A NEW OR IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR SUPPLYING DISINFECTING LIQUIDS TO WATERCLOSETS, URINALS, AND OTHER PLACES REQUIRING THE SAME
Year: 1865

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles Nicholas at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 19th July 1865.
I, CHARLES NICHOLAS, of Cheltenham, in the County of Gloucester,
Plumber, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "A NEW OR
IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR SUPPLYING DISINFECTING LIQUIDS TO WATERCLOSETS,
URINALS, AND OTHER PLACES REQUIRING THE SAME," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists of the apparatus herein-after described, by the use
of which a fixed or measured quantity of a disinfecting liquid can be supplied
to a watercloset or urinal after use for the purpose of disinfecting them.
The said apparatus may also be applied to other purposes when it is required
to disinfect or destroy offensive odours.
I will describe my Invention as applied to a watercloset. The principal
parts of the said apparatus are situated in a cistern or reservoir in which the
disinfecting liquid to be used is contained. At the bottom of the reservoir
is a small closed chamber which acts as a measure. Into this measure the
disinfecting liquid passes from the reservoir, and from the measure to the
watercloset. The measure is alternately filled and emptied by mechanism
constructed as follows:-Inside the cistern and near its top is a lever turning
in a vertical plane upon an axis supported at opposite sides of the cistern.
At one end of this lever is a wire passing vertically downwards to a valve on.

page_text: the bottom of the cistern, which valve is made by the motion of the lever to
open or close communication between the cistern and the measure. At the
other end of the lever is a wire passing down a tube fixed on the bottom of
the cistern; this wire is connected with the crank of the watercloset;
between this wire, which I will call the discharge wire, and the axis on which
the lever turns is another wire which passes down a tube into the measure,
and is connected with a valve which opens and closes the communication
between the measure and a pipe opening over the pan of the watercloset.
When the closet wire is pulled down the valve at the bottom of the cistern is
opened and the disinfecting liquid fills the measure. When the closet wire
is liberated the cistern valve falls and the measure valve is raised. The
disinfecting liquid is thereby allowed to pass from the measure to the pan of
the watercloset. By connecting the discharge wire with the crank of the
watercloset the apparatus is made automatic, that is, by raising the handle
of the watercloset to empty the soil the measure is filled, and by loosing the
handle the pan of the closet rises, and the disinfecting liquid in the measure
is allowed to run into it; the closet is then ready again for use.
In applying my Invention to urinals and other places the discharge wire
may be pulled by hand when it is required to discharge some of the dis-
infecting liquid into the urinal or other place. In the case of urinals the
apparatus may be worked by the weight of the person using the urinal.
By the use of my Invention a measured portion only of the disinfecting
liquid can be discharged at once, and waste of the liquid is prevented.