IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF SEWAGE WORKS, AND IN UTILIZING AND DISPOSING OF SEWAGE, HOUSE REFUSE, AND SCAVENGED MATTERS
Year: 1879

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Hempsom Denham, Surgeon, of Southsea, in the
Borough of Portsmouth, and County of Southampton, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF SEWAGE WORKS, AND IN UTILIZING
AND DISPOSING OF SEWAGE, HOUSE REFUSE, AND SCAVENGED MATTERS."
Sealed the 9th May 1879; and dated the 3rd February 1879.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Hempson Denham
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 3rd February 1879.
WILLIAM HEMPSON DENHAM, Surgeon, of Southsea, in the Borough of Ports-
mouth, and County of Southampton. “IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF
SEWAGE WORKS, AND IN UTILIZING AND DISPOSING OF SEWAGE, HOUSE REFUSE,
AND SCAVENGED MATTERS."
That, as a town cannot be healthy without being clean, it is essential for the
sanitary good of a community not only to dispose effectually of sewage, but of
discarded house refuse and all scavenged material, in order to prevent disease and
other evil arising from an accumulation of matters that generate corruption and
decay.
In order to effect this object I construct sewage works in a form and way that
will ensure the utilization of house refuse and scavenged materials, and provide for
the conversion of sewage into a fertilizing manure.
Hitherto this has been attempted to be done by chemical agents, which naturally
enough change, alter, or destroy the very substance it is sought to improve, and to
which nature has given special renovating power for the soil on which we live.
To carry out these improvements I provide and employ a sufficient number of
tanks or reservoirs to receive the sewage, their number varying from two to six, or
more or less, according to the size of the town or district in which they will be
required, the quantity of sewage and scavenged material to be converted and used.
These tanks or reservoirs will communicate with each other or not by a channel,
sluice, valve, or floodgate, or such other construction as inay be found to be desirable
or necessary. The tanks or reservoirs may be separately and independently
constructed, or made in one oblong form or shape divided into communicating or
non-communicating compound compartments, and may be numbered one to six, or
more or less, according to size, depth, and requirements.
"

page_text: Into tank or reservoir number one the sewage will pass from the outfall sewer
pipe. At or near the mouth of this outfall sewer pipe there will be a grating or
_strainer_to_allow nothing but softened, disintegrated material to pass to the
tank.
The grating or strainer will be made in a frame or not, but so constructed that it
may be raised or drawn, or moved to either side, to remove obstructions if any exist.
-The-top-of-tanks-or-reservoirs number-one and two or more should be domed or
=covered-in-some other form-or-way, and inside the dome or cover there is a furnace
large enough to receive many cartloads of scavenged material, the furnace being
surmounted by, attached to, or connected with a tall chimney, and so constructed
and arranged as to consume its own smoke and vapour if there be any. But I
reserve to myself the right to effect the combustion in a furnace differently con-
structed, away from and unattached to the tanks, if I wish.
Ashes from houses, vegetable refuse, manure froin stables, cowsheds, slaughter-
house offal, street sweepings, with the droppings from birds, horses, and other
animals, carrion, and other things that come under the naine of scavenging, are
found to contain minute seeds of weeds, and larvæ of colcopterous insects, which
fructify and destroy much vegetable life. It cannot then be right, indeed it is
manifestly wrong, that things thus contained and generated in scavenged material
should be conveyed to our gardens and fields, to reproduce vegetable and animal
life, to the trouble of those who cultivate the soil and the frequent derangement
of man's health. Yet this is continually committed in every town.
I subject these materials to destructive combustion in the furnace alluded to
above, and using the product of the combustion instead of lime or expensive
chemicals so injurious to fimus, as an effective, economical, and fertilizing agent to
precipitate sewage. The unadulterated inanure thus made rich, as it must be in
requisites to fertilize, can be little, if at all, inferior to the best guano.
The bottom of the furnace is on a higher level than the outfall sewer pipe, and
immediately over the tank or tanks numbers one and two. The bottom or floor of the
furnace should be constructed of iron bars, or some other durable substance or metal,
and the bars should be so closely approximated that nothing but finely calcined
material can pass down between them. Such being the apposition of the furnace
to the tanks, any gaseous decomposition that may by possibility form therein or
emanate from the outfall pipe will be attracted to the fire and destroyed by the
combustion.
Into this furnace everything that comes under the name of house refuse, such as
bones, vegetable leavings, cinders, ashes, hedge trimmings, street and road sweepings,
decayed leaves, and other things, should be put and burned. The finely calcined
powder that would result from the burning would pass through the bottom or floor
of the furnace into the sewage in the tank below, and as the solid or focal portion
of the sewage would thus be precipitated by the calcined ash, the valuable properties
--of-the focal matter-would-be-retained, a genuine fertilizer, undestroyed by chemical
additions, would be produced, and be mixed by a revolving or vertically acting
apparatus. A manure thus naturally made is the most fertilizing of all, and has
not been produced in this way by any other person.
The mouth of the outfall sewer pipe being, as described, underneath the furnace,
a vacuum would be produced in the outfall pipe itself, and thus attract the gaseous
product of the sewers to the outfall, where nature would be aided in her efforts, if
required by a suction or exhausting apparatus. The sewer gas attracted or driven
to the outfall would necessarily ascend to the furnace, and passing through the fire
would aid combustion and be itself destroyed.
Having thus destroyed the gaseous product of the sewers, and traced or passed
the sewage from one tank to another till nothing but a clear effluent remains, the
next step is to stop the reproduction of foul gas in the sewers, to prevent its
poisonous ingress to houses by closets and sinks, and to dispose of the effluent.
The best because the most efficient and natural deodorizer of the focal matter is
earth. I therefore cause all sweepings of streets, roads, and other places, and all

page_text: storm water, which has a large amount of earthy matter suspended in it, to. pass
into the sewers. There will be no fear whatever of properly constructed sewers
being obstructed by debris, as will be presently shewn.
I now go back again to the last two or three tanks that contain the effluent.
This effluent has always been a source of great trouble to those who have had to
deal with it. Yet nothing is more easy than to dispose of it profitably.
Instead of surmounting the last tanks with a tall chimney I erect over these
tanks a large reservoir able to contain as much effluent water as the tanks below.
Into this reservoir I pump the effluent by steam or other power, premising that the
reservoir be sufficiently high to make the force of declension permanent and strong.
I reserve, however, to myself the right to do without the reservoir if I wish, and to
pump directly from the tank to the uses for which it will be employed, preferably,
however, to use a reservoir. Passing from this raised reservoir, and connected with
it, is a pipe or pipes of iron, or such other suitable material as I desire to use. The
pipe or pipes descending from the reservoir would run parallel or otherwise with
the sewers.
From this pipe or pipes, at suitable distances, other pipes would go to
be connected with or attached to the sewers, into and through which the effluent
would pass, and keep the contents in motion to the outfall, just as the heart of an
animal or man empties the blood into the arteries, from the arteries to the veins, to
be taken back again to the heart or outfall.
Thus a current is kept up, and everything in the sewers being in perpetual
motion, fermentation is prevented, and sewer gas cannot as a consequence be repro-
duced. Thus the contents of the sewers go on to the outfall again, to be again
precipitated by the calcined product of the constantly burning furnace, just as the
circulation of the blood, and eliminations therefrom, goes on in our bodies. At
given distances along the effluent pipes hydrants would be attached. From these
effluent water, which has hitherto been lost or wasted, could be drawn on necessity
to water streets and roads, to irrigate in certain cases meadows and gardens, to be
an admirable adjunct to extinguish fires, and for other purposes of use and good, to
the saving of local rates.
Large towns would save greatly by the process. This is altogether a new appli-
cation of effluent to uses of necessity, but by it the sewers would be kept clean and
the reproduction of sewer gas prevented. Thus there would not be sewer gas to
escape into streets and houses, and fever from such a cause would diminish and
ultimately cease.
Further, to facilitate the sale and transport of the highly fertilizing, inodorous,
and unadulterated manure made by my arrangements, I propose providing a rail
or tramway communication to the nearest or most convenient railway station,
to convey the dry and inodorous manure, properly put into bags, casks, or
otherwise,

page_text: SPECIFICATION_in_pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said William Hempson Denham in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
2nd August 1879.
WILLIAM HEMPSON-DENHAM, Surgeon, of Southsea, in the Borough of Ports-
mouth, and County of Southampton."-IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF
Sewage Works, AND IN UTILIZING AND DISPOSING OF SEWAGE, House REFUSE,
AND SCAVENGED MATTERS."
As a town cannot be healthy without being clean it is essential for the sanitary
good of a community not only to dispose effectually of sewage but of discarded
house refuse and all scavenged material in order to prevent disease and other
evil arising from an accumulation of matters that generate corruption anḍ
decay.
In order to effect this object I construct sewage works in a form and way
that will ensure the utilization of house refuse and scavenged materials, and
provide for the conversion of sewage into a fertilizing manure.
Hitherto this has been attempted to be done by chemical agents, which
naturally enough change, alter, or destroy the very substance it is sought to
improve and to which nature has given special renovating power for the soil on
which we live. To carry out these improvements I provide and employ a sufficient
number of tanks or reservoirs to receive the sewage, their number varying from two
to six, or more or less, according to the size of the town or district in which they
will be required and the quantity of sewage and scavenged material to be converted
and used. These tanks or reservoirs will communicate with each other or not by a
channel, sluice, valve, or floodgate, or such other construction as may be found to
be desirable or necessary. The tanks or reservoirs may be separately and indepen-
dently constructed, or made in one oblong form or shape, divided into communicating
or non-communicating compartments, and may be numbered one to six, or more or
less, according to size, depth, and requirements. Into tank or reservoir Number one
the sewage will pass from the outfall sewer pipe. When tank Number one is full
the sewage will be diverted to tank No. 2. The solid matter of the first tank having
become precipitated the liquid portion will be made to pass to tank Number three. The
calcined ashes from the furnace will be allowed to fall into tank Number one and will
absorb any portion of fluid that may remain in tank Number one. The mass being
then mixed by the mixer will become sufficiently dry to be removed in bags and sold
or deposited in the store. The same process will be repeated in tank No. 2. By the
time the effluent has passed to tanks five and six a clear and limpid fluid will be
obtained, which will then be pumped by steam or other power to the cistern above.
At or near the mouth of this outfall sewer pipe there will be a grating or strainer to
-allow-nothing. but softened disintegrated material to pass to the tank. The grating
or strainer will be made in a frame or not, but so constructed that it may be raised,
or drawn, or moved to either side to remove obstructions if any exist. The top of
tanks or reservoirs, numbers one and two or more, should be domed or covered in
some other form or way. Inside the dome or cover there is a furnace large enough
to receive many cartloads of scavenged material, the furnace being surmounted by,
attached to, or connected with a tall chimney, and so constructed and arranged as to
consume its own smoke and vapour, if there be any. But I reserve to myself the
right to effect the combustion in a furnace differently constructed away from and
unattached to the tanks if I wish. Ashes from houses, vegetable refuse, manure
from cowsheds, stables, slaughterhouse offal, street sweepings, with the droppings
from birds, horses, and other animals, carrion, and other things that come under the
name of scavenging are found to contain minute seeds of weeds and larvae of
coleopterous insects which fructify and destroy much vegetable life. It cannot then
be right, indeed, it is manifestly wrong, that things thus contained and generated
in scavenged material should be conveyed to our gardens and fields to reproduce

page_text: vegetable and animal life to the trouble of those who cultivate the soil and the
frequent derangement of man's health. Yet this is continually being committed in
every town.
I subject these materials to destructive combustion in the furnace
alluded to above and using the product of the combustion (instead of lime or
expensive chemicals) as an effective, economical, and fertilizing agent to precipitate
sewage. The unadulterated manure thus made, rich as it must be in the requisites
to fertilize, can be little if at all inferior to the best guano. The bottom of the
furnace is on a higher level than the outfall sewer pipe and immediately over the
tank or tanks numbers one and two. The bottom or floor of the furnace should be
constructed of iron bars or some other durable substance or metal, and the bars
should be so closely approximated that nothing but finely calcined material can pass
down between them. Such being the apposition of the furnace to the tanks any
gaseous decomposition that may by possibility form in the tank or emanate from
the outfall pipe will be attracted to the fire and destroyed by the combustion. Into
this furnace everything that comes under the name of house refuse, such as bones,
vegetable leavings, cinders, ashes, hedge trimmings, street and road sweepings,
decayed leaves, and other things should be put and burned. The finely calcined
powder that would result from the burning would pass through the bottom or floor
of the furnace into the sewage in the tank below, and as the solid or foecal portion
of the sewage would thus be precipitated by the calcined ash, the valuable pro-
perties of the focal matter would be retained, a fertilizer undestroyed by chemical
additions would be produced and be mixed by a revolving or vertically acting
apparatus. A manure thus naturally made is the most fertilizing of all, and to the
best of my knowledge and belief has not been produced in this way by any other
person.
The mouth of the outfall sewer pipe being, as described, underneath the furnace,
a vacuum would be produced in the outfall pipe itself, and thus attract the gaseous
product of the sewers to the outfall where nature would be aided in her efforts if
required by a suction or exhausting apparatus. The sewer gas attracted or driven
to the outfall would necessarily ascend to the furnace, and passing through the fire
would aid combustion and be itself destroyed.
Having thus destroyed the gaseous product of the sewers, and traced or passed
the sewage from one tank to another till nothing but a clear effluent remains, the
next step is to stop the reproduction of foul gas in the sewers to prevent its
poisonous ingress to houses by closets and sinks, and to dispose of the effluent.
The best, because the most efficient and natural, deodorizer of focal matter, is
earth. I therefore cause all sweepings of streets, roads, and other places, and all
storm water which has a large amount of earthy matter suspended in it, to pass
into the sewers. There will be no fear whatever of properly constructed sewers
being obstructed by debris, as will be presently shown. I now go back again to the
last two or three tanks that contain the effluent. This effluent has always been a
source of great trouble to those who have had to deal with it, yet nothing is more easy
than to dispose of it profitably. Instead of surmounting the last tanks with a tall
chimney I erect over these tanks a large reservoir or cistern able to contain as much
effluent water as the tanks below. Into this reservoir I pump the effluent by steam
or other power, premising that the reservoir is to be sufficiently high to make the
force of declension permanent and strong; I reserve however to myself the right to
do without the reservoir if I wish, and to pump directly from the tank for the uses
for which it will be employed, I prefer however to use a reservoir. Passing from
this raised reservoir or cistern and connected with it is a pipe or pipes of iron or
such other suitable material as I require to use. The pipe or pipes descending
from the raised cistern or reservoir would run parallel or otherwise with the
sewers.
From this pipe or pipes at suitable distances other pipes or branches would be
connected with or attached to the sewers into and through which the effluent would
pass to the sewers and kept the contents of the sewers in motion to the outfall, just

page_text: width to enable a doorway to be made in the side of such of the tanks as will
require it to facilitate ingress to clean them when required.
8. The collecting of the house refuse and scavenged articles of all kinds, and
subjecting them to combustion at one or both of the furnaces over the tanks, and
using the burnt debris to deodorize and precipitate the solid sewage in the tanks so
as to form it into a natural unadulterated manure which has not been produced in
this way by any other person as far as I am aware, employing wood, coal,
coke, breeze, earth, or other articles combined or alone to produce or assist the
precipitation and form manure.
9. The entry of pipe of the outfall sewer into the tank or tanks at or under the
furnace in order that any gas that may escape from the outfall sewer pipe or rise
from the tank or tanks may pass immediately to the furnace to aid combustion and
be itself destroyed, placing at or near the outfall an exhausting apparatus to
attract the gas from the sewers to the furnaces to be there destroyed, and a rotating
or vertically acting mixer to thoroughly assimilate and unite the sewage and
debris.
10. The disposing of the effluent by erecting over the last tanks a capacious
cistern or reservoir.
11. Pumping into this cistern the clear effluent from the tanks below by manual,
steam, or other power.
12. Passing from the cistern by series of pipes or channels the clear effluent by
gravitation to holes or inlets made at or near to the tops of the sewers so that the
effluent water will thus rush into the sewers with considerable force and effectually
flush the sewers.
13. Continuous discharge of effluent into the sewers, whereby the sewage will be
kept in constant circulation, and just as the force of the human heart drives the
blood of our bodies through the arteries to the veins, and back to the heart again,
so the cistern that surmounts the tanks will by the force of gravitation drive the
effluent through the sewers to the outfall pipe or heart again, where the sewage will
undergo the process of precipitation and the effluent continue to circulate through
the sewers as before.
14. Provision at given distances along the effluent pipes of hydrants from which
water can be drawn to water streets, roads, and gardens, etc., and so as to be an
available adjunct to extinguish fires, and for other useful purposes.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature and object of the
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed or carried out in
practice, I hereby declare that I claim the Invention of "Improvements in the
Construction of Sewage Works, and in Utilizing and Disposing of Sewage, House
Refuse, and Scavenged Matters," substantially as sane is herein before set forth and
described, it being always understood that I do not limit myself to the use of the
precise details of construction herein before described so long as the essential
character of my said Invention is preserved and adopted.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Hempson Denham, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this First day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seventy nine.
Witness,
CHRIS. D. KING,
Mayor of Portsmouth,
Farlington House,
Havant.
W. HEMPSON DENHAM. (L.S.)