IM- PROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS For the TreatMENT OF HOUSE AND TOWN REFUSE AND EXCRETA
Year: 1879

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Henry Whiley at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 10th January 1878.
HENRY WHILEY, of Birchwood, Rusholme, in the County of Lancaster. "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS For the TreatMENT OF HOUSE AND TOWN REFUSE AND
EXCRETA."
In some large towns and densely populated districts the excreta and other refuse
are collected and utilised for the production of manure and other matters; the
system adopted for this purpose being generally of the following kind:-Tho
excreta are received in pails along with portions of the ashes and dust, which are
thrown with other refuse into receptacles; beside, the pails and these receptacles
may have screens or gratings through which the finer particles fall into shoots
leading to the excreta pails. From time to timo the filled pails are removed in carts
or vehicles along with the refuse from the receptacles; empty pails being substituted
for those removed. The pails containing the excreta as well as the refuse, and
such refuse as is collected from the streets are conveyed to an establishment whero
these matters undergo certain treatment for utilising them. The refuse may be
sifted, the incombustible portions, such as pieces of brick, stone, or metal, separated
and the residue burned as fuel, producing ashes or cinders availablo for mixing with
lime to form mortar, or crushed and sifted as a substitute for sand to be used for
building or other purposes, such as spreading on the streets in lieu of gravel. The
excreta in like manner are screened, so as to separate solid matters from the moist
or pasty mass which may be mingled with a portion of the ashes above mentioned
and dried by evaporation to the condition of a moist powder, forming an excellent
and easily portable manure.
This Invention relates to the apparatus employed for the treatment above set
forth, and to its arrangement in such a manner as to reduce the cost and labour of
the various operations. For this purpose the establishment where the operations
are performed is preferably arranged in floors, and the matters to be dealt with are
delivered on the highest floor, whence they descend by gravity to the successive
portions of the apparatus in which they are treated. In order so to deliver them
when the levels of the ground are not such as to permit vehicles to run into the
highest floor, travelling chains of buckets and stages may be provided, the buckets
to raise the coarse refuse and the stages to raise the excreta pails to the upper
floors. The refuse is discharged into a shoot leading to a revolving screen, and the
pails are emptied into another shoot leading also to a revolving screen of similar
construction which is of the following kind :-It consists of a grated framework of
polygonal tapering form having at each end circular rib rings resting on rollers.

page_text: One of these rings is of triangular section so as to enter V grooves of the rollers on
which it rests, this preventing the displacement of the screen longitudinally. One
or more of the rollers on which the screen rests being caused to rotate, the screen is
made to revolve on a horizontal or inclined axis, and the matters introduced by a
shoot at its small end are, owing to its polygonal and tapering form or inclined
attitude, caused to advance towards the large end of the screen while they are
tumbled from each of the polygonal sides to the next. During this movement all
the finer portions of the refuse and all the pulpy portion of the excreta pass through
the gratings, whilst the larger solid portions are discharged at the ends of the
screens. The refuse is dealt with as above described, the incombustible pieces
being picked or raked out by hand and the rest burned as fuel. In some cases
instead of emptying the contents of the pails direct on to the revolving screen they
may be passed through a stationary screen having the form of a hopper, the inclined
sides of which are perforated so as to allow the liquid to drain off into a channel by
which it is led to be distributed over the revolving screens for the purpose of
cleansing them. The pulp of the excreta is mixed with a proportion of acid to fix
the volatile ingredients which are valuable as manure and a proportion of ash to
dilute it may be added, the whole being then dried by steam heat in steam jacketted
vessels provided with agitators. The combustible portions of the refuse are
preferably burnt on a travelling grate, being fed thereto from a hopper at one end
and the clinker and ash being discharged at the other end.
For the treatment of road sweepings and vegetable refuse, and the like, a
cylinder lined with firebrick or other refractory material open at both ends is made
to revolve on an inclined axis. The hot gases from a furnace or closed fireplace
enter the cylinder at the one end and pass through it to a chimney at the opposite
end. The sweepings or refuse being introduced by a shoot at the end of this
cylinder are by its inclination and rotation caused to traverse it slowly, becoming
carbonised by the heat. The vessel may rotate on a horizontal axis, the interior
lining being made in helical form so as to cause the advance of the materials with
which it is charged. The carbonised matter when it issues from the vessel is cooled,
for which purpose it may be passed through a helical chamber encircling the
carbonising vessel so arranged as to present a large surface exposed to the
atmosphere.