Fig. 125. - WAter-Battery" Wash-out Closet: Basin and Trap in two pieces.

In many cases, especially where the atmosphere of the house is warmer than that of the closet, the polluted air of the closet-room would pass freely into the house.

(b) The excrement, no matter in what state it has come from the body, is driven with such force against the upper side of the closet-basin by the inrush of water, that, though it may get washed off again, or nearly so, where there is a good continuous flush, it will leave its marks behind, and such fouling will be added to by each usage of the closet, till after only a very short while it will but need an inspection of the entrance way to the closet-trap to wish one had looked out of window instead.

(c) The energy of the flash, which is as much needed for cleaning and scouring out the trap as for washing out the basin, is chiefly spent in forcing the stool out of the basin, and in its impingement upon the side of the closet, the consequence generally is that an ordinary flush of water rarely washes every vestige of filth out of both the basin and trap.

Fig. 126. - "Wash-out" Closet: Basin and Trap in one piece.

(d) The large exposed surface between the weir of the closet-basin and the water-seal of the trap. As already explained, this part of the closet in time becomes much corroded with faecal matter, and the bad air thrown off from it generally passes readily enough into the house.

(e) That where the closet becomes most fouled it is least seen.

Fig. 127.

7. In the wash-down class of closets, whether its basin and trap are in two pieces, as shown in fig. 127, or in one piece, as shown in fig. 128, the exposed surface which in usage can become fouled is much smaller than that of the wash-out class of closets. Then the force of the flush, instead of spending itself upon the basin as in the wash-out, passes through the trap with a scouring action, washing out the whole of its interior.

Fig. 128.

8. In all closets where the exposed surface of the water standing in the basin has a much smaller area than that of the seat-hole, the excretions are liable to fall upon the sloping sides either of the back or front, and which the flush does not always remove. But when this happens it would be in such a conspicuous part of the closet that the faeces would at once be seen and another flush given, by all cleanly people; or the housemaid's or attendant's attention being called to the state of the basin, it could be very easily cleaned.

Before using such a closet, I prefer to pull the flushing handle so as to wet the basin, for the better removal of anything which might fall upon it. With a seat-action flushing arrangement, as shown in fig. 129, on sitting down upon the seat a small flush of water is sent into the closet, just enough to wet the basin, and on rising from the seat a full flush follows.

9. The tapering hopper, whether long or short, with its side or bent inlet arm, as shown in fig. 130, is so difficult to keep clean that its use should be entirely prohibited.

Instead of destroying the thousands already made, they might be used by market gardeners for protecting certain things from frost, as rhubarb, etc.

Fig. 129. - Seat-Action Closet.

The water enters the closet with such a twirling motion, that by the time it has twirled itself down to the trap it has no energy left to carry anything with it; and so it just gravitates through the drain to the sewer, leaving matters in the closet pretty much as it had found them.

Fig. 130. - Hopper with Side-Inlet. Fig. 131.

10. Though the flushing-rim hopper, as shown in fig. 131, with a straight inlet arm, is an improvement on the hopper, fig. 130, it is not a wholesome closet. The long tapering sides of the interior of these closets afford such a field for faeces to fall upon, that it is difficult to pass a body of water over the surface of the basin with sufficient frictional force to free it of foreign matters, and so the faeces remain largely upon the exterior parts of the basin after the flush has gone to indicate the whereabouts of the closet.

11. A plug or plunger-closet is a simple device for keeping water in a basin. It has been much used in connection with trapless closets. I have discussed this class of closet at length in another work; and as no sanitarian of authority would allow such a closet to be fixed on any of his works, it is not necessary to enlarge upon it here. The illustration, fig. 132, which I have extracted from my

Fig. 132. - Showing Trapless Closets. Bad Arrangement.

" Lectures," speaks for itself. Apart from the great risk of bad air entering a house through a trapless closet-basin, which had lost its water through a defective basin-plug, b, fig. 132, there would be the continuous contamination of the water in the basin, or the air in the room, by the filth which would accumulate upon the exposed surface of the plug, A, or plunger, G.