IMPROVEMENTS IN DISCHARGE APPARATUS FOR WATERCLOSET AND SIMILAR CISTERNS, AND IN FLOAT AND OTHER COCKS FOR SUPPLYING WATER
Year: 1881

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Shanks at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 20th January 1881.
JOHN SHANKS, of Barrhead, in the County of Renfrew, North Britain.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN DISCHARGE APPARATUS FOR WATERCLOSET AND SIMILAR
CISTERNS, AND IN FLOAT AND OTHER COCKS FOR SUPPLYING WATER."
This Invention has for its object to improve the construction and action of
water supply apparatus for waterclosets and similar apparatus, and comprises an
improved construction of float and other cocks for supplying water.
In carrying out the Invention in connection with a watercloset, the cistern is
fitted with a siphon discharge pipe, the short leg of which is made with a conical
or flaring mouth, of which the bottom entrance of the pipe is the widest part.
Beneath the mouth of the siphon there is placed a cup of a size into which the
siphon mouth can easily enter or which can easily enter into the siphon mouth, and
this cup
is connected to the lever or other part acted on by the watercloset handle
so as to be raised when the handle is raised. The connection may be by a rod or
wire passing through a small tube dipping sufficiently within the siphon. The
water in the cistern surrounds the siphon and cup up to a level a little under the
top bend of the siphon pipe, and it also occupies the space inside the cup and the
conical siphon mouth up to the same level. When the cup is raised, and even
when this is done at only a moderate speed, the water is thereby made to fill the
top bend of the siphon pipe and cause the siphon to run, and thereafter the water
continues to run, whether the cup remains raised or not, until the water in the
cistern descends to the mouth of the siphon. Thus a full flushing of water is
secured, the quantity of which will depend on the size of the cistern and on the
point at which air can get into the siphon. When the cup or equivalent enters up
within the siphon mouth, it may be reduced almost to a disc, but having a small
turned-up edge. It is an essential feature of the improved apparatus that there
are no tightly fitting parts nor small valves or other details liable to get out of
order. When the siphon has been started, the water has access to it with
sufficient freedom between the cup or disc and the sides of the siphon mouth, the
lower parts of which mouth may be parallel or cylindrical in some cases.
In the water supply cocks comprised in the present Invention, the valve pieces
are in the form of a disc or head with a stem or spindle, and are arranged to open

page_text: against the pressure. In one modification arranged as a float cock for supplying
water closet or other cisterns, the valve stem passes outwards through the valve-
seat opening and through a guide hole in a partition, between which partition and
the valve seat the discharge outlet or nozzle is placed. Beyond the partition the
valve stem enters a socket in a screwed piece working in an internal screw, and the
float lever is fixed laterally to the screwed piece. A small hole is formed in the
under side of the part containing the screwed piece for the escape of any water
that may get through the partition. In a second modification, suitable for a nose or
stop-cock, the stem of the valve piece is acted on laterally by a screwed piece
turned by means of a handle, the action opening the valve piece by tilting it.
disc or head of the valve piece is made of a comparatively large size, so that very
little tilting movement is required to open it sufficiently, and the stem has guide
feathers formed on it to prevent the valve piece from deviating too far from the
central position.
The