IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS APPLICABLE TO SEWERS AND DRAINS FOR SEPARATING THE FLUID AND SOLID PARTS OF SEWAGE
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Chailes Edward Austin, of 7, Broad Sanctuary,
Westminster, in the County of Middlesex, C.E, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS APPLICABLE TO SEWERS AND DRAINS FOR
SEPARATING THE FLUID AND SOLID PARTS OF SEWAGE."
Sealed the 5th January 1867, and dated the 11th July 1866.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Edward Austin
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
11th July 1866.
I, CHARLES EDWARD AUSTIN, of 7, Broad Sanctuary, Westminster, in the
County of Middlesex, C.E., do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS APPLICABLE TO SEWERS AND DRAINS FOR
SEPARATING THE FLUID AND SOLID PARTS OF SEWAGE," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus applicable to
sewers and drains for separating the fluid and solid parts of sewage. For
these purposes near the outlet of a drain where it joins a sewer is constructed
a chamber in which there is a moveable filter which divides the chamber
horizontally. The sewage coming from the drain enters the filter, and the
bltered liquids only pass from the chamber to the sewer to which the end of
the drain is connected or with which it is in communication. The moveable
filter may be of a rectangular or other convenient form, and is constructed at
the sides of perforated metal plates or wirework, or other suitably perforated
or reticulated materials, and is arranged to receive any chemical matters to

page_text: act on the sewage. The filter is constructed with a suitable frame, and is
arranged to be lifted out of the chamber which ordinarily is kept covered by
a suitable cover. The filter when full of the more solid matters is removed,
and a fresh filter introduced into the chamber.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Charles Edward Austin in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 9th January 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
EDWARD AUSTIN, of 7, Broadway Sanctuary, Westminster, in the County of
Middlesex, C.E., send greeting
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, beating date the Eleventh day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the thirtieth year of Her reign,
did, for Ilerself, Пer heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Charles Edward Austin, Her special licence that I, the said Charles Edward
Austin, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Charles Edward Austin, my executors, 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
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS APPLICABLE TO SEWERS AND DRAINS FOR SEPARATING
THE FLUID AND SOLID PARTS OF SEWAGE," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Charles Edward Austin, 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 Charles Edward Austin, 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 thereof, that is to say:―
My Invention consists in the employment of apparatus and portable
filtering boxes or tanks, constructed and applied as hereafter explained, for
the following objects -

page_text: 1. To separate by filtration at the earliest convenient moment the fluid
from the solid parts of sewage or refuse polluted water in drains and seweis
2. To render the fluid part sufficiently innoxious to admit of its being
allowed to flow into the nearest appropriate waterway.
3 To remove the solid portion conveniently, expeditiously, and without
nuisance.
To effect these objects a shaft or chamber (as shown at C, Drawing No. 1)
of the two Drawings hereunto attached, is constructed at each point of
drainage to which the drains or sewers leading from a neighbouring part of
any town, village, place, dwellings, mills, factories, or establishments are
directed, and the sewage or refuse polluted water is thus made to flow into the
said chamber. The sewers or drains leading to the chamber can be closed
when required by a valve, pentstock, or otherwise. In the chamber a box or
tank, shown at B on both Drawings, is fitted in such a manner as to receive
all the sewage or polluted water passing from the sewers or drains, and
which when the sewers or drains are not closed would flow into the chamber
were it not received in the said box or tank. The box or tank is enclosed
in a filter filled with deodorizing and filtering materials in such manner as to
allow the fluid portion of the sewage or polluted water to flow through the
said filter into the chamber, but to detain the solid parts and cause them to
be deposited in the box or tank or caught in the filter. The filter containing
the box or tank can be withdrawn and placed in a carriage made for the
purpose without greatly distributing its contents. A drain or sewer is con-
nected with the chamber in such manner as to form a passage or outlet for
the fluid which finds its way through the filter, so as to lead the said fluid
away from the chamber. One manner of constructing this drain or sewer is
shown at S in Drawing No 1.
The precedure for carrying out this system of filtration, and the manner of
performing the same, are as follows:-
A filter having been packed with the proper ingredients is placed in such a
position in the chamber as to catch all the sewage or polluted water running
from the drains or sewers The solid parts of the sewage or polluted water
which enter the filter are deposited in the box oi tank, or are caught by the
filtering ingredients, and the fluid parts after having been partly decom-
posed and purified by the deodorizing salts and other filtering materials
employed in the filter escape in the form of comparatively pure water into
the chamber, and thence flow away through the outleading drain or
sewer. So soon as the filtering ingredients have become exhausted of their
purifying qualities another filter properly packed is brought in the carriage to

page_text: the chamber. The inlet valve or pentstock to the inlet, if one is used, is then
closed and the filter removed from the chamber and fastened in the carriage;
the newly packed filter is then placed exactly in the position of the filter just
withdrawn and the inlet valve or pentstock, if used, is reopened; the carriage
is then drawn away and the filter and box containing the manure conveyed
to the place provided for extracting the manure box and cleaning the filter.
The filter is there opened, and the box containing the principal part of the
manure is then taken out and conveyed to the spot where the manure
should be deposited. The filter is repacked and another box is enclosed
therein ready to be taken to the chamber for the ensuing repetition of the
operation.
The chamber is constructed in brick, stone, or other suitable material, and
by preference of the form shown at C on Drawing No. 1, or of any other
suitable form, and furnished with an iron, wooden, or stone curb, and cover of
Lovers when required.
The mode of placing the chamber in communication with the sewers or
drains, and the form and position of outlet and inlet vary with the form and
position of the sewers and drains to which these filters are to be adapted; a
convenient mode of so doing is shown in Drawing No. 1, where D represents
the sewer leading to the chamber C; but where large bodies of sewage or
polluted water have to be contended with, or where great purity is required,
modifications suitable to the position, quantity, and foulness of the sewage or
polluted water to be purified are made by variations in the size of the passages
and by accommodation for subsidiary filters. The form of the filter and
box or tank may be varied to suit the cucumstances and requirements of its
use and position. The sewage or polluted water is sometimes made to flow
into it from the top, sometimes from the side or sides, and sometimes from the
bottom, but it is considered most convenient that it should enter from the
bottom, as in that manner the solids deposited in the box are least disturbed by
the fluid passing through the filter The two forms of filter shewn in Drawing
No. 2 are suitable for general application; they are constructed with screens
or casings formed of perforated or solid plates of metal, of wirework, of wicker-
work, or of other suitable substance, between which filtering ingredients are
packed in such manner as entirely or partly to surround the box or tank in
which the solid parts of the sewage are to be deposited. The filtering
ingredients packed between the different screens or casings forming the filter
vary, they consist generally of straw, hay, grass, seaweed, leaves, charcoal,
breeze, gypsum, chalk, gravel, and sand, used together or separately, mixed or
unmixed with the usual deodorizing salts, such as perchloride of iron, chloride

page_text: of calcium, sulphate of alumina, and others, and in addition thereto I use
silicate of soda in combination with both or either of the chloride salts. The
box or tank is formed of sheet zinc, iron, or of other suitable materials, and is
furnished with a cover which can be fixed on it by means of screw bolts or
other wise when required. Two examples of the box or tank are shown at
B, B, Diawing No. 2.
When great purity is required a second or subsiduary moveable filter is used
which is sometimes made to surround the first filter, and sometimes to occupy
a second chamber in connection with the first in such manner that the fluid
passing from the first filter must flow through the second before it can escape
towards the outlet. The carnage used for conveyance of these filters to and
from the chambers consists of a frame on wheels furnished with a winch, and
supporting two gallows from which the filters are suspended during the act of
lowering into or raising them out of the chamber. It may be constructed
of wood and on, or of iron alone, or of other suitable materials, and its form
may
be varied to suit the chambers for which it is used The form shewn at
K, K, Drawing No. 1, is that best adapted to the chamber C on said Diawing
No 1.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Edward Austin, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Second day of January, in the year of our
Loid One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven
T
ATICIDINT
L
CHARLES E. AUSTIN. (L.s