IMPROVEMENTS IN EARTH CLOSETS, APPLICABLE ALSO IN PART TO WATER CLOSETS AND PRIVIES
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Edward Newton, of the Office for
Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Civil
Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN EARTH CLOSETS,
APPLICABLE ALSO IN PART TO WATER CLOSETS AND PRIVIES." -A com-
munication from abroad by Charles Austin Wakefield, of Pittsfield,
in the State of Massachusetts, United States of America.
Sealed the 14th October 1870, and dated the 24th May 1870.
"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Edward
Newton at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 24th May 1870.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery
Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN EARTH CLOSETS,
APPLICABLE ALSO IN PART TO WATER CLOSETS AND PRIVIES," to be as follows:-
This Invention is applicable in certain of its features either to indoor
or outdoor closets, both those of the pull-up kind and others including

page_text: water closets and privies, but it is mainly applicable to earth closets, and
will here be described accordingly.
The Invention (as so applied) has for its object a more perfect extrac-
tion of the earth from the reservoir, and the distribution of it over the
excrement, also various conveniences and facilities which add materially 5
to the utility of the closet.
The Invention consists, 1st., in the combination with the hopper or
reservoir (for holding the earth) and the seat of an earth slide, con-
structed with bars in front, and arranged to constitute a bottom to the
hopper.
2nd. In the adaptation of an earth slide provided with opening and
closing flaps in combination with the hopper for the purpose of scattering
the earth.
1
3rd. The combination of steps (in the tracks of the flaps) with the
flaps of the slide, so that the said flaps may be allowed to suddenly 1
drop and let fall the earth on to the excrement.
4th. The adaptation of sliding plates with the slots in the sides of the
hopper and with the slide for the purpose of preventing the escape of
effluvia through the slots.
5th. Connecting the slide by means of levers and rods with the 2
lid so that the slide may be worked by opening and closing the lid.
6th. The arrangement of an additional slide constructed to form a
child's seat beneath the main or permanent seat.
7th. These slides, or either of them, are operated by rods and levers to
bring them to their position under the seat when the lid is opened and
are made to retreat by the closing of the lid.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Edward Newton in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 24th November 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM 3
EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in
the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of May, in the year

page_text: of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-
third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said William Edward Newton, Her special
licence that I, the said William Edward Newton, my executors, ad-
ministrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Edward
Newton, 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, APPLICABLE ALSO IN PART TO WATER
CLOSETS AND PRIVIES," being a communication to me from Charles
Austin Wakefield, of Pittsfield, in the State of Massachusetts, United
States of America, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said William Edward Newton, my executors or administrators, by
an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands
and seals, should 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 William Edward Newton, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement, reference being had to the Drawing
hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is
to say):
This Invention is applicable in certain of its features either to indoor
or outdoor closets, those of the pull-up kind and others, including water
closets and privies, but it is mainly applicable to earth closets, and will
here be described accordingly.
The Invention (as so applied) has for its object a more perfect
extraction of the earth from the reservoir and the distribution of it over
the excrement, also various conveniences and facilities which add
materially to the utility of the closet.
The Invention consists, first, of a slide for conveying a charge of
carth from the hopper or reservoir to and over the place where the
excrement is deposited, also a novel construction of slide whereby it is

page_text: made to answer as the bottom of the hopper, and to open and drop the
earth in a scattering manner over the deposit. There is likewise a bar-
like construction of the earth slide to secure a better retention or
absorption of the odour.
Furthermore, the Invention includes the use of rising and falling
plates over the openings in the sides of the hopper through which the
connection is established between the earth slide and the means by
which it is operated.
The Invention further includes a scent slide provided with the
necessary mechanism for operating the same so as to prevent the escape
of effluvia, and in the case of an earth closet of the pull-up kind the
slide prevents fouling of the person or clothes by dust during the period
of the occupants rising from the seat and closing the lid.
Likewise the Invention includes a supplementary child's slide or seat
to and under the main seat of a closet or privy.
And, lastly, the Invention comprises automatic means for securing the
proper and timely retreat of such supplementary seat and scent slide, or
either, by the closing of the lid and certain combinations of devices with
the lid for operating the earth distributing slide.
In the accompanying Drawing Fig. 1 represents a side elevation of an 2
earth closet constructed in accordance with the Invention; Fig. 2 is a
horizontal section taken in the line x, x, in Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a vertical
central section in a plane parallel with the sides of the closet; and
Fig. 4 is a vertical section through the line y, y, in Fig. 3.
1
A represents the hopper or reservoir for the earth; B, the main seat of 2
the closet, and C, its lid; D is a receptacle for the excrement and
earth distributed over the same to effect its deodorization. Arranged
beneath the bottom of the hopper A is a slide E made to travel on side
ways a, a, in a direction from beneath the hopper to or under the seat B
and back again. The rear portion 6 of the slide may be made close and 3
of flat plate form, while the forward portion is composed of bars b¹ of
such height or depth as to play freely through the front opening in the
hopper, whereby the bars which may if desired be arranged transversely
to instead of, as here shown, with the motion of the slide serve to hold
upon them a certain quantity of earth after the slide has been drawn out 3
from beneath the hopper to or over the place of deposit below the seat,
and the earth brought forward between the bars has been dropped on the

page_text: excrement below by the falling of the flaps c, c, after the lid C is closed.
The slide E remains drawn out to act by the dust on the bars as a
standing absorbent of effluvia if any should should remain or rise within
the receptacle after the dust caused by the scattering of the earth over
the excrement has settled. The slide E acts as a scatterer of the earth
conveyed by it from the hopper A, such slide having arranged in the
front portion of it below the bars 6' a series of metallic flaps c pivotted
or hinged at their back edges to the slide, so as (when raised) to close
them. This is done by their sliding over fixed ways d, d, and they are
made to underlap one another so that they form a bottom to such open
portion of the slide to convey earth from the hopper to the seat B, but as
they arrive under the latter the flaps c are caused to tilt or open simul-
taneously, and thereby to empty the earth in a scattering manner from
off them over the excrement, and to create such a dust in the space
below the seat as to catch and retain the rising odour. This tilting of
the flaps c may be effected by various means, but a very simple and
efficient arrangement for the purpose is to make them of varying lengths
as shewn in Fig. 2, and to form steps e, e, in the forward portions of the
inner edges of their tracks d, d, so that on reaching such stepped
portions the flaps will be released from support and suddenly drop or
open.
There are advantages in the use of a slide over other devices for
distributing the earth from the hopper over the excrement and special
points of gain when such slide is constructed to operate as described.
Thus the earth may be carried out any desired distance from the hopper,
and in making it form the bottom of the hopper all that friction is
avoided which must attend the drawing out of the slide from between
the hopper and a fixed bottom thereto, consequent upon the jamming or
packing of the earth by accumulation and working of the earth sideways
during the motion of the slide. The earth too is taken from the hopper
in one broad even sheet, and when released is so broken up as to form
a cloud of dust which penetrates all parts of the closet or space below
the seat thereby and conjointly with the earth remaining on the bars of
the slide, and taking up all the effluvia as well as effectually covering
the excrement.
In the closet to which the Invention is here shewn applied, the
slide E is operated automatically by the opening and closing of the
lid C, the same being drawn out to convey and scatter the earth, as

page_text: described, by the closing of the lid and being worked backwards out of
the way on opening the lid; but the slide may if desired be operated
independently of the lid by means of a "pull" or lever. The means here
shown for operating the slide by the lid during the opening and closing
of the latter, as specified, consist of levers f,f, pivotted at their one end
as at g to the sides of the hopper, and connected at their opposite ends
to the slide E by side pins or pivots arranged to project through slots i
in the sides of the hopper, and the levers f,f, being connected with the
lid C by rods k. The pins h are connected with the levers f, f, through
slots s, which are of curved form struck from a centre near or outside
the front edge of each lever above the centre as it were of the pins h.
This shape of the slots & obviates that friction in or of the slide E
during its entire movement, which would otherwise be caused by the
curvilinear movement of the lever f.f, when operated by the opening
or closing of the lid C.
To prevent the escape of effluvia through the slots i in the sides
of the hopper the slots are covered by plates / hung free to rise and fall
and notched as at m to receive the pins h through them, so that the
plates cover the slots i when the lid C is closed, but lift to allow the
passage of the pins h along the slots, the notches m being suitably
shaped to facilitate the lifting of the plates by the pins h on com-
mencing to raise the lid C which starts the slide E backwards.
F is a close slide arranged below the seat B. The object of this slide
is to prevent the escape of effluvia during the period which elapses
between the person rising from the seat and the closing of the lid C; also
the same serves in the case of a "pull-up" closet to prevent the rising
of dust (produced by the scattering of the earth) upon the person or
clothes, should the pull be operated before rising from the scat. The
slide is closed by lifting a pull or rod n, which through a cranked rod or
lever n¹ throws the slide F forward, and it is automatically thrown back
or opened by the lid C, when closing, being made to depress the pull n.
B' is a supplementary and smaller or child's seat arranged below the
main seat B, the same being in the form of a slide capable of being
drawn under the main seat by lifting a pull or rod n³ through a cranked
lever n³, and of being thrown back or to one side by the action of the
lid C in closing on the pull as in the case of the scent and dust slide F.
In making the closing of the lid effect the retreat of the slide F and

page_text: child's seat B', these devices are only called into requisition when
required, and out of the way at other times.
Having now described the Invention which has been communicated
to me as aforesaid, I claim as the Invention secured to me by Letters
Patent,―
First. The combination with the hopper or reservoir A. and the seat B
of the earth slide E constructed with bars 6' in front, and arranged to
constitute a bottom to the hopper, as herein set forth.
Second. I claim the adaptation of the earth slide E provided with
opening and closing flaps c, c, in combination with the hopper A, as and
for the purposes herein set forth.
Third. I claim the combination of the steps e, e, in the tracks d, d,
with the flaps c, c, of the slide E, and also the combination of the sliding
plates b, b, with the slots i in the sides of the hopper and pins h of the
slide E, as and for the purpose specified.
Fourth. I claim the combination of the slide E, levers f,f, and rods k,
with the lid C, and also the arrangement of the slide B¹ constructed to
form a child's seat beneath the main or permanent seat B, as specified.
Fifth. I claim the slides F and B¹, or either of them, operated by
rods n, n³, and levers n¹, n³, to their position under the seat B, when
the lid C is opened and made to retreat by the closing of the lid, as
herein shown and described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Edward Newton, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, the Twenty-second day of
November, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and seventy.