IMPROVE- MENTS IN PRIVIES OR CLOSETS TO BE USED IN PLACE OF WATER-CLOSETS
Year: 1863

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Josias Bull York at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 9th Sep-
tember 1863.
I, JOSIAS BULL YORK, of Coleshill, in the County of Warwick, Gentle-
man, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN PRIVIES OR CLOSETS TO BE USED IN PLACE OF WATER-CLOSETS," to be as
follows:-
My Invention consists of the improvements herein-after described in privies
or closets to be used in place of water-closets, by which improvements the soil
of the said privies or closets is deodorized and preserved in a solid form and
thereby made into a valuable manure. The seat of the privy or closet is
furnished with a pan, which may differ from that of an ordinary water-closet in
having a division near its front, by which the urine may be conducted from
the pan and not allowed to mix with the soil which falls into the pan. Under-
neath the seat and at the back of the fixed pan is a vertical shaft which carries
a circular disk or platform near the periphery of which an annular trough is
made. The said trough is divided by a series of equidistant radial divisions
into a series of compartments, each of which said compartments may be brought
by the rotation of the shaft under the fixed pan of the seat, so as to form a
temporary bottom to the said pan. The bottom of each of the said compart-
ments opens downwards on a binge, the said bottom being held in a horizontal
position by a spring catch fastening. At the back of the seat is a cistern or

page_text: reservoir containing sand or ashes or other solid in powder, which may be
mixed with the soil without injuring it as a manure. A hopper in the bottom
of the said cistern or reservoir opens over the divided annular trough, the
bottom of the said hopper being situated in a horizontal plane a little higher
than that in which the tops of the radial divisions of the annular trough are
situated. An intermittent rotatory motion being given to the annular trough,
each of the compartments therein as it is brought under the bottom of the
hopper receives a supply of sand or ashes. As soon as the sand or ashes has
accumulated in any compartment sufficiently to form a heap, the summit of
which touches the bottom of the hopper, the descent of the sand or ashes ceases.
When by the partial rotation of the shaft an empty compartment is brought
under the hopper the sand or ashes commence again to descend until the
compartment has received its charge, when the descent of the said sand or
ashes ceases.
In this way the several compartments are charged without any
valve or measuring apparatus between the hopper of the reservoir and the said
compartments.
The action of my Invention is as follows:-After the privy or closet has
been used a partial rotation is given to the vertical shaft. By this motion the
compartment of the annular trough which had received the soil upon the sand
or ashes contained in it is removed from under the fixed pan and emptied in
the manner herein-after explained. At the same time another compartment
with its charge of sand or ashes is brought under the fixed pan and the privy
or closet is ready for use again. An empty compartment is simultaneously
brought under the hopper and receives its charge of sand or ashes in the
manner already explained. The emptying of the compartments charged with
sand and soil is thus effected :-As the compartment containing the soil passes
from under the fixed pan its spring catch fastening is unfastened by striking
against a fixed projection or stop, and the hinged bottom falls and delivers the
soil and sand into a chest, or into a channel which conducts it to a chest. As
the discharged compartment passes further on in its course to the hopper it
passes over an incline by which the bottom is raised and secured by its spring
catch fastening. The said compartment is now ready to pass under the hopper
again to receive its charge of sand and to be brought in its turn under the
fixed pan of tho privy or closet. An intermittent rotatory motion may be
given to the annular trough by means of a lever, a pall, or click engaging with
a ratchet wheel on the periphery of the disk carrying the trough, temporarily
fixing the said trough in the proper positions for use. Although I prefer to
divide the annular trough in the manner described, yet the divisions may be
dispensed with without materially affecting the action of the apparatus. In

page_text: place of the spring catch fastenings for supporting the hinged bottoms of the
compartments the annular trough may rotate over a plane which supports the
said bottoms excepting at that part of their path where the soil is to be dis-
charged, at which part the said plane terminates and the bottoms on arriving
at that part being unsupported fall and deliver the soil in the channel or chest
for its reception.