a short distance
inwards from the top of the vessel.
2. The improvements in disinfectors for automatically delivering disinfectant
to a charge of water, substantially as described with reference to the drawings.
Dated this 20th day of July 1898.
WHEATLEY & MACKENZIE,
40, Chancery Lane, London, W.C.,
Agents.