IMPROVEMENTS IN THE DISINFECTION AND TREATMENT OF FECAL AND OTHER MATTERS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF MANURE
Year: 1867

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Emile Guenin at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 27th April
1867. A communication from abroad by Louis Verstraet, of Paris, in
the Empire of France, Chemist.
I, EMILE GUENIN, of Henrietta Street, in the County of Middlesex, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
DISINFECTION AND TREATMENT OF FECAL AND OTHER MATTERS FOR THE MANUFACTURE
OF MANURE," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to the eniployment of chloride of manganese forming
the residue of the manufacture of chlorine for the disinfection of fecal matters.
This salt is produced daily in immense quantities in chemical works and
is at present of but little value and only utilized to a small extent
In order to render it suitable for the purposes of this Invention, I commence
by neutralizing the considerable excess of acid it contains by the aid of
dolomite (double carbonate of lime and magnesia) or any other calcareous
magnesian substance, or it may be by the aid of lime, simply adding to the
saturated solution for the purpose of obtaining the desired results a certain
quantity of chloride of magnesium, or it may if necessary be saturated with
iron or zinc cuttings or oxidized ores of the same. The effects of the chloride
of manganese thus neutralized are instantaneous, by the absorbing action of
the three salts it contains it decomposes, absorbs, or fixes all the deleterious
gases of the nightsoil, mineralizes and concentrates in a small compass the
greater part of the fertilizing matters which are now wasted in the waste
waters of dye and other works after distillation, and carried away in the streams.

page_text: The hydrosulphuric and carbonic gases, urates, sulphates, and carbonates,
phosphates and biphosphates of potash, soda, ammonia, and lime are decom-
posed and give up their acid principles to the oxides of manganese, magnesia,
and lime, while the phosphoric acid contained in the solid matters and urine
being precipitated in the form of double ammoniaco-magnesian phosphate, or
of ammoniaco-manganous phosphate, carries with it a proportionate quantity
of ammonia permanently fixed in the nightsoil, and this quantity is con-
siderable, as 71 parts of phosphoric acid, by combining with the magnesia and
ammonia carry with them 17 parts of the latter base or nearly 24 per cent.,
lastly, the carbonates of magnesia and lime as well as the sulphate of lime by
reason of their minute atomic subdivison serve to retain when precipitated the
organic azoted matters held in suspension in the liquids in such manner that
in less than a week the waste waters will be completely deprived of all solid
substances, and contain only one essentially fixed salt consisting of hydrochlorate
of ammonia which is indecomposable by fermentation or atmospheric influence.
The advantages possessed by chloride of manganese saturated with lime and
combined with chloride of magnesium may be summed up by stating that by
its means fecal matters may be instantaneously and permanently disinfected,
and their fertilizing products concentrated in a small space. The value of
the product obtained by this improved process of disinfection is almost double
that produced by the ordinary processes. The quantity of azote retained is
doubled, while as before-mentioned the whole of the phosphoric acid contained
in the evacuations is extracted in the form of double ammoniaco-magnesian
and ammoniaco-manganous phosphates, and consequently almost the whole
of its fertilizing substances, to which may be added with advantage the
sulphate of lime or carbonates of lime and magnesia which are produced by
the double decomposition operated in the disinfected matters.
As regards
mixing the disinfectant with the matters, this may be effected at different
intervals or at the time of emptying the cesspools, in which latter case
it is effected by the aid of the pump serving to extract the matters. The
disinfectant is first drawn out of the containing vessels by the pump and
then forced into the cesspool, thereby in this manner a perfect mixing is at
once effected, and in order to quicken the precipitation of all the solid
matters in suspension in the liquids I may add two or three per cent. of
raw salts of alumina resulting from the washing of aluminous schists, or a
certain quantity of the schists themselves in a natural state..
The Invention thus consists, 1st, in the employment for the disinfection of
fecal matters of chloride of manganese saturated as before-mentioned with
iron, zinc, or ores of these metals or preferably with lime or magnesia or

page_text: other agent possessing similar properties; 2ndly, in the employment of any
other metallic chloride capable of producing the same results; 3rdly, in the
employment of aluminous schists or of raw salts of alumina for quickening the
precipitation of the solid matters in the receptacles; and 4thly, in the mode of
mixing the disinfectant with the matters.