Improvements relating to the Treatment of Sewage and other Refuse, and to Apparatus therefor.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 26th Jan., 1892
Complete Specification Left, 26th Oct., 1892-Accepted, 14th Jan., 1893
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements relating to the Treatment of Sewage and other
Refuse, and to Apparatus therefor.
I, ALEXANDRE LEVIEUX, of 24 Rue de l'Evêque, Brussels, in the Kingdom of
Belgium, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be
as follows:-
:—
My invention relates to the treatment of sewage and other refuse, and to
apparatus therefor.
This important problem has not heretofore been solved in a practical manner.
The solution hereinafter set forth answers all the exigencies of hygiene,
communal finances, and agriculture.
It is the result of a number of combined industrial and chemical processes
susceptible of being worked for industrial and commercial purposes.
My system comprises the employment of the heat produced by the destruction of
town refuse by fire, to obtain the heat necessary for the distillation of sewage for
the purpose of withdrawing the ammonia, tar, animal black, lighting gas and the
like, and serving for the economic manufacture of lime, cement and puzzolane.
This heat is also used for heating tubular boilers and the like in its passage to
the chimney.
I employ the gas resulting from the distillation of certain parts of town refuse
and the like, for lighting the works or for heating furnaces and retorts the operation
of which is thus ensured without other agents.
For obtaining this result I employ Fryer furnaces for destroying the sewage
their waste heat being utilized for heating part of the various apparatus; and
distilling retorts similar to those employed in gas works, placed directly above the
fire-places of destructive furnaces, for instance one or two for each cell, and
replacing the reverberatory vaults of these furnaces.
By heating in these retorts the animal matter from slaughter houses and fish
markets, such as blood, meat, horn, bone, diseased animals, certain organic matter,
town refuse woollen rags, hair, old leather and the like I obtain animal black,
ammoniacal liquors and tars, and lighting gas.
Animal black has a great commercial value for the decoloration of sugar, and
also for cyanurated products which may be extracted therefrom.
Ammoniacal liquors and tars have also a great industrial and agricultural
value.
In the distillation of organic matter a great quantity of ammoniacal salts is
disengaged in the form of ammoniacal liquors.
Muscular flesh contains a great quantity of nitrogen. Ammonium carbonate is
more especially disengaged in the dry distillation of animal matter, ammonium
carbonate is dissolved in water which is formed at the same time and constitutes
with it ammoniacal liquors.
From ammoniacal liquors neutralized by sulphuric or hydrochloric acid I may
after filtration extract by evaporation the ammoniacal salts saleable as manure or
for the manufacture of soda salt.
Animal waste disengages a great quantity of lighting gas. After purification it
may serve for lighting the works but it may be preferable to conduct it to the fire
places of incinerating furnaces for facilitating and improving the combustion of the
sewage and therefore augmenting the heat, which ensures also a great saving in the
heating of lime furnaces.
Or the gas may be conducted and burnt under distilling retorts, the operation of
which will thus be ensured by the gas produced by them.

page_text: The production of animal black, tar and ammoniacal liquors will consequently
cost nothing or almost nothing and will greatly diminish the cost of incinerating
the town refuse.
I use rudimentary apparatus for purifying and condensing the gas, tar and
ammoniacal liquors, such as the barrel, the cooling tube, and a sheet-metal
cylinder filled with fragments of coke moistened with pure or acidulated cold water
serving to retain the ammoniacal-gas.
On leaving the apparatus the gas thus purified is burnt in furnaces or is employed
as a lighting gas.
An improved continuous blast lime-furnace is placed between four furnaces for
incinerating sewage the waste heat of which is caused to pass into the lime furnace
charged with limestone and a small quantity of coke or coal.or a greater quantity
of inferior fuel.
The introduction of the waste heat of the heating furnaces has no other object
but to increase the heat from the fuel in the lime 'furnace and to effect a
considerable saving of fuel.
This lime furnace is provided for producing heat at a very low price, in order to
employ the ashes or cinders for the manufacture of mortar and for the introduction
of lime into the distilling retorts for disengaging all the ammonia from the animal
matter and the like.
It is expedient to select a limestone which burns easily at not too high a
temperature and yielding a very great quantity of lime.
It cannot be desirable to transform into mortar all the residues from the
incineration of town refuse but only those possessing puzzolanic properties, which
mixed in certain proportions with slaked lime communicate to it directly the quality
of hardening and setting in contact with the water in a more or less time without
previous baking, strong hydraulic mortar being thus obtained without cost.
This lime furnace, which may if necessary be provided interiorly with superposed
inclined grates, 'as in the drying chamber, and with a horizontal grate at the level
of the flues of the heating furnaces may serve for the rapid and continuous
incineration of very large quantities of town refuse when the heat from the four
lateral destructive furnaces will be improved by the employment of gas from
retorts, or by the addition of coke or coal mixed with the incinerated materials in
these lateral 'furnaces.
These grates will aid in obviating the crushing of the materials and 'in enabling
the hot gas to burn easily in the whole furnace.
Under these circumstances the town refuse and detritus of any kind may be
introduced into 'the furnace in a state of great humidity for the combustion
attaining in this furnace its 'maximum of intensity near the level of the conduits
from 'the heating furnaces all the materials will have had time to become dried
and to partly burn even before arriving at this point.
This furnace can also be employed for the distillation of animal and organic
matter, town refuse, rubbish, as far as they are sufficiently abundant and not
utilized directly for agricultural purposes in order to withdraw the tar, ammoniacal
liquors and the combustible gas by means of my rudimentary apparatus for
purifying and condensing the gas, tar and ammoniacal liquors. This gas after
purification is conveyed under the furnaces for aiding in the heating of the same.
When the furnace has been filled with materials to be distilled, and the registers
in the discharge orifices and flues from the heating furnaces have been closed so as
to permit only a small draught of air to prevent the fire rising to the top and to
be concentrated in the lower part of the furnace, all the oxygen of the air will be
burned near the grate and the heat will cause in the upper part of the material a
distillation in a closed space with production of gas, tar and the like.
In this case the draught from the four heating furnaces can take place through
the flues extending along the lime furnace up to the special chimney placed above
this furnace.
This furnace may serve at the same time for the 'various industrial uses herein-

page_text: before described, being employed for the calcination of town refuse and limestone
stratified or mixed together. I obtain in this manner simultaneously lime,
puzzolane, cement, tar, ammoniacal liquors and combustible
and also the very
economical incineration of a great quantity of town refuse. The ashes and residues
produced in this manner may after pulverization be directly employed as manure
or as mortar.
In fact the ashes and residues from the town refuse after this incineration are
naturally enriched with the lime dust produced by the inevitable exhaustion of the
lime at the time of its removal from the furnace. As the fire does not destroy the
potash of the vegetable waste, nor the phosphate of the bones contained in great
quantity in the residues from households, the proportion of potash and phosphate
will also be augmented in the ashes and residues after this calcination by reason of
the destruction and reduction of a great quantity of the materials in which they
were originally contained.
Such an increase in the richness in lime added to the puzzolanic properties
which a portion of the residues acquire by the incineration will generally enable
them to be used as a mortar which sets rapidly without necessitating the addition
of either lime or sand.
For this calcination by stratification of the limestone and the town refuse in my
lime furnace it is needful to diminish the layers of limestone, and take out the lime
oftener than in the case of other fuels, in order to remove the ashes and thus
maintain a sufficient draught for a good fire at the bottom of the furnace and
keeping up the distillation in the upper part of the material.
I may reduce the number of the limestone layers to that strictly necessary for
maintaining the passage of the hot gas and of the air through the furnace and
avoiding the crushing of the materials with or without the employment of the
superposed inclined grates.
A drying chamber is used for drying the sewage and the like in case of need
before its introduction into the furnaces or into the retorts.
This chamber is provided with superposed inclined grates upon which the moist
matter is drained and descends by sliding gently from one grate to another so as
to arrive sufficiently dried at the bottom of the chamber, by the action of a current
of hot air which passes through it in the upward direction and which is furnished
by the waste heat from two cells of the heating furnace and of the retort furnaces.
The floor of this chamber is constructed in the form of a funnel so as to permit
the discharge, through the central aperture provided with a movable grate, of the
liquors which may not have been evaporated.
The removal of the dried material from the furnace may also be effected through
this central aperture which terminates in the air passage and discharge orifice of
the large lime furnace or through the apertures provided a little above the level of
the terrace which covers the heating furnaces and the retort furnaces.
This chamber may also serve for drying the cement paste. I obtain an excellent
little lime furnace by using with this chamber the several improvements which
distinguish my new system of lime furnace, and which are amongst others its very
economic heating by utilizing the waste heat from the lateral heating furnaces
(in this case two in number) which may at the same time be distilling retort
furnaces and by reason of this fact have their operation ensured by the gas
produced by themselves; and the apparatus placed above the top and also the
Hues extending along the lime furnace up to the special chimney placed above this
furnace, which enable it to be employed for the generation of gas and for the
production of ammoniacal liquors, tar and combustible gas.
I thus obtain an excellent small lime furnace which can be used in every respect
for all the purposes and in the same manner as my large lime furnace but
possessing, as compared with the latter the great advantage of being much less
expensive to construct and being suitable for the manufacture of lime useful or
necessary for carrying my entire system into effect.
It has also the advantage over the large lime furnace in being adapted to serve

page_text: more easily by reason of its smaller size, as a dormant lime-furnace, and it can
also be more conveniently employed than my large furnace in the application of
any system to the calcination and treatment of the natural phosphates of lime.
A steam boiler may be employed if there is any need for a motor.
I extend the
use of my system to the incineration of animals slaughtered by order of the
competent authorities and declared unfit for consumption thus obviating all fear
of fraud.
My system is likewise applicable to the utilization of bye-products and waste
derived from the manufacture of sugar.
Other systems of lime furnaces, destructive furnaces retorts and apparatus for
purifying and condensing gas may be employed without departing either from the
essential principle or from the nature of my invention, which consists in the
employment of the heat produced by the destruction of town refuse by fire in
order to procure the heat necessary for the distillation of sewage to withdraw the
ammonia, tar animal black, lighting gas and the like and to serve for the economic
manufacture of lime, cement and puzzolane.
If I have selected by preference the improved Fryer furnaces it is because I
wish to demonstrate to towns which have adopted or have already employed this
furnace the great facility with which my process may be applied at a small cost to
their present installations and the great advantages which may be derived from it
financially.
I will give only one example. It is stated in the Report of the Special
Commission appointed by the town of Brussels for the purpose of going to England
to study on the spot the destruction of sewage by fire that at Leeds, where the
Fryer furnaces have appeared to them to have given the best results, the incinera-
tion of a ton of sewage has cost one of the depots one franc and seventeen centimes,
and the Armley Road depot about one franc after deducting the receipts from the
sale of mortar and old iron. It is to be noted, adds the report, that a great number
of animals were incinerated in the destructive furnace.
In this incineration, which has cost a comparatively large sum, agriculture has
lost all the ammonia, a fertilizing principle of great value, contained in abundance
in the materials incinerated, and industry has been deprived of the useful
products which might have been procured for it.
By my system, on the contrary I can obtain by the destruction of this animal
matter a great quantity of animal black, ammoniacal liquor, tars and lighting gas
which have all a great agricultural and industrial value, the sale of which
diminishes the cost of the incineration of the town refuse, and their obtention will
not cost anything or scarcely anything, the operation of the retorts being ensured
by themselves.
It is unnecessary to say more to establish the difference which exists between the
results heretofore obtained-and the advantageous results which my system will
achieve for the communal finances, agriculture and industry.
I am convinced that my various combinations enable the destruction of town
refuse for nothing and even to get a profit from the same.
My improved apparatus comprises a lime furnace having the aperture in the
vault at the base conducting to the doors and to the ash pit. I place an inclined
grate near the lower part of the base. An aperture in the large vault at the
base of the furnace leads to the doors and to the ash-pit and serves for forcing air
into the lime furnace.
Flues are provided for the introduction into the lime furnace of the waste heat
from the heating furnaces.
Other flues conduct the waste heat from the heating furnaces to the special
chimney. provide a door at the top for charging the furnace. The retorts have
an aperture for charging and discharging them. A tube conveys the gas from the
retorts to the barrel, in which the gas abandons part of its tar. On leaving the
barrel the gas is conducted through a tube to the cooling tube. In inclined
passages the materials are preliminarily dried before being spread upon the less

page_text: inclined part of the passage, and they slide finally upon an iron grate with
removable bars. A funnel serves for introducing the materials to be burnt, and a
door for removing the residues.
The air is forced through channels into the fire places of the heating furnaces.
The gas passes from the retorts and from the large furnace, in case of its employ-
ment as a gas generator through a pipe into the fire places of the heating furnaces
where it burns. From the lime furnace the gas is conducted through a large
tube to the distilling apparatus, in case of its employment as a gas generator
and to the chimney in case of its employment as a lime furnace. Rails are
provided for the movement of the trucks used, for the apparatus further includes
distilling retorts, a tubular boiler, a hopper for the admission of the materials to be
dried, inclined grates upon which the humid materials are drained, an entrance for
the current of hot air, a floor in the form of a funnel a grate for the removal of
the dried materials and the outflow of the liquors, a conduit near the central passage
for the removal of the material, a tube for cooling the gas and a sheet metal
cylinder filled with fragments of coke moistened with pure or acidulated cold water
serving to retain the ammoniacal gas.
Dated this 26th day of January 1892.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.
петири, аци DOPP
I, ALEXANDRE LEVIEUX, of 24 Rue de l'Evêque, Brussels, in the Kingdom of
Belgium, 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 :-
My invention relates to the treatment of sewage and other refuse, and to
apparatus therefor.
This important problem has not heretofore been solved in a practical manner.
The solution hereinafter set forth answers all the exigencies of hygiene, local
finances, and agriculture.
It is the result of a number of combined industrial and chemical processes
susceptible of being worked for industrial and commercial purposes.
My system comprises
The employment of the heat produced by the destruction of town refuse by fire,
to obtain the heat necessary for the distillation of sewage for the purpose of with-
drawing the ammonia, tar, animal black, lighting gas and the like, and serving for
the economic manufacture of lime, cement and puzzolana.
.
This heat is also used for working tubular boilers and the like in its passage to
the chimney.
I employ the gas resulting from the distillation of certain parts of town refuse
and the like. This term "and the like " means that we may distil other materials
than town refuse, we will therefore insert at this point a more exact definition of
some of these materials, thus for instance; the employment of the gas resulting
from the distillation of certain parts of town refuse and dirt, waste, schists, pyrites
and ligneous earths and the like, for lighting and heating the works and its
approaches or for heating furnaces and retorts, the operation of which is thus
ensured without the use of other heating agents.
For obtaining this result I employ Fryer furnaces for destroying the sewage,
their waste heat being utilized for heating part of the various apparatus; and
distilling retorts similar to those employed in gas works, placed directly above the
fire-places of the destructive furnaces, for instance one or two for each cell, taking
the places of the reverberatory vaults of these furnaces.

page_text: By heating in these retorts the animal matter from slaughter houses and fish
markets, such as blood, meat, horn, bone, diseased animals, certain organic matter,
town refuse, woollen rags, hair, old leather, and the like such as dirt, waste, schists,
pyrites and ligneous earths etc. I obtain animal black, ammoniacal liquors and tars,
and lighting gas.
Animal black has a great commercial value for the decoloration of sugar, and
also for cyanurated products which may be extracted therefrom.
Ammoniacal liquors and tars have also a great industrial and agricultural
value.
In the distillation of organic matter a great quantity of ammoniacal salts is
disengaged in the form of ammoniacal liquors.
Muscular flesh contains a great quantity of nitrogen. Ammonium carbonate is
more especially disengaged in the dry distillation of animal matter, ammonium
carbonate is dissolved in water which is formed at the same time and constitutes
with it ammoniacal liquors.
From ammoniacal liquors neutralized by sulphuric or hydrochloric acid I may
after filtration, extract by evaporation the ammoniacal salts saleable as manure, or
for the manufacture of soda salt.
Animal waste disengages a great quantity of lighting gas, which after purification
may serve for lighting the works, but it may be preferable to conduct it to the fire
places of incinerating furnaces for facilitating and improving the combustion of the
sewage and therefore augmenting the heat, which ensures also a great saving in
the heating of lime furnaces.
Or the gas may be conducted and burnt under distilling retorts, the operation of
which will thus be ensured by the gas produced by the said retorts themselves.
The production of animal black, tar and ammoniacal liquors will consequently
cost nothing or almost nothing and will greatly diminish the cost of incinerating
the town refuse.
I use rudimentary apparatus for purifying and condensing the gas, tar and
ammoniacal liquors, such as a barrel for the cooling tube, and a sheet-metal
cylinder filled with fragments of coke moistened with pure or acidulated cold water,
serving to retain the ammoniacal gas.
On leaving these apparatus the gas thus purified is burnt in furnaces or is
employed as a lighting gas.
An improved continuous blast lime-furnace is placed between four furnaces for
incinerating sewage the waste heat of which is caused to pass into the furnace
charged with limestone and a small quantity of coke'or coal or a greater quantity
of inferior fuel; such as town refuse, dirt, waste, schists, pyrites and ligneous
earths etc.
The introduction of the waste heat of the heating furnaces has no other object
but to increase the heat from the fuel in the lime furnace and to effect a con-
siderable saving of fuel.
This lime furnace is provided and so arranged as to be heated at a very low cost;
and I employ the ashes or cinders for the manufacture of mortar and for the
introduction of lime into the distilling retorts, for disengaging all the ammonia from
the animal matter and the like.
It is expedient to select a limestone which burns easily at not too high a
temperature and yielding a very great quantity of lime.
It is not desirable to transform into mortar all the residues from the incine-
ration of town refuse, but only those possessing puzzolanic properties, which mixed
in certain proportions with slaked lime communicate to it directly the quality of
hardening and setting in contact with the water in more or less time without
previous baking, strong hydraulic mortar and puzzolana cement being thus obtained
without cost.
This lime furnace, which may if necessary be provided interiorly with superposed
inclined grates, as in the drying chamber, and with a horizontal grate at the level
of the flues of the heating furnaces, may serve for the rapid and continuous

page_text: incineration of very large quantities of town refuse when the heat from the four
lateral destructive furnaces will be improved by the employment of gas from
retorts or by the addition of coke or coal or a greater quantity of fuel of an
inferior quality, such as dirt, waste, schists, pyrites and ligneous earths etc. mixed
with the incinerated materials in these lateral furnaces.
These grates will aid in obviating the caking together of the materials
and in enabling the hot gas to burn easily through the whole furnace.
Under these circumstances the town refuse and detritus of any kind may be
introduced into the furnace in a state of great humidity, for as the combustion
in this furnace attains its maximum of intensity near the level of the conduits
from the heating furnaces, all the materials will have had time to become dried
and to partly burn even before arriving at this point.
This furnace can also be employed for the distillation of animal and organic
matter, town refuse, rubbish, filth, waste, schists, pyrites and ligneous earths etc.,
as far as they are sufficiently abundant and not utilized directly for agricultural
purposes in order to withdraw the tar, ammoniacal liquors and the combustible
gas by means of my rudimentary apparatus for purifying and condensing the gas,
tar and ammoniacal liquors. This gas after purification is conveyed under the
furnaces for aiding in the heating of the same.
When the furnace has been filled with materials to be distilled, and the
registers in the discharge orifices and flues from the heating furnaces have been
closed so as to permit only a small draught of air in order to prevent the fire rising
to the top and to concentrate it in the lower part of the furnace, all the oxygen
of the air will be burned near the grate and the heat will cause in the upper
part of the material a distillation in a closed space with production of gas, tar, and
the like.
In this case the draught from the four heating furnaces can take place through
the flues extending along the lime furnace up to the special chimney placed above
this furnace.
This furnace may serve at the same time for the various industrial uses
hereinbefore described, being employed for the calcination of town refuse and
limestone stratified or mixed together. I obtain in this manner simultaneously
lime, puzzolana, cement, stucco tar, ammoniacal liquors and combustible gas, and
also the very economical incineration of a great quantity of town refuse. The ashes
and residues produced in this manner may after pulverization be directly employed
as manure or as mortar.
In fact the ashes and residues from the town refuse after this incineration are
naturally enriched with the lime dust produced by the inevitable exhaustion of the
lime at the time of its removal from the furnace. As the fire does not destroy the
potash of the vegetable waste, nor the phosphate of the bones contained in great
quantity in the residues from households, the proportion of potash and phosphate
will also be augmented in the ashes and residues after this calcination by reason of
the destruction and reduction of a great quantity of the materials in which they
were originally contained.
Such an increase in the richness in lime added to the puzzolanic properties which
a portion of the residues acquire by the incineration, will generally enable them to
be used as a mortar which sets rapidly, without necessitating the addition of either
lime or sand.
.
For this calcination by stratification of the limestone and the town refuse in my
lime furnace it is needful to diminish the layers of limestone, and take out the lime
oftener than in the case of other fuels, in order to remove the ashes and thus
maintain a sufficient draught for a good fire at the bottom of the furnace and
keeping up the distillation in the upper part of the material.
I may reduce the number of the limestone layers to that strictly necessary for
maintaining the passage of the hot gas and of the air through the furnace and
avoiding the crushing of the materials with or without the employment of the
superposed inclined.grates.

page_text: A drying chamber is used for drying the sewage and the like in case of need
before its introduction into the furnaces or into the retorts.
This chamber is provided with superposed inclined grates upon which the moist
matter is drained and descends by sliding gently from one grate to another so as to
arrive sufficiently dried at the bottom of the chamber, by the action of a current
of hot air which passes through it in the upward direction and which is furnished
by the waste heat from two cells of the heating furnace and of the retort furnaces.
The floor of this chamber is constructed in the form of a funnel so as to permit
the discharge, through the central aperture provided with a movable grate, of the
liquors which may not have been evaporated.
The removal of the dried material from the furnace may also be effected through
this central aperture 9 which terminates in the air passage and discharge orifice of
the large lime furnace or through the apertures 13 provided a little above the level
of the terrace which covers the heating furnaces and the retort furnaces.
:
This chamber may also serve for drying the cement paste. I obtain an excellent
little lime furnace by using with this chamber the several improvements which
distinguish my new system of lime furnace, and which are amongst others its very
economical working by utilizing the waste heat from the lateral heating furnaces
(in this case two in number) which may at the same time be distilling retort
furnaces and by reason of this fact have their operation ensured by the gas produced
by themselves; and the apparatus placed above the top and also the flues extending
along the lime furnace up to the special chimney placed above this furnace, which
enable it to be employed for the generation of gas and for the production of
ammoniacal liquors, tar and combustible gas.
I thus obtain an excellent small lime furnace which can be used in every respect
for all the purposes and in tlie same manner as my large lime furnace but possessing,
as compared with the latter the great advantage of being much less expensive to
construct and being suitable for the manufacture of lime useful or necessary for
carrying my entire system into effect.
It has also the advantage over the large lime furnace in being adapted to serve
more easily, by reason of its smaller size, as an intermittent lime-furnace or one
which is not refilled during the process of burning; and it can also be more
conveniently employed than my large furnace in the application of any system to
the calcination and treatment of the natural phosphates of lime.
A steam boiler may be employed if there is any need for a motor.
I extend the use of my system to the incineration of animals slaughtered by order
of the authorities and declared unfit for consumption thus obviating all fear of fraud.
My system is likewise applicable to the utilization of bye-products and waste
derived from the manufacture of sugar.
Other systems of lime furnaces, destructive furnaces, retorts and apparatus for
purifying and condensing gas may be employed without departing either from the
essential principle or from the nature of my invention, which consists in the
employment of the heat produced by the destruction of town refuse by fire, in
order to procure the heat necessary for the distillation of sewage, to withdraw the
ammonia, tar, animal black, lighting gas and the like and to serve for the economic
manufacture of lime, cement and puzzolana.
If I have selected by preference the improved Fryer furnaces it is because I
wish to demonstrate to towns which have adopted or have already employed this
furnace, the great facility with which my process may be applied at a small cost
to their present installations and the great advantage which may be derived from
it financially.
I will give only one example.
It is stated in the Report of the Special Commission appointed by the town of
Brussels for the purpose of going to England to study on the spot the destruction
of sewage by fire, that at Leeds, where the Fryer furnaces have appeared to them
to have given the best results, the incineration of a ton of sewage has cost one of
the depôts one franc and seventeen centimes, and the Armley Road depôt about

page_text: one franc after deducting the receipts from the sale of mortar and old iron. It is
o be noted, adds the report, that a great number of animals were incinerated in
the destructive furnace.
In this incineration, which has cost a comparatively large sum, agriculture has
ost all the ammonia, a fertilizing principle of great value, contained in abundance
n the materials incinerated, and industry has been deprived of the useful products
which might have been obtained.
By my system, on the contrary, I can obtain by the destruction of this animal
matter a great quantity of animal black, ammoniacal liquor, tars and lighting gas
which have all a great agricultural and industrial value, the sale of which diminishes
the cost of the incineration of the town refuse, and their production will not cost
anything or scarcely anything the operation of the retorts being effected by their
own products.
It is unnecessary to say more to establish the difference which exists between the
results heretofore obtained and the advantageous results which my system will
achieve for the local finances, agriculture and various industries.
I am convinced that my various combinations enable the destruction of town
refuse for nothing and even to get a profit from the same.
In the accompanying drawings.
Fig. 1 is a vertical section of the large lime furnace and of two of the lateral
furnaces, one being a retort furnace and the other of the Fryer kind.
Fig. 2 is a horizontal section at the level of the terrace covering the heating
furnace.
Fig. 3 is a horizontal section of the upper crown of the large lime furnace, and
Fig. 4 is a vertical section of the drying chamber.
Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several figures of
the drawings.
In Figure 1 A represents the cavity of the lime furnace. B the base of the
lime furnace. C the aperture in the vault at the base of the furnace leading to the
withdrawal doors and to the ash pit. D is an inclined grate near the lower part
of the base B. E the interior of the ash pit of the lime furnace. Fan aperture
in the large vault at the base of the furnace, leading to the withdrawal doors of
the ash pit, and serving for forcing air into the lime furnace. G are flues provided
for the introduction into the lime furnace of the waste heat from the heating
furnaces. H H are other flues conducting the waste heat from the heating furnaces
to the special chimney I which serves for receiving in case of need the said waste
heat from the heating furnaces coming from the lime furnace, in case of its employ-
ment as a gas generator. J is a door at the top for charging the furnace. Kare
distilling retorts. LL are apertures in the retorts for charging and discharging
them. M is a tube conveying the gas from the retorts to the barrel N in which
the gas deposits part of its tar. O is a tube conveying the gas on leaving the
barrel to the cooling tube. PP are inclined passages in which the materials are
preliminarily dried before being spread upon the less inclined part of the passage,
and they slide finally upon an iron grate provided with removable bars.
R is a funnel serving for introducing the materials to be burnt, and S is a door
for removing the residues. T are ash pits for the heating furnaces. U are
channels through which air is forced into the fire places of the heating furnaces.
V V are pipes conveying the gas from the retorts and from the large furnace,
in case of its employment as a gas generator, through a pipe into the fire places
of the heating furnaces where it burns. W is a large tube conducting the gas
from the lime furnace either to the distilling apparatus, in case of its employment
as a gas generator, or to the chimney in case of its employment as a lime furnace.
In Figures 1 and 2 X X are rails provided for the trucks used in the operation of
the system. Y is a place shown for a tubular boiler. In Figure 4, Z is a hopper
for the admission of the materials to be dried, 6 6 are inclined grates upon which
the humid materials are drained. 7 is an entrance for the current of hot air.
8 a floor in the form of a funnel. 9 a grate for the removal of the dried materials
B

page_text: and the outflow of the liquors. 10 a conduit near the central passage for the
removal of the material, 11 a place for the tube for cooling the gas, 12 a place
for the sheet metal cylinder filled with fragments of coke moistened with pure or
acidulated cold water serving to retain the ammoniacal gas.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be perforined, I declare that what I
claim is :-
First. The employment and the application of the general principle of my
invention and of the whole of my system, and also of my various apparatus to
the production of certain materials which may be obtained by combustion, fermen-
tation by oxidation, and distillation, having puzzolanic aluminious and other
properties; the substances acted on being not only town refuse, but also any
other filth or waste, such as schists, pyrites and ligneous earths etc. employed alone,
or mixed or stratified, with town refuse or limestone, in order to withdraw from all
these various materials the ammonia, tar, animal black, lighting gas, and com-
bustible gas etc.; and to make them serve for the manufacture of lime, cement
stucco and puzzolana, whether the filth, waste, base products, schists, pyrites and
ligneous carths have or have not already undergone combustion or fermentation
by oxidation, which is often produced spontaneously, principally by the oxidation
of the pyrites contained in more or less large quantity in certain ligneous earths.
Second. The improved lime furnace and its applications, substantially as herein-
before described, and shown in the accompanying drawing.
Third. The arrangement of furnace with retorts serving for distillation and the
method of heating furnace substantially as herein before described, and shown in
the accompanying drawings.
Fourth. The devices for employing the gas resulting from the distillation of
refuse, filth, waste, base products schists, pyrites and ligneous earths etc.
Fifth. The combination of the drying chamber capable of being transformed so
as to be used as a lime, cement, phosphate, puzzolana etc. furnace, as a destroyer
of refuse, and as a generator of gas and producer of tar and ammoniacal liquor.
Sixth. The herein described improvement as a whole and the principle as broadly
indicated whether the different apparatus comprised therein are utilized together
or separately.
Seventh. The system of calcining limestone and town refuse, filth, waste, schists,
pyrites and ligneous earths and other substances as hereinbefore indicated.
Dated this 25th day of October 1892.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.