IMPROVEMENTS IN ARRANGEMENTS AND APPARATUS FOR DEALING WITH SEWAGE
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Strang, of Glasgow, in the County of
Lanark, North Britain, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
ARRANGEMENTS AND APPARATUS FOR DEALING WITH SEWAGE."
Sealed the 23rd February 1869, and dated the 28th August 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Strang at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
28th August 1868.
I, WILLIAM STRANG, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North
Britain, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN ARRANGEMENTS AND APPARATUS FOR DEALING WITH SEWAGE," to be as
follows, that is to say :-
This Invention relates to the dealing with sewage, more particularly
in connection with the watercloset system, by means of improved
arrangements and apparatus of an extremely simple and inexpensive
character, and which are designed to effect the separation of the liquid
from the more solid constituents, so that the latter may be the more
readily and satisfactorily available for agricultural purposes.

page_text: The improved arrangements and apparatus may be applied with equal
convenience either to a single watercloset or to a discharge pipe from a
number of waterclosets.
The arrangement and form of the apparatus are susceptible of con-
siderable variation, but an essential feature of all modifications is the
providing of a vessel at the bottom of the soil pipe with separate
outlets for the liquids and solids combined with the interposing therein
of a filtering or separating medium through which the liquids can pass,
but which keeps back the solids. The filtering or separating medium is
by preference applied in an inclined, vertical, or overlying position, so
that the solids tend by their greater gravity to fall away from it into a
deeper part of the vessel, in which deeper part the outlet for them
is situated. The liquids have access to their outlet through the
separating medium only, and the sewage accumulates in the vessel and
in the pipe leading down to it until it has a sufficient head to force the
liquids through. The liquid outlet is always open, but the solid outlet
is generally shut, being opened periodically for the discharge of the
solids into any suitable portable or other receptacle. It is most con-
venient to arrange the discharge for the solids into an ash-bin, so that
they may be mixed with or covered by the ashes in order to prevent
effluvia, and so as to form a valuable compound manure.
In a simple and convenient modification of the improved apparatus
the dwelling-house soil pipe communicates at its lower end with the
top of a vessel made with vertical sides and an inclined or rounded
bottom. This vessel is divided into two compartments by a vertical
partition extending from the top down to within a short distance of
the bottom, and the pipe from the closets or kitchen jawbox com-
municates with what may be termed the inlet compartment. The other
may be termed the liquid outlet compartment, and its bottom is
partially closed by a perforated plate or some suitable permeable
material on which sand or other filtering material is put, and above
which the liquid outlet is situated. The discharge outlet for the
solids is arranged in connection with the bottom of the vessel, and may
consist of a pipe or duct fitted with a valve and leading into an ash-bin,
or it may be fitted with a coupling to connect by flexible piping with
a tank cart in which the soil may be removed to the country. Both
compartments of the vessel are by preference connected by pipes or
otherwise with the rain-water pipes, so that effluvia arising from the

page_text: sewage may be thereby conveyed into the upper atmosphere and so
be prevented from entering the house. The vessel is, of course, com-
pletely closed with the exception of the communications herein-before
referred to.
The improved arrangements and apparatus are applicable not only
for dealing with sewage from waterclosets and kitchens, but also for
dealing with any mixture of water and impurities ordinarily discharged
into the main sewers.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Strang in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 26th February 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
STRANG, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of August, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-
second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said William Strang, Her special licence that
I, the said William Strang, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said William Strang, my executors, adminis-
trators, 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 ARRANGE-
MENTS AND APPARATUS POR DEALING WITH SEWAGE," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said William Strang, my executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of
their hands and scals, 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 Scal Patent
Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said Letters Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Strang, 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 in writing, reference being had to the accompanying
Drawings, that is to say :-
My said Invention relates to the dealing with sewage, more particu-
larly in connection with the watercloset system, by means of improved
arrangements and apparatus of an extremely simple and inexpensive
character, and which are designed to effect the separation of the liquid
from the more solid constituents, so that the latter may be the more
readily and satisfactorily available for agricultural purposes, whilst the
former can be run into sewers and rivers in a purified and innocuous
condition.
My improved arrangements and apparatus may be applied with equal
convenience cither to a discharge pipe from a single watercloset or to a
pipe from a number of waterclosets; but it is an important feature of my
system that it provides for the interception of the solids of watercloset
or other discharges so as to entirely prevent their access to the ordinary
street sewers, and that without introducing the expence of an additional
set of drains or watercloset sewers. The precise arrangement and form
of my improved apparatus are susceptible of considerable variation, but
an essential feature of all modifications is the providing of a vessel at the
lower end of the discharge pipe with separate outlets for the liquids and
solids combined with the interposing therein of a filtering or separating
medium of sufficient depth through which the liquids can pass, but
which keeps back the solids. I prefer to apply the filtering or separating
medium in a vertical, inclined, or overlying position, so that the solids
tend by their greater gravity to fall away from it into a deeper part of
the vessel, in which deeper part the outlet for them is situated. The
liquid has access to its outlet through the separating medium only, the
head or pressure necessary to make it pass upwards through that medium
being simply obtained by the filling up of the vessel and of the lower
part of the pipe leading to it. The liquid outlet is always open, but the
solid outlet is provided with a valve which can be always kept shut,
excepting when opened periodically for the discharge of the solids into
any suitable portable or other receptacle, or a portable receptacle may be
always connected to the solid outlet, being changed when filled.
My improved arrangements and apparatus are applicable not only for

page_text: dealing with sewage or discharges from waterclosets, privies, kitchens,
stables, byres, and the like, but also for dealing with any mixtures of
water and solid impurities such as are ordinarily discharged from public
works into drains, sewers, or rivers,
Various materials may be used for the separating and filtering medium,
but I prefer to employ ashes, not only on account of their effective
filtering and deodorising action, but also because being obtained from
household and engine fires they are produced in the very localities in
which waterclosets are situated; whilst instead of as heretofore being
troublesome and involving unremunerative expence in their removal
they are in my apparatus converted into a valuable manure which may
be profitably disposed of.
And in order that my said Invention, and the manner of performing
the same, may be properly understood I have hereunto appended two
Sheets of explanatory Drawings, to be hereafter referred to, and repre-
senting three convenient modifications of my improved apparatus. The
same reference numerals are used to mark the same parts in all the
Figures.
One modification is shown in vertical section in Figure 1, and in end
view in Figure 2, on Sheet 1 of the Drawings, and in this arrangement
the dwelling-house soil pipe 1 communicates at its lower end with an
inlet 2 into a vessel 3 made with vertical sides and an inclined and
rounded bottom 4. Inside the vessel 3, and just above the inlet 2, there
is a grating 5, 6, which is made in two parts for a purpose herein-after
explained. Ashes or other suitable filtering materials are filled into the
upper part of the vessel 3, but a fine grating 7 is provided at one upper
corner to prevent their entering an outlet 8 by which the filtered water
passes off.
An outlet 9 is provided at the lower end of the inclined
bottom 4 for the more solid matters, and this outlet is furnished with a
screw coupling 10 for attaching the neck of a portable receptacle 11.
When changing the receptacle 11 the outlet 9 is closed by an internal
valve 12 which is lowered and raised by means of a rod 13. The ashes
gradually work down through the grating 5, 6, but may be wholly
changed at any time when considered sufficiently charged with the
matters which they abstract from the water passing up through them by
lowering the lower part 6 of the grating. The upper part 5 of the grating
rests on narrow flanges formed on the sides of the vessel 2, and is formed
with bars of considerable width apart. The lower grating 6 is formed

page_text: with bars at the same distances apart as those of the upper one, but they
are placed opposite the spaces of the upper grating and so as when raised
close up thereto to enter between the upper bars and reduce the effective
passage through. On lowering the lower grating however the ashes have
a much freer passage and fall through. The lower gating 6 is suspended
by rods 14 and the ends may be lowered or raised simultaneously or
separately. Prongs are fixed in the bars of the lower grating for the
purpose of breaking up the ashes above when they mass together.
Figure 3 is a vertical section of a second modification, which resembles
the former excepting that it has a single fixed grating 5 for the ashes to
rest upon, whilst a door 15 is provided for the removal of the lowermost
ashes when these are considered to be saturated; also that the valve 12
and outlet 9 for the solids is constructed in an external valve box 16;
also that the filtered liquid overflows by a fine grating 7 all round the
upper part of the vessel or box into a gutter 17 leading to the liquid
outlet pipe S.
A third modification is shown in vertical section and in end view in
Figures 4 and 5 on Sheet 2 of the Drawings. This differs from the first
modification in having the space under the gratings 5, 6, divided into
two compartments by a partition 18 and valve 19. In using this arrange-
ment the outer valve 12 is kept closed and the inner valve 19 open, so
that the solids may collect in the lower compartment, and when it is
considered full enough a portable receptacle is connected to the outlet 9,
and the inner valve 19 is then closed and the outer one 12 opened for
the purpose of transferring the solids to the portable receptacle.
If wished the water which comes away from the liquid outlet pipe S
may be passed through a second or several separate and distinct masses
of ashes or other suitable filtering materials, after which it will be quite
fit for many uses; but if the object is simply to prevent the pollution of
street sewers and rivers the water from either modification of apparatus
may be at once run into the drain or sewer without being subjected to a
second filtering.
It is an obvious advantage of my improved arrangements that they
completely avoid the difficulties met with in existing systems in pre-
venting the entrance into dwelling-houses of foul gases and exhalations
from drains and sewers, for with them there can be no current or passage
of air or gases up through the soil pipes in consequence of the apparatus
interrupting and stopping the passage through.

page_text: Having thus particularly described my said Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, I have to state that I do not
restrict myself to the precise details hercin described or delineated, but
that what I believe to be novel and original, and claim as the Invention
secured to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the
intercepting of sewage before reaching street sewers or other ordinary
outlets by improved apparatus, substantially such as is herein-before
described, and in which the liquid becomes separated from the more solid
constituents and is filtered through ashes or other suitable materials.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Strang, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of February, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine.
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,
Glasgow.
WILLIAM STRANG. (L.S.)