A NEW OR IMPROVED FILTERING AND DEODORISING MEDIUM
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Robey, of the City of Manchester, in the
County of Lancaster, Sugar Refiner, and George Frederick
Chantrell, of Liverpool, in the same County, Sanitary Engineer,
for the Invention of "A NEW OR IMPROVED FILTERING AND DEODORISING
MEDIUM"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Robey and
George Frederick Chantrell at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 15th March 1873.
We, JAMES ROBEY, of the City of Manchester, in the County of
Lancaster, Sugar' Refiner, and GEORGE FREDERICK CHANTRELL, of
Liverpool, in the same County, Sanitary Engineer, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "A NEW OR IMPROVED FILTERING AND
DEODORISING MEDIUM," to be as follows:-
We take street sweepings of any town or village or much used road,
and mix the same with clay in about the proportion of one part of street

page_text: sweepings to one part of clay, the proportions altering according to the
quantity of organic matter contained in the sweepings. If organic matter
is abundant, then more clay can be used.
After intimately mixing by hand or machinery, we carbonise in close
iron or other vessels, maintaining a good red heat until all emanation of
gases ceases.
As there will be much ammonia yielded in the charring process, we
save it by any of the usual methods as a bye product.
The charred material remaining in the retorts we find forms a good
and efficient filter for sewage and other foul waters.
We also take street sweepings as above, and carbonise the same
without clay in the same manner. This charred material forms a
specially suitable deodorising material for night soil and cesspool matters,
and for use in dry closets, being generally in a state of fine powder, or
easily rendered so.
We further use this last material in the process of precipitating foul
matters from sewage, mixing it with certain other well-known chemicals
and materials to aid their precipitating and deodorising effects, this latter
charred material being in too fine a state of division to use as a filter.
We therefore for filtering purposes mix the street sweepings with clay
before carbonising, as herein-before described.
SPECIFICATION filed in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters
Patent, and of an Order of the Lord Chancellor, by the said James
Robey and George Frederick Chantrell in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 18th November 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JAMES
ROBEY, of the City of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Sugar
Refiner, and GEORGE FREDERICK CHANTRELL, of Liverpool, in the same
County, Sanitary Engineer, send greeting.
2
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her 3
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of March, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the thirty-

page_text: sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto us, the said James Robey and George Frederick
Chantrell, Her special license that we, the said James Robey and George
Frederick Chantrell, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as we, the said James Robey and George Frederick Chantrell,
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
"A NEW OR IMPROVED FILTERING AND DEODORISING MEDIUM," upon the condition
(amongst others) that we, the said James Robey and George Frederick
Chantrell, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under our, 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 on or before the Eighteenth day of
November One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said James Robey and George Frederick
Chantrell, 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 :-
We take street sweepings of any town or village or much used road,
preferably such as are paved, and mix such sweepings with clay, in
about the proportion by weight of one part of street sweepings to one
part of clay, but varying the proportions according to the quantity of
organic matter contained in the sweepings. If organic matter is abun-
dant, then more clay can be used.
After intimately mixing these substances by band or machinery whilst
in a moist condition, and then drying them, we carbonise them in closed
iron or other vessels, maintaining a good red heat in such vessels preferably
until all emanation of gas ceases.
The charcoal or carbonised material so produced we use for filtering
purposes, such as for filtering sewage and other foul liquids, as by
grinding or crushing such material we can reduce it to any requisite size
of grain; but if to be used for deodorising purposes we reduce the same to
a state of fine powder.

page_text: The addition of clay to the sweepings previous to charring serves to
increase the specific gravity, and also the compactness of the carbonised
material, and thus if we find that such carbonised material is too friable
we take it as an indication that too little clay has been added; whilst if
too much clay has been added the material will not carbonise, as indicated
by the material being of a brown instead of a black colour.
If the carbonised material is to be used simply for deodorising
purposes, such as for use in dry closets, or for mixing with nightsoil to
form manure, we char the street sweepings alone and without the previous
admixture of clay, and the resulting material will then be mainly
in the state of a fine powder, and ready for use without any further
treatment. This carbonised material is also useful as a precipitant of
foul matters from sewage, for which purpose it may be used either alone
or in conjunction with other well known precipitating chemicals to assist
their precipitating and deodorising action.
In carrying our Invention into practical effect we prefer to use a
continuous charring process, and thus save time and expense, and for
this purpose we employ iron cylinders lined with spiral ledges, such as
are at present used for reburning the exhausted animal charcoal of the
sugar refiner, and which cylinders revolve in a furnace, the material to
be charred being admitted through a hopper at one end and caused to
travel the whole length of the cylinder, and to come out at the other end
in a charred state into a cooler of enlarged diameter, which revolves
with the cylinder, when after passing through such cooler the charred
material is in a sufficiently cooled state to be discharged from the apparatus,
and is ready for immediate use.
We economise the gases evolved during the charring process by carry-
ing a pipe from the interior of the cylinder into the furnace, and thus
such gases become ignited and assist the fuel in such furnace, and we
sometimes collect and save the ammonia yielded in these charring
operations by any of the well known methods.
Having thus particularly described and ascertained the nature of this
our said Invention, together with the best methods with which we are
acquainted for carrying the same into practical effect, we wish it to
be understood that we do not confine ourselves to the precise method of
charring the materials herein-before described, as the same may be varied
without departing from the Invention, but what we claim is, the manu-

page_text: facture of a filtering and deodorising medium as and for the purposes
herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Robey, for and on behalf of
myself and the said George Frederick Chantrell, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of November One thousand
eight hundred and seventy-three.
Witness,
JOHN G. WILSON,
Patent Office,
71, Market Street,
Manchester.
JAS. ROBEY. (L.S.)