The Sun.
London, England, 1869-07-15 00:00:00

Some five or six years ago, the Leamington Local Board
of Health conceived the idea of utilising the sewage of
that town. This sewage was conveyed to some ground
near the river Avon, and there treated with milk of lime
and ashes. It was thus converted into a heap of black
stinking mud, which was heaped up for two years and
• then sold at ls. per ton. Rather a poor result for so
long and tedious a process. Nevertheless, the purchasers
of this manure paid ls. per ton too much. The fertilising
properties had been entirely dissipated, and the residuum
was simply worthless. In June 1868, Mr. G. W.
Wigner, a chemist of Camberwell, together with two
gentlemen named Sillar, took out "a patent for deodorising
[ sewage for manure." The patent consisted of collecting
. the sewage in tanks, and of mixing with it alum, blood,
L clay, magnesia, managanese, burnt clay, chloride of
sodium, animal or vegetable charcoal, and ma.gnenian
limestone. Mr. Wigner was the discoverer of the process,
and Messrs. Sillar assisted him in developing it. The
unsatisfactory result at Leamington had naturally dis-
gusted the Local Board, and so when Mr. Wigner pro.
posed to take their works off their hands and relieve them
of all trouble about their sewage, at the same time guaran-
teeing that none of it should pass into the river, the pro.
posal was accepted, and the works came into the possession
of Mr. Wigner and his friends last Lady Day. They
formed a limited liability company, under the name of the
Native Guano Company. The shares have been taken
entirely by Mr. Wigner and his friends. But if, as they
hope to do, they extend their system to other parts of the
kingdom, they will increase their organisation and apply
to the public for the pecuniary means necessary to give it
full effect.
The population of Leamington is about 20,000, and the
sewage averages 600,000 gallons a day. From this fire
tons of solid manure are extracted. How this is done we
will now explain. The sewage first passes into a pit eight
feet diameter, and eighteen feet deep. In this pit is an
agitator worked bysteam, which, revolving rapidly, breaks
up the solid lumps. On either side of this pit is a smaller
one containing a mixture of alum, blood, and the other
materials mentioned in Mr. Wigner's specification.
In these smaller pits are wheels with small
buckets attached, which, revolving, convey the mixture
by a slender stream into the sewage pit, at the tate of two
gallons per minute to 700 gallons of the sewage. Each of
the two pits contains a day's supply of mixture. The
mixture and the sewage now form one black fluid, which, if
put in a long narrow glass, quickly precipitates all the
manurial ingredients to the bottom. Before the chemicals
have been added no such deposit takes place, but the
water remains thick and dark. The precipitation affects
not only the solid but the liquid excreta, and thus renders
the deposit much more valuable. After mixing, the
sewage passes into large tanks. The tanks continue filling
for about a week, until the deposit is seven feet thick.
The water is pumped off in about an hour, and the mud in
about a day and a half.
Let us first trace the progress of the water, remem.
bering that the great problem is to restore it to the river
free from impurity. It is conveyed by a canal which tra-
verses the ground several times, for a length of 800 feet,
and resembles the mica levels of a Cornish china•clay work,
There are five weirs, an inch or two in depth, so that a
slight fall is maintained. At the highest level the water is
still impure, but by the time that it reaches the outlet of
the lowest it is quite clear, and, save for a slightly saline
flavour, due to the soda and other materials used in the
domestic washing of Leamington, is tasteless. In fact,
this outcome of the filthy Stygian stream that we saw a
minute before is far purer than the river itself. Fish
live and thrive in it, and twenty-two perch and dace have
been caught there during the course of a single day. The
average of organic matter left in this water is about two
grains, as compared with I'3 grains in the best London
water and about five grains in the East London water.
Returning to the sewage, we find that the great difficulty
is to pump it out. When we remember how small a
matter will choke a pump, we can easily imagine that it
is no easy task to suck up and discharge, inter atia, the six

barrels of old handkerchiefs and clothes which are brought
down by the sewers every day. Six pumps were tried and
discarded. At length one has been found to do the work.
It is of eight inches diameter, and is supplied with
india-rubber valves. This succeeds in swallowing and
disgorging handkerchiefs and all, and ejects the
horrible-looking black liquid mud into a cistern. Beneath
this cistern are two "baskets," large iron cylinders, with
very fine copper gauze round the circumference, and in
the centre a spindle, which, by a series of connections and
wheels, each increasing the velocity as it gets farther from

the steam engine and closer to the" basket," revolves the
" basket " with fearful rapidity, so that the circumference

travels at the rate of four miles a minute. The centrifugal
action thus evolved forces the water through the gauze,
to be carried off in the way we have described, and leaves
the manure the consistency of clay. It is dug out with a

spade, carried away in wheelbarrows to the outer ground,
where it is spread out in layers of about two inches thick,
and is then plentifully sprinkled with sulphuric acid, in
order to fix the ammonia. In fine, bright weather a single
day will suffice to dry the manure, but two days are the

average time. The next stage is to convey the dried
manure back within the buildings, and there riddle it
through sieves. It is then reduced to the condition of the
ordinary manure which is sold by merchants. The penul-
timate stage is to heap it up in large piles, where, if it
remains for a fortnight, it becomes so heated in the
interior of the pile that the manure cannot be held in the
hand. This heating rots the hair and the handkerchief*.
Finally, the manure *is packed in bags, and is then ready
for sale. By that time it has lost all but a very slight
odour, though it must be confessed that the works them-
selves are a purgatory for the nose, and one is not surprised

to see employers and employed vigorously puffing away

at pipes or cigars.

The manure thus derived contains 4i per cent. of
ammonia as compared with 11 per cent. in guano. But

the difference in price far more than compensates for the
difference in strength. The best guano costs at the docks

about £l7 per ton ; the "native " guano is delivered at
Leamington Railway Station for £3 10$. per ton. The

process has been in operation too short a time to say
whether it will answer the purpose it is intended to serve ;
but the company are selling it as fast as they can make
it, the yield being about five tons a day. The works are
well worth a visit, and the unpleasantness derived from
the odour is not much worse than an experienced traveller

has encountered in many a town on the Continent.

PROPOSED VISIT OF THE PRINCE AND THE PRINCESS

OF WALES TO IRELAND.—A Dublin correspondent says
that it is very confidently stated, in quarters which ought
to be well informed, that their Royal Highnesses the
Prince and the Princess of Wales intend to honour Dublin
with their presence at the opening of the Great National
Horse Show, to be held on the premises of the Royal
Dublin Society on the 10th of August.

THE NEW ENGLISH PRIMA DONNA.—The saying
of a famous author, to the effect that its writers make the
glory of a nation, may be extended in these times to its
artists as well. It is a matter of some national interest,
therefore, to know that the reproach to which England
has too long been subject, of not having produced any
female singer of the very highest class since the now
remote days of Miss Paton, is likely to be effaced at last.
Miss Dove Dolby, the young English lady who made her
debut some weeks ago at Padua amid the acclamations of
an enthusiastic audience, pursues her career triumphantly.
Il Nuovo Trovatore and all the other Italian journals be.
stow the highest encomiums upon her performance in the
" Hugenots " and "Don Carlos," praising her voice as of
matchless brilliancy and power, and her acting as full of
grace and impassionment. In fact, she seems to have
created a perfect furore wherever she has appeared. She
of course sings in Italian, which language she has mastered
to the complete satisfaction of her critics, "native there
and to the manner born."

HOW BARNUM GOT UP A BABY SHOW.—When
the speculative Barnum determined to hold a baby show
in New York, he caused himself to be arrested for kissing
a mother. His defence, when he was brought before a
magistrate for this offence against good morals, was that
he had been searching high and low for beautiful babies,
and that at last he had found one so exquisite that, carried
away by a feeling of respectful admiration, he had kissed
the mother for the sake of her infant. Mr. Barnum was
fined one dollar, and an account of the trial appeared
in every newspaper in the land. The speculation proved
a successful one, the show went on for several days,
and during that time the part of Broadway in
which " Barnum's Museum " is situated was almost
blocked up by the carriages of those who were eager to
see the infant whose charms were so wonderful that the
heart of the great Barnum had been vanquished, and be
had forgotten the citizen in the man. When the exhibi•
tion came to an end Mr. Barnum explained to his gulled
but admiring fellow-citizens how, by the expenditure of
one dollar, he had realised several thousands. We recom.
mend this story to those who intend to follow the example
of the impresario of the exhibition of babies at the North
Woolwich Gardens, for we hardly think that on their
own single merits, such exhibitions are likely to be remu.
nerative.—Dally News.

On the Ist of January, 1869, there were 42,255
miles of line in the United States, the cost of which, at
$44,000 per mile, equalled $1,800,000,000. The total of
net tonnage transported over them for the year 1868
equalled 75,000,000 tons, having a value of $10,472,250,000
—six times their cost and four times greater than the Na-
tional Debt.

EXCIXSIVE,' VERT IMPORTANT, EI&E, AND V.ALtA.BLE
are th'a properties of Lamplouzzis Pyretic Salina, curing the
worst Headaches, sickness, skin, or biliary alfections. Pleasant
Pagt4lo4 §old lsy all CluunistimiAdTt:l