IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREAT- MENT OF SEWAGE
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Bevan George Sloper, of Northfleet, in the
County of Kent, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREAT-
MENT OF SEWAGE."
>
Sealed the 13th December 1870, and dated the 14th June 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Bevan George Sloper
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 14th June 1870.
I, BEVAN GEORGE SLOPER, of Northfleet, in the County of Kent, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN.
THE TREATMENT OF SEWAGE," to be as follows:-
I mix with fresh sewage as it flows in and enters a mixing vessel
a large quantity of putrified sewage and containing an abundant
quantity of sewage ferment, which acts very rapidly on the urea
contained in the sewage and converts it into carbonate of ammonia.
I leave the sewage thus mixed until the urea has entirely disappeared,
which I estimate will be effected in about an hour.

page_text: During one half of the time found necessary to obtain this effect I
keep up a slow agitation at the bottom of the reservoir to keep the
ferment mixed with the liquid sewage. I then cease the agitation and
favor the deposit. At the proper time I pump off the upper half or
more of the contents of the reservoir, mixing it in a vessel having an
agitator with a soluble solution of phosphate of lime, containing also
sulphate of lime, the phosphatic salt being in equivalent proportions to
act on the carbonate of ammonia in the sewage, and formed from the
urea or other organic matter. I then pass the mixed liquids into
another vessel, in which they are well mixed with an equivalent
quantity of sulphate of magnesia, forming a compound salt of phosphate
of ammonia and magnesia. I then pass the liquid holding all these
insoluble and soluble substances into another mixing vessel and mix it
with a small quantity of soluble sulphate of alumina and milk of lime.
The whole then flows off into a long reservoir and deposits its solid
contents, consisting of the insoluble matter naturally suspended in the
sewage, phosphoric acid, ammonia, sulphuric acid, magnesia, alumina,
and lime, all ingredients of the highest value in agriculture, while the
sewage water is clear and free from organic matter.
In the foregoing description I have supposed the process to be in full
operation, but it is necessary at first to be provided with a large quantity
of nutrified sewage.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent
filed by the said Bevan George Sloper in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 14th December 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, BEVAN
GEORGE SLOPER, of Northfleet, in the County of Kent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of June, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-third
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and:
grant unto me, the said Bevan George Sloper, Her special licence that
I, the said Bevan George Sloper, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Bevan George Sloper, my executors,.
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,

page_text: from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREAT-
MENT OF SEWAGE," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Bevan George Sloper, my executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to
be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Bevan George Sloper, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the samo:
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement thereof, that is to say:-
My Invention relates, first, to favoring the fermentation of the
sewage under treatment for the purpose of rapidly converting the
nitrogenous matters contained therein into carbonate of ammonia; and,
secondly, to the employment of soluble salts of magnesia, soluble
alkaline phosphates, and the soluble phosphates of lime, for the purpose
of forming an ammoniacal phosphate of magnesia and precipitating it
charged with various animal matters contained in the sewage.
In order to favor the fermentation of the sewage which I operate
upon I mix it with about an equal quantity of sewage which has
already fermented, and which contains an accumulated quantity of the
ferment produced by the fermentation of the urine in the sewage. I
keep the mixed sewage agitated for a sufficient time (say half an hour,
more or less), until the nitrogenous matters capable of being acted
upon by the ferment are converted into carbonate of ammonia. I then
allow the sewage to rest, and when the sediment it contains has
subsided to about one-half the depth of the reservoir I draw off the
supernatant liquid into another reservoir.
I then mix with this ammoniacal sewage a solution or solutions
containing a soluble salt of magnesia and a soluble phosphate of soda or
potash or a soluble phosphate of lime. I allow or use two chemical
equivalents of a magnesian salt to each one equivalent which the sewage
contains of carbonate of ammonia. The quantity of ammonia in the
sewage I ascertain by previous analysis. I allow or use one chemical

page_text: equivalent of a phosphatic salt for each one equivalent of ammonia in
the sewage. I agitate the sewage well in order to assist the formation
and precipitation of the ammoniacal phosphate of magnesia, bearing with
it a large quantity of organic animal matters. When it is necessary to
clarify and deodorize the sewage I mix with it a small quantity of
sulphate of alumina and its equivalent proportions of lime and small
quantities of sulphate of iron and of chloride of lime.
When the temperature of the sewage is not sufficiently high to favor
its fermentation it must be increased a few degrees of heat by artificial
means.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim as my
"Improvements in the Treatment of Sewage," -
First. Favoring the fermentation of the sewage under treatment by
the means hercin-before described.
Second. The employment of soluble salts of magnesia and of soluble
alkaline phosphates and of the soluble phosphates of lime in the manner
herein-before described to precipitate the ammoniacal phosphate of
magnesia charged with various animal matters contained in the sewage.
In witness whereof, I, the said Bevan George Sloper, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Second day of December, One thousand
eight hundred and seventy.