IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR RECEIVING AND TREATING HUMAN EXCRETE, AND IN THE COMPOSITION OF THE DISINFECTING AND DEODORISING POWDER USED THEREIN.
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Alexander Manning, at present of 14,
Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR RECEIVING AND
TREATING HUMAN EXCRETE, AND IN THE COMPOSITION OF THE DISINFECTING
AND DEODORISING POWDER USED THEREIN.
."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Alexander
Manning at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 1st August 1874.
I, JAMES ALEXANDER MANNING, at present of 14, Southampton
Buildings, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR
RECEIVING AND TREATING HUMAN EXRETE, AND IN THE COMPOSITION OF THE
DISINFECTING AND DEODORISING POWDER USED THEREIN," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object the sanitary improvement of towns
and cities, and of dwellings in country districts by cutting off all com-
munication between the closets and sewers or cesspools, and the
substitution for waterclosets of dry closets of a peculiar construction and
arrangement, whereby the liquid and solid excrete are separated from
each other and collected in separate receptacles along with disinfectants,
deodorisers, and absorbents, which render such excrete innoxious, and
--

page_text: '
constitute by their admixture therewith a most valuable fertilizing
agent.
According to this Invention the bottom of the receptacle or pan of the
closet is formed with perforations which enable the fluid excrete to
escape quickly by a pipe to a special receiver hermetically closed and
placed in any convenient situation for being emptied, as occasion may
require, by a pump or suction hose, as is well understood.
In country districts the urine may be conveyed some distance by
pipes to a tank, where it may be utilized in conjunction with the solid
matter and with burnt weeds and the like to form a valuable dry manure.
The closet basin is by preference made larger than usual, and with the
sides vertical or less sloping than heretofore, in order to ensure the
falling of the solid excreta direct on to the valve or pan at the bottom
of the basin. At the back of the seat there is a receptacle or box for
containing disinfecting powder, of which when the "pull" or handle of
'the closet is drawn up a certain distance a small quantity is forcibly
discharged by the action of a spring and plate or pallet through an
aperture in the side of the basin, such aperture corresponding in position
about to the flushing aperture used in waterclosets. The solid excreti
are thus covered and deodorised and disinfected before being finally
discharged from the pan into a receiver below, wherein the deodorisation
is completed. The discharge of the excrete from the pan is effected by
the continued or further upward movement of the handle or "pull” of
the closet, the pan or valve being closed again on the descent of the
"pull" by a counterweighted lever, a spring, or other well-known
mechanical contrivance.
The disinfectant, which may bo used in ordinary cases where economy
is an object, may be ordinary soot, but I prefer to employ a mixture
of the following ingredients, in or about the proportions given,
namely:-
EL

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Alexander Manning in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 30th January 1875.
-TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
ALEXANDER MANNING, at present of 14, Southampton Buildings, in the
County of Middlesex, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the First day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty-eighth year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said James Alexander Manning, Her special license that I,
the said James Alexander Manning, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said James Alexander Manning, my
executors, administrators, and 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 "IMPROVEMENTS
IN APPARATUS FOR RECEIVING AND TREATING HUMAN EXCRETE, AND IN THE
COMPOSITION OF THE DISINFECTING AND DEODORISING POWDER USED THEREIN,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said James Alexander
Manning, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my, or their, or one of their lands and seals, should particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed
in the Great Scal Patent Office within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent..
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Alexander Manning, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had to the
accompanying Drawings, and to the letters and figures marked thereon,
that is to say :-
My said Invention has for its object the sanitary improvement of
„towns and cities, and of dwellings in country districts by cutting off all
communication between the closets and sewers or cesspools, and the

page_text: substitution for watorclosets of dry closets of a peculiar construction and
arrangement, whereby the liquid and solid excrete are separated from
cach other and collected in separate receptacles along with disinfectants,
deodorisers, and absorbents, which render such excreta perfectly odorless
and innoxious, and constitute by their admixture therewith a most
valuable fertilizing agent. My Invention morcover dispenses with the
necessity for house drainage by the construction of the usual brick
drains, or the laying down of iron or carthenware pipe drains which
generally pass entirely through the premises from tho back yard or
garden to the front area under the flooring of the basement, the joints of
⚫the brick drains being subject to constant derangement from age and the
ravages of vermin from the common sewers, whilst even the pipes are
affected and become leaky from the occasional sinking of the soil beneath
them. The poisonous gases thus escaping and passing through the
joints of the kitchen flooring have caused the deaths of thousands of
.servants, and the poorer classes, who are compelled to inhabit basement
floors, and as it is the property of these mephetic gases to ascend the
.whole house soon becomes impregnated with noxious odours detrimental
to health and life. Theso dangers are entirely averted by my Invention,
leaving the subsoil of any site upon which houses are crected entirely
free from drains, pipes, or any construction whatever by which bad
'odours or even dampness can be introduced into the interior of the
'residence.
•
According to my Invention the bottom of the receptacle or pan of the
closet or the side thereof near the bottom is perforated (and may havo
a small sink or bell trap attached thereto to prevent the access of bad
odours from the urine receiver), in order to enable the fluid excreta to
escape quickly by a pipe to a special receiver hermetically closed and
placed in any convenient situation for being emptied, as occasion may
require, by a pump or suction hose, as is well understood, but until such
special hermetically closed receiver is supplied the urine may pass into
the sewer, the iron service pipe employed for that purpose being as
before observed furnished at the mouth with a small bell trap.
In country districts the urine may be conveyed to any convenient
distance by pipes to a tank, where it may be utilized in conjunction with
the solid matter and other substances, such as burnt weeds and the like,
to form a valuable dry manurc.

page_text: The closet basin is by preference made larger than usual, and with the
sides vertical or nearly so, in order to insure the deposition of the solid
excreta direct on to the valve at the bottom of the pan or basin. At
the back of the seat there is a receptacle or box for containing disinfecting
powder, of which, when the "pull" or handle of the closet-is-drawn-up
a certain distance, a small quantity is forcibly discharged by the action
of a spring and plate or pallet through an aperture in the side of the
pan or basin, such aperture corresponding in position about to the
flushing aperture used in waterclosets. The solid excrctæ are thus
covered and deodorised and disinfected before being finally discharged
from the pan into a receiver below, wherein the perfect absorption of all
gases is completed. The discharge of the excrete from the pan is
effected by the continued or further upward movement of the handle or
"pull" of the closet, the pan or valve being closed again on the descent
of the "pull" by a counterweighted lever, a spring, or other well-known
mechanical contrivancé.

page_text: .
position for containing the disinfecting and deodorising powder berein-
before referred to, or any other suitable dry disinfectant. This disinfecting
powder enters the cast-iron fan B of the closet by the orifice a, which
orifice is closed during the normal condition of the closet by a plate or
pallet C, which vibrates on an axis 6 having a helical spring c coiled
round it, as shown in Figure 2. This spring is secured at one end to a
short lever arm d, which is operated upon by the pin e, carried by the
rod or spindle fof the handle or "pull "D of the closet, the said rod
having a slot of sufficient length formed therein to enable the counter-
weight of the valve E to be clevated at the proper moment, as herein-
after explained. The cast-iron pan B is made with a species of annular
pocket to collect the urine flowing down the sides of the pan, and is
perforated at 1, where it communicates with a pipe i, for the purpose of
allowing the urine to flow away by the said pipe i to a hermetically
closed receiver, or to a tank, or other convenient receptacle situate at
any convenient distance from the closet, where it may be separately
treated in any well-known manner with a view to rendering it more
serviceable as a fertilizing agent, or may be simply stored for use for
other purposes; or the urine may be separated from the solid excreta
by escaping through perforations in the valve E communicating with a
hollow hinge pin, to which is connected the pipe i, or may bo otherwise
separated.
The closet apparatus works as follows:-The spring vibrating plate or
pallet O being in its normal position, as shown by the dotted lines at C¹
in Figuro 1, the orifice a which affords a passage for tho disinfecting
powder from the receptacle A is closed, as is also the valve E of the
closet. If the "pull" or handle D be lifted the pin e will strike tho
under side of the lever arm & attached to the axis b, and will tend to
coil up the spring c, at the same time drawing back the plate or pallet O
in the direction of the dotted arrow (Figure 1) to the position shown by
the full lines at C in that Figure. The withdrawal of the plate or pallet
from the orifice a permits a sufficient quantity of the disinfecting powder
to fall and collect upon the part k in the form of a small heap, as shown
clearly in Figure 1. By continuing the upward "pull" of the handle D
the pin e quits the end of the short lever arm d, and thereby releases
the plate or pallet C, which instantly flys forward again in the direction
of the pan of the closet, and suddenly throws or scatters the heap of
disinfecting powder which had been allowed to collect at % over the

page_text: :
solid excreta deposited on the bottom of the pan or valve, the said pan
having an opening / made in the side thereof for the purpose of affording
free and direct admission of the disinfecting powder to the excrete,
which on being disinfected is immediately discharged into any con-
venient receptacle beneath by continuing the upward movement of-the
handle D, whereby the valve Ë is suddenly opened or caused to fall, as
will be readily understood on referring to my Drawings. These two
movements, 1st of the plate or pallet, and 2ndly of the valve, aro
accomplished the one after the other by reason of the vertical slot m in
the rod, which allows the said rod to rise a certain distance sufficient
to operate on the lever arm & before it commences to raise the counter-
weight g. On the handle D resuming its normal position the pin e will
pass again under the short lever arm d, so as to be again ready for action
whenever required, the counterweight at the same time closing the
valve E against the bottom of the pan.
"
If found requisite, a self-acting catch or trigger action may be applied
either to the lever arm d, as shown in Figure 1, or to the pin e, in order
to admit of the pin resuming its position underneath the lever cach
time the rod f descends to its normal position. The spring c is perfectly
protected from contact with the powder, thus ensuring its proper
working.
Having now doscribed and particularly ascertained the nature of my
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used
or carried into effect, I wish it to be understood that the particular
combination or arrangement of apparatus which I have illustrated by
my Drawings and have herein-before described is given merely as a type
or example of one of various ways of carrying out my said Invention,
and therefore I do not confine or restrict myself thereto; but what 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 construction and use of dry closets, wherein the liquid
excreta is allowed to flow away through perforations in the pan, and is
conveyed by a special pipe to a suitable receiver, whilst the solid excretæ
is first disinfected and deodorised by having dry disinfecting and
deodorising powder cast thereon through an opening made for that
purpose in the side of the pan itself, and is immediately afterwards

page_text: discharged from tho said pan by a valve, the wholo being arranged and
caused to operate substantially in the manner and for the purpose herein-
before described.
Secondly. The peculiar combination and arrangement in a dry closet
of the perforations and pipo i, with bell trap to prevent the access of
gases from the urine receiver, as in the sinks of kitchens, tho opening / in
the side of the pan of the closet, the spring actuated plate or pallet O,
and the discharge valve E, both worked from one and the same handlo D,
substantially as and for the purpose herein-before described and illus-
trated by my Drawings.
Thirdly. The peculiar composition of disinfecting and deodorising
powder herein-before described, and its application and use to and in dry
closets or otherwise, substantially as and for the purposc specified.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Alexander Manning, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of January,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
five.