IMPROVEMENTS IN AQUARIA TANKS AND SIMILAR RECEPTACLES FOR AQUATIC ANIMALS AND PLANTS
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Alford Lloyd, of Portland Road, in the
County of Middlesex, Tank Manufacturer, and Edward Edwards, of
Menai Cottage, in the County of Anglesea, Gentleman, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN AQUARIA TANKS AND SIMILAR RECEPTACLES FOR
AQUATIC ANIMALS AND PLANTS."
Sealed the 24th December 1858, and dated the 17th July 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Alford Lloyd
and Edward Edwards at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 17th July 1858.
We, WILLIAM ALFORD LLOYD, of Portland Road, in the County of
Middlesex, Tank Manufacturer, and EDWARD EDWARDS, of Menai Cottage, in
the County of Anglesea, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN AQUARIA TANKS AND SIMILAR RECEPTACLES FOR
AQUATIC ANIMALS AND PLANTS," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in forming in an aquarium tank, or like receptacle
for aquatic animals and plants, a compartment or compartments (which may
be preferably so contrived as to form a dark chamber or chambers, (that is
to say, a chamber or chambers, the contents whereof are not exposed to the

page_text: action of light,) which said compartment or compartments is or are to contain
no animals nor plants, but to be supplied with fluid, caused by suitable means
to communicate with the fluid in the part or space holding the aquatic animals
and plants.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Alford Lloyd and Edward Edwards in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 17th January 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
ALFORD LLOYD, of Portland Road, in the County of Middlesex, Tank Manu-
facturer, and EDWARD EDWARDS, of Menai Cottage, in the County of Anglesea,
Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-second year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
us, the said William Alford Lloyd and Edward Edwards, Her special licence
that we, the said William Alford Lloyd and Edward Edwards, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said William Alford
Lloyd and Edward Edwards, our 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 "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN AQUARIA TANKS AND SIMILAR RECEPTACLES FOR AQUATIC ANIMALS
AND PLANTS," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said William
Alford Lloyd and Edward Edwards, our executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under our or their hands and seals, or under the hand
and seal of one of us or them, should particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be per-
formed, 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 we, the said William Alford Lloyd and Edward
Edwards, do hereby declare the nature of the 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 thereof, reference being had to the

page_text: accompanying Drawings, and to the lotters and figures marked thereon,
that is to say:-
This Invention consists in forming in an aquarium tank, or other like
receptaclo for aquatic animals and plants, a compartment or compartments,
which may be preferably so contrived as to form a dark chamber or chambers
(or chamber or chambers, the contents whereof are not exposed to the action
of light), which said compartment or compartments is or are to contain no
animals nor plants, but to bo supplied with fluid, which is caused by suitable
means to communicate with the fluid in the part or space holding the aquatic
animals and plants.
The manner in which our Invention may be carried into effect, is ex-
emplified in the accompanying Drawing, which is a longitudinal section of an
aquarium constructed according to our improvements.
The bottom, sides, and back A of this aquarium or tank are constructed of
slate or other suitablo material impervious to and not liable to injury from
the action of water, and the top and front B are of glass. C is a partition
made of slate or other opaque material so fitted as to divide the tank diagonally,
thus forming within it a compartment or chamber D, which is intended to
contain water, but is not to be supplied with animals or plants for inspection,
and this compartment being sheltered from the light by its situation, by the
position of the partition C, and by the material whereof the sides and bottom
of the vessel are composed forms a dark chamber, or chamber the contents of
which are not exposed to the action of light. E is the part of the tank
containing the objects exposed to view. The rock work, vegetation, &c, F,
rest on the surface of the partition C, and the space E is supplied with water
and with fish, and other aquatic animals, &c. In some forms of tanks, the
portion of the sides enclosing the space E may be of glass, and the other parts
or those enclosing D of opaque material. Through the partition C, are a few
orifices a, a, perforating it transversely from surface to surface to afford means
of communication between the fluid in the space E, and that in the com-
partment D. The partition may be fitted in a groove at the bottom of tho
tank; and rest against the upper part of the back, and it need not quite touch
the sides, but may be so placed as to leave a small space between itself and
them, through which the fluid in the compartment D may communicate with
that in the space E, in this case the orifices through C may be dispensed.
with. The lines a, x, illustrate the incidence of the solar rays.
Now in respect of collections of aquatic animals and plants, the construction
and arrangement of their receptacles in referenco to the effect of light on thọ

page_text: fluid contents must bo considered as of great importance, and the chicf
advantage of our arrangement is this, the excessive action of light or actinism
on aquaria, &c., tends to develop certain vegetable growths of a nature to
render the water turbid, unsightly, and cloudy, and thereby detract from the
satisfactory appearance of the collection, and from the clearness necessary for
proper inspection thereof; but by forming a compartment in the aquarium,
tank, &c., according to our Invention, we obtain a chamber serving as a
reservoir of fluid not exposed to the light, and which is therefore retained in a
cicar and serviceable condition, free from such obnoxious vegetation; and this
fluid being allowed to communicate with that in the space containing the
aquatic animals and plants, the excessive and in this respect detrimental
effects of actinism aro neutralized and counteracted. It may also be men-
tioned that when there is active interchange between the fluid in tho space E
and that in the compartment D, such minute vegetable growth as may be
carried into the latter will speedily perish therein from want of light, and by.
its destruction will restore the fluid to its original limped condition.
We wish it to be understood that we do not restrict ourselves to the angle
at which the partition is represented as being placed in the Drawing, and
indeed we do not confine ourselves to placing the partition diagonally. And
we do not confine ourselves to forming the compartment in the particular
manner shewn. We do not restrict ourselves to the particular external form
of tank shewn, nor to any particular external form thereof. We do not
restrict ourselves to the means described for causing communication between
the fluid of the compartment and that of the space containing the objects
exposed to view, as the same admit of variation, (for example, a pump or
syphon may be used for this purpose), and we do not restrict ourselves to the
employment of a single compartment, as there may be two or more; and we
prefer so contriving the compartment or compartments that the fluid contents
thereof may be as much sheltered as possible from the incidence of light, so
as to be as dark or obscure a chamber or chambers as may be."
•
And having now described the nature of tho said Invention, and in what
manner the same may be performed, we declare that although we have shewn
as one modo of carrying the Invention into effect, an arrangement in which
the rock work is placed on a slanting partition, we do not claim as of our
Invention the supporting of the rock work of aquaria on a slanting surface, a
and wo lay no claim to any particular external form of aquarium, tank, or
such like receptacle; but what we claim as our improvements in aquaria
tanks, and similar receptacles for aquatic animals and plants, is, forming

page_text: therein a compartment or compartments which may be preferably so contrived
as to form a dark chamber or chambers, and which is or are to contain no
animals nor plants, but to be supplied with fluid caused to communicate with
that in the space containing the animals and plants.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Alford Lloyd, for myself and on
behalf of the said Edward Edwards, have hereunto set my hand and
seal, this Fourteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
Witness,
M. HENRY,
84, Fleet Street,
London.
W. ALFORD LLOYD. (L.S.)