IMPROVEMENTS IN DRY CLOSETS OR PRIVIES AND COMMODES, PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
Year: 1871

page_text: :
LETTERS PATENT to John Williamson, of No. 25, Warren Street,
Stockport, in the County of Chester, and William Glazier, of
No. 235, Drake Street, Rochdale, in the County of Lancaster, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN DRY CLOSETS OR PRIVIES AND COMMODES,
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Williamson and
.
William Glazier at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 22nd September 1871.
We, JOHN WILLIAMSON, of No. 25, Warren Street, Stockport, in the
County of Chester, and WILLIAM GLAZIER, of No. 235, Drake Street,
Rochdale, in the County of Lancaster, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN DRY CLOSETS OR PRIVIES AND
COMMODES, AND IN APPARATUS TO BE USED THEREWITH," to be as follows:--
This Invention relates to the reception and deodorization of human
excreta in dry closets, privies, and commodes in which ashes, dry earth,
or other 'absorbent or deodorizing material in powder is or may be

page_text: efficient and economical manner than heretofore by absorbing the urine
separately, and so rendering a much smaller quantity of deodorizing
powder necessary for the fœces.
.
We will describe our Invention as applied to an ordinary privy or dry
closet. Under the seat of the said closet we put a moveable tub or
other receptacle for the collection of the excreta, which said tub has a
moveable partition (preferably of a curved form) so as to divide the
said receptacle into two compartments, one of which receives the foeces
and the other the urine, this mode of division being similar to that for
which Letters Patent, No. 1793, A.D. 1857, were granted to one John
Lloyd, but differing from that in the respect that no outlet is provided
for the urine, and that the front compartment is charged with a sufficient
quantity of suitable absorbent material to absorb all the urine instead
of filtering it, and that the partition being moveable it is possible to
vary the relative sizes of the compartments aforesaid so as to adapt
them to all requirements. We use a pair of bellows or other suitable
pneumatic arrangement, as herein-after explained, for the purpose of
distributing the deodorizing powder over the foeces. The bellows (where
bellows are used) are arranged in a manner somewhat similar to that
described in the Specification of Letters Patent No. 412, A.D. 1866,
granted to one Charles Emile Giajola, but are according to our Invention
combined with a hopper or other suitable arrangement, by means of
which powder or other deodorizing material may be introduced into a
shoot or spout, so as to be acted upon by the current of air from the
bellows. We place the said hopper (which is by preference furnished
with a lid) at the back of the seat or in any other convenient position,
and we prefer to suspend the said hopper on a spindle or on trunnions
turning in bearings or in any other way, so as to be free to oscillate
through a small distance, and we fix the bellows or their equivalent at
the back of the hopper, or in any other suitable position. When the
bellows are affixed at the back of the hopper the air passes through an
opening furnished with a valve into the lower part of the said hopper,
but when the said bellows are not in juxtaposition to the said hopper
we connect the one to the other by means of a pipe. The said bellows
may be worked by any suitable mechanical means, such as the ordinary
pull handle, or a stud or lever acted upon by the weight of the person

page_text: on the seat, by which means a current of air can be blown into the
hopper at or near the bottom thereof. The said hopper is preferably
smaller at the bottom than at the top, and is provided with a shoot or
spout opposite or nearly opposite the opening by which the air from the
bellows enters. This opening, and the opening leading from the.
hopper to the shoot, should be provided with ordinary clack valves so.
arranged as to prevent back draft, the latter valve serving also to
prevent the contents of the hopper from running down too freely.
:―
In place of the bellows herein-before described it is sometimes more.
convenient to use a pneumatic arrangement constructed as follows:
The said arrangement consists essentially of a cylinder, to one end of
which is connected a pipe leading to the hopper aforesaid, the other
end of the cylinder being closed air-tight by a sheet of india-rubber
having a hole through its centre, in which is affixed by means of
cup-like washers a spindle capable of being moved in the direction of
the axis of the said cylinder, so that on drawing the said spindle
outwards by any suitable mechanical arrangement the india-rubber
cover is drawn into a convex form, and air enters the cylinder through .
a valve therein. On the return of the spindle the air thus drawn in is ▸
forced through the pipe aforesaid to the hopper..
In order to use the apparatus the hopper is filled with ashes, spent tan,
dyewood, or any other suitable deodorizing material, and the front
compartment of the tub is also partly filled with similar or other
suitable deodorizing and absorbent materials, and the said tub is then
put in its place. After the deposit of the fœces and urine a current of
air is forced by means of the bellows into the lower part of the hopper,
and a shower of deodorizing material in fine powder is thereby thrown
over the surface of the deposited foeces in the back compartment,.
covering the said feces and deodorizing it. The jerk of the bellows
communicated directly or indirectly to the hopper (where the latter is,
so arranged as to be capable of oscillation as aforesaid) causes it to
oscillate, and thereby shakes the material in the said hopper and brings
the next charge into position.
"

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Williamson and William Glazier in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 21st March 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
WILLIAMSON, of No. 25, Warren Street, Stockport, in the County of
Chester, and WILLIAM GLAZIER, of No. 235, Drake Street, Rochdale,
in the County of Lancaster, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of September, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in
the thirty-fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto us, the said John Williamson and
William Glazier, Her special licence that we, the said John Williamson
and William Glazier, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as we, the said John Williamson and William Glazier,
our 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 DRY CLOSETS OR PRIVIES AND COMMODES, AND IN APPARATUS
TO BE USED THEREWITH," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the
said John Williamson and William Glazier, our executors or adminis-
trators, by an instrument in writing under our or their hands and
seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us or them, 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 Glazier, on behalf of
myself and the said John Williamson, 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 thereof, that is to say:—
This Invention relates to the collection and deodorization of human
excreta in dry closets, privies, and commodes in which ashes, dry earth,

page_text: or other absorbent or deodorizing material in powder is or may be.
projected on or distributed over the excreta, and the objects of the said
Invention are to absorb the urine and to deodorize the feces in a more
efficient and economical manner than heretofore by absorbing the urine
separately, and so rendering a much smaller quantity of deodorizing
powder necessary for the feces.
}
We will describe our Invention as applied to an ordinary privy or dry
closet. Under the seat of the said closet we put a moveable tub or
other receptacle for the collection of the excreta, which tub has a
moveable partition (preferably of a curved form) so as to divide the
said receptacle into two compartments, one of which receives the feces
and the other the urine, this mode of division being similar to that for
which Letters Patent, No. 1793, A.D. 1857, were granted to one John
Lloyd, but differing from that in the respect that no outlet is provided
for the urine, and that the front compartment is charged with a
sufficient quantity of suitable absorbent substance to absorb the urinė
instead of filtering it, and that the partition being moveable it is
possible to vary the relative sizes of the compartments aforesaid, so as
to adapt them to all requirements. We use a pair of bellows or other
suitable pneumatic arrangement as herein-after explained for the
purpose of distributing the deodorizing powder over the feces. The
bellows (where bellows are used) are arranged in a manner somewhat
similar to that described in the Specification of Letters Patent,
No. 412, A.D. 1866, granted to one Charles Emile Giajola, but are
according to our Invention combined with a hopper or other_suitable
arrangement by means of which a suitable powder or other deodorizing
material may be introduced into a shoot or spout, so as to be acted
upon by the current of air from the bellows. We place the said
hopper (which is by preference furnished with a lid) at the back
of the seat or in any other convenient position, and we prefer to
suspend the said hopper on a spindle or on trunnions turning in
bearings or in any other way so as to be free to oscillate through a
small distance, and we fix the bellows or their equivalent at the back
of the hopper, or in any other suitable position. When the bellows
are affixed at the back of the hopper the air passes through an opening
furnished with a valve into the lower part of the said hopper, but when
the said bellows are not in juxtaposition to the said hopper we connect
the one to the other by means of a pipe. The said bellows may be
-

page_text: worked by any suitable mechanical means, such as the ordinary pull
handle or a lever acted upon by the weight of the person on the seat,
by which means a current of air can be blown into the hopper at or
near the bottom thereof. The said hopper is preferably smaller at the
bottom than at the top, and is provided with a shoot or spout opposite
or nearly opposite the opening by which the air from the bellows entérs
the said hopper. This opening, and the opening leading from the
hopper to the shoot, should be provided with ordinary clack valves so
arranged as to prevent back draught.
:-
In place of the bellows herein-before described it is sometimes more
convenient to use a pneumatic arrangement constructed as follows :-
The said arrangement consists essentially of a cylinder, to, one end of
which is connected a flexible pipe leading to the hopper aforesaid, the
other end of the cylinder being closed air-tight by a sheet of india-
rubber having a hole through its centre in which is fixed by means of
cup-like washers a spindle capable of being moved in the direction of
the axis of the said cylinder, so that on drawing the said spindle
outwards by a pull handle or other suitable mechanical arrangement,
the india-rubber cover is drawn into a convex form, and air is thereby
caused to enter the cylinder through a valve therein. On the
return of the spindle the air. thus drawn in is forced through the pipe
aforesaid to the hopper.
In order to use the apparatus the hopper is filled with ashes, spent
tan, dyewood, or other suitable deodorizing material, and the front
compartment of the tub is also partly filled with similar or other
suitable deodorizing and absorbent materials, and the said tub is then
put in its place. After the deposit of the feces and urine a current
of air is forced by means of the bellows or other suitable pneumatic
arrangement into the lower part of the hopper, and a shower of
deodorizing material is thereby thrown over the surface of the deposited
feces in the back compartment, covering the said feces and deodorizing
it. The jerk of the bellows communicated directly or indirectly to the
hopper (where the latter is so arranged as to be capable of oscillation
as aforesaid) causes it to oscillate, and thereby shakes the material and
prevents it from choking or "bridging" in the said hopper.
Having described the nature of our Invention, we will proceed to
describe the manner in which the same is to be performed, reference

page_text: being had to the accompanying Drawings, and to the figures and letters
marked thercon.
Figure 1 is a front elevation of a dry closet constructed and arranged
according to our Invention, the heel board being removed in order the
better to show the parts; Figure 2 is a vertical section of the said
closet, the said section being taken on the line X, Figure 1; Figure 3
is a plan of the said closet with the top flap and hopper removed, and
Figure 4 is a plan- of the receptacle herein-after described; Figure 5 is a
front elevation of the hopper herein-after described; and Figure 6 is a
vertical section of the same taken on the line Y, Figure 5; Figure 7
is a front.clevation of a hopper of a different form. The same letters
of reference indicate the same parts in all the aforesaid Figures.
A is the moveable tub or receptacle furnished with the moveable
partition B (made by preference of sheet metal to admit of its being
sprung into its place), by which partition the said receptacle is divided
into two compartments A¹, A³. The compartment A¹ receives the feces
and the compartment A the urine. C is the hopper containing the
deodorizing powder, and D is the bellows by means of which the said
powder is projected over the feces in the compartment A¹. We prefer
to make the lower part of the hopper of the form represented in
Figure 7, i.e., to make that part narrower on the dotted line c¹ than
on the dotted line c³, in order to prevent the deodorizing powder from
choking or "bridging" in the hopper, and for the same reason we
prefer to make the said hopper wider in transverse vertical section
(see Figure 6) on the dotted line c' than at the top of the said
hopper. The dotted line c* indicates this modification. We prefer to
suspend the hopper C on a spindle c³ turning in brackets c. The
bellows D is affixed to the back of the hopper, being hinged thereto
at d', and is furnished with a clack valve d² of the ordinary construction
opening inwards, and another clack valve d' opening outwards. c³, c^,
are lips between which the air from the bellows passes, carrying with it
a portion of the deodorizing substance from the hopper; d³ is a pin
affixed to the back of the bellows, which pin engages in a slotted lever e¹
carried by a rocking shaft E. This shafts turns in bearings e², e², and
carries a lever e³, which is connected by links e, et, to a lever F, which
turns on a fulcrum f', and is or may be furnished with a counterbalance
weight f². The upper end of this lever bears against a friction plate
affixed to the under side of the jointed seat, G, so that the weight of the

page_text: person sitting upon the latter causes the lever F to act upon the inter-
mediate mechanism above described, and thereby to distend the bellows
D. g is a urine guard.
Instead however of working the lever F by means of a hinged seat
as above described the said lever may be worked by hand as represented
in Figure 8, which is a vertical section of a portion of a closet furnished
with mechanism for working the apparatus by hand. In this case the
lever F turns on a fulcrum at f³, and is raised and lowered by means of
a pull handle H, by raising which the parts can be brought into
the positions indicated by dotted centre lines. The other parts of the
aforesaid mechanism are the same as those described with reference to
the preceding Figures.
When using a very dry deodorizing powder it may be advantageous
to construct the bellows D and hopper. C as represented in vertical
section in Figure 9, that is to say, we dispense with the valve d' and
apply to the bellows at a suitable distance from the bottom thereof a
clack valve d³, through which the air is discharged into a channel a³
formed between the bellows and the back of the hopper. The valve
thus arranged serves to prevent back draught, and being placed out of
contact with the deodorizing powder the action of the said valve is not
impeded.
Having now described the nature of our Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, we wish it to be understood that
we do not limit ourselves to the precise details herein-before described,
as the same may be varied without departing from the nature of our
said Invention, neither do we claim any of the parts separately except
as herein-after stated. But we claim as our Invention,―
Firstly. The general construction and arrangement of apparatus
essentially as herein-before described and illustrated in the accompanying
Drawings for the more efficient and economical absorption of urine and a
deodorization of feces.
Secondly. The use of a tub or receptacle divided into two compart-
ments by a moveable partition, by means of which the relative sizes of
the said compartments may be varied as required, one of the said
compartments being charged with sufficient absorbent substance to 3
absorb the urine, and the other being used for the reception and
deodorization of the feces, essentially as described.-

page_text: Диншу. тие combination or a nopper for containing deodorizing
powder with a pair of bellows or other similar pneumatic arrangement
and mechanism for working the same, essentially as and for the purpose.
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Glazier, have hereunto set
.
my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of March, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.
0
Witness,
H. H. MURDOCH,
7, Staple Inn,"
London.
WILLIAM GLAZIER. (L.S.)