5 gallon collector
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Getting even further from bottle-talk...but why not? (Is there an antique-toilets.net site...?)
Working with the date, May 30, 1916, and searching patents granted on that date, there is, in the Official Gazette of the U S Patent Office, in the listing of patents granted on that date, in the listing of "REISSUES", on page 1770, the following:
49,112 FLOAT. CHARLES E. DOUGLAS, Cincinnati, Ohio, assignor to The John Douglas Company, Cincinnati, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio. Filed Nov. 29, 1915. Serial No. 64177. Term of patent 3 1/2 years.
The ornamental design for a float as shown.
There are two images of the float -- side view, which shows a neck with the same (or very similar) contours as yours, and a view of the attachment end. Your float may differ slightly, in that its free end is flattened.
Not terribly ornamental, methinks.
But, here is art, an apparently simple object, but echoing in its elliptical form the motions of the heavenly spheres, in its motions the motions of wandering driftwood, carried by whims of wind and current, the world its destination; but this orb imprisoned, tethered by a cold brass rod in a cruel dark ceramic cage, destined to bob, up and down, rising and falling, with the ebb and flow of each successive flush, and going nowhere. Poet fodder. I have not been able to locate the work, but it was Keats, I believe, who wrote the achingly melancholic "Ode to a Cistern", and there was Ogden Nash's much lighter "Water Loo, How Do You Do", with its disguised references to Wellington and the Bonaparte fellow.
Good grief. Ornamental design? Who would care what the float in a toilet water tank looks like? Perhaps there was a transparent tank that went with it. I'm sure not. And, was the patent granted for the appearance of the thing? Build a prettier mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door? Definitely true, for many perhaps most items, but patentable?
As I recall, from personal experience, toilet water tanks were, at that time (were there exceptions, in posher abodes?), located high on the wall, six or seven, perhaps eight feet up, to create a powerful (noisy) rush of water, a long pipe from cistern down to the commode, with a chain dangling down, wooden handle on the end, and we called flushing "pulling the chain". As in, "You filthy pig, Trevor, you forgot to pull the chain again!" Even less able to ever see the float, in such a set-up.
Working with the date, May 30, 1916, and searching patents granted on that date, there is, in the Official Gazette of the U S Patent Office, in the listing of patents granted on that date, in the listing of "REISSUES", on page 1770, the following:
49,112 FLOAT. CHARLES E. DOUGLAS, Cincinnati, Ohio, assignor to The John Douglas Company, Cincinnati, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio. Filed Nov. 29, 1915. Serial No. 64177. Term of patent 3 1/2 years.
The ornamental design for a float as shown.
There are two images of the float -- side view, which shows a neck with the same (or very similar) contours as yours, and a view of the attachment end. Your float may differ slightly, in that its free end is flattened.
Not terribly ornamental, methinks.
But, here is art, an apparently simple object, but echoing in its elliptical form the motions of the heavenly spheres, in its motions the motions of wandering driftwood, carried by whims of wind and current, the world its destination; but this orb imprisoned, tethered by a cold brass rod in a cruel dark ceramic cage, destined to bob, up and down, rising and falling, with the ebb and flow of each successive flush, and going nowhere. Poet fodder. I have not been able to locate the work, but it was Keats, I believe, who wrote the achingly melancholic "Ode to a Cistern", and there was Ogden Nash's much lighter "Water Loo, How Do You Do", with its disguised references to Wellington and the Bonaparte fellow.
Good grief. Ornamental design? Who would care what the float in a toilet water tank looks like? Perhaps there was a transparent tank that went with it. I'm sure not. And, was the patent granted for the appearance of the thing? Build a prettier mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door? Definitely true, for many perhaps most items, but patentable?
As I recall, from personal experience, toilet water tanks were, at that time (were there exceptions, in posher abodes?), located high on the wall, six or seven, perhaps eight feet up, to create a powerful (noisy) rush of water, a long pipe from cistern down to the commode, with a chain dangling down, wooden handle on the end, and we called flushing "pulling the chain". As in, "You filthy pig, Trevor, you forgot to pull the chain again!" Even less able to ever see the float, in such a set-up.
... 
If that were my working actual toilet float, I think I’d want a clear tank! And maybe some fish- or-at the very least, no lid.
… right? Awesome lady. But it leaves you with no fear of anything, really. Well maybe spiders…
