A question about toilets and hydroplanes

[M1911A1JohnBrowning]

Back in the 30's, my Great Grandpa who's name was Clarence Trombley invented the Ballcock system for the toilet, something he never got credit for. As the story in my family goes, he didn't actually have toilets in mind when he designed it, rather his good friend and racing buddy Gar Wood asked him to design pumps to stabilise his hydroplane race boats. Later, he simply adapted his ballcock system to replace the towering crapper toilets. He also designed a pump system for ww2 pt boats, which he also never got credit for. I know next to nothing about boats, and I would appreciate it if any of you boat guys could tell me some info about how the ballcock system could stabilise a boat.

 

[Gollnick]

Sorry to disappoint you, but the ballcock isn't what led to the integration of the toilet. In fact may toilets with separate bowls and tanks use ballcocks.

A ballcock is nothing more than a faucet (also known as a cock in plumbing-speak) in which the handle is replaced with a float (also known as a ball). In the earliest days of toilets, when one pulled the flush chain, the water was released down into the bowl. You then pulled a fill chain or turned on a fill faucet mounted at hand level to refill the tank until you heard water flowing down the overfill pipe indicating that the tank was again full for the next user. The ballcock innovation elliminated that second step. When you pulled the flush chain releasing the water, the float ball fell turning the fill cock on. When the water level got high enough, the ball floated up and turned off the cock. Thus the tank refilled automatically. Today, the tank and bowl are usually one piece. But the basic mechanism is still the same.

One way to stablize a boat is to move weight around to balance the boat. Sometimes, it's hard to move cargo and people around. So, water ballasts are used. Water can be pumped around easily and in easily-controlled increments. How a ballcock mechanism would fit into this, I don't know.

 

[M1911A1JohnBrowning]

"Sorry to disappoint you, but the ballcock isn't what led to the integration of the toilet."

I'm not real good with toilet history. The only facts I know for sure are that My great grandpa invented the ball cock for Gar Wood and that using it in a toilet was not his idea. I should understand all this stuff better since its family history, but these developments happened over 70 years ago.

Again, If anybody knows how a ballcock could be used in a boat I would like some info.

 

[Matches]

Since a ballcock is a valve controlled by a float, it would be possible to allow water ballast into the hull of a boat, and shut that flow off at a pre-determined level. I never heard of it but that doesn't mean anything either

 

[Esav Benyamin]

I gotta say one thing. The title of this thread has got to be an alltime classic. The fact that the thread itself is totally legitimate just makes it better.

And congratulations to your great grandfather. He sounds like one of the good guys, even if he didn't get all the credit he might have.

 

[digdeep]

Thomas Crapper in England who held several patents relating to water closets and who was a plumber is usually associated with the invention of the modern toilet. However resources indicate that it was Albert Giblin who originally filed the patent for the present day flushing toilet. Crapper may have paid for the patent from Giblin. Just thought someone might appreciate this bit of trivia.

 

[Minjin]

http://www.snopes.com/business/names/crapper.asp



Mark

 

[Kimberholic]

I watched a History Channel special recently about the toilet. It was quite interesting. The one innovation they highlighted as being the biggest for the toilet was the S shaped drain. This allowed water to remain in the drain which stopped the foul sewage gasses from coming back up. Before this the drain was straight and bathrooms were always very stinky.

 

[kl101]

Hmmmm, not a boat person or a toilet historian. (some of you guys seem to know a scary amount about toilet development. I DO NOT want to speculate about why. I have basically high opinions of most of the participants and don't want to jeopardize that in any way).

I envision a float that opens a drain on a ballast tank when the boat lists too far to one side. All the water in the tank would go to the low side, raise the level and lift the float. The drain could go to a resevoir tank with another float switch and be pumped to a separate ballast tank on the other side of the boat or to a central resevoir.