IMPROVEMENTS IN DRY CLOSETS AND COMMODES
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Felix Napoleon Target, of 2, Westminster
Chambers, in the City of Westminster, Civil Engineer, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN DRY CLOSETS AND COMMODES."
Scaled the 12th January 1872, and dated the 14th July 1871.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Felix Napolcon Target
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 14th July 1871.
I, FELIX NAPOLEON TARGET, of 2, Westminster Chambers, in the
City of Westminster, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN DRY CLOSETS AND COMMODES," to be
as follows:-
The object of my Invention is to absorb, disinfect, or deodorize any
gases which may be contained in or given off from the solid and liquid
excrement received in dry closets and commodes, and the Invention
essentially consists in arranging beneath the ordinary opening of the
seats of the closets or commodes boxes which open or move aside when
a person sits on the seat, and again close when the person rises, the
boxes at the same time sprinkling any ordinary absorbing, disinfecting, or
deodorizing powder upon the excrement just received by the closet or
commode.

page_text: The manner in which my Invention may be carried into effect is as
follows: I connect to the under side of the seat, beneath the usual
opening, a collar of suitable depth, to which I attach two horizontal
semicircular plates. These plates when brought together close the
communication to the lower part of the closet. Fitted beneath these
plates are two semicircular boxes to which the plates form lids, and the
bottoms of which are perforated. These boxes are supplied with any
ordinary absorbing, disinfecting, or deodorizing powder. Below the
boxes at the bottom of the closet is a suitable container or receiver
which also may be lined or supplied with powder.
When
The action is as follows:-When a person sits upon the seat it yields
to a certain extent and through the intermediation of cranks and levers
or other suitable mechanism acts upon the semicircular plates and
boxes, so that they separate or move apart and leave a clear opening
through which the excrement will pass into the container below.
the person rises the plates and boxes are closed up immediately by
counterweights or springs, and owing to the two boxes striking together
on returning to their normal position a portion of the powder therein
falls through their perforations and is thus sprinkled upon the excrement
in the container. Any gas which may afterwards rise from the container
passes through the perforations into the boxes and becomes absorbed or
deodorized therein.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Felix Napoleon Target in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 13th January 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FELIX
NAPOLEON Target, of 2, Westminster Chambers, in the City of West-
minster, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of July, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the thirty-
fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Felix Napoleon Target, Her special licence
that I, the said Felix Napoleon Target, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Felix Napoleon Target, my

page_text: exccutors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and
no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
DRY CLOSETS AND COMMODES," upon the condition (amongst others) that
I, the said Felix Napoleon Target, my executors or administrators, by
an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands
and scals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the
said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed,
and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within
six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Felix Napoleon Target, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement thereof, reference being had to the accom-
panying Drawings, that is to say :—
The object of my Invention is to absorb, disinfect or deodorize any
gases which may be contained in or given off from the solid and liquid
excrement received in dry closets and commodes, and the Invention
essentially consists in arranging beneath the ordinary opening of the
scats of the closets or commodes, boxes which open or move aside when
a person sits on the seat and again close when the person rises, the boxes
at the same time sprinkling any ordinary absorbing, disinfecting, or
deodorizing powder upon the excrement just received by the closet or
commode.
-
The manner in which my Invention may be carried into effect is as
follows I place under the seat beneath the usual opening a collar of
suitable depth, to which I attach two horizontal semicircular plates.
These plates when brought together close the communication to the
lower part of the closet. Fitted beneath these plates are two semi-
circular boxes to which the plates form lids and the bottoms of which
are perforated. These boxes are supplied with absorbing, disinfecting, or
deodorizing powder. Below the boxes at the bottom of the closet is a
suitable container or receiver which also may be lined or supplied with
powder. The action is as follows:- -When a person sits upon the seat,
it yields to a certain extent, and through the intermediation of cranks

page_text: and levers or other suitable mechanism acts upon the semicircular
plates and boxes so that they separate or move apart and leave a clear
opening through which the excrement will pass into the container
below. When the person rises, the plates and boxes are closed up
immediately by counterweights or springs, and owing to the two boxes
striking together on returning to their normal position, a portion of the
powder therein falls through their perforations, and is thus sprinkled
upon the excrement in the container. Any gas which may afterwards
rise from the container passes through the perforations into the boxes
and becomes absorbed or deodorized therein.
My Invention will be fully understood on reference to the accom-
panying Drawings.
Figure 1 is a plan of a commode fitted with my improvements;
Figure 2 is a front elevation, and Figure 3 a central transverse section
of the same.
a, is the outside box or shell of the commode. b is the seat or cover
which is hung on hinges at the back and has a play of about 1 of an
inch in front; c is a container or receiver which may be lined with
absorbents d on the system patented by P. N. Goux, on the 20th
February 1868. e is a metal or earthenware collar fixed in the closet
beneath the hole f in the seat, the top of this collar being flush with
the top g of the riser; h, h, are two semicircular boxes free to be
moved on the pivot into the position shown by dots in Figure 1.
These boxes may have movable lids to allow of the introduction of the
absorbing deodorizing or disinfecting powder into them, or the lids.
may be semicircular plates fitted to move on the pivot i, and provided
with slides to receive the boxes so that the boxes may be taken out to
be filled. The bottoms of the boxes are perforated. k, k, are bell
cranks weighted at 1, 1. Projections m, m, on the seat bear on the
short arms of these cranks while their long arms are connected to the
ends of levers n, n, which are attached at their other ends to lugs on the
boxes h. When a person sits upon the seat the projections m, m, force
down the small arms of the cranks k so that the long arms act upon
the levers n, n, and cause them to open the boxes into the position
shown by dots. There is thus a clear passage for the excrement to
fall into the container c, in which it becomes partially absorbed or
deodorized. When the person rises the weights 1, 1, return the parts
to their normal position and the two boxes h, h, by striking together

page_text: cause a portion of the powder therein to fall through the perforations
and to be thus sprinkled upon the excrement in the container. An
ounce of the powder at each use of the commode will generally be more
than sufficient to prevent and neutralize any emanation of gases.
Another mode of carrying out my Invention is represented in plan
in Figure 4, in front elevation partly in section in Figure 5, and in side
elevation partly in section in Figure 6. In this modification I employ
one circular box ½ in place of two semicircular boxes as before described,
the slam or shock for causing the powder to be sprinkled being produced
by the box on returning to its normal position, striking against a
suitable stop or check o, which may be provided with india-rubber
pads. When a person sits upon the seat the weighted bell crank k,
moves the bar or lever n and the box
in Figure 4, and on the person rising the weights return the parts to
their normal position and the box strikes against the stop o and the
powder is sprinkled. In either modification the bottom of the boxes /
may be horizontal as shown or inclined, the object of the inclination
being to prevent the powder accumulating at one part of the box after
cach slam. The apparatus herein-before described may be applied to
any ordinary closet or privy, provided that the seat has a little play in
front as before explained.
into the position shown by dots
And having now described the nature of my said Invention and in
what manner the same is to be performed I declare that I claim as my
improvements in dry closets and commodes,
The employment or introduction under the seat of the closet or
commode and above the container or receptacle for the excrement, of
a box or boxes for containing an absorbing, disinfecting, or deodorizing
powder, the said box or boxes being made to open or move aside and
to return again to their normal position and to sprinkle some of the
powder upon the excrement, all substantially as herein-before described.
In witness whercof, I, the said Felix Napoleon Target, have here-
unto set my hand and scal, this Twelfth day of January Onc
thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.
F. N. TARGET. (L.S.)