IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING SEWAGE, IN OBTAINING PRODUCTS THEREFROM, AND COMBINING SUCH PRODUCTS WTH OTHER MATTERS
Year: 1851

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME; I, RICHARD
DOVER, of New Street, Spring Gardens, in the City of Westminster, Merchant,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster the Sixteenth day of
October (One thousand eight hundred and fifty-one), in the fifteenth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Richard Dover, my exors, adiñiors, and assigns, Her especial license,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Richard Dover, my
exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Richard Dover,
my exors, admors, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in the Islands
of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and also in all Her said
Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN TREATING SEWAGE, IN OBTAINING PRODUCTS THEREFROM, AND COMBINING SUCH
PRODUCTS WTH OTHER MATTERS;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a
proviso, that I, the said Richard Dover, shall cause a particular description
of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to be inrolled
in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery, within six calendar months

page_text: next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent,
as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at
large appear,
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Richard Dover, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had to
the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon,
that is to say-
other chloride
In lieu of the
My said Invention consists of a mode or modes of treating sewage with an
acid or acids, either alone or together with a salt or salts or other chemical
agents, for the purpose of deodorizing it, and depriving it of its putrescent
qualities, and also obtaining certain products therefrom. The acid which I
prefer to use is muriatic acid, otherwise called hydrochloric acid, but any other
acid which will have the same effect may be used, although I believe that
there is not any other acid which can be used so economically for this purpose
as muriatic acid. "The chemical salts or other chemical agents which I prefer
to use in conjunction with an acid are chloride of sodium and protosulphate
of iron, more particularly because I believe those salts can be used more
economically than any other. But in lieu of chloride of sodium, chloride of
potassium, chloride of magnesium, chloride of calcium, or any
which can be had at a price sufficiently low, may be used.
protosulphate of iron the sulphate of the peroxide of iron (if it can be obtained
sufficiently cheaply), or any other sufficiently cheap metallic salt, the base of
which is capable of being precipitated or separated from its acid by the chemical
action of the sewage matters, may be used; and in addition to the salts I have
mentioned I prefer to add a portion of protochloride of iron, otherwise called
muriate of iron, to the acid, which I apply to sewage matter for the purpose
of more effectually deodorizing it, and depriving it of its putrescent qualities;
or the same effect may be obtained by adding a small portion of oxide of iron
to any muriatic acid which may be intended to be used. The action of the
acid and other chemical agents may be effected in any suitable vessel con-
taining the sewage, after which I separate the liquid from the solid matters
by subsidence, and by filtration through any suitable filtering material; the
filtering material may be either charcoal or any other material or materials
which will separate the liquid from the solid parts of the sewage. By em-
ploying as a filtering medium charcoal, gypsum, or other materials capable
of absorbing and retaining some of the matters held in solution or mixed
with the sewage liquid, the filtering materials may thus be impregnated

page_text: or combined with matters which may make them available as manure to
fertilize land. In the Drawing hereunto annexed I have shewn a Figure of
an apparatus which may be used for the purpose of carrying into effect my
Invention, but I do not intend to claim such apparatus as any part of my
Invention. This Figure shews a vertical section of the apparatus. A is a
layer of charcoal; B is a layer of clay, pulverised; C is a layer of gypsum,
ground; D is a layer of peat, pulverised; E, F, & G, strainers over mouth
of tubes or conduits for supernatant water. The quantity of hydrochloric
acid which I use for the purposes of my Invention is about five and a half
pounds of the usual strength for every ton of ordinary liquid sewage matter; and
when I do not use that acid I employ an equivalent quantity of some other
mineral acid. If I design to use protochloride or muriate of iron (which I
generally prefer to do), I either use about a pound of that material, in lieu of
a similar weight of the acid, or in cases in which I employ hydrochloric acid
I mix the acid with iron filings or oxide of iron in the proportion of about
balf a pound of the iron filings or oxide with every five and a half pounds of
acid, some hours before the mixture is used, stirring the whole frequently, to
promote the solution of the iron. The quantity of chloride of sodium which
I use is about three ounces to every ton of liquid sewage, and of protosulphate
of iron about six ounces to every ton of liquid sewage. I dissolve the salts
in a quantity of water sufficient for that purpose, and then mix them with the
acid, and I add the requisite quantity of this mixture to the liquid sewage
in a vessel gradually as the vessel is filled with the sewage, the flow of the
sewage into the vessel being sufficient to cause the whole to be mixed with
the requisite proportion of the mixture which I use. If the chloride of
potassium, magnesium, or any other similar chloride be used, the quantity
of it must be about the same as that of the chloride of sodium already men-
tioned; and if any other metallic salt be used in lieu of protosulphate of iron,
the quantity used should be about the same as that of the protosulphate of
iron. The solid sewage matters obtained by filtration may, either alone or
in combination with other matters, be used as a manure; but I prefer to mix
such solid sewage with the filtering material by which it has been separated
from the fluid sewage, and which shall have been impregnated in the manner
I have already mentioned; and this combination of materials will, I believe,
produce a manure possessing important fertilizing power. The solid products
or sewage obtained by filtration in the manner already described may be
combined or mixed with any other matters so as to form other useful com-
pound manures for fertilizing land. Thus the solid sewage may be mixed
with refuse animal matters, shale, marl, or any other material having the

page_text: requisite fertilizing powers, so that the combination shall possess the desired
properties, according to the nature or quality of the soil or soils to be fertilized,
or the crops or plants to be produced. Instead of using the solid matters of
sewage as manure, they may, if preferred, be subjected to any chemical
process or processes for the purpose of obtaining any chemical or other
products therefrom. The filtered sewage liquid may also be subjected to any
process or processes for the purpose of obtaining ammoniacal salts or other
products therefrom, or such liquid may be used as a manure for fertilizing
land.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Dover, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord
one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two.

page_text: the Reservoir of Savage until that vessel is full, then by
the rising of the float the passage will be opened to the
1st Filter