A CERTAIN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE FORM OR CONSTRUCTION OF WATER- CLOSETS, OR OF THE APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH, WHICH HE BELIEVES WILL BE FOUND CALCULATED TO OBVIATE OR REMEDY VARIOUS ACCIDENTS OR DEFECTS TO WHICH THESE CONVENIENCES, AS HITHERTO CONSTRUCTED, HAVE BEEN LIABLE
Year: 1824

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWARD
JORDAN, of the City of Norwich, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present Majesty King George the Fourth, by His Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster,
the Twenty-seventh day of March now last past, did give and grant unto
me, the said Edward Jordan, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege
and authority, that I, the said Edward Jordan, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, and such others as I, the said Edward Jordan, my executors,
administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
time to time and at all times thereafter during the term of years therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A
CERTAIN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE FORM OR CONSTRUCTION OF WATER-
CLOSETS, OR OF THE APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH, WHICH HE BELIEVES WILL
BE FOUND CALCULATED TO OBVIATE OR REMEDY VARIOUS ACCIDENTS OR DEFECTS TO
WHICH THESE CONVENIENCES, AS HITHERTO CONSTRUCTED, HAVE BEEN LIABLE;" in
which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said
Edward Jordan, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be
inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as
in and by the said recited Letters Patent, reference being thereunto had,
will more fully appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Edward Jordan, do hereby declare that the nature of my said improve-
ment or improvements in the form or construction of waterclosets, or of the
apparatus connected therewith, and the manner in which the same is or are
to be performed, are particularly described and ascertained as follows, reference
being had to the Drawings or Figures hereunto attached (in which Drawings
or Figures the same letters of reference, when they occur in more than one
Figure, refer to the same part of the apparatus), that is to say -
Instead of employing valves and metal wires or rods connected with cranks
for opening and for shutting off the communication between the reservoir
that supplies the water and the pan or bason of the watercloset, (as is very
usual in such of the waterclosets in common use as are furnished with
apparatus for rincing out or cleansing the pan after using, and for preventing
(by an interposed stink trap) noxious smells from the soil pipe from being
diffused through the premises), I employ what is known among engineers by
the name of a three-way cock, which, in my said apparatus, is made to open
or to shut off the said communication between the said reservoir (which I call
the main reservoir) and the said bason or pan, by the plug of the said three-
way cock being caused to make a sixth part of a revolution, or a little more
or less, in it's shell or barrel, by means of levers and connecting rods attached
thereto, in any manner which a competent workman would adopt when the
said improvement is once pointed out to him, to put the same in action either
by the hand or by pressing down the seat a little way (which seat when so
employed is called the sinking seat) or by a motion communicated from the
lid or cover, as may be most convenient or desirable. But that workmen may
find no difficulty in establishing the said communication when employing the
said three-way cock, I shall here point out means whereby the same may
be effected, premising, however, that I do not rest the novelty of my said
Invention on the method or methods by which the said communication may
be made, and which may be modified and varied in different ways by inge-
nious workmen; but that I rest the same on the employment of the
said three-way cock in place of such said valves and cranks, or other
means as have hitherto been used for that purpose; and on the employment
of what I call my secondary or intermediate reservoir, hereafter described,
and which secondary reservoir I employ air-tight when circumstances will
permit.
In Figure 1 the pan or bason A is shewn fixed in it's place in the usual
manner. The water for rincing the said pan or bason is admitted by the
aperture B from the secondary reservoir R, before alluded to, through the

page_text: three-way cock C, which is represented in that position in which it is left
after the pressure is removed from the seat, and after the water (having been
admitted from the secondary reservoir R through the said cock C into the
said pan or bason A) has performed it's duty, the communication being still
open between the said pan or bason and the said secondary reservoir, which
is then empty. For the convenience of description, the pan A is represented
without the usual boxing or inclosure, and without the cover or the sinking
seat. Let the said seat be conceived to be attached to its place by hinges in
the usual manner, and resting in front on the top of the rod F, then (as may
be seen by inspecting the Drawing) the sinking seat on being pressed down
will cause the rod F to descend and give motion to the lever G, H, which
being connected with the lever or handle I of the said three-way cock by the
intermediate rod K, will cause the end a of the said handle to describe an
arc a, d, upwards to d (pointed to by the dotted outline of the said handle
or lever I in its elevated position), and will keep it in that elevated position
till the pressure be removed from the top of the rod F, when, by the action
of the spring Q, it will be depressed to it's first situation.
Also it will appear
equally obvious, that where it is preferred to have a fixed seat instead of the
said sinking seat, that the said rod F may be carried up through a hole in the
said fixed seat, to be pressed down and put in action by the hand. In some
cases I make the common lid, flap, or cover of the seat to give action to the
said three-way cock, by attaching to the under side thereof, and projecting
beyond it's hinges, a plate or rod so placed, that when the said flap or cover is
down, the said plate or rod acts as a lever under the said handle I of the
cock C (which handle in this case is placed not behind the said cock, as in
the Drawing Fig. 1, but between the said cock, formed suitable to the action,
and the pan A); and the said projecting rod or plate so acting keeps the said
handle up and the communication open between the secondary reservoir R
and the pau A; but when the lid or cover is raised to make use of the closet,
then the lever G, H, (which in this arrangement is made proportionally
shorter for the purpose) being pressed down by the spring Q, shuts off the
communication between the secondary reservoir R and the pan or bason A,
and opens the communication between the main reservoir and the said
secondary reservoir. In short, in whatever way motion be given to the plug
of the said three-way cock, so as to cause it to make about a sixth part of a
revolution, as before described, the communication between the secondary
reservoir R. and the pan or bason A is thereby shut off, and a communication
is simultaneously opened between the said reservoir R and the supply pipe P,
which pipe is brought by any convenient course from the main reservoir,

page_text: wherever it may be situated, at some more elevated position than any part of
the apparatus I have been describing. The last-mentioned communication
being now open, the water descends from the main reservoir through the
supply pipe P, passes through the cock C and the pipe D, and ascends into
the secondary reservoir R (made of copper or any convénient material), by
which a degree of compression is given to the air contained therein, propor-
tioned to the greater height of the water in the main reservoir. During
the time that any person is on the sinking seat the said secondary reservoir
receives its charge of water in the manner that has just been mentioned,
and is put in readiness to have the same discharged with considerable velocity,
by the elasticity of the confined air, whenever the person rises from the
seat, the compressed air by its elastic force then urging the said charge of
water through the aperture B into the pan or bason A, whence it removes
the soil through the stink trap T to the soil pipe U to be carried off.
The foregoing is what I call the more favorable arrangement and form of my
said apparatus, and that which I prefer and adopt when circumstances will per-
mit it; that is, when the main reservoir is sufficiently elevated to press the air
contained above the surface of the water in the secondary reservoir with the
weight of a column of water of about ten or twelve feet in height, or, if
higher, still better; but when the main reservoir is not sufficiently elevated
to give that degree of compression to the air which is required for an efficient
quick expulsion of the water, then I place the secondary reservoir R as high
above the said cock as circumstances will permit (four or five feet at least, but
more if possible), that I may establish a column of water between it and the
pan or bason A, to act by its weight as an impelling power (when the cock C
is put in it's requisite position) to force the water to pass from the secondary
reservoir R into the pan or bason A with a proportioned velocity. That this
may be the more easily understood, see Fig. 2, in which the communication
is represented as being open between the secondary reservoir R and the
injection pipe N, the water being discharged or having been injected through
the said pipe N into the pan or bason at A by its own weight under the
common pressure of the atmosphere acting upon it at the open orifice O of the
pipe or tube S, which ascends from the secondary reservoir R through the
main reservoir M, M, almost to it's top, which is open to the atmosphere. And
here I must notice, that this pipe S answers another good purpose in certain
circumstances, namely, when the main reservoir M, M, receives its supply
from any source which at particular times or by any accident may cause an
overflow (and which often occasions great damage), the said tube or pipe S
then serving as a waste pipe to carry off the surplus water through the

page_text: secondary reservoir R, and the pipe D, and the cock C, and the injection
pipe N, all of which, as has already been stated, are open so long as the
sinking seat is not pressed on, that is, in other words, so long as the rod F
(Fig. 1) is not depressed in such a manner as to turn the handle of the cock C
into the position marked by the dotted outline thereof, before mentioned.
And here let it be observed, that as often as the position of the plug is altered
by depressing the end G and elevating the end H of the lever G, H (Fig. 1),
the cock is brought back again to its former position by the action of the
spring whenever the pressure is removed from the top of the said rod F.
I need hardly state what is common to every similar combination of parts,
namely, that the usual means of simple joints are employed in the said
apparatus to facilitate motion where necessary at the junctions of the levers
and rods, as at a, b, and e, and at the fulcrum c of the lever G, H, as may be
seen by inspecting Fig. 1.
Having thus described my said apparatus, and shewn in what manner the
same is constructed and performs its office, I shall now mention an improvement
which I have introduced into the three-way cock employed therein, which
is very simple, but, at the same time, very effectual, in giving a quick passage
to the water. To effect this quick passage, I make the shell or barrel and
the plug of the said cock long enough (say about five inches and an half)
to admit of a lengthened opening or water way being cut in the said plug
instead of a semicircular passage as has hitherto been the common practice;
that is to say, instead of cutting out of the said plug such a picce as m,
(Fig. 3) I remove a long piece n, as shewn in Fig. 4.
Before concluding, I have to state an important advantage that results from
the practical application of my said Invention, namely, that where several
waterclosets may be required in large private buildings, or in prisons, in
hospitals, or in extensive manufactories, only one general reservoir will be
wanted; nor will the premises ever require to be loaded with any other water
than that in the one main reservoir, all the secondary reservoirs being empty
whenever the apparatus is not in operation. For the service of any number
of waterclosets, it is only necessary to connect a pipe for each, with the before-
mentioned supply pipe P, in order to convey water into the secondary reser-
voir appropriated to each closet respectively. And such is the convenience in
fixing my said apparatus, resulting from the nature of my said Invention, that
the said pipes connected with the said supply pipe may be carried in any
direction, as behind skirting boards, up dark corners, or in such other course
as may occasion the least cutting of walls or of floors; provided only that
the said closets be posited at the required depth below the main reservoir.

page_text: As to dimensions, I generally make my secondary or intermediate reservoir
when employed air-tight (that is when the circumstances admit of this more
favorable arrangement), about eight inches diameter, and two feet long; but
when I can employ only the pressure of a column of water (as between the
secondary reservoir R and the cock C, in Fig. 2), then I make the secondary
reservoir only about five inches in diameter, and fifteen inches long; but in
these dimensions some latitude may be allowed. For the supply pipe P,
employed to bring water from the main reservoir to the secondary or inter-
mediate reservoir, I usually employ common lead pipe, three quarters of an
inch inside diameter. The pipe or passage D should not be less than one
inch and an half diameter inside, nor should any part of the injection pipe N
be less than one inch and an half in diameter. The shell or barrel of the
cock and the plug C, I generally make (as mentioned above) about five inches
and an half in length; the diameter of the plug should be about two inches at
one end, and one inch and an half at the other. The soil pipe U, I make
of the usual size, namely, about four inches inside diameter. The secondary
reservoir R, besides resting on the pipe D, is made to rest on two semi-
circular arms projecting from the wall behind (not shewn in the Drawing), or
secured in any other other workman-like manner to prevent it from throwing
any strain upon the other parts of the apparatus.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Jordan, have hereunto set my
hand and scal, this Twenty-third day of August, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and twenty-four.