IMPROVEMENTS IN WATER- CLOSETS
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Paton Buchan, of the City of Glasgow,
in the County of Lanark, North Britain, Master Plumber and
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Paton Buchan
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 4th May 1875.
I, WILLIAM PATON BUCHAN, of the City of Glasgow, in the County
of Lanark, North Britain, Master Plumber and Gasfitter, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN WATER-
CLOSETS," to be as follows:-
This said Invention consists in tinning or galvanizing the outsides of
the copper or brass closing pans of pan waterclosets, so that by this
Invention these improved pans so coated will last for a much longer
time than such pans have done heretofore when only tinned on the
inside.

page_text: By these improvements the copper or brass pans are preferably coated
with the tin, lead, zinc, or a mixture of any of these metals after they
are shaped or formed, but the sheets of copper or brass of which the
pans are to be formed might be so coated on both sides before being
shaped or formed, and they might be japanned on the outside instead of 5
being tinned, or japanned over the tinning in some cases.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Paton Buchan in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 2nd November 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
PATON BUCHAN, of the City of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark,
North Britain, Master Plumber and Gasfitter, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of May, in the year of
our Lord One housand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the thirty-
eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said William Paton Buchan, Her special
licence that I, the said William Paton Buchan, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Paton
Buchan, 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 WATERCLOSETS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said William Paton Buchan, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under
my, or their, or one of their hands and scals, 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 Paton Buchan, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the

page_text: same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertamed
in and by the following statement in writing, that is to say:-
My said Invention consists in " tinning" or galvanizing the outsides
of the copper or brass closing pans of pan waterclosets, so that by this
Invention these improved pans so coated will last for a much longer
time than such pans have done heretofore when only coated on the
inside.
By these improvements the copper or brass pans are coated on both
sides (not on the inside only, as is usually the case) preferably with lead,
but tin, nickel, or silver may, when desired, be used instead. The
"tinning," coating, or galvanizing of these copper pans may take place
either after the pans are shaped, or the sheets of copper may be coated
on both sides before being formed into pans.
The copper is prepared for the coating by thoroughly cleaning the
surface by rubbing it over either with emery paper or sand and vitriol,
or by immersion in a bath of acid, such as vitriol or a mixture of vitriol
and water. The coating thereafter takes place either by immersing the
copper in a vessel of the aforesaid metal in a molten state, or by heating
the copper and applying the metal used for coating when the copper is
properly heated up.
In the process of coating a mixture of muriatic acid and zinc, or
instead thereof sal-ammoniac and linseed or other suitable oil, may be
employed, or rosin, or a mixture of rosin and grease may be the flux, or
the pans may be electro-plated.
When desired these pans might be japanned over the metallic coating
as an additional, security against corrosion, and to insure their lasting
much longer without requiring repair than those heretofore made and
used.
Having observed during, a long and large practice in repairing pan
waterclosets that the copper pans hitherto vended by metal merchants
to plumbers and others frequently gave way in a very short time from
corrosion on the outer side where the copper was unprotected, I have
been led to make this Invention, so that by these new “ double-coated "
pans being used the pan watercloset may get fair play, and the public
also be better served.

page_text: Having thus described the nature and mode of performing my said
Invention, I would observe in conclusion that what I consider novel and
original and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the
herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the "tinning" or coating
of the outer (as well as the inner) surface of the pans of or for pan
waterclosets with lead or other equivalent, substantially as and for the
purposes herein described, or any mere modification thereof.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Paton Buchan, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this First day of November, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five.