IMPROVE- MENTS IN WATER-CLOSET APPARATUS
Year: 1864

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Joseph Alfred Nicholson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
16th April 1864.
I, JOSEPH ALFRED NICHOLSON, of Gracechurch Street, in the City of London,
Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN WATER-CLOSET APPARATUS," to be as follows:-
My Invention relates, first, to the tumbling pan of water-closets, and consists
in so fitting this pan on its axis and to the bottom of the earthenware pan or
other receiver that it may be inverted for the purpose of emptying it, the axis
being in a central position across the diameter of the pan. I make this
tumbling pan large, and to contain the flow required at each time. The
bottom of the earthenware pan does not dip into the tumbling pan as usual,
the bottom opening and greatest contraction being nearly as large as the
external diameter of the tumbling pan; from this point (greatest contraction)
the earthenware is cupped to permit of the tumbling pan, which is somewhat
of a semi-globular form, fitting as closely as possible, at same time permitting
of its necessary motion; the axis is situated just below this point. On the
spindle carrying the tumbling pin I fit a crank arm, and from it conduct the
pull rod upwards; the pan may either perform a quarter or half revolution in
emptying, and retrograde to its former position, or it may perform an entire
revolution. There is of course a D or other trap below as usual to prevent
effluvia returning from the drains or channels into which the closet empties.
Instead of a crank arm a disc may be used, and attached by a flexible con-

page_text: nection to the pull rod. If it is desired to form the tumbling pan with a close
joint, I make it so that it will only tumble in one direction to empty, the one
half diameter of the pan turning up in the earthenware or other receiver, and
the other half downwards and below it. When closed the tumbling pan has
a flange fitted with india-rubber packing or surface, which in the half diameter
that rises upwards shuts down upon a surface that makes it tight, while the
other half diameter is similarly fitted, and shuts up against a surface on the
under side, rendering the pan air-tight or nearly so when closed. The axis is
disposed centrally, as before described...
The second part relates to means of keeping the pull handle up, and the
water running for a certain length of time at each pull of the handle. For
this purpose I connect the pull rod with a projecting pin, which may have a
truck roller, if desired; this pin in rising passes up a straight slot in lifting
the handle, but when released is so arranged that it must pass down a series
of inclined surfaces disposed for convenience in a zig-zag-direction, which
occupies a given length of time to traverse, and so retards the descent of the
pull handle, and prolongs the flow of water. These reversed inclines being in
two, three, or more stages the pull handle may be lifted. only, to one, two, or
more divisions, and the descent prolonged in proportion. Instead of being
arranged in a zig-zag direction the inclined retarding surface may be helical
and on an axis, which will rotate in frictional contact, or provided with a flyer
to retard its motion in the requisite degree.