A NEW IMPROVEMENT IN CONSTRUCTION OF WATERCLOSETS, AND WHICH MAY BE APPLICABLE TO OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES
Year: 1789

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
ROWNTREE, of Surrey Street, in the Parish of Christ Church, and County of
Surrey, Engine Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date the
Eighth day of December, in the thirtieth year of His reign, give and grant
unto me, the said Thomas Rowntree, His especial licence that I, the said
Thomas Rowntree, during the term of years therein mentioned, should and
lawfully might use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A NEW IMPROVEMENT IN
CONSTRUCTION OF WATERCLOSETS, AND WHICH MAY BE APPLICABLE TO OTHER USEFUL
PURPOSES;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging
me, the said Thomas Rowntree, under my hand and seal, to cause a parti-
cular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within one calender month after the date of the said recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same (relation being thereunto had) may more fully
and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Thomas Rowntree, do hereby declare that my said Invention of A New
Improvement in the Construction of Waterclosets, and which may be
applicable to other useful Purposes is described in manner following (that is
to say):
My Invention or improvement in waterclosets consists of such a disposition

page_text: or application of the several parts necessary to compleat the same that the
whole apparatus is capable of being moved together, and is what I term my
Portable Watercloset. The whole apparatus of this closet may occasionally be
removed from one place to another without taking to pieces, and has all the
advantages in respect to the prevention of the ill smell or stench which is
found in fixed waterclosets. It may be made for the purposes of sick rooms,
and on such a scale as not to occupy more space or to be more incumbrance
than a common night chair. In my closets of this kind the reservoir for the
water, which may either be hot, cold, or medicated, is fixed in the same
piece of furniture as the bason and soil receiver, which latter is so fitted to
the soil pipe from the bason that it may be taken away and replaced at
pleasure. The stench is prevented from getting out of the receiver by means
of the soil pipe from the bason forming an air-tight junction with it, either by
having the end of the pipe immersed in water or some proper fluid, or other-
wise made close by flanches, insersition, &c. This secures it on the outside
of the bason. The stench is prevented from getting through the opening
of the bason by any of the water stops or stink traps at present in use,
or by the application of my new-invented Circular Sliding Valve, which
has the properties of both a valve and cock, and is made to perform its
office either by moving all round each operation, or to pass one part of the
way, and return in such a manner as to open and shut the communication
between the bason and soil pipe, and give an opportunity for the soil and
water to escape into the soil receiver. The same operation, when required,
feeds the bason with a supply of water from the reservoir, or otherwise the
bason may be supplied from a separate vessel, either by passing the water
through the reservoir, or applying it directly to the bason.
Another improvement in waterclosets is, the application of the bason and
soil receiver, as before described, but with a separate reservoir, where it
may be more convenient to have the closet in two or more pieces of furniture
instead of one, or where it might be required of a larger size.
.
Another improvement in a watercloset is, the application of the bason and
circular sliding valve, either with a fixed or separate reservoir to a common
receiver or cesspool, by taking away the receiver as described, and joining the
soil pipe to such common receiver or cesspool, and by that means have all
the useful properties of the most expensive waterclosets.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Rowntree, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Second day of January, One thousand seven
hundred and ninety.
THOS ROWNTREE. (L.s.)

page_text: the
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Second day of January, in
year of our Lord 1790, the aforesaid Thomas Rowntree came before our
said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt according to
the tenor of the Statutes made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Eighth day of January, in the year of our Lord One
thousand seven hundred and ninety.