IMPROVEMENTS IN EARTH CLOSETS AND URINALS
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Augustus Fraser Baird, of Pimlico, in the County
of Middlesex, Lieutenant-Colonel in the Bengal Staff Corps, for
T
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Augustus Fraser Baird
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 31st March 1869.
I, AUGUSTUS FRASER BAIRD, of Pimlico, in the County of Middlesex,
Lieutenant-Colonel in the Bengal Staff Corps, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN EARTH CLOSETS AND
URINALS," to be as follows:-
This Invention refers to an arrangement for agitating the earth used
in earth closets, the same being specially designed to be used in my
Patent earth closets and urinals (see Patent No. 2351, A.D. 1867, 15th
August, and Patent No. 810, A.D. 1868, March 9th).
A light iron framing, which 'should be of three-eighths inch round
iron, with a piece of wood fixed to one end is hung in brackets secured
to the framing in front of the hopper. From a cross bar in the front

page_text: part of the frame a small bar is swung, the end of which hangs a little
below the rail of the framing up to which the weighted part of the
valve rises, and as the latter rises it strikes up the bar which causes
the wood at back of hopper to strike the latter briskly, which never
fails to agitate the earth even when it has stood forty-eight hours and
thus settled down nearly two inches. When the weighted end of the
valve falls the frame and striker also fall of their own weight ready
for another use. Sometimes I hinge a flap board (corresponding in
shape to the back of the hopper) to the upper edge of the back of
the hopper, and this being raised by the action of the arrangement
described above strikes the whole surface of the back of the hopper
sharply, thus causing such an amount of vibration as cannot fail to
loosen the earth.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Augustus Fraser Baird in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 30th September 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, AUGUSTUS
FRASER BAIRD, of Pimlico, in the County of Middlesex, Lieutenant-
Colonel in the Bengal Staff Corps, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Thirty-first day of March, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the
thirty-second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Augustus Fraser Baird,
Her special licence that I, the said Augustus Fraser Baird, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Augustus Fraser Baird, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and
at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and
Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN EARTH CLOSETS AND
URINALS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Augustus
Fraser Baird, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should

page_text: particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to
be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Augustus Fraser Baird, do
hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement :-
This Invention refers to an arrangement for agitating the earth used
in earth closets, the same being specially designed to be used in my
Patent earth closets and urinals (see Patent No. 2351, A.D. 1867, 15th
August, and Patent No. 810, A.D. 1868, March 9th).
A light iron framing, which should be of three-eighths inch round iron,
with a piece of wood fixed to one end is hung in brackets secured to
the framing in front of the hopper. From a cross bar in the front part
of the frame a small bar is swung, the end of which hangs a little
below the rail of the framing up to which the weighted part of the
valve rises, and as the latter rises it strikes up this bar which causes
the wood at back of hopper to strike the latter briskly, which never
fails to agitate the earth even when it has stood forty-eight hours and
thus settled down nearly two inches. When the weighted end of the
valve falls the frame and striker also fall of their own weight ready
for other use. Sometimes I hinge a flap board (one corresponding in
shape to the back of the hopper) to the upper edge of the back of
the hopper, and this being raised by the action of the arrangements
described above strikes the whole surface of the back of the hopper
sharply, thus causing such an amount of vibration as cannot fail to
loosen the earth.
Having now particularly described the nature of the said Invention, I
will now proceed to particularly describe and ascertain in what manner
the same is to be performed or put in operation by reference to the
accompanying Drawings and the descriptive statement hereafter
following that is to say:
Figures 1, 2, and 3 are respectively side view, front view, and plan of
an agitator arranged and constructed in accordance with my Invention;
Figures 4 and 5 respectively part sectional view of earth closet and part

page_text: sectional view of urinal (as described in my Patent No. 810, dated
March 9th, 1868,) with my earth agitator arrangement fitted thereto.
The same letters of reference are used in all the Figures to denote
similar parts.
A, A, weighted shoot valve or flap; a pivots on which the same
works; b, weighted portion of valve; c, curved projecting part; d, smaller
projecting piece upon which rests a rod r acting in connection with
the seat or floor of the closet so that the valve is actuated by the rising
and depressing of the seat or floor; e, shoot, and e', hinged shoot flap
to receptacle for deposits; h, the hopper; S, S, the seat or floor; L, L,
lever arrangement between seat or floor and shoot valve or flap; P, the
closet pan or shoot for urine; m, m, flap board at back of hopper; n, n,
light iron framing; o, o, striker; p, p, brackets in which agitator
mechanism is supported; q, q, cross bar; r¹, small hanging bar or rod.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the
said Invention and in what manner the same may be carried out in
practice, I hereby declare that I claim, the Invention of improvements
in earth closets consisting in the use of and adaptation of the earth
agitating arrangements herein-before set forth and described, it being
understood that I do not restrict myself to the use of and I do not
claim the constituent constructive details shewn by the Drawings and
herein described apart from the purposes of my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Augustus Fraser Baird, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of August, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-
nine.