Improvements in the Flushing of Water Closets.
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application, 28th May, 1894
Complete Specification Left, 5th Oct., 1894-Accepted, 10th Nov., 1894
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Flushing of Water Closets.
I JOHN HENRY VIDAL retired Captain R.N. No. 1 Park Road Sunderland,
do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
Efficient flushing, a dry seat, regulation of the cisterns, easy access at all times
by a novel action of the lid.
On entering the closet the seat will be found upright, and kept so, by means of
either lift, spring, or handle, so that if the pan is used as an urinal the lid cannot
be soiled. Any movement of the lid causes flushing.
In order to simplify description I attach one explanatory drawing.
It will be seen I have two cisterns No. 1 receiving the feed, and communicating
with No. 2 which discharges through the flushing pipe, direct into the pan.
The
These cisterns are worked by the action of the seat or lid of the pan, which has
affixed to the side, a sheave or roller A, and fastened to the said sheave are two
cords or chains, the attaching ends, at half diameter apart from each other these
are rigged round the small pulleys B and C which are fastened to the wall.
cords are taken right up to the cisterns, and round pulleys on the cisterns D and E.
That from B up to and round pulley E into cistern No. 1. That from C up to and
round pulley D into cistern No. 2. At each end of the cords, in the cisterns are
metal plugs, fitting into stop outlets or washers.
It will be seen that when the seat is moved, the axle of the sheave A moves
also and regulates the plugs. When the seat is up cistern No. 2 is closed. When
the seat is half up both plugs are a little removed from the stop outlets and then
both cisterns are working. When the seat is down No. 1 cistern plug is up and
No. 2 cistern is filling. Immediately the seat is lifted up, the top cistern shuts,
and the second discharges and thoroughly flushes the pan.
Finally by the arrangement described and shewn-viz. the sheave attached to the
seat and regulating by its movements the cisterns-and the plugs as described;
consequently the efficient and sure flushing of the pan. That the same, is cleanly,
healthy, and a novelty and substantially my claim as set forth.
Dated this 26th day of May, One thousand eight hundred and ninety-four.
Improvements in the Flushing of Water Closets.
I, JOHN HENRY VIDAL of 1 Park Road, Sunderland in the County of Durham,
retired Captain, R.N., do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement :-
This invention relates to improvements in the flushing of water-closets.
By my invention I obtain efficient flushing of the closets without any
objectionable features accruing thereto by apparatus which I will now proceed to
fully explain with reference to the accompanying drawings in which Figures 1
and 2 show a plan and a side elevational view of one arrangement, Figure 3. being
PQ1

page_text: a sectional elevational view of a slightly different device and in the following
description like marks of reference designate like parts.
Referring firstly to Figure 3 of the drawings it will be observed I use two
cisterns marked CC of which C receives feed water from a ball-tap device in the
usual way; C is connected with C by a plug or valve controlled pipe 2, P being
the plug or valve. C' is connected with the pan 3 by a plug or valve controlled
pipe 4, P in this case being the plug or valve.
The seat or lid S of the pan is shown in its normal position when not in use,
i.e. in a vertical position.
To a convenient part of the seat or on one side of it and towards its hinged end,
I secure a sheave such as S' and to opposite sides of it as shown in the figure
I attach cords 5 and 6 which pass from sheave S₁ under pulleys 7 and 8 upwards
and over pulleys 9 and 10 to plugs P and P'.
The seat may be kept or secured in a vertical position by means of a spring or
by a handle or lever device fitted in any convenient manner or as hereinafter
described.
Now suppose it is required to use the closet, the seat is first pulled down in
opposition to the spring or lever device and this has the effect by means of the
pulley S¹ and cords 5 and 6 operating on the plugs of simultaneously lifting plug P
and lowering plug Pinto its seat.
Cistern which was previously empty is therefore charged from cistern C
which is normally kept charged with water from the ball-tap device, plug P' serving
to retain the water in C As soon as the seat S is allowed to lift, it automatically
allows plug P to shut while plug P1 is lifted and thus the water in Crushing down
pipe 4 automatically flushes the pan 3.
By a modification of this device, instead of a fixed sheave S¹, there may be a
pair of loose sheaves 11 and 12 (see Figures 1 and 2) on a pin 13. In this case the
plates 14, 15 secured respectively to the "movable seat S and the fixed portion F
thereof are hinged together by the pins 13 which serve as the seat-hinge or pivot
and a bracket 16 serves to carry the outer end of the longer pin on which the
sheaves 11 and 12 are mounted.
The normal position of the seat being as above described vertical (as shown in
Figure 3) side handles or levers L are secured to the movable seat and extended
backwards and weighted as at W so that the depression of the seat is effected in
opposition to this leverage.
The cords in this case may be attached as follows:-One cord will be secured to
the bracket 16 at N and pass under sheave 12 and pulley N¹ up to and over its plug
pulley at the cistern as above described while the other cord may be similarly
secured on the opposite side at N2 whence it passes under sheave 11 over it and under
pulley N and thence upwards and over its plug pulley.
Thus when the seat is down as shown in Figures 1 and 2 the cord E passing
under sheave 12 will have lowered the plug P¹ in the lower cistern C¹ and closed it
while simultaneously the cord E' will have lifted the plug P in the upper cistern C
to charge cistern C and on the seat being released or lifted up the action of the
cords will be to slack cord E' and lower plug P and to tighten cord E and open or
lift plug P' in the lower cistern C¹ to flush the pan.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. The combination with the movable seat of a water-closet. the normal position
of which when not in use is open or vertical of a sheave S' having attached to its
opposite sides cords 5 and 6 lealing via pulleys to plugs P P¹ in cisterns C C¹ the
cisterns being arranged and connected together and to the pan by pipes the several
parts being arranged and adapted for use substantially as herein set forth.
2. The combination with the movable seat of a water-closet the normal position
of which when not in use is open or vertical of sheaves 11 and 12 mounted on a pin

page_text: fixed to the side of the seat said sheaves having cords rigged round them from
opposite sides thereof and arranged to actuate the cistern plugs substantially in the
manner and for the purposes herein set forth.
Dated this 3rd day of October 1894.
A. CRAWHALL CHAPMAN,
Newcastle-on-Tyne, Patent Agent.