My colleagues at Temple Newsam may be rejoicing at the successful purchase of a splendid silver wine cistern once used by Lord Raby. However, in my humble opinion, the cistern acquired yesterday into the Leeds history collections is just as important in its own way.
Evidence that Leeds really was a city of "a thousand trades" and home to many very specialised manufacturing companies, we have just collected a wooden toilet cistern made by the Valveless Syphon Company based in Kirkstall, Leeds. This was collected from a house in West Park that was built around 1911. The cistern uses the company's "Waterfall patent" system which was patented in 1905. A link to the original patent can be found here: http://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/originalDocument?CC=GB&NR=190503237A&KC=A&FT=D&date=19051102&DB=EPODOC&locale=en_EP
The company was still listed in Kelly's trade directory of 1947 as based at Wyther Lane.
Thanks to the Leeds Local History library and the Patents Information Service for help in researching this object.