NEW-INVENTED SELF-ACTING WATER CLOSET, WHICH CONSTANTLY KEEPS ITSELF SWEET AND CLEANER, AND IS UPON A MORE SIMPLE CONSTRUCTION, THAN ANY HERETOFORE DISCOVERED
Year: 1792

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, JOHN ASHLEY,
of the Parish of Saint Mary Islington, in the County of Middlesex, Plumber,.
sendeth greeting.
WHEREAS the King's most Excellent Majesty, by Letters Patent under
the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date the Twelfth day of May last;
gave and granted unto the said John Ashley, his executors, administrators,
and assigns, His Majesty's special licence, full power, sole priviledge and
authority, for the said John Ashley, his executors, administrators, and assigns,.
and every of them, by himself or themselves, or by his or their deputy or
deputies, servants or agents, or such other as he, the said John Ashley, his
executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, not
exceeding the number of five, and no other, from time to time and at all
times during the term of years therein expressed, to make, exercise, and vend
his "NEW-INVENTED SELF-ACTING WATER CLOSET, WHICH CONSTANTLY KEEPS ITSELF
SWEET AND CLEANER, AND IS UPON A MORE SIMPLE CONSTRUCTION, THAN ANY
HERETOFORE DISCOVERED;" to have, hold, exercise, and enjoy the said licence,
power, priviledge, and advantage to the said John Ashley, his executors,
administrators, and assigns, for the term of fourteen years from the date of
the said Letters Patent next immediately ensuing, and fully to be compleat
and ended, according to the Statute in that case made and provided; in which
said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that if the said John Ashley should
not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing
under his hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within one calender month next and immediately

page_text: after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then and in such case all
liberties, priviledges, and advantages whatsoever thereby granted should utterly
cease, determine, and become void.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Ashley, in pursuance of the said
proviso in the said Letters Patent contained, do hereby declare that the nature
of my said Invention of a Self-acting Water Closet, which is constantly keeps
itself Sweeter and Cleaner, and upon a more simple Construction, than any
other heretofore made, and the manner in which the same is to be performed
is described in the Plan or Drawing hereunder made, and explained as follows,
that is to say:-
A, supposed to be the great cistern; a, a, a double-boxed cistern fixed to
the under side of the great cistern; B, C, two suckers, the upper one
heavier than the lower sucker, and heavy enough to weigh up the beam;
D, the bason,pipe; E, the cod-piece.pipe; F, the bason, represented to explain
the process; G, a common stink trap, represented to show how the neck of
the cod-piece and small pipe is fixed; H, the cod-piece which contains the air
ball to the neck of the cod-piece, in which part of the rod of the air ball is
contained; I, a common air ball, heavier than the closier, and rises and 'falls
in the cod-piece as the water comes in and goes out; K, the closier, joined
to the air ball by a rod, and hangs in a swivel k; L, 'the small pipe by
which the water runs out of the cod-piece into the stink trap; 'O, the seat,
supposed to be hung at the back by two hinges, and rests on the front by 'two
springs; P, the beam, hung on a pin to the inside of the front of the seat 'to
which the wire R is fixed, is pressed down by the seat, and rises by 'the
weights of the upper sucker; Q, the leaver or beam to which the 'two wiers
are hung; R, r, the two wires; S, a leaver or 'beam which rises and falls
the suckers.
The manner in which my said water closet acts is as follows:- Any
person sitting on the seat presses it down about an inch, which presses on 'the
beam and opens the sucker in the upper part of double cistern and let's
the water in, and when the person rises off the seat the upper sucker closes
and opens the lower sucker and lets the water down the two pipes; the one
washes the bason while the other fills the cod-piece, and causes the air ball
to rise, the closer falls and lets out soil and water into the said stink 'trap,
and by means of the small pipe the cod-piece is emptied of the water, the ball
falls and raises the closier, and prevents the effluvia ascending.
In witness whereof, the said John Ashley hath hereunto set his hand
and seal, this Fourth day of June, One thousand seven hundred and
ninety-two.
JOHN (L.s.) ASHLEY.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Fourth day of June, in the
year above mentioned, the aforesaid John Ashley came before our Lord the
King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid, and all
and every thing therein contained, in form above written. And also the Speci-
fication aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute in that
case made and provided.
Inrolled the same Fourth day of June, in the year above written.