AN IMPROVED METHOD OF APPLYING TO LAND LIQUID SEWAGE, AND ALSO OF APPLYING TO LAND WATER, PURE OR MIXED, WITH OTHER MATTEE
Year: 1866

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
filed by the said James Pilbrow at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and Declaration,
on the 12th February 1866, pursuant to the 9th Section of the Patent
Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
PILBROW, of Richmond, in the County of Surrey, Civil Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention for "AN IMPROVED METHOD
OF APPLYING TO LAND LIQUID SEWAGE, AND ALSO OF APPLYING TO LAND WATER, PURE
OR MIXED, WITH OTHER MATTEE," and have petitioned Her Majesty to grant
unto me, my executors, administrators, and assigns, Her Royal Letters Patent
for the same, and have made solemn Declaration that I am the true and
first Inventor thereof.
NOW KNOW YE that I, the said James Pilbrow, do hereby declare
that the following Complete Specification, under my hand and seal, fully
[Price 8.]

page_text: describes and ascertains the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, in and by the following statement (that
is to say) :-
This method (and so far as it concerns sewage, after the solid and grosser
matters and refuse contained in the sewage, (such as paper, rags, and
accidental debris) have been filtered from it in the usual manner by a gravel
or other filter, or gratings or perforated plates, into a tank where it is
received from the town sewers), is simply conveying the liquid sewage or
water to any land it is proposed to manure or water in the ordinary way, but
under pressure through cast-iron pipes, and then distributing it (not over the
surface as hitherto done by irrigation, warping, or jet, but) by means of a
series of perforated earthenware pipes (which I call "the distributors")
under the surface, say 15 inches below it, more or less, according to the
object desired, and the nature of the soil and crops, and which also must
regulate the distance the distributors should be apart. The liquid sewage
or water must first be deposited in a tank or receiver above the level of the
land by pumping or other means (a stand pipe or air vessel may be used
for that purpose) to obtain a slight head pressure, regulated according to the
requirements of the case, such as the altitude and distance of the land to be
manured or watered, its density or porousness, the quantity of sewage or
water to be delivered, and the time within which it is to be delivered, and
possibly other special circumstances. The sewage or water will then pass
by force of the head pressure along or through iron piping to be laid down
for that purpose (which I call "the main ") to or as far as the land into
which it is to be carried, and thence, that is from the main, through a branch
or lesser pipe and some simple sluice cock or valve, into earthenware pipes,
(the distributors) to be laid down in the land to be manured or watered,
which distributors will so become immediately charged or filled, and (being
under the prescribed pressure) the sewage or water will be urged out at any
perforation or exit into the subsoil, through which it will permeate, and to
saturate all the land above the distributors, for it will first rise by capillary
attraction to the surface, or nearly so, and then sink by gravitation and drain
away by the ordinary drain pipes (should there be any), or by the natural
porosity of the under stratification, and by this process the sewage will
deposit all its fertilizing qualities in the soil and nourish the roots of whatever
may be growing in the land. The number of perforations in the distributors
need be few, as the joints of those pipes should be loose and unpacked, and
will so allow of a considerable issue and distribution of the sewage or water.

page_text: The distributors may be placed in any direction and frequency that the case
may require, but probably the parallel arrangement will generally be found
the most convenient and economical, especially where the land is drained by
parallel drains.
An illustration of what has been stated is shewn by Drawing No. 1,
hereunto annexed, in field A, which is supposed to be a field drained in the
The sewage
ordinary way, and in field B, which is supposed to be undrained.
or water is supposed to have been conveyed in a cast-iron pipe (the main)
along a road from a town, similar to the present method of laying water
mains, to point a, whence a lesser or branch cast-iron pipe, with water-tight
joints, conveys the sewage or water from the main across a field not requiring
the sewage to point b, at the edge of field A. where the sewage or water is
required, at which point a simply constructed sluice cock or valve is supposed
to be placed (or in this instance it might have been placed at point a instead)
to allow the sewage or water to charge or fill the feeder pipe b, c; and the
distributors d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, will be perforated and loose-
jointed earthenware pipes, about 1-inch diameter, except the feeder and the
To
pipe q, which on account of their duty may be larger, say 3 inches.
supply field B it is supposed that the requisite quantity of distributors are
attached to and thrown off from the pipe q in field A into field B. The blue
lines in field A represent drain pipes laid in the usual way as now practised,
the distributing pipes, or red lines, being placed alternately between them,
only at lesser depth, as better explained by
hereunto annexed; the sewage or water pipes
circles, and the drain pipes by blue circles.
point in Drawing No. 1, when opened, will allow the sewage or water to
fill the whole of the red pipes, and on account of its pressure will escape at
every aperture, and thus saturate the subsoil, and rise by capillary attraction
and for the other reasons herein-after explained to the surface, or nearly
so, before running or percolating away through the lower strata, or by
the drain pipes (where there are any), and thus any amount of sewage or
water can be disposed of at all times and seasons, as the land may require or
admit of it.
the Section in Drawing No. 2
being therein indicated by red
The sluice cock or valve at
The Drawing No. 2 represents a portion of field A on a larger scale and
in section, the blue circles representing the drains in section, and the red
circles the sewage or water distributors in section, the former about 4 feet
deep, the latter about 15 inches. The portion shewn stippled or dotted over
represents in section the depth of soil usually loosened by ploughing, and the

page_text: trenches dug to lay in the pipes respectively, and afterwards replaced, and
consequently loose or made ground. Now, assuming that the sewage or water
pipes are charged with liquid manure, under a little pressure, it will pass out
at every aperture it finds, and soak away into the surrounding soil in all
directions, and in ordinary course would pass most readily upwards, as is
known to be the case with leakage from water pipes, on account of the soil
being less dense and compact near the surface than below, and would
therefore reach the roots of the most shallow growing plants: others would
send down their roots and fibres into the enriched and moist earth; but in the
case here represented it will be evident that as the trenches made for laying
the sewage or water pipes (red) having been ding out and filled in again are
looser than the surrounding dense and undisturbed soil the liquid will rise,
and as it were overflow these trenches, soaking and fertilizing the upper
soil, especially that which was last loosened by the plough, and coming to the
drain pipe trenches (blue) will filter downwards in them, and having parted
with all its fertilizing and noxious or impure qualities will pass off through
the drain pipes to the natural ontfall. The action or passage of the liquid
manure or water from the pipes through the upper soil (overflowing, as it
were), and sinking away again by the drain pipes or trenches, blue, is shewn
or indicated by the blue tint and arrows in the section. The distributors
may be from 10 to 30 feet apart or even more in open and porous soils; but
where drain pipes are in use between each of them, as shewn in Drawing
No. 2, the pipes themselves will differ little from those ordinarily used for
draining, though I should prefer them to be glazed inside, and having from
2 to 5 longitudinal slits or holes of about a quarter of an inch wide and
2 inches long placed at different parts of their circumference and length;
the joints would be a simple collar or "spigot and socket" joint; in laying
them it would be desirable to lay a stone or two at or to cover loosely each
hole or aperture. The size of the several pipes must be adapted to the
requirements, but in most cases the main pipe or ordinary feeder might be
3 inches in internal diameter, and the distributing pipes from one inch and a
quarter to one inch and a half in internal diameter; and the main pipes
should be always kept fully charged, and under the slight pressure before
mentioned.
I claim as my Invention the applying and distributing liquid sewage and
water (pure or mixed with other matter) under pressure subterraneously or
underground, in the mode already explained; I disclaim any novelty in the
apparatus by which it is accomplished, but I claim as my Invention the

page_text: application of such apparatus to and for the purposes and in the manner
aforesaid.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Pilbrow, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twelfth day of February, in the year of apr Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.
JAMES PILBROW. (L.S.)