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the seat and apparatus below it. Lead D-traps are generally placed under these closets, but this should never be allowed. Siphon traps should always be used, for the reasons already mentioned. Some valve closets are made with a galvanized iron siphon trap that is to be placed wholly or partially above the floor, and is provided with a screw cap that can be taken off for the purpose of cleaning; such closets are made by Messrs. Tylor & Sons, and Messrs. Jennings. The latter also make closets, which may be called "plug" closets, the best known variety having the basin and siphon ball trap all in one piece of china. The plug closes the entrance from the basin into the siphon below, and is connected by a rod with the handle, which is vertically over it. By means of an india-rubber flange the plug is made to fit water-tight into the entrance of the siphon, and a body of water is kept in the basin above it, up to the level of the overflow, which is either made through the plug and the rod joining it with the handle, or by a

separate trapped channel along side of it. A plug is also made to contain the patent ball trap mentioned above. It will be seen that in these closets, no valve box is necessary, and there is only a small air-space between the water in the trap and that in the basin. These closets are also made without any trap at all, in which case the overflow of the basin is carried, by a pipe, straight through the wall. Such trapless closets are often very useful on the ground floor, where the soil-pipe can be carried straight through the wall, and disconnected from the sewer by a ventilating trap outside.

We must now consider more in detail the arrangements for the supply of water to the basin. The simplest form of water-waste preventer has already been mentioned, but it must be remembered that the commonest plan for supplying closets with water, is to place a spindle valve in the bottom of a cistern somewhere above them, so as to guard the entrance into the pipe leading to the basin

of the closet, and to work this valve by means of wires connected with the pullup apparatus. The great disadvantage of this apparatus is that the wires get stretched by use, and have to be shortened from time to time. 'There is, obviously, also no provision against waste of water, for the water will run as long as the handle is held, or fastened up, until the cistern is empty. Neither is there any "regulator" to ensure a sufficient supply of water being delivered to the closet each time that the handle is pulled up, whether it is held up or not. I have here one kind of valve which achieves these two objects (lent by Messrs. Tylor & Sons), fixed in a cistern with glass sides, so that you may see its action. When the handle of the closet is worked the valve is raised, and if the handle is let go, the valve does not fall directly but gradually, so as to allow a certain quantity of flow out into the basin of the closet. But if the handle is held up (or down in the case of a ring and chain, as here) a metal weight which

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was carried up with the valve falls, and stops the flow of water. These valves may be used as cisterns, and connected with the pull-up apparatus by wires, or they may be placed in the small waste preventing cistern already described, with the view of ensuring the use of a definite quantity of water each time. another of these waste-preventing cis terns the pipe supplying the closet does. not start from the bottom, but starts inside the cistern in the form of a siphon, which is so arranged that when the water is once started it all runs off. Another waste-preventer, of which I have a specimen here, has been recently invented by Mr. Jennings, Jr., and consists of a heavy metal cylinder with a piston inside it, the rod of which is the rod to which the handle of the closet is fixed. Upon this cylinder are two projections, one of which lifts the lever which turns on the water, and the other one which moves the valve. The piston is made so large that the cylinder adheres to it, and when the handle is pulled up the cylinder is, therefore,

lifted with it, and the valve opened and the water turned on at the same time; but if the handle is held up too long the weight of the cylinder gradually overcomes its adhesion to the piston, and it falls, closing the valve of the closet and turning off the water at the same time. Thus, this water-waste preventer does not come into action at each use of the closet, but only when it is wanted. Not only water-waste preventers, but regulator valves are used in all the best forms of closets. There are, as already hinted, valves that are so constructed that they allow a certain quantity of water to pass through them whether the handle of the closet be held up or not, so that the proper quantity of water is supplied even if the handle is pulled up and let go at once. The oldest and best known of these is Underhay's regulator valve. The valve itself is, of course, worked by a lever, and the rate at which the valve is closed depends upon the rate at which the lever falls. This rate is regulated by the fall of a piston in a cylinder, the es

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