IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR EMPTYING CESSPOOLS AND PRIVIES
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Henry Johnson, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields,
in the County of Middlesex, and of Glasgow, North Britain, Gentleman,
.for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR
EMPTYING CESSPOOLS AND PRIVIES." -A communication from Jean Pierre
Louis Florimond Datichy, of Paris, in the Empire of France, Mecha-
niciau.
17
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Henry Johnson at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
19th June 1855.
I, JOHN HENRY JOHNSON; of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of
Middlesex, and of Glasgow, North-Britain, Gentleman, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS
FOR EMPTYING CESSPOOLS AND PRIVIES," a communication from Jean Pierre Louis
Florimond Datichy, of Paris, in the Empire of France, Mechanician, to be as
follows:
This Invention relates to a peculiar construction and arrangement of portable
machinery or apparatus for emptying privies and cesspools, and consists in-the
employment of a wrought iron or other suitable-air-tight vessel mounted on
wheels and capable of being transported to any desired locality. This vessel is

page_text: connected with one or more air pumps, which are worked by the motion of the
running wheels during the travelling of the apparatus, or they may be worked
by hand or other power separately.
By this means a vacuum is formed inside the vessel by the time it has
arrived at the desired locality. A hose is then screwed on to a nozzle on the
under side of the vessel and the valve opened, the other end of the hose or
pipe being placed in the privy or cesspool, whereupon the whole of the contents
will be drawn up into the closed vessel, completely filling the same, whilst the
gases arising from the nightsoil enter two other tubular chambers or vessels
in communication with the main receptacle. An indicator and an alarm
whistle and suitable valves are employed for shewing the amount of vacuum in
the receptacle, and preventing any dangerous excess of the same:
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Henry Johnson in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 19th December 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of Middlesex, and
of Glasgow, North Britain, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the eighteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said John Henry Johnson, Her special license that I, the said John
Henry Johnson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said John Henry Johnson, my executors, administrators, or 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 "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR EMPTYING CESSPOOLS AND PRIVIES,"
a communication from Jean Pierre Louis Florimond Datichy, of Paris, in the
Empire of France, Mechanician, upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said John Henry Johnson, by an instrument in writing under my hand
and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the

page_text: 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 John Henry Johnson, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings, and to-the-
letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say :-
The said Invention relates to a peculiar construction and arrangement.of_
portable machinery or apparatus for emptying cesspools, and consists in the
employment of a wrought iron or other suitable air-tight vessel mounted on
wheels and capable of being transported to any desired locality. This vessel is
connected with one or more air pumps, which are worked by the motion of the
running wheels during the travelling of the apparatus, or they may be worked
by hand or other power separately. By this means a vacuum is formed inside
the vessel by the-time it has arrived at the desired locality. A hose is then
screwed on to a nozzle on the under side of the vessel and the valve opened,
the other end of the hose or pipe being placed in the cesspool, whereupon the
whole of the contents will be drawn up into the closed vessel, completely filling
the same, whilst the gases wrung from the soil enter two other tubular cham-
bers, or vessels in.communication with the main receptacle. An indicator and
an alarm whistle and suitable valves are employed for shewing the amount of
vacuum in the receptacle, and preventing any dangerous excess of the same.
And.in order that the said Invention may be properly understood, I shall
now, proceed particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose I shall
refer to the several Figures on the Sheet of Drawings hereunto annexed, the
same letters of reference indicating corresponding parts throughout all the
Figures.
Figure 1 of the Drawing represents a longitudinal elevation of the machine;
Figure 2 is a transverse section of the same, taken near the main axle. The
rest of the Figures are details which I shall herein-after fully describe. A is
the receiver, consisting of a cylindrical vessel of sheet iron suspended upon the
springs a of the carriage by the wrought-iron links b. The receiver is placed
in communication with the large tubes or gasometers B and B by means of
the supports C, which are cast hollow for this purpose. It is also furnished
with a man-hole D, on which is placed a vacuum guage E, by the assistance
of which the degree of vacuum produced by the air pump G and G³ mounted
upon the carriage can be indicated.
In order to produce the requisite vacuum by these pumps, they are put in
motion either by a strap placed upon any of the wheels of the carriage or by

page_text: the motion of the machine itself in travelling. In both of these cases a vacuum
is obtained in the receiver and gasometers.
Each of the pistons of the two air pumps is driven by an eccentric h,
mounted loose upon the main axle H, which is fixed as in ordinary waggons;
this allows of the main wheels dragging the eccentric round in their rotation
by means of tlic studs i in the naves of such wheels.. It will be remarked
that the piston of each pump is guided in its rectilinear movement by the
two vertical rōds j, j, which work in the two guide brackets, fixed to
the sides of the wrought-iron standards I, I. On the top and bottom covers
of each pump are two branches Z and ', each of which enclose a spring
safety valve, but arranged in contrary directions; the one m, shewn in
detail, vertical section, half size (Figure 6), opens from the top downwards,
and serves for the suction; whilst the other n (Figure 7), on the contrary,
opens from the bottom upwards, and serves for the expulsion of the air; as
each pump is double-acting they are fitted with four valves, namely, two for
the suction and two for the discharge of. the air. The caoutchouc tubes
m and n are fixed at one end, as seen in Figures 1 and 2, on to the junc-
tions 'm² and n³, united by screws to the branches
other end to the double-necked pipes J, J, (seen in detail, Figure 5.) Each of
the pumps will then be in communication with the interior of the receiver, and
if the machine be now put in motion, and the pistons of the pumps thereby
made to work, it will be obvious that the air and the gas which is contained in
the receiver and gasometers will be exhausted by the pistons, and expelled
through the exit. valves 1, 1, into the open air. The detail, Figure 5, shews
that the pipe upon which the double-necked tube is adjusted, is furnished inter-
nally with a conical safety valve:0,1opening from the bottom upwards at each
suction of the corresponding pump. A spiral spring maintains this valve on its
seat, and prevent its being accidentally shaken off by the jolting occasioned by
the inequalities of the pavement, which would otherwise open it and admit air
into the receiver. For the same reason. I have employed the same arrange-
ment for all the valves of the apparatus.
on the pumps, and at the
Thus, the vacuum.having been previously formed during the travelling of
the machine, when it arrives therefore at the desired locality, so-soon as the
receiver is put in communication by a hose with the cesspool, the atmospheric
pressure will immediately force the soil along such hose pipe into the receiver,
and in a short time will fill it.
The attendant on the machine has merely to screw on the cock K, Fig. 9,
in place of the cap or cover p, Figures 1 and 3, to attach thereto hose in
communication with the cesspool, and to open the cock and turn the circular

page_text: disc r by means of the handle R, so that the opening s, Figure 4, is opposite
that at s¹. When the receiver is entirely full, the attendant closes the disc r,
unscrews the cock K, and replaces the cap or cover p, and when the machine
arrives at the depot the man in charge of it removes this cover and opens
the disc, and the soil then flows rapidly out by its own gravity.
=
In case the attendant in charge of the machine does not-give-the necessary
attention to the indicator placed at the back of the machine, a safety valve is
applied to the apparatus; which will prevent the vacuum from being raised to.
excess. This valve is in communication with an alarm whistle, which gives
notice when the vacuum has attained the desired extent. This apparatus is
composed, as shewn by the, detail, Figure 8, of a vessel .containing two-valve
seats A and B... A central vertical spindle C² carries. two. valves a² and b²,
one of which opens from within and the other from without. The spindle C
passes through a guide D, fixed in the box E or cast in one piece therewith.
Upon this guide the spiral spring fi presses, which surrounds the spindle C²,
the upper extremity-of-which-spring-presses against the valve a³, thus constantly
tending to press the united valves upwards, and consequently to keep the
valve at be closed, "This spring is arranged so as to resist the pressure of the
atmosphere until the vacuum attains to a certain fixed pressure; when in
working the pumps this limit is exceeded, the valve 62 is opened, and the
suction which is thereby produced sounds the whistle K2, which is simply an
ordinary whistle arranged to work inversely, that is, by suction. The combi-
nation of the two valves is such, that when a sufficient quantity of air is
admitted into the receiver, which takes place very rapidly, the same movement
which opens the valve at a closes that at b².
The volume of air introduced into the receiver immediately expands and
diminishes the degree of pressure of the vacuum; but the spring f¹ restores
the valves to their original position, opening the valve a² and closing the
one be, to remain in this position until the vacuum again attains too great a
pressure. Thus, not only does the whistle give information when the vacuum
is too great, but if its summons be not attended to, the combined valves
regulate the degree of vacuity, not allowing it to be raised above a certain
adjusting pressure.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of the said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried
into effect, I would observe, in conclusion, that I do not confine or restrict
myself to the precise details or arrangements which I have had occasion to
describe or-refer-to; as many variations may be made therefrom without
deviating from the principles or main features of the said Invention; but what

page_text: I consider to be novel and original, and, therefore claim as the Invention
secured to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, is,-
First, the general construction, arrangement, and mode of working apparatus
for emptying cesspools or other receptacles of a similar nature, as herein-before
described.
Second, the application and use of a vacuous receiver for emptying cess-.
pools, as herein-before described.
Third, the peculiar mode of arranging the air pumps and the mode of
working the same, so that the travelling motion of the machine shall produce
the desired vacuum in the receiver.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Henry Johnson, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Nineteenth day of December, One thousand
eight hundred and fifty-five.