Sliding Gochs — Water-Closets.

561

Chap. 9.J

openings are inclosed by it; while to stop tbe flow through D, E muStbe moved back towards C as in the figure. The upper figure in the cutis another form of the same thing. The sliding tube H is the smallest,and has one end closed like Nos. 275 and 276, while F and G are sepa-rate pieces. Its action will be' sufficiently obvious fröm the precedingremarks.

No. 275. No. 276. No. 277.

Large cocks on this principle may be made for half the cost of ordinaryones, while the expense of keeping them in order is too trifling to be

noticed—-occasionally to renew the packing is all that could be required.

Water-Glosets have been greatly improved by modern artists, but theyare an ancient and probably Asiatic device. The summer chamber ofEglon , king of Moab, (Judges, iii', 20-25) is supposed to have been one.They were introduced into Rome during the republic, and are noticed byseveral ancient writers. Those eonstructed in the palace of the CaesarsWere adorned with marbles, arabesque and mosaics. At the back of onestill extant, there is a cistern, the water of which is distribüted by-cocksto different seats. The pipe and basin of another has been discoverednear the theatre at Pompeii , where it still remains. Heliogabalus con-cealed himself in one, and whenee he was dragged by his soldiers andslain.

Water-closets seem to have been always used in the East, and for rea-sons which Tavernier and other oriental travelers have assigned. Numbersare erected near the mosques and temples. A similar custom prevailed inold Rome , Constantinople , Smyrna, and probably all ancient cities. Inthe city of Fez, “round about the mosques, are 150 common houses ofease, each furnished with a cock and marble cistern, which scoureth andkeepeth all neat and clean, as if these places were intended for somesweeter employment.”—(Ogilby’s Äfrica, 1670, p. 88.) ln his “ Relationof the Seraglio,” Tavernier describes a gallery, in which were severalwater-closets. “ E very seat [he observes] has a little cock.” He mentionsothers, in which the openings were covered by a plate, which by meansof a spring “ turned one way or the other at the falling of the least weightupon it.”

Sir John Harrington is said to have introduced water-closets into Eng-land in Elizabeth’s reign, and some writers have erroneously ascribedtheir invention to him. They are described in the great French work onArts and Manufactures, by M. Roübo, who says, they were long used in