IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF SEWAGE AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS TO BE USED FOR ITS PURIFICATION
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Young Darracott Scott, of Ealing, in the
County of Middlesex, Lieutenant-Colonel Royal Engineers, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF SEWAGE AND
"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Young Darracott
Scott at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 2nd December 1870.
I, HENRY YOUNG DARRACOTT SCOTT, of Ealing, in the County of
3 Middlesex, Lieutenant-Colonel Royal Engineers, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF
SEWAGE AND IN THE PREPARATION OF MATERIALS TO BE USED FOR ITS PURIFICATION,”
to be as follows :-
.
The objects of this Invention are, 1st, to obtain a more perfect system
) for the deodorization and precipitation of sewage matter than any

page_text: now in use; 2nd, to provide a less expensive and more efficient mode
of compounding and using the chemicals employed in the deodorization
of sewage.
In carrying out my Invention in lieu of placing the precipitating
and filtering beds in close proximity or combining them in one establish-
ment I introduce my precipitating chemicals in the sewers at points
far removed from the filtering beds at the various man-holes, or at
points specially arranged for the purpose throughout the entire system
of sewers, and finally at the outfall make use of the depositing tanks
and filtering beds to arrest the solid fecal matters and other precipitates
which the chemicals have thrown down. By this arrangement the
precipitates formed will have time to aggregate so that they cannot
readily be washed through the filtering beds. Moreover the sewage
matter undergoes purification while flowing through the drains, and
thereby the escape of much noxious gas into our streets and houses is
prevented. And further, when lime and [metallic salts are used in con-
junction time is given to the precipitates first thrown down to rearrange
themselves in their most stable form, whereby the metallic salts can be
better proportioned to the work for which they are specially suited,
viz., the production of sulphides whilst the lime takes to itself the
carbonates and phosphates with which it forms more insoluble com-
pounds than with sulphuretted hydrogen. I may also establish at
intervals along the line of sewers shafts or towers in which proper
arrangements being made for collecting ammonia, this valuable substance
may be collected at little cost or labour as it is evolved from the sewage
by the action of the lime.
In order properly to regulate the addition of chemicals at the various
man-holes or other stations I provide hoppers or vessels fitted with
mechanical arrangements for yielding to the sewage water a continuous
supply of disinfecting chemical compound. This supply may be made
to vary in amount (by simple mechanical contrivances) with the hour
of the day, and the consequently increasing or decreasing quantity of
sewage requiring to be treated.
In lieu of treating the sewage with the ordinary quick lime of com-
merce to precipitate the carbonates and phosphates, I sometimes make
use of the compound resulting from the calcination under oxidizing
influences of the refuse taken from the lime purifiers of gas works.
Other alkali refuse may be similarly used.

page_text: Also in the manufacture of disinfecting balls, such as were described
by me in the Specification of a Patent granted to me for Improvements in
the Treatment and Deodorization of Sewage Water," dated October 31st
1865, No. 2808. I now propose to substitute for the lime and sulphate
of lime therein mentioned as suitable for the preparation of such balls,.
the said lime compound formed from the lime refuse of gas works, by
subjecting it to oxidizing calcination. This material has in itself an
inherent power of setting, and thereby of assisting the manufacture of
solid manures which will bear transport:
I further improve the quality of the said balls by incorporting with
the lime and sulphate of lime (or other soluble sulphate used to control
the slaking properties of the lime) together with other disinfectants, as
described in the before-mentioned Patent, crystals of metallic salts
suitable for precipitating sulphuretted hydrogen, and also crystals of
other alkaline disinfectants. Such disinfecting balls may be employed
for introducing the necessary chemicals into the sewage water in lieu of
the ordinary quick lime of commerce, or in lieu of quick lime used in
conjunction with metallic salts without any special process being applied
to compound them into a solid form. When the said disinfecting balls
are required to bear keeping I coat them externally with a film of
sulphate of lime which will preserve them from attracting the carbonic
acid gas of the atmosphere, and from thereby becoming to some extent
insoluble.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Henry Young Darracott Scott in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 2nd June 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
YOUNG DARRACOTT SCOTT, of Ealing, in the County of Middlesex,
Lieutenant-Colonel Royal Engineers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Second day of December, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the
thirty-fourth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Henry Young Darracott
Scott, Her special licence that I, the said Henry Young Darracott.

page_text: Scott, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Henry Young Darracott Scott, 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 THE TREATMENT
OP SEWAGE AND IN THE PREPARATION OF MATERIALS TO BE USED FOR ITS
PURIFICATION," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Henry Young Darracott Scott, 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 Henry Young Darracott Scott,
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, reference being had to the Drawing
hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon
(that is to say) :-
:-
-The objects of this Invention are, first, to obtain a more perfect system
for the deodorization and precipitation of sewage matter than any now in
use; second, to provide a less expensive and more efficient mode of
compounding and using the chemicals employed in the deodorization of
sewage.
In carrying out my Invention in lieu of placing the precipitating and
filtering beds in close proximity to each other or combining them in one
establishment. I introduce my precipitating chemicals in the sewers at
points far removed from the filtering beds at the various man-holes, or at
points specially arranged for the purpose throughout the entire system
of sewers. At the outfall of the sewers I make use of the depositing
tanks and filtering beds to arrest the solid fecal and other matters which
the chemicals have thrown down. By this arrangement the precipitates
formed will have time to aggregate, so that they cannot readily be
washed through the filtering beds. Moreover the sewage matter will
undergo purification while flowing through the drains, and thereby the

page_text: escape of much noxious gas into our streets and houses will be prevented.
Moreover when lime and metallic salts are used in conjunction for acting
on the sewage time is given to the precipitates first thrown down to
rearrange themselves in their most stable form. By this means the
quantity of the metallic salts can be better proportioned to the work
for which they are specially suited, viz., the production of sulphides,
whilst the lime will take to itself the carbonates and phosphates with
which it will form more insoluble compounds than with sulphuretted
hydrogen.
At intervals along the line of sewers I also construct shafts or towers
in which proper arrangements being made for collecting ammonia in
any of well-known manners this valuable substance may be collected at
little cost or labour, as it is evolved from the sewage by the action of the
lime thereon.
In order properly to regulate the addition of the chemical agents at
the various man-holes or other stations I provide hoppers or vessels fitted
with mechanical arrangements for yielding to the sewage water a con-
tinuous supply of disinfecting chemical compound. This supply may be
made to vary in amount (by means of simple mechanical contrivances)
with the hour of the day, and the consequently increasing or decreasing
quantity of sewage requiring to be treated.
In the accompanying Drawing I have shewn a convenient mechanical
arrangement for effecting a continuous supply of the disinfecting chemical
agent to the sewage in quantities varying with the hour of day according
to the increasing or decreasing quantities of the sewage that it has been
found by observation and experience usually flows along the sewers at
such hours.
In order to avoid unnecessary expense in adapting my Invention to
the existing sewers I propose to construct (for the reception of my
distributing mechanism or apparatus) a chamber or recess contiguous to
the existing man-holes or other vertical openings communicating with
the sewers.
The apparatus consists of a hopper a large enough to contain a supply
of the pulverised chemical substances sufficient for from twenty-four to
thirty hours. At the lower and narrow part of the hopper is a rotary
stirrer or wheel 6, which by its continual rotation keeps the pulverized
chemicals at the bottom of the hopper in constant agitation, and delivers
them on to a fixed perforated plate or disc c, below which is a second

page_text: plate or dise c which is caused to rotate slowly on its axis, and performs
one revolution in twenty-four hours. The perforation or opening in this.
latter gradually increases in width to its maximum size, and then as
gradually decreases, as shewn in the detached plan view Fig. 2, so as
gradually to increase and decrease the size of the opening through which
the chemical substances fall from the hopper a. The stirrer b and
rotating disc c¹ are actuated by the clockwork mechanism d, as shewn in
the Drawing, and this mechanism is driven by a weight e suspended.
from a cord wound round the barrel d'. A flyf is adapted to the clock-
work to prevent it from running down too quickly. It will now be seen
that a constant but every varying supply of the chemical substance will
pass through the perforated dises c, c¹³, and will fall into the spout g,
from whence it will drop into and become mixed with the sewage in the
drain or sewer h below, and as it is carried along with the sewage the
chemical substance will act upon and disinfect the sewage, and on its
arrival at the outfall or filtering beds the solid matters may be separated
from the liquid, and the latter allowed to run off.
In lieu of treating the sewage with the ordinary quicklime of commerce
to precipitate the carbonates and phosphates I prefer to make use of the
compound resulting from the calcination under oxydizing influences of
the refuse taken from the lime purifiers of gas works. Other alkali
refuse may be similarly used. The gas lime refuse is prepared by
burning it in the presence of an excess of atmospheric air which supplies.
it with sufficient oxygen to convert the compound (which contains lime
and sulphur) into sulphate of lime.
In like manner in the manufacture of disinfecting balls, such as were
described by me in the Specification of a Patent grant to me for "Im-
provements in the Treatment and Deodorization of Sewage Water,"
dated October Thirty-first, One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five,
No. 2808. I now propose to substitute for the lime and sulphate of
lime therein mentioned (as suitable for the preparation of such balls) the
lime refuse prepared in the manner just described by subjecting it to
oxydizing calcination. This material thus prepared by being converted
into a coarse sulphate of lime or plaster of Paris possesses the property
or power of setting like plaster of Paris; it may therefore be used for the
manufacture of solid disinfectants which will bear transport.
In combination with the lime refuse thus prepared by subjecting it to
oxydizing calcination, or with the lime and sulphate of lime (or other

page_text: I also claim the use of this compound prepared as herein set forth,
and made into balls or lumps as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Young Darracott Scott,
have hereunto set my hand and seal, the Second day of June,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
seventy-one.