Improvements in the Joints or Connections of Water Closets, Urinals, and other like Earthenware Goods.
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application, 15th Feb., 1894
Complete Specification Left, 21st July, 1894-4ccepted, 29th Sept., 1894
Improvements in the Joints or Connections of Water Closets,
Urinals, and other like Earthenware Goods.
I, THOMAS WILLIAM TWYFORD, of Cliffe Vale Pottery, Hanley, in the County
of Stafford, Manufacturing Sanitary Potter, do hereby declare the nature of this
invention to be as follows:-
My invention has relation to means of connecting metallic articles to earthenware
goods, such for example as for making the connection of the outlets or traps of
water closets to lead soil pipes or metallic end fittings to be attached to soil pipes,
for connecting the outlets and inlets of earthenware urinals to the metallic flushing
and outlet pipes, for making the connections of the metallic flushing pipes to the
arm parts of earthenware pedestal or other closets and for a variety of other
purposes where earthenware goods and their metallic cognate fittings require to be
connected together.
In connecting pedestal and other earthenware closets or their traps to lead soil
pipes, interposed rubber washers are used between the opposed flanges of soil pipes
and closet outlet respectively. Now should the rubber or other interposed material
employed deteriorate in its physical character then the joint in question becomes
defective, and being out of the way, the defect is not easily detected unless the
same is below the waterline of the closet trap, when the fault may then be revealed
by leakage.
Now the object of my invention is a perfectly reliable connection which is sound
under all conditions and which will stand the strain produced by expansion and
contraction of the parts in intimate contact.
Now the joining of metal fittings to earthenware substances is fraught with many
difficulties consequent upon the brittleness and liability to fracture of the one and
the changes in respect of expansion and contraction consequent upon varying
temperatures in the other.
My invention consists in electro-depositing a metal upon the end of the earthen-
ware article and primarily by it, connecting the metallic fitting, such as the end of
a soil pipe or the short piece of a lead soil pipe, to it by wipe soldering, lead
burning or electro-depositing.
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"
In carrying out my invention in connection with a water-closet of the "Deluge
type, in which the body of the closet and the trap are made of earthenware and
integral or in one piece, I leave the outer surface of the outlet of the trap to a
short distance from the end, unglazed or in what is technically known as the
Visque" or " biscuit state. This unglazed end, which is simply porous earthen-
ware, is provided with one, two or more annular depressions, wherein metallic
wires or rings are introduced, and constitute the means of conducting the electric
current to the surface to be coated. The whole of this said surface is then
provided with a conductible coating such as plumbago, or with a thin metallic coating,
which is applied either before or after the electric conducting rings or wires have
been fitted.
The prepared end is then immersed in a coating solution and the conducting
rings connected to the circuit wires of a battery, when both the outside and end
surfaces of the article quickly become covered by a stratum of metal, such as
copper, and the precipitation of the said metal will just be seen to arrange itself
around the conducting rings and then to spread itself over the plumbago coated
surface.

page_text: Although I prefer to employ the conducting rings which come flush with the
surface of the part of the article to be coated, yet the electric current may be
conducted around the prepared part by arranging wires to circumferentially pass
around the same and in contact with the graphite or plumbago coating.
To this metallic coated end, I may attach a short piece of lead soil pipe by a
wipe-soldered joint, lead-burning, bit soldering or electro-deposition and to this
short length of lead pipe, the lead soil pipe proper may be united by any of the means
enumerated above.
Now to make the joint more complete, and to ensure a perfect connection, the
entrance to the inside bore of the earthenware part of the connection is flared
inwardly, or annularly recessed, with the wider part of the recess being further-
most from the said entrance, so that when the inner end of a short piece of lead
soil pipe
placed therein and the walls of that part lying within the recess are
expanded by an expanding tool the said pipe falls to the inside bore of the recess,
whilst its extreme end comes against a set off at the termination of the said recess,
hence the further securing of the pipe.
I prefer that in addition to the lead pipe being expanded, a coating of cement
or other adhesive substance be applied to the contact surfaces, hence a double
security.
The union of the said short piece of lead soil pipe with the electro deposited end
of the earthenware part of the connection then made by a wipe soldered joint, by
electro-depositing or by other means.
To promote adhesion of the electro-deposit, the part to be coated may be
amalgamated by first being immersed in a solution of proto-nitrate of mercury and
then being washed and rubbed with leather. By thus treating the prepared
surface of the article, the coating metal thrown down will have a like burnished
character of the polished mercurial surface and by subsequently applying heat, the
mercury is driven off.
Or, the metal film or coating may be put on by an amalgam instead of by electro
deposition and the mercury driven off by heating.
The short piece of the soil pipe may be fitted to the inside bore of the outlet of
the trap or closet in other ways than as described.
>
The application of my invention to the connection together of the earthenware
and metallic parts of urinals, drains, sinks, baths, and other earthenware goods
differs in no essential respect from its application to the connection of the
metallic soil pipe to the earthenware trap of a water closet as hereinbefore
described.
Dated this 14th dor of Fahm 1901
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Joints or Connections of Water Closets,
Urinals, and other like Earthenware Goods.
I, THOMAS WILLIAM TWYFORD, of Cliffe Vale Pottery, Hanley, in the
County of Stafford, Manufacturing Sanitary Potter, do hereby declare the nature
of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
My invention has relation to means of connecting metallic fittings, components
or articles to earthenware goods, principally for sanitary purposes, such for example
as for making the connection of the outlets or traps of water closets to lead soil
pipes or metallic end fittings to which soil pipes are to be attached for connecting

page_text: the outlets and inlets of earthenware urinals to metallic flushing and outlet pipes ;
for making the connections of the metallic flushing pipes to the arm parts of
earthenware pedestal or other closets and for a variety of other purposes where the
union of earthenware goods with their metallic cognate fittings is required to be
effected, and also where earthenware fittings are required to be connected to
metallic articles or goods.
In house sanitation, the joint connections between earthenware closets and their
metallic soil pipes or fittings are usually made by interposing rubber washers
between the opposed flanges of soil pipe and closet outlet respectively. Now
should the rubber or other interposed material employed become deteriorated
or perish through contact with noxious sewer gases, then the joint in question
becomes defective, and being out of the way, the defect is not easily detected
unless the same is below the waterline of the closet trap, when the fault may then
be revealed by leakage.
Now the object of my invention is a perfectly reliable connection or joint,
which is sound under all conditions, and which will stand the strains attendant
upon the variable expansion and contraction of the earthenware and metallic
parts in intimate contact.
Now the joining of metal fittings to earthenware substances is fraught with
many difficulties, consequent upon the brittleness and liability to fracture of the
earthenware, and the changes in respect of expansion and contraction, consequent
upon varying temperatures, in the metal.
My invention consists in making a joint by electro-depositing a metal upon an
outside part or an end of the earthenware article, and through the medium of the
said deposited metal, connecting the metallic fitting, such as the end of a soil pipe,
or a short piece of lead soil pipe, to the said earthenware article by wipe or bit
soldering, lead burning or electro-depositing.
In carrying out my invention in connection with a water-closet basin in which
the body of the closet and the trap are made of earthenware and integral or in one
piece, I leave the inner and outer surfaces of the outlet of the trap, to a short
distance from the end, unglazed, or in what is technically known as the "Visque"
or "biscuit" state. This unglazed end, which is simply porous earthenware, has
or is preferably provided with one, two or more annular or circumferential
depressions, wherein metallic wires or rings, which constitute the means of
conducting the electric current to the surface to be coated, are placed. The whole
of this said surface is then provided with a conductible coating, such as plumbago,
or with a thin metallic coating, which is applied either before or after the
electric conducting rings or wires have been fitted.
The prepared end is then immersed in a vat of electro-depositing solution, and
the conducting rings are connected to the circuit wires of a battery or dynamo
and on current being passed, both the outside and, end surfaces of the article
quickly become covered by a coating or stratum of the metal precipitated from
the solution. The precipitation of the said metal will first be seen to arrange
itself around the conducting rings, and then to spread itself entirely over the
plumbago coated surface.
Although I prefer to employ conducting rings, which may come flush with the
surfaces of the part of the article to be coated, yet the electric current may
be conducted around the prepared parts by arranging wires to circumferentially
pass around the same and in contact with the graphite or plumbago coating.
To this metallic coated end, I may attach a lead soil pipe, or a short piece of
lead pipe, by a wipe-soldered joint, lead-burning, bit soldering or electro-deposition.
Figure 1 of the accompanying drawing represents an earthenware closet pan,
with a metal soil pipe, and also a metal ventilating pipe connected by the
means and in one of the ways before described.
Figure 2 represents a vertical section of the same, showing how the union of
the metal pipes with the earthenware article, or the parts of the earthenware
article, is effected.

page_text: Figure 3 represents a vertical section, upon an enlarged scale, of one of the joints.
Figure 4 represents a a horizontal section upon the dotted lines x-x Figure 3.
Figure 5 represents the inside-socketted flange of the earthenware article or
closet separately, and before the outside inside and end walls, or either of the
walls of the same have been electro-deposited with a coating of metal, and it
also represents the conducting wires or rings lying within the circumferential
grooves.
Figure 6 represents the socket end, after receiving a thick coating of metal
by electro-deposition.
Figure 7 represents the end of the soil pipe or metallic fitting.
a is an earthenware closet, having socket flanges and with the end walls
and parts, 2, 4, of each of the same left unglazed, as represented by the
jagged lines in Figure 5, and with the said socket flanges being annularly
grooved at 3, within which, the current-conducting wires or rings c, having
circuit wires c', connected to each of them, are placed. The unglazed surfaces
of the socket flange which is to receive the metallic deposit are now prepared
by being coated with plumbago or a metallic substance to make the necessary
conductive inside and outside surfaces.
Now assuming the socket flange thus prepared have been placed within an
electro-depositing vat containing copper solution, and that current is passed
along the circuit wires to the conducting rings, then a coating of copper d, d', d²,
is deposited upon the said part to any required thickness, when the article is taken
out of the vat and the conducting wires separated, leaving the current-conducting
rings, which assists the adherence of the coating, intact.
In connecting a metallic pipe e, to an earthenware or non-metallic socketted
end, pass the end e', into the socket 6, and then join the said end e', to the
socket flange b, by a wipe soldered joint f, in the way commonly employed in
connecting two metallic articles to each other.
I might add that by leaving the earthenware porous, the deposited metal is
caused to adhere most tenaciously to the earthenware, owing partly to the said
metal first insinuating itself into the pores and I have found in practice that it is
best to have the end to which the metallic article is to be attached specially porous.
I wish it to be understood that other metals than copper, such as lead or tin,
and alloys of them or other suitable metals, may form the depositing metal.
Where lead or tin is employed, I prefer to deposit the same upon a prior coating
of copper and then the soldered joint may be effected by a burning process
instead of being wipe or bit soldered.
Or the union of the metal with the earthenware parts may be accomplished by
electro-deposition instead of by soldering, that is, an earthenware article to be
fitted with a metallic pipe is first prepared in the way described, and then a
solid deposit is formed between the metallic article to be attached and the
earthenware.
In order to create adhesion of the deposits in undercuts and inside parts, con-
ducting wires may be directed to the locality where the coating is to be made,
and the parts to be coated may be prepared as bereinbefore described or by
any of the well known methods.
wish it to be understood that if necessary the conducting wires c, lying within
the grooves may be dispensed with, and the deposit may be made direct upon the
plumbagoed or metallised surface, and it is further understood that by the term
"earthenware goods, I mean those made from such substances as china, brick,
terra cotta, slate, stone and the like, either natural or artificial.
"
The application of my invention to the connection together or the making of the
joints of the earthenware and metallic parts or fittings of urinals, drains, sinks,
baths, slabs, and other earthenware goods, or to the connection of earthenware
fittings to metallic articles, differs in no essential respect from its application to
the connection of a metallic soil pipe to the earthenware trap of a water closet
as hereinbefore described.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is :-
First. Joining or uniting metallic parts, fittings, or articles to earthenware goods
or earthenware parts, or vice versa, by coating the earthenware part of the joint,
either only outside, or inside, or both, with a metallic electro-deposit, and then
joining the metallic part to the metallic deposit by wipe or bit soldering, or by
lead burning, substantially as described and set forth.
Dated the 20th day of July 1894.
THOMAS WILLIAM TWYFORD,
By Henry Skerrett,
6, Livery Street, Birmingham, Agent for Applicant.