My late father Anthony Bruce patented the Lavac in 1963 from the idea of syphoning petrol out of cars before the war

[lavac-inventors-Son]

My late father Anthony Bruce patented the Lavac in 1963 from the idea of syphoning petrol out of cars before the war. The idea got extended when he was on his friends yacht and they were discussing marine animals ,remarking on how many of them make use of suction ,just then he wanted to use the loo himself and his friend remarked ,I need to empty that soon ,sorry Tony ,as my father sat on the loo pondering about the marine creatures ,the loo rather smelt and my father thought ,if the loo could suck ,it could do anyway with the smell ,the throne he sat on was rather high and he could of done with it being lower as he was a tall man ,then he supposed that would not fit in with the design of that toilet ,he suddenly realised that if the toilet was lower than the water table ,the water table draft of the boat that ,if there was a vacuum suction that the flush would come in to fill the vacuum ,which meant that in a way it would be flushing ,he went back to his friend after emptying the loo and said" Bill this should be the last time that this gets emptied this way" ,I got a idea !

 

[OCuea]

Great story. How did he turn the idea into an actual saleable device and did it take him long? Did he do it in his spare time?
Bit like Douglass gill who made foul weather gear because he was fed up with what was on offer.