Improvements in the Treatment of Road Sweepings and in Apparatus therefor.
Year: 1886

page_text: Date of Application, 17th June, 1886.
Complete Left, 17th Mar., 1887.
Complete Accepted, 19th Apr., 1887. ·
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Treatment of Road Sweepings and in
Apparatus therefor.
1 JOHN CHARLES WILLIAM STANLEY, of 41 Barnsdale Road, in the County of
Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows
The sweepings of roads commonly known as “road drift" are according to this
invention first crushed in stone breakers or equivalent to reduce the stones and large
picces of various materials and then fed into disintegrating apparatus with water with
which it becomes well mixed and saturated and from the disintegrator it is conveyed to
the washing tray where the light materials are separated from the heavy.
The washing tray is formed with a number of channels arranged if desired upon a
slightly descending gradient the water travelling in one direction and the material,
which is preferably fed in somewhere about the middle, being worked along by worms
conveyors or equivalent means in the opposite direction. The floating matters such
as wood, straw, horse manure, and the like are carried off with the water and strained
or may be conveyed to a filter press where the water is pressed out and the matters it
contained formed into cakes which can be used as manure or burnt or otherwise used
up. The heavy mineral matters such as broken stones and sand are propelled by the
worms and collected and the water drained off; they may then be used for building
purposes, concrete and the like. The same water may be pumped back into the tray
and used over and over again, the ammonia which it absorbs being utilized in any
convenient manner.
Tin this 17th Inn of Iun 1886
W. P. THOMPSON & BOULT,
Agents.

page_text: I, JOHN CHARLES WILLIAM STANLEY of 41 Barnsdale Road, in the County of
Middlesex Gentleman do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement :-
The sweepings of roads commonly known as "road drift" are according to this
invention first crushed in stone breakers or equivalent to reduce the stones and large
pieces of various materials and then conveyed to the washing tray where the light.
materials are separated from the heavy.
The washing tray is formed with a number of channels the water travelling in
one direction and the material being worked along by worms conveyors or equivalent
means in the opposite direction. The floating matters such as wood straw horse
manure and the like are carried off with the water and strained or may be conveyed
to a filter press where the water is pressed out and the matters it contained formed
into cakes which can be used as manure or burnt or otherwise used up. The heavy
mineral matters such as broken stones and sand are propelled by the worms and
collected and the water drained off; they may then be use for building purposes
concrete and the like. The same water may be pumped back into the tray and used
over and over again, the ammonia which it absorbs being utilized in any convenient
manner.
In the accompanying drawings Figure I is a vertical section on line <x of Figure
showing the washing tray elevator and sand collector.
Figure 2 is a plan of the entire apparatus.
A is the washing tray formed with any suitable number of channels by means of
any suitable number of partitions B attached alternately at opposite sides of the
tray extending nearly the whole width of the washing tray but leaving a sufficient
space for the passage of the water and materials. Shafts C provided with worms,
worm blades or their equivalent c extend across the tray and receive rotary motion
from gearing D driven by the pulley F.
G represents in dotted lines the feed hopper which is preferably placed vertically
over the first or second channel into which the material to be treated is fed.
Water or other washing fluid enters the tray at H.
At the hopper and water ends of the tray are fitted collecting separators I and K
hereinafter more fully described.

page_text: The action is as follows :-
The material to be washed is fed into the washing tray from the hopper while water
enters the other end of the washing tray at H and flows through the channels in a
direction opposite to that indicated by the arrows which show the course taken by the
heavier part of the sweepings. As the shafts C revolve the worms or blades c on the
shafts carry the materials to be washed along the tray in an opposite direction to
the flow of the water which thus meets the materials and thoroughly cleanses them
while they are constantly lifted up and turned over by the blades.
As indicated in the drawing, where each succeeding shaft C is revolved in a direction
opposite to that of its predecessor the shape of the blades would be the same-the
screws being say.all right handed-this would drive the materials up one channel and
down the next as shown by the arrows.
But if the shafts C were all revolved in the
same direction as would be the case if a pitch chain and wheels were used one half
the blades would be right handed and the other half left handed so as to produce the
same result of driving the materials up one channel and down the next. In the
drawing only a few blades are shown upon the shafts but it will be understood that
they are placed upon every shaft extending from end to end of it.
Any floating material such as mud wood straw horse manure or the like will be
carried along with the water which flows into a collector consisting of an outer casing I
within which revolves a drum J preferably provided with perforations J and tapering
so that its smaller end lies towards the tray.
The shaft Cat the hopper end of the tray may be prolonged and carries the drum J
which would then revolve with it; or an independent shaft may be used driven by
the pulley C.
The water and floating materials enter the drum through a pipe or channel a¹ the
water escaping through the perforations J into the casing I and away by the pipe J2
and the solid materials gravitating to the further or larger end of the drum where one
or more puddles or their equivalent J³ attached to the interior of the drum lift them
up and tip them into a trough J whence they are carried by the action of propeller
blades on the shaft to a shoot down which the material which can be utilized as
manure or for other purpose, escapes. This will be understood by reference to the
section Figure 1 and the description which follows.
At the same time the solid material continues its passage through the tray becoming
more and more cleansed from adhering impurities until it reaches the last channel
whence it is carried to the collector K Figure 1 of much the same construction as the
separator I just described, and consisting of an outer casing K within which revolves
an unperforated tapered drum L provided with paddles or their equivalent L'
trough L and shoot L3 at the outer end of the trough.
The stones etcetera lifted by the paddles L' fall off into the trough L' where the
propeller blades L' draw them to the shoot L. The large end of the drum L is closed
by a circular plate with a central hole for the trough; the smaller end is closed for a
short distance by the annular plate 1 over which the water which enters by the
pipe P flows when it has risen sufficiently high in the drum and escapes by the
pipe R.
The drum L has its independent shaft driven by the pulley C.
The solid material is taken from the tray and delivered to the collector by an
elevator N of the ordinary description discharging by the shoot O into the drum L.
The shafts C are carried through stuffing boxes S which prevent the water escaping
from the tray, and shields T of india rubber or other flexible material may be fitted
inside the tray to prevent grit entering the bearings.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I claim is :-
1. The complete process or method of treating road sweepings and the like for the
purpose of separating the stones and sand from the mud horse dung and other lighter
materials consisting in breaking up the larger pieces of mineral and vegetable matters

page_text: contained, placing them in a washing tray where they are acted upon by worms or
equivalent which continually turn them over and convey them along one or more
channels against a current of water or other fluid flowing in the opposite direction
which carries with it the lighter particles and delivers them into a collecting vessel
where the fluid is drained off and the remaining grit removed, while the stones sand
and similar heavy matters are delivered to another vessel where they are collected and
separated from the fluid the whole substantially as specified.
2. The combination with a washing tray of one or more worms or equivalent
conveyors for the purpose of causing the materials in the tray to move from one part
of the tray to another while subjected to the action of water or other fluid substantially
as specified.
3. The combination with a washing tray such as A of two collecting and delivering
drums such as L and J, the whole constructed and combined substantially in the
manner and for the purpose specified.