IMPROVEMENTS IN FLUSHING ADDADAM APPARATUS AND IN WATER CLOSETS
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Adamson, of Leeds, in the County of
York, Engineer; for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN FLUSHING
ADDADAMYG
Sealed the 22nd September 1853, and dated the 14th April 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Adamson at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 14th April 1853.
I, JOSEPH ADAMSON, of Leeds, in the County of York, Engineer, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
FLUSHING APPARATUS AND IN WATER CLOSETS" to be as follows:-
The first part of this Invention consists in having a cistern, of any
required dimensions, fixed on two pivots, at a suitable distance from
the centre, the shortest end being weighted so as to keep it from
upsetting when empty, the other end terminating with a syphon.
Water in suitable quantities is allowed to flow into the cistern, so that
when it is filled the weight of water preponderating over the short
weighted part of the cistern empties itself suddenly into the closet. It
is obvious that this Invention is equally applicable to flushing sewers,
urinals, or any other receptacles requiring to be flushed.
The second part of the improvements consists in making the basin of
the closet to form the flushing apparatus, which may or may not have

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Joseph Adamson, in the Great Seal Patent Office,
on the 5th October 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
ADAMSON, of Leeds, in the County of York, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of April, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the six-
teenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Joseph Adamson, Her special licence
that I, the said Joseph Adamson, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Joseph Adamson, 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 FLUSHING APPARATUS AND IN WATER CLOSETS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Joseph Adamson, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, 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
Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Joseph Adamson, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement, reference being had to the
accompanying drawings, and to the letters and figures marked thereon,
that is to say:
My said Invention relates,-first, to a peculiar construction of cistern
for effecting the flushing of water-closets, sewers, urinals, &c.; second,

page_text: to an improved construction of water-closet basins, wherein the basin
itself forms the flushing apparatus.
Figure 1, on my sheet of drawings, represents a side elevation
of my improved self-acting flushing cistern. Figure 2, is a corre-
sponding front view at right angles to Figure 1; and Figure 3, is
a longitudinal vertical section through the centre line of the cistern,
shewing it in the act of discharging into and flushing the water-
closet basin, urinal, or sewer. A, is the body of the flushing cistern,
which is fitted at one extremity with a fixed syphon B, made
the entire width of the cistern, and contracted slightly at its lower
discharge orifice C, which opens into the reservoir or funnel-mouth
D, on the top of the vertical pipe E. This pipe communicates with
the basin F, and conducts the necessary supply of water to it when
requisite. The cistern A; is suspended at G, G, upon a pair of knife-
edged or slightly rounded pivots, which rest upon the fixed bracket
supports H, H, carried by the main supporting flag I. It will be
observed, on reference to the drawing, that the pivots are placed slightly
out of the centre of the cistern, this eccentricity being counterbalanced,
to a certain extent, by the weighted portion J, fitted to the opposite end
of the cistern. When the cistern is nearly full, the weight of the water.
on the larger overhanging surface will overbalance the weighted end
of the cistern, and cause it to turn on its centre at G, G, as shewn in
Figure 3, thereby charging the syphon which draws off the water from
the cistern, and flushes the basin. The flow will continue until the
weight of the water at one end of the cistern becomes so reduced as to
be overbalanced by the weight at the other end of the cistern, which
then assumes its original position, shewn in Figure 1. By this means,
the discharge may be made into the pan or basin, sewer, or urinal,
periodically, such discharge being regulated by the quantity of water
allowed to flow into the flusher, which will require to be more or less
frequent, or larger or smaller in size, in proportion to the number of
persons by whom the closet or urinal may be used, or the size of the
sewer required to be flushed.
The second portion of my Invention is merely a modification of the
first, and consists in constructing a closet basin similar to the system
hereinbefore described. In such an arrangement the additional flush-

page_text: ing cistern is dispensed with, as the basin itself is at once both the
receptacle for the soil and the flushing apparatus. It differs only
from the first, in so far as it may or may not have a syphon at one
end, and may require to be different in shape; in other respects it
remains the same. Water is allowed to run into this basin as in the
cistern, and it is periodically discharged, carrying along with it the
soil, and flushing the drain, by the same means as described with
reference to the first part of my Invention. Thus, while by the first
arrangement a flushing cistern as well as a basin is required; in the
second arrangement, a flushing basin alone is required, the cistern and
basin being combined in one.
Having now described 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 would observe in conclusion, that I do not confine
or restrict myself to the precise details or arrangements which I have
had occasion to describe or refer to, as many variations may be made
therefrom without deviating from the principles or main features of my
Invention; but what I consider to be novel and original, and therefore
claim as the Invention secured to me by the hereinbefore in part
recited Letters Patent, is,-
First, the employment of a moveable balanced cistern for effecting
the periodical flushing of drains, water-closets, urinals, or sewers, in
conjunction with a syphon, as hereinbefore described.
Second, the system or mode of constructing water-closet basins,
whereby they constitute in themselves the flushing apparatus, such
basins being made either with or without syphons, as hereinbefore
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Adamson, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Third day of October, One thousand
eight hundred and fifty-three.
JOSEPH ADAMSON. (L.S.)
Witness, JAMES BROWN.