IMPROVEMENTS IN DISINFECTING SEWERS OR OTHER DRAINS OR DEPOSITARIES OF FETID MATTERS OR GASES, AND IN CONVERTING THE CONTENTS THEREOP TO USEFUL PURPOSES
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Allan Macpherson, of Brussels, in the King-
dom of Belgium, Gentleman, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN DISINFECTING SEWERS OR OTHER DRAINS OR DEPOSITARIES OF FETID
MATTERS OR GASES, AND IN CONVERTING THE CONTENTS THEREOP TO
USEFUL PURPOSES."
Scaled the 26th May 1854, and dated the 10th December 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Allan Macpherson
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 10th December 1858.
I, ALLAN MACPHERSON, do hereby declare the nature of the said.
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN DISINFECTING SEWERS OR OTHER DRAINS
OR DEPOSITARIES OF FETED MATTERS OR GASES, AND IN CONVERTING THE
CONTENTS THEREOF TO USEFUL PURPOSES," to be as follows:-
In order to purify sewage and other fæeted matters or deodorize the
same, I propose to use any of the peats, or peat charcoal, alone or mixed
with sulphuric or other mineral acid; also hydrate of lime is used mixed

page_text: therewith, or peat, either natural, charred, or in charcoal, mixed with
chloride of sodium or with chloride of lime (hydrate of), or any of the
above named may be used in combination with any of the others; or in
certain cases I propose to use quick lime, either with peat alone or other-
wise combined, or in certain cases or places I use the liquid or water
produced from springs running through peat lands and saturating peat.
Wherever it can be adopted I propose to construct a tank of any
suitable material and size, to be placed in a chamber of brick work
under the pavement of streets, at such depth as will allow it to receive
the contents of the house drain, the said chamber to be suitably covered;
the tank may have a lid or otherwise; if covered, the sewage to be
received just under the lid. The bottom of the tank should be perforated
to allow of the water draining off, or one chamber and tank may
receive the drainage of many houses. This tank should be filled about
half full of one or other of the above-named mixtures; the sewage will
be filtered, leaving its valuable parts in the tank, and the aqueous parts
pass into the main sewer of the street in a comparatively pure state.
Where one tank serves several houses the drain from cach house should
be connected with drains leading to the tank, and the tank should be
so placed as to allow the water to drain from it into the main sewer.
Health of towns being a consideration of vital importance, the sewage
should never be allowed to pass in a deodorized state beyond the
length of a street, and the more speedily it is arrested in its progress
the better. Those tanks may be removed when full, and their places
supplied with empty ones. The value of the manure which would thus
be saved and rendered available for agricultural purposes would speedily
more than repay the cost of making the change.
I propose to receive the contents of drains or sewers into a reservoir
or reservoirs previously prepared, by partly filling it or them with one or
some of the mixtures before mentioned, or into which I shall provide by
any known ineaus for such mixture being poured in to meet the sewage
matter as it may be discharged from the drains or sewers. I also
propose to collect or arrest noxious vapours of drains or sewers in their
course by (where practicable) excavating chambers of proper form and
of convenient height in the main sewers, introducing for that purpose

page_text: trays of iron or basket work filled with one or other mixture as above
stated, which will seize the exhalations as they rise to the level of the
chamber, and by depriving them of the anumonia therein contained, will
ronder them harmless as they escape by the usual gratings. Or, where
convenient, I propose to construct chambers above the tunnel sewers,
making openings therein at the top, and gratings above the chambers;
as the noxious exhalations pass along they will be drawn (in consequence
of the draft occasioned by the gratings aforesaid) through the chambers
so constructed, which, being filled with one or other of my prepared
compositions, laid on wire or basket worked flats or trays as aforesaid,
will be deprivedl of their noxious qualities and escape, after the passage
through the tray, freed therefrom. Where practicable or desirable I
intend to place barges, lighters, or other craft before the mouth of
sewers, to conduct the contents thereof into the said craft, such vessels
being previously provided with my composition on gratings as aforesaid,
otherwise these barges will be closed or close decked, and furnished
with means to permit the aqueous part of the sewage to discharge itself
into the river, such aqueous part being deprived of considerable portions
of its noxious properties by coming into contact even for a short time
with my composition. When the lighter is full of material sewage it
may be taken from its position and another lighter substituted in its
place, or, where practicable, a permanent dumby or close vessel may be
used.
It is scarcely necessary to observe that where low lands or large
reservoirs are appropriated or made for the purpose of receiving the
entire sewage of towns my Invention will be found most applicable, as
additional purifying, and at the same time additional fertilizing, may go
on (as it were) hand in hand; the substances used by me for my opera-
tions are very cheap and quite inexhaustible.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Allan Macpherson in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 10th June, 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
ALLAN MACPHERSON, of Brussels, in the Kingdom of Belgium, Gen-
tleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of December, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the seven-
teenth year of Her reign, did,-for Herself; Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Allan Macplierson, Her special licence
that I, the said Allan Macpherson, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Allan Macpherson, my exc-
cutors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with,
and-no-others, 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 "IMPROVE
MENTS IN DISENFECTING SEWERS OR OTHER DRAINS OR DEPOSITARIES OF
FETID MATTERS OR GASES AND IN CONVERTING THE CONTENTS THEREOF TO
USEFUL PURPOSES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Allan Macpherson, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
seal; 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 Allan Macpherson, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement:-
In order to purify sewage and other fecal or foetid matters or exha-
lations, and deodorize the same, and to absorb noxious exhalations, I
use peats of any description, whether in a high dried natural state or

page_text: carbonized, in lumps, coarsely granulated, or finely powdered. I also
use charcoal prepared from wood, sawdust, or other refuse wood, or
from tanners' bark (the refuse of tanneries), or other vegetable or
animal charcoal. Any of the above may be used alone, or high dried
peat may be mixed with peat charcoal, or with one or more of the
other charcoals mentioned, or any of the various charcoals mentioned
may be combined with one or more of the other charcoals; but in all
cases I prefer peat charcoal to peat in its, natural or uncarbonized state,
however highly it may be dried. For the purpose of my Invention
any of the several charcoals or combinations of the several charcoals
may be used alone, or in combination with sulphuric or other mineral
acid, or chloride of sodium (common salt), or hydrate of lime, or in
some cases with quick lime. Where sea water can be easily obtained
any of the aforesaid charcoals or any combination thereof may be
saturated with it, and the water allowed to drain off, leaving the salt
behind; or where springs or streams of water impregnated with iron
are at hand, any of the charcoals may be saturated with such water,
allowing the water to drain off, which- water will be deprived of and
leave behind it the substances with which it was impregnated. Refuse
bricks, that is, all the brick dust and broken and half burnt bricks from
brick kilns or elsewhere, powdered and high dried, and finely ground
clay, is also useful in deodorizing night soil or other fecal or foetid
matter, either alone or combined with any of the charcoals heretoforc
mentioned; and to any such, or combination of such, may be added any
of the other materials mentioned. Both brick dust and dried clay have
great affinity for ammonia, and hence their value as a manure upon
many soils; but whilst these and other substances, such as wood ashes,
or fine coal ashes, or soot, are useful, charcoal of any description is
preferable, from the fact that it absorbs a much larger quantity of
ammonia in proportion to its own bulk than any other known substance.
The abundance and consequent cheapness of peat will always render
peat charcoal the most available.
i
I will now proceed to describe two methods of preparing for use
various of the materials above mentioned. I use a kiln principally
of the same description as a common lime kiln, but, for the purposes

page_text: of my Invention, supplied with three, or, if necessary, four sliding
floors of sheet iron or other suitable material. On the top floor
the material to be carbonized or charred in its natural undried
state is spread; when it is partially dried there the floor is drawn
out, and by such process the partially dried material drops on to
the second floor; the first floor, being replaced, is again supplied
with the undried material. When the material is sufficiently dry to
be carbonized or charred, the floor on which it rests, say the second
floor, is withdrawn, and it then drops on to the lowest floor, where it
remains until completely carbonized. It is preferred to make the lowest
floor in the shape of a box, with a sliding cover or lid to it, in which
cover there should be a hole towards the front part to allow the gas
arising during the process of carbonization to escape, and at the same
time to enable the workman to ascertain when perfect carbonization
has taken place, which may be ascertained by applying a lighted match
or candle above the hole; if the substance is carbonized, that is, if no
gas is ascending, there will be no flame from the hole when the match
is applied, but if gas be ascending it will be kindled into flame, as when
à gas burner is opened and a lighed match held over it. If be
ascending in considerable quantity, so as to produce a clear flame, it is
a proof the carbonization is incomplete, but if there be no flame, or if
it burns very dimly, the material is sufficiently carbonized; and to
avoid the destruction of carbon, it should then be immediately with-
drawn from the kiln and allowed gradually to cool, a fresh sliding box
being supplied to the kiln on the withdrawal of that charged with
carbonized material. The lid is withdrawn as soon as this box is in its
place, so as to prepare it for the reception of the dried material from the
floor immediately above, and returned to its place as soon as the box is
full. In order to economize fuel and make the utmost possible use of
the ascending heat, it is important that the several floors should be
re-supplied with material as soon as emptied. The moment the box
containing the completely carbonized material is withdrawn, an empty
one should constantly be put in its place and immediately filled from
the floor above, which process should be at the same time carried on
to the top floor, so that at the same moment that the contents of the
gas

page_text: lower floor are removed in the prepared form, the upper floor is
receiving a fresh supply of the raw or unprepared material; by regular
attention to this there will be no loss of either time, fuel,. or heat,
whilst neglect of these instructions will proportionally increase tho
cost of the charcoal. :
Another method of carbonizing peats, and most available in the
localities where peat is usually found, is described as follows, and
I would remark that charcoal made in this manner is of various
qualities, the inferior being quite good enough for the purposes of
my Invention:-I make a circular wall of loose stones, that is,
stones fitting incompletely with each other, filling up the interstices
with clay or other suitable incombustable material, and fill the space
so surrounded with peat in such a state as to admit of combustion.
I. then apply fire to the mass of peat, which would shortly be
reduced to ashes and be comparatively useless, but this I prevent
by placing an iron vessel, made in the form of an extinguisher, upon
the surfaco of the circle or wall of stones, and, if necessary, lute
the edges where the iron and stone incompletely meet with clay or
other incombustable material; the upper portion of my kiln being thus
hermetically sealed, the charring is carried on until the mass is charred,
the small quantity of atmospheric air admitted through the crevices of
the incompletely joined wall of stones being sufficient to carry on
and complete the process. The stone wall may be of any convenient
height, and the quantity of air to be admitted through the crevices can
only be determined by practice; the over or under combustion of a few
charges of peat will point out the proper quantity of air required to
the workman.
Having pointed out the nodes or means of preparing the sub-
stances I use for disinfecting and deodorizing depositories of fœtid
matters or gases, I now proceed to apply them, and I would observe,
it must be evident that both the health of towns and the value of the
manure that accumulates in their sewers must be greatly increased
by all fecal or foetid matters being arrested as speedily as possible
in their progress from the spot where they are first deposited, and
deported therefrom. It is a certain fact that fecal or foetid matter

page_text: of every description exhales gases, which, although under peculiar.
circumstances are destructive to human life, are essential to the growth
of plants. When these gases come in contact with some substance
which fixes them the exhalation is stopped, or, in other words, the fecal
or fœtid matter is deodorized; water does not fix them, and therefore
diluting fecal or factid matters therewith, and then conveying them
to a distance through sewers, is merely disseminating their noxious
gases more widely, and gives them a greater facility of escape than
when the matters from wherein they arise are confined in a more solid
mass. Thus it is evident that by the present sewerage system of towns
discase is propagated and a most valuable manure all but destroyed.
To prevent tliis double injury, whenever it can be done, the following
means, partly of my Invention and partly taken from a pamphlet
issued from the Sanatory Engineering Offices, in London, but the cir-
culation of which was so circumscribed that I consider it advisable to
partly transcribe them in this my Specification, without claim for
their particular use, but because I find them very applicable to enable
the dwellers in towns to use my preparations for disinfecting and
deodorizing in a very efficient manner. And I will first describe the
means so.published before I proceed to describe other means peculiarly
of my Invention. The partially published means are as follow:-
A tank of any suitable material or size is placed in a chamber of
brick or stone work, at the shortest convenient distance from any one
of the exterior walls of a house or other building, at such a depth as
will allow the tank to receive, just under the lid thereof, the entire
contents of the house or other drain. In towns where the plan of
subterraneous streets for the conducting of sewers, gas pipes, water
pipes, &c. may continually be adopted, this system could be carried
out with great facility and without inconvenience. A tank, such as is
herein-before mentioned, placed in such subterraneous street opposite
to every house, with the soil pipe or general drain pipe from sucli
Louso emptying itself into the tank, would be all that would be
required, but as such arrangements cannot yet be made, the chamber
or receptacle for the tank placed in front of a house, as before mentioned,
should be suitably covered with any material that may be considered

page_text: the best suited for the purpose, and can be easily removed when the
tank requires emptying. The tank is to be filled about half full with
any of the mixtures of charcoal or other ingredients I have before
described. The bottom of the tank should be perforated, and either
a little hay strewed very thinly over it or very worn bagging laid upon
it, which will prevent the mixture from clogging the holes and permit
the water to drain off in a perfectly pure and inoderous state, or the
perforations may be made at the sides or ends of the tank, if preferred,
thus leaving behind all the fertilizing properties of those matters which
have been brought into the tank by the drain. A small pipe for each
tank to the main sewer will serve for emptying the water into it; or
one tank may be made to suit several houses, or two or three or more
tanks may be made to answer the purpose for a whole street, according
to its length, but I prefer, where possible, that each house should
possess its seperate tank, because if every street had but one
or two tanks a large portion of cach street would be made the means
of disseminating noxious gases, whilst the health of towns (a con-
sideration of vital importance) demands that those gases should be
arrested as speedily as possible; and it is expected the greatly increased
value of the manure, by the gases it contains being us speedily as pos-
sible fixed, will, in a very limited time, repay the expence of a tank for
cach house. Where in the streets of towns public closets and public
urinals are erected the benefit derivable from the adoption of tanks
filled as aforesaid (whether subterraneous streets are adopted or not),
these tanks might be placed in the centre of sufficiently roomy
crossings where there are no subterraneous streets, and the descent
(where desirable), by means of steps, might be with equal convenience
be placed in such crossings. Tanks, similar to those already described
as suitable to private houses, and in like manner prepared with the
mixture, should be placed under the urinals and closets, such places of
convenience being open to all. Like accommodation at cab stands
and similar places should be so constructed, that the urine of horses
should be received into a tank or tanks prepared with the absorb-
ing and deodorizing material herein-before described. The value of
urine as a fertilizer appears to me to be not sufficiently appreciated,

page_text: although proof has been given that it contains more of those properties
conducive to the growth of plants than almost any other manue;
but as 1000 parts of urine contains 993. parts of water, to render
it available for agricultural purposes it is necessary to seperate the
fertilizing parts from the water, and this will be effected with certainty
and economy by the use of the means herein-before described.
Amonical water from gas works should also be conducted to and
be received into receptacles provided with the deodorizing and puri-
fying materials before described. But as it is evident time must
clapse before the arrangements herein described can be carried out,
more immediate incans of arresting noxious cflluvia and utilizing foetid
and fecal matters are required. I have tried the following (which are
entirely of my Invention) and found them effectually answer the pur
poses required, without interfering with the usual ordinary drainage of
towns, as laid down. I conduct, by means of auxiliary pipes or other
drains, the contents of the town sewers into one or more reservoirs out-
side the town, having previously prepared such reservoir or reservoirs
by partly fitting it or them with pent, charcoal, or one or other of the
deodorizing mixtures described at the commencement of my Specifi-
cation. When the reservoir (which is to be provided with outlets for
the liquid part of the sewerage after it has been purified and deodorized)
is sufficiently filled the entrance thereto is closed, the reservoir emptied
and recharged; or when more than one reservoir is used the flow of
sewage need not be stopped, as the second can be in operation while
the first is being emptied and recharged. During thunder storms or
continued flooding rains the course of the sewage must be diverted from
the reservoirs, which may be done by very simple inechanical means.
The contents of these reservoirs when the charcoal and salt or other
before mentioned mixtures are therein combined with the sewerage,
will be a very powerful and perfectly deodorized manure for agricultural
purposes. For collecting and arresting noxious vapours in sewers and
utilizing the same, I excavate a chamber or chambers (according to the
capacity and length of the sewer) of such size and form as may bo
sufficient to contain the proper quantity of absorbing and deodorizing
material to be used, and to permit of workmen descending to charge,

page_text: remove, or renew the same. I place trays of any proper material
(perforated) or basket work trays, which admit the passage of air; 1
fill or spread these trays with the mixture of peat charcoal and salt,
or any of the mixtures first described. Above these chambers (or at the
road side) are traps for the emission of air; the exhalations from the
sewers rush towards these traps for escape, but are arrested in their
course by the trays charged or filled as aforesaid, and by being com-
pelled to pass through the purifying and deodorizing materials deposit
their noxious gases therein and pass into the atmosphere without pre-
judice to the health of the people; the contents of the trays are thus
highly charged with ammonia and become powerful manure. Practice
will soon inform the workman when the mixture is sufficiently charged
with amonia, or where there is not sufficient room, or for other
reasons chambers cannot or are not allowed to be formed, I introduce
long flat baskets, charged as herein-before directed with deodorizing
materials; these baskets I suspend on hooks to the ceiling, or rather
upper segment of the circle of the sewer, when the same result is
obtained as with the chamber, but not so perfectly.. I also, where no
more can be or is allowed to be done, place my materials in baskets or
perforated boxes under the common gratings of the streets; but little
benefit can be derived from this proceeding in wet weather, as the
materials are then soon rendered almost inoperative by the influx of
water into the drains. At present, wherever towns are situated on the
banks of rivers, it is customary to conduct the sewerage into such river
as may flow therethrough, poisoning the waters, and spreading in hot
weather pestilence around. Where such practice obtains, in order
partially to relieve the waters from pollution and utilize the sewage,
I place a lighter or barge at or near the mouth of each sewer (con-
ducting as much sewerage to one opening as possible or convenient),
such craft, barge, or lighter being previously sufficiently charged or
provided with the deodorizing and purifying materials placed on
gratings, as before directed, or in compartments of the vessel, in any
convenient position for the reception of the sewage. These barges are
closed or close decked, and furnished with perforated bands near the
deck or any other openings which will permit the free discharge of the

page_text: aqueous portion of the sewage to discharge itself into the river, such
aqueous part being deprived of the noxious particles and of a con-
siderable portion of the gases held therein at its emission from the
sewer by coming in contact with the deodorizing and purifying materials
aforesaid. When the lighter or other craft is sufficiently filled with
material sewerage it is taken from its position and another craft simi-
larly charged substituted in its place. The contents of these lighters
will be found to be a rich and powerful manure.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood (as
aforesaid) that I lay.no claim to the system of tanks for the reception
of sewerage from house drains, cab stands, or other places to be so
treated, nor do I claim-the use-of peat, peat charcoal, or the other
articles hercin-before designated as deodorizers or purifyers generally,
but only when they are used in the combinations mentioned, or for the
purposes and in the mode or modes or manner herein-before described.
But I do claim the sole use of the kilns, formed and prepared as de-
scribed, for carbonizing peat, the mode or modes of arresting, purifying,
and deodorizing noxious gases in sewers, the reception of sewerage into
reservoirs and barges or other craft, such sewers, reservoirs, barges, or
other craft being charged with the purifying and deodorizing materials
in the inode and manner herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Allan Macpherson, have hereunto
affixed my hand and seal, this Sixth day of June, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
A. MACPHERSON. (L.B.)
Witness,
JOHN GEDGE,
Patent Agent,
4, Wellington Street South, Strand,
London.