IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT, APPLICATION, AND USE OF SEWERAGE MATTERS AND THE GENERAL WASTES OF TOWNS AND FACTORIES
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Alexander Manning, of the Inner Temple, in
the County of Middlesex, Esquire, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE TREATMENT, APPLICATION, AND USE OF SEWERAGE MATTERS AND THE
GENERAL WASTES OF TOWNS AND FACTORIES."
Sealed the 20th November 1860, and dated the 31st May 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Alexander Manning
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 31st May 1860:
I, JAMES ALEXANDER MANNING, of the Inner Temple, in the County of
Middlesex, Esquire, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT, APPLICATION, AND USE OF SEWERAGE MATTERS
AND THE GENERAL WASTES OF TOWNS AND FACTORIES," to be as follows, that is
to say :-
This Invention relates to certain improvements in the treatment of sewerage
matters and the general wastes of towns, whether of animal or vegetable origin,
by which one general and effective system applicable to all towns may be
established, and a thoroughly concentrated manure will be obtained for the
permanent benefit of agriculture.
By these improvements great economy is obtained over the present mode of
treating sewerage matters under Letters Patent granted to me, and bearing
date August 7th, 1855, No. 1786; July 5th, 1856, No. 1579; and February
1st, 1858, No. 179; whilst from the greater efficacy of this manure and
diminished bulk, useless matters being rejected and all fertilizing substances.

page_text: retained, a corresponding economy ensues to agriculturists in its application
to the soil, as well as in its carriage or transit.
In this Patent it is proposed to adhere to the use of the alum sludge or its
chemical equivalents as ascertained by analysis, that is to say, amongst other
matters, its preponderating constituents of sulphate of alumina, sulphuric acid,
and peroxide of iron, as the chief agents for the deodorisation of the sewerage
and the deodorisation also as well as the precipitation of all matters held in
suspension therein, and of the waste animal charcoal, which is now employed
as a decolorizer of the supernatant water, as well as a fertilizing agent in the
subsequent preparation of the manure, as set forth in the Patents herein-before
recited. But, instead of applying the before-named substances in the first
tanks or receivers of the sewerage from the common sewers, all matters
capable of subsidence or deposit by their own specific gravity are allowed to
settle down for a certain time, say, one or two hours. The supernatent water
is then to be drawn off or discharged into a tank or tanks at a lower level, to
which one-half of the quantity of alum sludge employed by me in my former
process will be sufficient to cause the precipitation of the finer particles of
matter still held in suspension in the water. By these means a saving of fifty
per cent. will be effected in the employment of the alum sludge, as experience
has proved that the less the sewerage is charged with animal and vegetable
organic matters, the smaller is the quantity of alum sludge necessary for their
precipitation. With respect to the animal charcoal employed in this process, a
considerable change is effected in the mode of using it. The charcoal is made
from the hoofs and horns of animals, and is a waste or refuse substance arising
from the manufacture of prussiate of potash. It contains some salts amongst
its other impurities, which are of no use in the decolorization or the precipita-
tion of any colouring matters in the sewerage waters. The charcoal is there-
fore lixiviated and afterwards dried in a furnace or oven before applying it in
conjunction with the alum sludge as deodorizers and precipitants of the matters
held in suspension in the sewerage, and an additional clarifyer of the super-
natant water. If found useful or profitable the water of the lixiviation may be
evaporated for the purpose of obtaining whatever salts may be found therein
for admixture or otherwise with the manufactured manure. This mode of
treating the sewerage residuum is applicable to the wastes of towns of almost
every description, that is to say, to the contents of cesspools and privies mixed
or unmixed with coals, cinders, ashes, and household wastes, stable dung, the
wastes of flesh, fish, and vegetable markets, as well as those of slaughter-
house, breweries, distilleries, tanneries, glue factories, cotton wastes, dust bins,
and all wastes of vegetable and animal origin. It is proposed to treat these

page_text: substances by means of destructive distillation, by which process all fibrous or
organic matters are destroyed, the mineral or inorganic constituents being
alone preserved for the formation of an ash manure. While the nitrogenous
gases or other useful products are carried over into receivers to be subsequently
treated chemically, so as to preserve all that is of a useful and fertilizing
character, particularly the ammonia, which when so treated will be restored to
the diminished bulk or volume of ash manure derivable from the original wastes.
The ash is deprived of all cinders or useless matters after the ammonia, which
they may have absorbed in the cesspools or privies, is extracted by the process
in question, by means of sifting through fine wire sieves. By this process the
whole of the inorganic substances indispensible to the organism and develop-
ment of plants, will be obtained by the agriculturist without being encumbered
with the organic matters which usually abound in such substances. The
mineral constituents of the food of man and beast, and of all decomposing
matters which are the chief food of plants, are thus returned to the soil; while the
nitrogenous or ammoniacal gases, which in the course of decomposition of the
animal and vegetable matters contained in the heaps of dirt which are collected
in or near to our cities and towns, all of which will thus be totally destroyed
to the great benefit of the public health and the purification of the atmosphere,
so that the ammonia of the wastes alone will probably be equal in its positive
chemical action on the mineral constituents or ash products of the animal and
vegetable wastes in question, to convert them, or a considerable per-centage
thereof, into food for the organism or development of all plants, and a manure
will thus be obtained, which, if there be any truth in the discoveries of
chemical science, will far surpass any that has ever been applied to the uses of
agriculture.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Alexander Manning in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 29th November 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
ALEXANDER MANNING, of the Inner Temple, in the County of Middlesex, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirty-first day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-third year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant

page_text: unto me, the said James Alexander Manning, Her special license that I,
the said James Alexander Manning, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said James Alexander Manning, my executors,
administrators, or 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, APPLICATION,
AND USE OF SEWERAGE MATTERS AND GENERAL WASTES OF TOWNS AND FACTORIES,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said James Alexander
Manning, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should par-
ticularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Inventiou, 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Alexander Manning, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same. is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, that is to say:-
My said Invention relates to certain "improvements in the treatment of
sewerage matters and the general refuse or waste matter of towns, whether
of animal or vegetable origin, together with refuse, coal ashes, and cinders
when mixed therewith." Under these improvements, there is one general
and effective system of treatment for the wet or sludgy deposits of sewerage
matters, and another system of treatment for the dry refuse or waste of towns,
including the sewerage deposits, after having gone through the desiccative
process detailed in my former Patents. This system is applicable to all towns,
and a thoroughly concentrated manure may be thereby secured for the per-
manent benefit of agriculture.
By these improvements great economy is obtained over the modes of
treating sewerage matters described in the Specifications of Letters Patent
granted to me, and bearing date the Seventh day of August, One thousand
eight hundred and fifty-five, the Fifth day of July, One thousand eight
hundred and fifty-six, and the First day of February, One thousand eight
hundred and fifty-eight; whilst from the greater efficacy of the manure, and
its diminished bulk, a corresponding advantage ensues to agriculturists in its
application to the soil, as well as great economy in its transit.
In the present Invention I use alum sludge, or its chemical equivalents,
as ascertained by analysis, that is to say, amongst other matters, its principal.

page_text: constituents of sulphate of alumina, sulphuric acid, and peroxide of iron, the
chief agents for the deodorisation of the sewerage waters and the precipitation,
as well as the deodorisation of all the animal and vegetable organic matters
held in suspension therein. I also use the silicate of alumina obtained from
the refuse of bog cannel coal, after the gas has been extracted therefrom,
which may be used either by itself, or converted into some other forin of
alumina to assist in the process of precipitating the animal and vegetable
organic matters held in suspension in sewerage waters. I also use, whenever
it is desirable, waste animal charcoal, which is now occasionally employed by
me as a decolonizer of the supernatant water, as well as a fertilizing agent in
the subsequent preparation of the manure, as set forth in the Specifications
of my former Patents herein-before recited. But, instead of applying the
before-named substances in the first tanks or receivers of the sewerage from
the common sewers; all matters capable of subsidence or deposit by their own
specific gravity, such as road sand, street mud, and earthy matters in general,
are allowed to settle down for a certain time, say, one or two hours. The
supernatant water is then drawn off or discharged into a tank or tanks at a
lower level, to which is added one-half of the quantity of alum sludge or its
chemical equivalent, which is found sufficient to ensure the precipitation of the
finer and more valuable particles of matter still held in suspension in the
water. Instead of drawing off the supernatant water into tanks at a lower
level, I prefer in some cases to sink in the channel which conveys the sewerage
waters from the common sewer to the tanks, a series of pits or cesspools,
four or more feet deep, in which the road sand, street mud, and earthy
matters, or the greater part thereof are deposited of their own specific gravity.
By these means a saving of fifty per cent. is effected in the employment of the
alum sludge; for experience has proved that the less the sewerage is charged
with earth matters, not only is the deposit obtained infinitely more valuable
for the uses of agriculture, but the smaller is the quantity of alum sludge
necessary for the precipitation of the animal and vegetable organic matters
held in suspension therein.
With respect to the animal charcoal employed in this process, when
necessary or desirable, a considerable change is effected in the mode of using
it. The charcoal is made from the hoofs and horns of animals, and is a waste
or refuse substance arising from the manufacture of prussiate of potash. It
contains a considerable amount of alkaline salts amongst its other impurities,
which are of no use in the decolourization or the precipitation of any colouring
matters in the sewerage waters. The charcoal is therefore lixiviated, and
afterwards dried in a furnace or oven, or by exposure to the atmospheric air

page_text: before applying it in conjunction with the alum sludge, as deodorisers and pre-
cipitants of the matters held in suspension in the sewerage, and an additional
clarifier of the supernatant water. If found useful or profitable, the water of
lixiviation may be evaporated for the purpose of obtaining whatever salts
may be dissolved therein for admixture or otherwise with the manufactured
manure.
The present Invention or process is applicable to the treatment of the
wastes of towns of almost every kind, whether of animal or vegetable origin,
that is to say, to the contents of cesspools and privies mixed or unmixed with
coal, cinders, ashes, household wastes, stable manure, the refuse of flesh, fish,
and vegetable markets, as well as those of slaughter-houses, breweries, distil-
leries, tanneries, glue factories, cotton works, the refuse of dust binns, and all
general similar matters of animal and vegetable origin, including also the
sewerage deposits after being treated by the process herein-before mentioned.
In carrying these improvements into practical effect, I prefer the following
apparatus for effecting the destructive distillation of the refuse matters:-A
series of three or other suitable number of cylindrical vessels or retorts are
arranged in a stack or "bench" in the brickwork. The retorts are formed of
iron, and they are disposed in the brickwork at an angle so as to admit of
their contents being readily discharged from the lower ends. The lower
extremity of each retort extends over a vertical opening or recess in the brick-
work, which affords access to the end of the retort, and this part of the retort
is enclosed by a semicircular end plate, to which is hinged a flap door shutting
in the other portion of the end of the retort. At the side of this recess in the
brickwork, or at any other convenient part of the same, is arranged the
furnace for disiccating the matters placed in the retorts. The furnace flue
is carried round the retorts so as to obtain the desired heating effect from
the fuel, and a corresponding arrangement is common to all the retorts in
the series. Branching away in a lateral direction from the upper part
of the retort is a pipe for conveying away the gaseous products evolved from
the refuse matters on applying heat thereto. This pipe is carried outwards
in a horizontal direction, and is then bent downwards so as to dip into a tank
or reservoir containing water, which serves to absorb and condense the gaseous
products. It is desirable to form this refrigerator as a closed vessel, so that
when the water contained therein is saturated with the ammoniacal gaseous
products, the other gases pass through an elbow pipe fitted to the upper part
of the refrigerator, and are conveyed into a second refrigerating vessel arranged
in convenient proximity to the first. I prefer also to arrange the retorts so
that their respective gas pipes or ducts may be readily carried into the refri-

page_text: gerator; to this end the retorts may be conveniently arranged in a radial
direction, the several gas ducts converging to a central refrigerator or series
of refrigerators. The upper end of each retort is fitted with a hopper to
convey the refuse materials into the retort, and extending across the open
end of the retort is a sliding door or damper for preventing the escape of the
gaseous matters. The sliding door is pushed to and fro by means of a
laterally projecting handle, and the door, when pushed home in its receiving
groove, may be luted if required to prevent the escape of the gaseous matters.
The interior of each retort is fitted with an agitator so as to stir the mass of
materials in the retort, and bring the whole in contact with the heated
surface. The agitator consists of a central longitudinal shaft supported in
footstep and collar bearings in the retort, and furnished with radially pro-
jecting arms. Motion is given to the agitator by means of an ordinary winch
handle fitted on the squared extremity of the shaft, as it is only necessary to
stir the materials from time to time. But where the manure works are of
considerable magnitude, the agitators may be driven by steam power, the
motion being imparted by spur gearing, which is put into and out of gear by
means of a coupling as required; or the agitators may be actuated at intervals
by self-acting mechanical means. Upon the refuse matters being placed in
the retorts, the fires are raised so as to bring the retorts up to a low red heat,
or such a temperature as will destroy the organic matters as far as possible
and requisite, but not sufficient to decompose the salts contained therein, or
cause vitrification of the silicates. By means of the agitator, the mass is
broken up, and the undried portions are brought into contact with the heated
surface; the gaseous products meanwhile pass off by the gas ducts to the
refrigerators. The rotatory motion of the agitator in each retort serves also
to assist in pulverising the mass, so that when the cinders are separated from
the disiccated materials, all the products which are of value as manure are in
a finely-divided state, and in the best and most effective form for application
to the land. The cinders and other similar matters are readily separated from
the manure by means of a sieve arranged in a sloping position, and fitted
below the lower extremity of each retort, so that when the contents of the
retort are discharged, the desiccated manure falls through the sieve into the
recess in the brickwork, and the cinders fall outside, and serve to supply the
furnaces for heating the retorts.
Faecal matters, when obtained without admixture, may be treated by dis-
tilling them to dryness in large cast-iron stills, the ammoniacal vapours being
conveyed into refrigerators, as herein-before described. In some cases the
ashes obtained after the destructive distillation of the refuse matters, as well

page_text: as the waste matters of towns not previously subjected to distillation, may be
placed in large wooden or other suitable covered receptacles for the purpose
of subjecting them to the action of steam. This mode of treatment is for the
purpose of dissolving out the alkaline or other soluble salts from the mass.
The water of condensation or solution containing the soluble matters is sub-
sequently evaporated or otherwise treated for the purpose.of obtaining the
valuable salts therefrom. The ammonia which is evolved from the materials
in the retorts is absorbed by the water in the refrigerator, and this ammo-
niacal liquor is converted by the ordinary chemical process into sulphate of
ammonia. If, however, it is found that the gaseous products evolved from
the refuse materials in the retorts contain a sufficient amount of hydrogen and
carbon, these gases may be judiciously applied to the illuminating of the
manure works or other generally similar purposes. In boiling or distilling
ammoniacal liquor in order to deprive it of its ammonia, it is usual to. run
off the liquor, after the first boiling, into a suitable vessel, and apply lime
thereto and redistil it. I shorten this process by adding the cream of lime to
the ammoniacal liquor in the boiling or distilling vessel, after the distillation
has proceeded to a certain extent, the solution of lime being pumped into the
boiler by means of a force pump. I thus obtain and draw over into the sul-
phuric acid tun all the ammoniacal products of the liquor at one instead of
two operations. By these means the refuse matters of towns are utilized to
the utmost extent, and are again made subservient to the purposes of agri-
culture and commerce.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried
into effect, I would observe, in conclusion, that what I consider to be novel
and original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to
berein-before in part recited Letters Patent, is,-
me by the
First, the system or mode of treating sewerage, fæcal matters, and the
general refuse or waste matters of towns, factories, mills, and other generally
similar places, for the purpose of obtaining manure and other useful products
therefrom, as herein-before described.
Second, the general arrangement and construction of the machinery or
apparatus for treating refuse or waste matters, and obtaining manure and.
other useful products therefrom, as herein-before described, or any mere
modification of the same.
.
Tbird, the system or mode of treating sewerage by running it or allowing
it to flow into a series of tanks or reservoirs, in order that it may deposit the
sand, mud, and earthy matters, the supernatant fluid being subsequently run.

page_text: into other tanks or receptacles, where it is treated with alum sludge, or other
suitable precipitant for the purpose of throwing down the fine particles of
matter held in suspension, as herein-before described.
Fourth, the application and use of the silicate of alumina obtained from
the refuse of bog cannel coal to assist in the precipitation of the matters held
in suspension in sewerage and other generally similar matters, as herein-before
described.
Fifth, the application and use of the combustible gases obtained from
refuse matters to the purposes of illumination and heating, as herein-before
described.
Sixth, the system or mode of utilising the gaseous products arising from
the treating of refuse matters in retorts, so as to obtain from the ammoniacal
liquor so produced the sulphate or other salts of ammonia; also the mode of
applying the solution or cream of lime to the partially distilled liquor in the
boiler or distilling vessel, as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Alexander Manning, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of November,
One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
JAMES ALEX. MANNING. (L.S.)