IMPROVEMENTS IN THE Treatment of Sewage Water and in the ManUFACTURE OF Manure.
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Jeremiah Marsden, of Bolton, in the County of
Lancaster, Iron Founder, and John Collins, of the same Place,
Analytical Chemist, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
Treatment of Sewage Water and in the ManUFACTURE OF Manure.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Jeremiah Marsden
and John Collins at the Office of the Commisioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 4th July 1873.
We, JEREMIAH MARSDEN, of Bolton, in the County of Lancaster,
Iron Founder, and JOHN COLLINS, of the same Place, Analytical
Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF SEWAGE WATER AND IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
MANURE," to be as follows:-
Our Invention consists in subjecting sewage water to the action of
certain agents by which the solid and fertilising portion is precipitated,
to be converted into manure, and the water is cleared and allowed to

page_text: run off. The agents we employ are lime, coal ashes, or other refuse of
coal and charcoal, or carbon combined with a salt of soda, potash, iron,
manganese, or the like.
In operating upon 200,000 gallons of sewage water we employ about
12 hundredweight of lime, 40 hundredweight of common coal, ground
ashes, and 16 hundredweight of charcoal or refuse carbon, and a small
quantity of an acid salt of soda, potash, iron, manganese, or the like,
and the above ingredients are intimately combined with the sewage
water. Other ingredients possessing similar properties may be used.
The above quantities will vary with the various qualities of sewage
water under treatment.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Jeremiah Marsden and John Collins in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 1st January 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JEREMIAH
MARSDEN, of Bolton, in the County of Lancaster, Iron Founder, and
JOHN COLLINS, of the same Place, Analytical Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the thirty-
seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto us, the said Jeremiah Marsden and John Collins, Her
special licence that we, the said Jeremiah Marsden and John Collins, our
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said
Jeremiah Marsden and John Collins, 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
WATER, AND IN THE MANUFACTURE OF MANURE," upon the condition (amongst
others) that we, the said Jeremiah Masden and John Collins, our
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our, or.

page_text: their, or one of our or 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 we, the said Jeremiah Marsden and John
Collins, do hereby declare the nature of our 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):-
Our Invention consists in subjecting sewage water to the action of
certain agents, by which the solid and fertilizing portion is precipitated,
to be converted into manure, and the water is cleared and allowed to.
run off. The agents we employ are lime, coal ashes, or other refuse of.
coal, and charcoal or carbon combined with a salt of soda, potash, iron,
manganese, or other substances possessing similar properties.
In carrying our Invention into operation we employ a series or more
than one series of reservoirs which are in communication with each
other, and with the sewers by which the sewage water is supplied, and
with the canal, river, or drain for carrying off the water after it has been
purified.
The lime, coal ashes, charcoal, or refuse carbon, with the acid salt or
other equivalent are first ground fine and mixed well together in an
ordinary mortar mill or other equivalent, the trough of which is supplied
with water, and the contents of the trough when the whole has been
well triturated are run off into tanks or cisterns provided with agitators,
which tanks or cisterns are also in communication with a mixing
chamber into which the sewage water is discharged; this mixing
chambér.is also provided with an agitator.
In operating upon two hundred thousand gallons of sewage water, we
employ about twelve hundredweight of lime, forty hundredweight of
common coal ashes, and sixteen hundredweight of charcoal or refuse
carbon, and a small quantity of an acid salt of soda, potash, iron, man-
ganese, or the like, and the above ingredients, after having been well
ground and intimately mixed together are combined in the mixing
chamber above referred to with the sewage water, and the whole is col-
lected in a reservoir, where it remains until the solid or fertilizing portion
is precipitated or allowed to form a deposit at the bottom. The partially

page_text: purified water is then run off into another reservoir where it is again
allowed to form a deposit, and the operation may be repeated until all
the solid portion is deposited and the water from which the greater
portion of the impurities has been removed is allowed to escape into the
canal, river, or drain. The solid and fertilising matter which. accumu-
lates in the bottoms of the reservoirs is removed and is converted into
manure by dessication or otherwise.
We wish it to be very clearly understood that the proportions and
other particulars mentioned above are only given as an illustration of
the mode of carrying our Invention into operation, and that they will
require to be varied according to the nature of the sewage water to be
treated, and the amount of animal, vegetable, or focal matter with
which it is charged. The quantity of acid salt must also be varied
according to circumstances.
Having thus stated the nature of our Invention, and described a
mode of carrying the same into operation, we wish it to be understood
that we do not limit ourselves to the details given, and that we claim
treating sewage water by the ingredients mentioned, or others possessing
similar properties, in the manner and for the purposes set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Jeremiah Marsden, for myself and
on behalf of the said John Collins, have hereto set my hand and
seal, this Thirtieth day of December One thousand eight hundred
and seventy-three.