IMPROVEMENTS IN ECONOMIC WATER SUPPLY APPARATUS."
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Jervis, of Edinburgh, in the County
of Mid Lothian, North Britain, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN ECONOMIC WATER SUPPLY APPARATUS."
Scaled the 31st May 1872, and dated the 6th December 1871.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Jervis at
the Office of tho Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 6th December 1871.
I, ALEXANDER JERVIS, of Edinburgh, in the County of Mid Lothian,
North Britain, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ECONOMIC WATER SUPPLY APPARATUS," to be as
follows, that is to say :-
This Invention relates to a combination of parts which is simple in
action, economical in first cost, not liable to derangement, and especially
designed to prevent waste of water in connection with waterclosets, but
also applicable wherever water is used in separate small quantities.

page_text: Water from a cistern or service pipe has access to the interior of the
improved apparatus through a simple circular seat or inlet valve aperture
closed by a disc, actuated by a spindle which passes to the outside
through a stuffing box, or through a rubber tube having one end fixed to
the spindle and the other to a nozzle through which the spindle passes.
The inlet valve admits the water to a passage leading to a closed chamber
and to a valve seat or aperture, through which last when open the water
finds its way by a pipe to the closet basin. The closed chamber hás
fixed in its top a diaphragm of a flexible material, such as rubber; ánd
to the upper outer side of this there is fixed a valve piece capable of
closing the valve aperture leading to the basin. When the closet handle
is raised a lever in connection with it opens the inlet valve and the
water at once passes through the other valve which is then open to the
basin. At the same time the water also enters the closed chamber, and
on filling it causes its diaphragm to bulge out and close the valve leading
to the basin, so that the water, passing directly to the basin' does so only
during the time taken to fill the chamber, and which is regulated by
adjusting the size of the aperture from the passage into the chamber.
The closed chamber has a valved outlet also leading to the basin, and
when the closet handle is lowered this outlet valve is opened and the
inlet valve closed; the water then passing from the chamber to the basin
forming the hydraulic seal. When the chamber is filling the air in it
passes through an aperture in the diaphragm, which becomes closed on
the chamber getting full of water.
''
"
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, 2
filed by the said Alexander Jervis in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 5th June 1872.
ALEXANDER
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
JERVIS, of Edinburgh, in the County of Mid Lothian, North Britain,
send greeting.
□ WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria; by Her
Letters Patent; bearing date the Sixth day of December, 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,
3

page_text: and 6-7-8-9 respectively in Figure 3; Figure 6 15
section showing a modified arrangement of some of the details.
a vertical
Water from a cistern or service pipe has access by the inlet pipe 10 to
the interior of my improved apparatus through a simple circular seat or
valve aperture 11, closed by a disc, or as I prefer and show in the
Drawings by a ball 12, actuated by a spindle 13, which passes down to
the outside through a rubber tube 14, having one end fixed to the spindle
and the other to a nozzle 15, through which the spindle 13 passes.
The
inlet valve 12 admits the water to a passage 16 leading by one opening 17
into a closed chamber 18, and by another opening 19 and passage 20 to
a valve seat or aperture 21, through which last, when open, the water
finds its way by a passage or pipe 22 to the closet basin 23. The top of
that part of the closed chamber 18 which is immediately under the outlet
valve aperture 21 is closed by a diaphragm 21 of a flexible material such
as rubber, and to the upper outer side of this diaphragm there is fixed
by its centre a valve piece 25 fitted for closing the outlet valve aperture
21 leading to the basin. When the closet handle 26 is raised a lever 27
in connection with it and passing through a slot in the valve spindle 13
raises that spindle so as to make it lift up and open the inlet valve 12,
and the water at once passes by the passages 16 and 20 and through the
valve aperture 21, which is then open, directly to the basin 23. At the
same time the water also enters the closed chamber 18 by the aperture 17,
and on filling it causes its diaphragm 24 to bulge upwards, and so raiso
the valve piece 25 until it closes the outlet valve aperture 21 leading to
the basin, so that the water passing directly to the basin does so only
during the time taken to fill the chamber 18, and which time is
regulated by adjusting the size of the aperture 17 from the passage 16
into the chamber. The closed chamber 18 has a valved outlet 28, also
leading to the basin by a passage 29 communicating with the other pipe
or passage 22, and when the closet handle 26 is lowered the inlet valve 12
is closed, and then this outlet valve 28 is opened, whereupon the water
which filled the chamber passes thence to the basin and serves to form
the hydraulic seal. The valve 28 is actuated by a spindle 29 which
passes through an opening closed by a rubber diaphragm 30. The
lever 27 is put in connection with the two valve spindles 13, 29, in a
manner that will be easily understood from Figure 5, each spindle acting
in turn as fulcrum to the lever accordingly as it is raised or lowered, and
cach valve being closed before the other one is opened.

page_text: Instead of the valves 12, 28, and their actuating details being separate,
as herein-before described, the simplified modification shown in Figure 6
may be adopted, in which the spindle 13 of the inlet valve 12 has fixed
on it a plug or piston 28, working in a cavity 29 and acting as the outlet
valve to the chamber 18, the passage 29 from this chamber being led
into one side of the cavity 29 and continued from its opposite side. The
spindle 13 is shown as raised a short distance above its lowest position.
The lever 27 is in this case jointed to a bracket 30. A small aperture 31
is made in the flexible diaphragm 24 for air to pass out at when the
chamber 18 is filling with water.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, I have to state that I do not
restrict myself to the precise details herein described or delineated, but
that what I believe to be novel and original, and claim as the Invention
secured to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the
applying of a chamber in connection with water supply apparatus, such
chamber having a flexible diaphragm which closes the main outlet valve
on the chamber filling shortly after the supply valve is opened, sub-
stantially as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Jervis, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Third day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,
Glasgow.
ALEXANDER JERVIS. (L.S.)