Improvements relating to the Conversion into Manure of the Refuse and Foul Matters from Cities and Towns.
Year: 1891

page_text: Date of Application, 18th Dec., 1891-Accepted, 20th Feb., 1892
Improvements relating to the Conversion into Manure of the Refuse
and Foul Matters from Cities and Towns.
I, LUIGI LAMATTINA, of 107, Corso, Rome, in the Kingdom of Italy, Chemist,
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 :-
When vegetable cells are brought into contact with alkaline substances in excess,
they die because, contrary to animal cells, they require, in order to live, to be in
a slightly acid or neutral medium. All plants or vegetable matter and, conse-
quently, also the pathogenic microbes, are subject to the same general law.
On this fundamental basis of vegetable biology and physiology, is based my
method of converting all refuse and foul matters from cities or towns into manure.
Such foul matters, as is well known, very easily undergo putrefactive fermentation.
This putrefaction, whilst it develops pestilential gases which infect the air, also
produces several acid substances which favour the development and multiplication
of pathogenic microbes, and it is just for this reason that such foul matters are very
dangerous to the public health and cannot be directly utilized as manure.
To enable the said foul matters to be profitably utilized for agricultural purposes,
it is necessary to prevent the putrefactive fermentation of the same by setting up
another fermentation, and to destroy the pathogenic microbes of such foul matters
by contact with alkaline substances.
But to enable this principle to be applied practically and on an industrial scale,
it is necessary to find an easy and economical process adapted to change the
putrefactive fermentation of the said foul matters into another fermentation, which,
whilst not dangerous to the public health, will effect the destruction of the
pathogenic microbes.
After a great number of experiments to attain this result, I have found that the
best process, the easiest, the surest and the most economical, is that offered by
nature, that is to say, ammoniacal fermentation.
According to my invention, therefore, I proceed as follows, that is to say :-
I arrange the said foul matters, whatever may be their nature, in alternate layers
with farm or stable dung, and keep the mass constantly moist in such a manner
that fermentation will be maintained between say fifty and sixty degrees centigrade,
and the pathogenic microbes being in an alkaline medium, by reason of the
ammonia produced, will be killed; whilst the organic substances of the said foul
matters will undergo ammoniacal fermentation and thus be converted into manure.
In this manner two great problems are solved, viz. :-
1. The profitable sale and utilization for agricultural purposes, of an enormous
quantity of refuse and foul matters, which is now almost entirely lost.
2. The removal from cities and towns of a continual source of infection, with the
advantage of preservation of the public health.
In carrying on my improved process, I first climinate from the foul matters all
heterogeneous substances, such as glass, stones and the like; I then arrange upon
an impermeable bed, prepared as hereinafter described, a layer of farm dung, of
the height of about fifty centimetres; I slightly compress this layer, and I arrange
thereon another layer of the refuse or foul matter of the height of about twenty-five
centimetres, placing over the same a thin layer of earth; I then sprinkle the mass
or heap with water until it is slightly wetted or moistened throughout.
On these layers, I arrange another layer of dung and another layer of the foul
matter in the same manner as before, and so on until the heap has attained a height
of about from three to six metres. The length of the mass or heap may be about
[P1]

page_text: twenty metres, and its width about from three to six metres, as may be found
most convenient.
When the mass or heap is about one-and-a-half metres high, I set up in the
middle thereof, at a distance of about two metres apart, iron rods of about ten
centimetres in circumference, in such a manner that they can be readily withdrawn
and replaced, so as to provide as many holes in the mass for the introduction of
thermometers to permit of regulating the temperature of the interior of the mass.
One of these masses or heaps being completed as above explained, another is
commenced, and so on according to the quantity of material to be treated.
In the ammoniacal fermentation produced as above described, there are formed :-
formene, several other carburets, and sulphuretted hydrogen. It is, therefore,
necessary to convert the latter into sulphur in order to avoid disagreeable
emanations.
This result is accomplished with the greatest facility by scattering over every
two layers, in the formation of the mass or heap, four or five kilogrammes of
sulphate of iron coarsely ground. This salt is very useful for this purpose, 1,
because, besides absorbing the sulphuretted hydrogen, it is capable also of fixing or
retaining the ammonia in excess, which would otherwise become diffused in the air;
2, by reason of the facility with which ferrous oxide becomes oxidized and
deoxidized, it maintains in the mass a continual interchange of oxygen, which
facilitates the conversion of the organic substances; 3, because the oxide of iron
being an element of fertility, especially for some soils, augments the fertilizing
value of the manure thus prepared.
If the foul matters to be treated do not contain earthy portions, it will also be
necessary to add upon cach layer of such foul matters, a layer of about five
centimetres thick of earth, which is in itself very useful:-1, because it maintains
the moisture in the layers of manure; 2, because it arrests in the mass the
ammoniacal gas which arises from the fermentation and which is adapted to destroy,
if they still exist, the pathogenic microbes of the said foul matters; 3, because, by
reason of the nitric ferment which the carth contains, there are formed in the mass
of manure nitrates which are very useful for agricultural purposes.
When the temperature of the rass or heap of manure diminishes below thirty
degrees centigrade, and the mass or heap has attained the desired dimensions, it is
covered with a layer of earth of the thickness of about twenty-five centimetres nt
its summit, and then again sprinkled with water, and is then allowed to remain for
three months, care being taken to sprinkle with water, in the first month, all the
edges of the bed or mass once or twice a week, according to the season. After this
time, the mass or heap of manure will be diminished by about one-third and the
manure can be then used for agriculture.
The fertilizing power of this manure prepared according to the method above
described, is very superior to that of ordinary farm dung, because, being made up
in accordance with all the rules dictated by science, there is a minimum loss of
nitrogen. This substance exists in the said manure under the three forms of
organic, ammoniacal and nitric nitrogen, easily assimilable by plants. According
to the nature of the soil of the cities or towns from which the foul matters proceed,
the mineral substances may vary in this manure, whilst experience has proved that
the nitrogen remains nearly always invariable. It is, therefore, sufficient to once
make an exact analysis of the inanure thus prepared, in each town where the
method is put into practice, in order to ascertain the quantity of fertilizing
substances which it contains. And as this product will have a composition almost
constant, its constituents may be treated with the organic substance, as is done in
the case of chemical manures.
This result is of great practical value to the cultivator, who, having at his
disposal a manure which is always of equal composition, can profitably effect a
proper and rational cultivation, which has not heretofore been practicable, as
manure has bad to be procured from one place or another without knowing the
quality and quantity of its constituents.

page_text: It is, therefore, evident that my method, wherever it is put into practice, will
give such an impetus to agriculture that the national wealth will be greatly
augmented.
In constructing the impermeable beds or sites for my manure heaps, I proceed
as follows, viz. :-
The ground necessary for making these beds or sites will be determined by the
quantity of material to be treated, and is divided into several spaces about from
three to six metres wide and from ten to twenty metres long, as may be required.
These beds or sites on which are to be arranged the heaps of manure, should be
rendered impermeable by means of clay well beaten down, or by means of cement
or the like, giving thein the form of a road, that is to say, slightly raised or
bulging at the middle. They should have a slope in the longitudinal direction of
about ten centimetres, in such a manner that they have a height of about fifteen
centimetres from the ground at one end, diminishing by degrees to about five
centimetres at the other end.
These beds are to be inclined as above indicated, two and two, one in front of
another, that is to say, two beds are to be placed end to end and oppositely
inclined. Between these two beds at the lowest part of their. slope or inclination,
a space is left of about from one-and-a-half to two metres, in which is constructed
a small pit or well properly cemented of a capacity of about one hectolitre, for
collecting the drainage from the two beds. Morcover around each bed is formed a
smail conduit or channel proportionate to the size of the heap of manure which it
is to surround. Besides this conduit or channel, each bed is provided with other
small channels or gutters extending both lengthwise and transversely at a distance
of about one metre apart, and rather smaller than the aforesaid conduit or channel
into which they discharge.
These small longitudinal and transverse gutters of the bed are necessary to afford
the heap of manure greater facility for drainage, and to enable it to be divided into
pieces of the size of one cubic metre.
The small lateral channel of the bed should be always kept clean so as to
facilitate the flow of liquid from the manure into the aforesaid pit or well.
If the fermentation of the mass of manure is regularly maintained and the
relative waterings are properly effected, there will not be much liquid flowing from
it, but it will always be necessary to throw this liquid back upon the heap of
manure by means of a small pump.
Along the said beds a road may be constructed, and also a railway if the same is
necessitated by the quantity of manure contained in the several heaps. To
facilitate the necessary labour, and to protect the beds and the heaps of manure
from the rain and from the drying action of the sun, the said beds and heaps should
be covered by means of sheds or the like.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is
First. The conversion of the refuse or foul matters from cities or towns into
manure, by arranging the said refuse or foul matters in layers alternately with farm
or stable dung (with or without intermediate layers of earth) and keeping the mass
or heap moist so as to set up an ammoniacal fermentation therein, for the purpose
above specified.
Second. In the treatment of the refuse or foul matters as herein described, the
use of sulphate of iron scattered over the layers of the said refuse or foul matters
for the purposes above specified.
Third. The construction of an impermeable bed or site for the heap or heaps of
manure, with the channels or gutters and the collecting pit or well, substantially in
the manner hereinbefore described.
Fourth. The improved method or process of treating the refuse or foul matters

page_text: from cities or towns to convert the same into manure, substantially as hereinbefore
described.
Dated the 18th day of December 1891.
D. YOUNG & Co.,
11 & 12, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C.