Improvements in Supplying Water to Water Closets.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 4th June, 1892
Complete Specification Left, 3rd Mar., 1893-Accepted, 8th Apr., 1893
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Supplying Water to Water Closets.
I, FREDERICK GEORGE UNDERIIAY, of Crawford Passage, Clerkenwell, in
the County of Middlesex, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention
to be as follows :-
This invention relates to what are known as regulator closets in which the time
of closing of the valve supplying water to the pan is regulated by the descent
of a weighted piston or bellows which forces air out of a cylinder through a small
aperture.
In such closets as heretofore constructed the lever by which the valve is opened
is connected directly to the handle so that the valve does not commence to close
until the handle is released and waste of water therefore sometimes results.
According to this invention the handle only acts on the valve whilst being
pulled upon so that the closing of the valve commences directly the motion of
the handle ceases.
In addition to the regulator another air cylinder is provided having within it
a piston or bellows whose rod is connected to the handle. This cylinder which
may be called the pump cylinder is connected by a non-return valve to the
regulator cylinder. The effect therefore of a pull on the handle is first to force
air from the pump cylinder into the regulator cylinder opening the supply valve in
the usual way but immediately the passage of air into the regulator cylinder ceases
the valve begins to close again whether the handle be held or not.
Dated this 4th day of June 1892.
F. G. UNDERHAY.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Supplying Water to Water Closets.
I, FREDERICK GEORGE UNDERHAY, of Crawford Passage, Clerkenwell, in
the County of Middlesex, Engineer, 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 :-
This invention relates to what are known as regulator closets in which the time
of closing of the valve supplying water to the pan is regulated by the descent
of a weighted piston or bellows which forces air out of a cylinder through a small
aperture.
In such closets as heretofore constructed the lever by which the valve is opened
is connected directly to the handle so that the valve does not commence to close
until the handle is released and waste of water therefore sometimes results.
According to this invention the handle only acts on the valve whilst being pulled
upon so that the closing of the valve commences directly the motion of the handle
ceases.
In addition to the regulator another air cylinder is provided having within it a
piston or bellows whose rod is connected to the handle. This cylinder which may
be called the pump cylinder is connected by a non-return valve to the regulator
cylinder. The effect therefore of a pull on the handle is first to force air from the
pump cylinder into the regulator cylinder opening the supply valve in the usual
way but immediately the passage of air into the regulator cylinder ceases the valve
begins to close again whether the handle be held or not.

page_text: In order that my said invention may be fully understood and readily carried into
effect I will proceed to describe the drawings hereunto annexed.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 is an elevation of apparatus in accordance with my invention.
Figure 2 is a plan of the same.
Figure 3 is a section on the line 3, 3, in Figure 2.
a is the handle which in the usual manner operates to open and close the valve of
the pan, that is to say, if the closet be of the class in which valves in connection
with the pan are employed, but in any case it opens the water supply valve. This
however the handle a does not do directly as heretofore but indirectly.
The direct action of the handle is to lift the weighted end of the lever b which
has its fulcrum at . The lever when thus moved by means of the rod c
depresses the disc d which forms the bottom of a bellows like structure d'. The
bellows is open to the air at the top although covered to exclude dirt. The
bellows is enclosed in a cylindrical vessel e and when the disc d descends air is
expelled from the vessel e through a passage f into another cylindrical vessel g
which is the regulating vessel.
@
The vessel a contains a bellows like structure in all respects like that in the
vessel e and this when air is driven into the vessel y is collapsed, the rod is raised
and it carries upwards with it the weighted lever which holds the water supply
valve k to its seat. The water supply valve is of the ordinary sort.
The air
forced into the vessel g cannot return to the vessel e, being stopped from doing so
by the non-return valve (which is kept near to its seat by a stop pin ') but the
air can pass slowly out of the vessel by the stop cock m which is open more or
less according to the time during which it is desired that the water flow should
continue. The air ejected from the vessel e is supplied by air which enters slowly
by a minute perforation or leak made in the vessel at e¹; hence there is a con-
siderable interval of time before the disc d returns, after use, to a position which
admits of another effective action. No waste or undue use of water can take place
as holding up the handle for a prolonged period or even fastening it up has no
influence on the duration of the water flow.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inveu-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. The means by which the duration of the water flow to a closet is rendered
independent of the handle which serves to start the flow; by providing an air
cylinder or vessel by which on the movement of the handle air is forced into
the regulating vessel and from which it gradually escapes whether the handle be
returned or allowed to return.
2. Apparatus substantially as described for regulating the water supply to
closets.
Dated this 22nd do. of Fa1000
F. G. UNDERHAY.