IMPROVE- MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SUPPLYING WATERCLOSETS WITH DEODORIZING AND DISINFECTING MATERIAL, AND FOR PURIFYING WATER IN FILTERS, CISTERNS, OR OTHER VESSELS
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Samuel Johnson at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 18th April 1878.
SAMUEL JOHNSON, of Wood Green, in the County of Middlesex.
" IMPROVE-
MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SUPPLYING WATERCLOSETS WITH DEODORIZING AND
DISINFECTING MATERIAL, AND FOR PURIFYING WATER IN FILTERS, CISTERNS, OR
OTHER VESSELS."
:
My Invention has for its object improved methods of constructing and arranging
apparatus to be applied to waterclosets in such a way that every time the water-
closet is used a certain regulated quantity of a suitable disinfecting and deodorizing
substance (such as a solution of carbolic acid) is supplied automatically to the pan
of the closet. .
* I take a cistern or vessel of metal or other suitable material which can be filled
when necessary with the solution of carbolic acid or other deodorizing material
which is to be used through an opening, which opening can be closed by an air-tight
stopper, tap, or screw cap. I prefer to make this opening communicate with a pipe
which passes down inside nearly to the bottom of the vessel. This vessel is made
large enough to contain a supply of the deodorizing fluid sufficient to last for a
considerable time in order that the vessel may require filling as seldom as possible ;
and I arrange it in any convenient position so that when necessary the fluid may
be supplied to the pan of the watercloset in the manner herein-after described.
Inside or outside the vessel arranged as described I fix a pipe, the upper end of
which is open and communicates with the interior of the vessel at or near the
upper end of the latter, and the other end of the pipe I bring into the pan of the
watercloset in any convenient position, but so that its lower end dips into the water
in the pan when the latter is shut and supplied with a water seal in the usual
way. The depth to which the pipe dips into the water may be made variable and
adjustable..
From the lower part of the vessel containing the deodorizing material I bring a
second pipe, preferably of small diameter, the lower end of which also communi-

page_text: cates with the pan of the watercloset in such a position that if any of the fluid in
the vessel is admitted into the pipe it is discharged into the pan and mixed with
the water or other substances contained in the latter.
The last-described pipe has a stop-cock or valve provided upon it near the vessel
by which it can be opened or closed, and I prefer to make also a small opening or
passage into the pipe just below the stop-cock or valve for the purpose herein-
after mentioned.
I prefer to make the pipe first described, which passes from the upper part of the
vessel, and has its lower end dipping into the water in the pan, with a bend or
curve in some part of its length, or so that its lower end is never completely
uncovered, in order that a free passage for air through it from end to end may be
prevented.
The action of the apparatus. is as follows:-The vessel being filled with the
solution of deodorizing material and closed air-tight, and the stop-cock in the
small pipe being then opened, and the pan of the watercloset being closed, and
having a sufficient quantity of water in it, into which the lower end of the first-
described pipe dips when it is required to empty the pan, its contents are discharged
in the usual way, and the pressure of the water upon the air in the pipe being thus
reduced, a certain small quantity of air bubbles up through the small pipe, or
(preferably) through the small opening-near its upper end; and through the stop-
cock into the upper part of the vessel until the pressure of air there is restored.
When the pan is closed and water re-admitted into it in the usual way, as the
latter rises round the end of the pipe it puts a certain additional pressure upon the
air in the latter, which pressure being transferred to the upper part of the vessel
forces a corresponding quantity of the deodorizing material through the stop-cock
and down the small pipe into the pan of the watercloset, where it becomes mixed
with the water. The apparatus then remains quiescent until the operations above
described are repeated, and at each such operation a certain small quantity of the
deodorizing and disinfecting fluid is discharged into the pan as described.
By making the bend or water seal in the pipe first described of considerable size,
and by completely uncovering the lower end of the said pipe each time the pan
is emptied, a small quantity of the solution is caused to enter the pan after the
latter has been emptied as well as when it is refilled. If the small pipe through
which the solution is discharged be made of sufficient size, the necessary admission
of air into the vessel may take place through it instead of through an opening near
its upper end as described.
The larger pipe first described may be formed without any bend or water seal,
and in such case I prefer to make the opening at its lower end very small, so that
any water which it contains may not escape for some considerable time when the
lower end of the pipe is uncovered, but I prefer that the pipe should always be
covered at its lower end, or be provided with a bend containing water as above
described.
When arranged, as last described, with a very small opening at its lower end,
this opening should not be left uncovered sufficiently long for the whole of the water
to escape from the pipe, for the air will then have free access to the upper part of
the vessel, and the solution will be discharged in a continual stream (until the end
of the pipe is closed again) instead of in a small quantity only as required.
Where my improved apparatus is applied to waterclosets in which a curved bend
or syphon forming a trap is used in the discharge pipe instead of a moveable pan
as above described, I make the lower end of the larger of the two pipes described
dip for a sufficient distance into the water in the lower part of such bend, or of a
chamber connected with it.
Apparatus constructed according to my Invention may be used for supplying
deodorizing and disinfecting material to earth closets, urinals, filters, or the traps of
şinks or drains, as well as to waterclosets.
- I sometimes close the lower end of the larger of the two tubes described by a ball

page_text: or flexible diaphragm of india-rubber or other elastic material, by means of which
the pressure of air may be transferred to the vessel instead of by the means
herein-before described.
My improved apparatus may be used for the purpose of adding purifying or dis-
infecting liquid to water in filters or cisterns, in which case I make the lower end
of the larger pipe dip to a sufficient depth into the water in the filter or cistern.
When water is supplied to the filter or cistern, as it rises round the pipe a corres-
ponding quantity of purifying fluid is discharged into it from the smaller pipe.