IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF SEWAGE MATTERS AND IN APPARATUS
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Proctor Sherwin, of No. 5, the Parade, Exmouth,
in the County of Devon, Civil Engineer, and John Maule Sutton, of
Dartmouth, in the said County, Doctor of Medicine and Member
of the Royal College of Physicians of England, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF SEWAGE MATTERS AND IN APPARATUS
ealed the 28th July 1871, and dated the 3rd February 1871.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Proctor Sherwin and
John Maule Sutton at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 3rd February 1871.
We, PROCTOR SHERWIN, of No. 5, the Parade, Exmouth, in the
County of Devon, Civil Engineer, and JOHN MAULE SUTTON, of Dart-
mouth, in the said County, Doctor of Medicine and Member of the
Royal College of Physicians of England, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF SEWAGE MATTERS
AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN," to be as follows:-
Our improvements in the treatment of sewage matters relate to means
for the extraction of extraneous matters, such as glass bottles and such

page_text: like substances; also to the application of self-acting means for the
purpose of regulating the flow of certain matters to such sewage to
prevent effluvium; also to the separation of the more solid from the more
liquid portion thereof by filtration; also to the manufacture of the
more solid portions into manure and the use of part of the more liquid
portion for irrigation, whilst other of this liquid portion is subjected to
further purification.
In carrying our improvements into effect we extract glass bottles and
such like extraneous matters from the sewage by means of a band or
chain travelling round two wheels or spindles. To this band or chain
are fixed at equal distances three or more curved prongs, which in
travelling round one of these wheels or spindles fixed in the sewer or
culvert catches up any such matters, and then in travelling round the
other wheel or spindle placed above the level of the sewer or culvert
drops such matters into an inclined or other suitable trough or receiver.
The prongs then pass through or between other fixed prongs which
keep them clean; other sewage passes freely between them.
The chemicals used (carbolic acid, permanganate of potash, sulphate
of the protoxide of zinc, chloride of calcium) are placed in a tank or
reservoir over or in communication with the sewer so that the chemicals
in a fluid state may be permitted to flow in amongst the sewage matters
by preference in jets or fine streams capable of being regulated in
quantity to the strength of the chemicals employed or the quantity of
sewage matter for the time flowing through the sewer, the regulation
being by a ball or other float. The sewage matters are then conducted
into reservoirs provided with perforated conduits connected with other
reservoirs or tanks. These conduits are covered or surrounded by a
layer or layers of matters composed of stone, gravel, sand, charcoal,
or other suitable substances adapted by filtration to separate the solid
from the liquid portions of the sewage. The solid parts thus left behind
are removed at intervals to be dried by the aid of steam, hot water, or
hot air pipes, or by flues or furnaces, or by currents of hot or cold
air, and when dried to the extent desired the more solid portion is
screened, ground, and mixed with charcoal, soot, or other forms of
carbon, loam, lime, phosphates of alumina, mixed mud, or other subsoils
for manure in proportions of not less than one part of the solid portion
to an equal quantity of the other substances combined, or if desired
in its crude state. The more liquid portions of the sewage after the

page_text: filtration is allowed to flow into a well or receiver or a series of them,
and thence it is pumped up to a suitable height to enable it to flow
to the land for irrigation. Any excess of this liquid sewage or
effluent water may be subject to successive filtration such as referred
to until it is sufficiently purified to be allowed to flow into a river or
the sca.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Proctor Sherwin and John Maule Sutton in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 3rd August 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, PROCTOR
SHERWIN, of No. 5, the Parade, Exmouth, in the County of Devon,
Civil Engineer, and JOHN MAULE SUTTON, of Dartmouth, in the said
County, Doctor of Medicine and Member of the Royal College of
Physicians of England, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Third day of February, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the thirty-
fourth year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto us, the said Proctor Sherwin and John Maule Sutton,
Her special licence that we, the said Proctor Sherwin and John Maule
Sutton, our cxecutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
we, the said Proctor Sherwin and John Maule Sutton, our 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
THE TREATMENT OF SEWAGE MATTERS AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Proctor Sherwin
and John Maule Sutton, our executors or administrators, by an instru-
iment in writing under our or their hands and seals, or under the hand
and scal of one of us or them, 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

page_text: Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of
the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Proctor Sherwin and John Maule
Sutton, 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 :—
Our improvements in the treatment of sewage matters relate to means
for the extraction of extraneous matters, such as glass bottles and such
like substances, also to the application of self-acting means for the
purpose of regulating the flow of certain matters to such sewage to
prevent effluvium, also to the separation of the more solid from the more
liquid portion thereof by filtration, also to the manufacture of the
more solid portions into manure, and the use of part of the more liquid
portion for irrigation, whilst other of this liquid portion is subjected to
further purification.
In carrying our improvements into effect we extract glass bottles and
such like extraneous matters from the sewage by means of a band or
chain travelling round two wheels or spindles. To this band or chain
are fixed at equal distances three or more curved prongs, which in
travelling round one of these wheels or spindles fixed in the sewer or
culvert catches up any such matters, and then in travelling round the
other wheel or spindle placed above the level of the sewer or culvert
drops such matters into an inclined or other suitable trough or receiver.
These prongs then pass through or between other fixed prongs which
keep them clean; other sewage passes freely between them. The
chemicals used (carbolic acid, permanganate of potash, sulphate of the
protoxide of zinc, chloride of calcium) are placed in a tank or reservoir
over or in communication with the sewer, so that the chemicals in a
fluid state may be permitted to flow in amongst the sewage matters
by preference in jets or fine streams capable of being regulated in
quantity to the strength of the chemicals employed, or the quantity
of the sewage matter for the time flowing through the sewer, the
regulation being by a ball or other float. The sewage matters are then
conducted into reservoirs provided with perforated conduits connected
with other reservoirs or tanks. These conduits are covered or surrounded
by a layer or layers of matters composed of stone, gravel, sand, charcoal,
or other suitable substances adapted by filtration to separate the solid
from the liquid portions of the sewage. The solid parts thus left behind

page_text: are removed at intervals to be dried by the aid of steam, hot water or
hot air pipes, or by flues or furnaces, or by currents of hot or cold air,
and when dried to the extent desired the more solid portion is screened,
ground, and mixed with charcoal, soot, or other forms of carbon, loam,
lime, phosphates of alumina, mixed mud, or other subsoils for manure
in proportions of not less than one part of the solid portion to an equal
quantity of the other substances combined, or if desired in its crude
state. The more liquid portion of the sewage matters after the filtration
is allowed to flow into a well or receiver or a series of them, and thence
it is pumped up to a suitable height to enable it to flow to the land for
irrigation. Any excess of this liquid sewage or effluent water may
be subject to successive filtration such as referred to until it is sufficiently
purified to be allowed to flow into a river or the sea.
But that the Invention may be fully understood, we will by the aid

page_text: from the edge of the trough or receiver c. The sewage from which
the matters have been taken by the action of the prongs be thence
passes into a reservoir e.
The sewage matters as they pass through the passage a are acted
upon by the chemicals referred to, and which chemicals we by preference
*place in a tank or reservoir f, from which they are controlled to flow in
a fluid state in jets or fine streams amongst the sewage, so as to become
thoroughly mixed therewith by passing through perforated pipes or
'channels with slits in them, and the quantity is regulated by the quantity
' of sewage matter for the time passing through such channel a by a tap
or valve acted upon to vary the extent of opening thereof by a float f¹,
such float being regulated to increase the quantity of chemicals permitted
to flow from the reservoir fin proportion to the increase in the quantity
of sewage passing through the passage a and to reduce that quantity
with any diminution of the quantity of sewage so passing. The more
liquid portion of the sewage matters received into a reservoir e pass
through layers of matters composed of stone, gravel, sand, charcoal, or
other suitable substances adapted by filtration to separate the solid from
the liquid portion of the sewage, and such liquid portion then flows
through perforations in the vertical and horizontal pipes e¹, e³, and is
by them conducted by the channels e³ to other reservoirs or tanks g; the
solid parts thus left behind in the reservoirs e are removed at intervals
to be dried. To facilitate this drying we place this more solid portion
on floors in chambers B heated by steam, hot water, or hot air pipes,
.as indicated by the dotted lines from the boilers 1, or by flues or
furnaces, or by currents of hot or cold air, and when dried to the
extent desired this more solid portion is screened, ground, and mixed
'with charcoal, soot, or other forms of carbon, loam, lime, phosphates of
alumina, mixed mud, or other subsoils for manure in proportions such
as above stated, or if desired it is used in its crude state as manure.
The more liquid portion of the sewage matters received into the tanks g,
passes from them by passages i to a main tank j, and is thence pumped
up by pumps m, m, worked by steam cylinders n, n, or by other suitable
lifting means to the requisite height for enabling it to flow by suitable
channels o, o, or conduits to land for irrigation, any excess of this liquid
'sewage matter or effluent water may if desired be subject to successive
filtration, such as referred to, by flowing through series of troughs h, k,
as indicated by the arrows, until it is sufficiently purified to be allowed
to flow into a river or the sea as circumstances may admit.

page_text: Having thus described our Invention and means we adopt in carrying
the same effect, we would have understood that we do not confine
ourselves to the precise details as shown and described, as the same may
be varied without departing from the peculiar character of our Invention,
but what we do claim is, the means for operating in the treatment of
sewage matters and the apparatus employed therein substantially as
described.
In witness whereof, we, the said Proctor Sherwin and John Maule
Sutton, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this First day of
August, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
seventy-one.