IMPROVEMENTS IN AND IN APPARATUS FOR SEPARATING THE FLUID FROM THE SOLID PORTIONS OF SEWAGE, SLUDGE, PEAT, AND OTHER MATTERS
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Cameron Sillar at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 10th March 1877.
WILLIAM CAMERON SILLAR, of Saint James's Lodge, Kidbrooke Park Road, Black-
heath, in the County of Kent, Gentleman. "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND IN APPARATUS
FOR SEPARATING THE FLUID FROM THE SOLID PORTIONS OF SEWAGE, SLUDGE, PEAT,
AND OTHER MATTERS."
My Invention consists, firstly, in expelling moisture from sewage, sludge, or mud,
or peat, or other matters, by subjecting it or them to percussion, or to percussion in
addition to sustained pressure, as herein-after described, in a vessel having suitable
means of ingress for the matter to be treated, and of egress for the moisture expelled
and for the solidified matter; and my said Invention consists further in filter
presses or apparatus constructed as herein-after described, to be used in the
process.
According to one arrangement I put the matter from which the moisture is to be
expelled into a vessel or cylinder opon at its upper end and mounted vertically over
a layer of straw or other suitable filtering substance interposed between the lower
edge of the said cylinder and the ground, so as to allow the expelled water to pass
out, but to retain the solidified matter, and I insert in the upper part of the cylinder,
and above the matter to be treated, a piston, to the rod of which I give a series of
blows by means of an ordinary hammer, a tilt hammer, a steam hammer, a
"monkey," or by other suitable mechanism. The water or moisture is thus driven
out of the matter under treatment in a series of jets, and when it is sufficiently
solidified I force or extract it from the vessel or cylinder, the lower part of which I
prefer to make of a slightly conical or taper form, the lower end being larger than
the upper so as to facilitate the removal of the solidified matter.
In the foregoing arrangement the principle of simple percussion alone is used, but
the apparatus may be so constructed as to subject the matter under treatment to
sustained pressure by means of weights, screws, levers, or hydraulic presses, as well
as to percussion.
The apparatus constructed according to this arrangement consists of a cylinder,
in which works the piston, by means of which the matter under treatment is
subjected to percussion, the head of the piston rod being acted on by any of the

page_text: means of percussion berein-before described with reference to my first arrangement.
The said piston rod passes up through a tube, the lower end of which bears upon the
upper surface of the piston. The said tube is depressed by means of a weight, a
screw, a lever, or a hydraulic press acting upon the upper end of the said tube
which projects above the cylinder, and by this means constant pressure is exerted
upon the piston, and through it upon the matter under treatment.
The cylinder is constructed with or bolted on to a chamber of any suitable form
and size in which the matter under treatment is compressed as it descends from the
said cylinder. This chamber has a perforated removeable bottom, which is covered
with a layer of straw, sand, or other suitable filtering medium, through which the
expelled water passes out of the apparatus. When the said matter has been
sufficiently solidified the bottom aforesaid is removed and the said matter is extracted.
The matter to be treated is introduced into the cylinder through an opening therein
provided with a suitable door or valve.
Instead of using the tube and the mechanism acting thereon, as herein-before
described, for the purpose of applying sustained pressure to the matter under treat-
ment, that object may be attained by pumping the matter to be treated into the
cylinder by means of a force pump. Or instead of using the aforesaid tube, the
sustained pressure may be applied to the matter under treatment through the
piston rod.