IMPROVE- MENTS IN TREATING PUTRESCENT OR PUTRESCIBLE MATTERS, SUCH AS SEWAGE, NIGHT SOIL, FISH, OFFAL, BLOOD, AND OTHER ANIMAL MATTERS AND VEGETABLE MATTERS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF MANURE THEREFROM.”
Year: 1873

page_text: ETTERS PATENT to Christopher Rawson, of No. 1, Saint Swithin's
Lane, in the City of London, General Manager to the Native
Guano Company (Limited), and William Cameron Sillar, of Black-
heath, in the County of Kent, Gentleman, and John William Slater,
Analytical Chemist, of No. 2, Tamworth Terrace, in the County of
Middlesex, and Thomas Sipling Wilson, of 19, Cambridge Terrace,
in the County of Surrey, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN TREATING PUTRESCENT OR PUTRESCIBLE MATTERS, SUCH AS SEWAGE,
NIGHT SOIL, FISH, OFFAL, BLOOD, AND OTHER ANIMAL MATTERS AND
VEGETABLE MATTERS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF MANURE THEREFROM.”
"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Christopher Rawson,
William Cameron Sillar, John William Slater, and Thomas Sipling
Wilson at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 8th August 1878.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Christopher Rawson,
William Cameron Sillar, John William Slater, and Thomas Sipling
Wilson at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
„Petition, on the 8th August 1878.
We, CHRISTOPHER RAWSON, of No. 1, Saint Swithin's Lane, in the
City of London, General Manager to the Native Guano Company

page_text: (Limited), and WILLIAM CAMERON SILLAR, of Blackheath, in the
County of Kent, Gentleman, and JOHN WILLIAM SLATER, Analytical
Chemist, of No. 2, Tamworth Terrace, in the County of Middlesex, and
THOMAS SIPLING WILSON, of 19, Cambridge Terrace, in the County of
Surrey, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention 5
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING PUTRESCENT OR PUTRESCIBLE MATTERS, SUCH AS
Sewage, Night SOIL, FISH, OFFAL, BLOOD, AND OTHER ANIMAL MATTERS AND
VEGETABLE MATTERS FOR THE Manufacture of MANURE THEREFROM," to be as
follows:-
Our Invention consists firstly in making manure from sewage and 1
night soil, and from fish, animal refuse, blood, and other animal matters
and vegetable matters by treating it or them as herein-after described
with sulphurous acid gas, chlorine, hydrochloric acid gas, carbonic acid
gas, nitric, nitrous, or hyponitric vapours, fumes or gases, carbolic acid
vapour, and cresylic acid vapour, or any other volatile antiseptic derived 1
from coal tar or petroleum. These gases or vapours may either be used
separately or a mixture of any two or more of them may be used.
In treating sewage we run it into a tank or vessel, and pass or force
the gas or gases to be used through the said sewage, or we cause the
sewage to flow down through a scrubber, coke tower, or other known con- 2
trivance of this nature, up which we pass or force the gas or gases. After
thus disinfecting the sewage we precipitate its valuable ingredients
by any suitable precipitant, using by preference the mixture known as
the " A, B, C, mixture," or such of the ingredients of the said mixture
as will produce precipitation. This mixture is described in the Specifi- 2
cation of Letters Patent granted to William Cameron Sillar, one of the
present applicants, Robert George Sillar, and George William Wigner,
and dated 15th June 1868, No. 1954. We dry the precipitate thus
obtained, and thus complete the manufacture of the manure.
In treating night soil we force through it the gas or gases to be used 3
and keep the said night soil (by any suitable means) in a state of agitation
during the passage through it of such gas or gases, after which we dry
and powder the night soil thus treated, and thereby complete the manu-
facture of the manure. Or in lieu of or in addition to the use of the
gases herein-before referred to we mix bi-sulphite of lime and bi-sulphite 3
of magnesia (either or both) in powder with the said night soil.

page_text: In treating fish, animal refuse, blood, and other animal matters and
vegetable matters, we use either the gases herein-before referred to or
the sulphite and bi-sulphite of lime, or the sulphite and bi-sulphite of
magnesia, the sulphates of alumina, common alum, and the sulphates
or chlorides of iron or of manganese.
In treating fish and other animal matter and vegetable matter (which
may either be treated whole or torn up by any suitable machinery, and
in a dry or moist state) with the aforesaid gases we put the matter to be
treated into a closed tank, cylinder, cistern, or other vessel, and we pass or
force through such matter the gas or gases to be used, which gas or gases
may be used either hot or cold. Or instead of forcing the gas or gases
into the vessel we first exhaust the atmospheric air therefrom, and then
allow the gas or gases to flow into the said vessel. When the matter in
the vessel is thoroughly impregnated with the gas or gases or vapours
we remove it from the said vessel and dry it, and then grind it to powder,
and thereby complete the manufacture of the manure.
In the case of blood before drying it we force or pass the sulphurous
acid gas or other gases into or through it with constant agitation if
needful until the said blood is quite deprived of its odour and colour,
and we then mix it by preference in suitable proportions with the manure
made from the fish or other animal matter.
By treating animal or vegetable matters with the gases herein-before
referred to we deodorize such matters by arresting or preventing the
putrefaction thereof, and also avoid the offensive or injurious effects
attendant on the treatment of such matters with liquid acids, and at the
same time we retain all the manurial properties of the matters without
diluting them, and without appreciably adding to their weight.
Our Invention further consists in treating the fish or other animal
matter with the salts herein-before referred to in addition to the treat-
ment with gases or in substitution therefor. In treating the said fish
and animal matters with the said salts alone or after the said matters
have been treated with the gases as herein-before described, we mix the
said matters (either in their moist state or partially deprived of their
moisture) with the sulphite and bi-sulphite of lime, and the sulphite and
bi-sulphite of magnesia, the sulphates of alumina, common alum, and
the sulphates and chlorides of iron or of manganese. Any one of these
salts (which we use in the form of powder) may be mixed with the

page_text: matter to be treated, or a mixture of any two or more of the said salts
may be used. After the matter has been treated as described we dry and
grind it, and thereby complete the manufacture of the manure:
The liquor flowing from or draining out of the said animal matter
during its treatment by either process, if found to contain valuable {
matter, is concentrated by evaporation or absorption and added to the
bulk of the manure.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Christopher Rawson, William Cameron Sillar,
John William Slater, and Thomas Sipling Wilson in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 6th February 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wc, ]
CHRISTOPHER RAWSON, of No. 1, Saint Swithin's Lane, in the City of
London, General Manager to the Native Guano Company (Limited), and
WILLIAM CAMERON SILLAR, of Blackheath, in the County of Kent,
Gentleman, and JOHN WILLIAM SLATER, Analytical Chemist, of No. 2,
Tamworth Terrace, in the County of Middlesex, and THOMAS SIPLING
WILSON, of 19, Cambridge Terrace, in the County of Surrey, Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of August, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the thirty-
seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto us, the said Christopher Rawson, William Cameron
Sillar, John William Slater, and Thomas Sipling Wilson, Her special
license, that we, the said Christopher Rawson, William Cameron Sillar,
John William Slater, and Thomas Sipling Wilson, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Christopher
Rawson, William Cameron Sillar, John William Slater, and Thomas
Sipling Wilson, our executors, administrators, and assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all

page_text: times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING PUTRESCENT OR PUTRESCIBLE
MATTERS, SUCH AS SEWAGE, NIGHT SOIL, FISH, OFFAL, BLOOD, AND OTHER ANIMAL
MATTERS AND VEGETABLE MATTERS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF MANURE THERE-
'FROM," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Ohristopher
Rawson, William Cameron Sillar, John William Slater, and Thomas
Sipling Wilson, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under our or their hands and seals, or under the hand and seal
of one of us or them, should particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of the said Invention and in what manner the same was to
be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent
Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Christopher Rawson, on behalf of
myself and the said William Cameron Sillar, and John William Slater,
and Thomas Sipling Wilson, do hereby declare the nature of said In-
vention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following state-
ment thereof, that is to say :-
In treating and deodorizing sewage and other putrescent or putrescible
matters, sulphuric acid, nitric acid, acetic acid, and other acids have
from time to time been used. The use of these acids in the form of
liquids is attended by the disadvantages that when added to the matters
to be deodorized they evolve noxious or offensive odours, and also a con-
siderable quantity of the acid used in proportion to the matter to be
treated is required in order that all its particles may be equally acted
upon.
Now the objects of our Invention are to obviate these disadvantages
and to deodorize putrescent and putrescible matters and to convert them
in an economical and inoffensive manner into manure which is richer in
fertilizing properties than are the manures prepared by the use of acids
in the ordinary way. For these purposes we substitute for acids in a
fluid form certain gases, fumes, or vapours, as herein-after described.
Our Invention consists, firstly, in making manure from sewage,
sewage deposit, and night soil, and from fish, animal refuse, blood, and
other animal matters and vegetable matters by treating them or any of

page_text: .
them, as herein-after described, with sulphurous acid gas, chlorine,
nitric, nitrous, or hyponitric vapours, fumes, or gases, carbolic acid
vapour, and cresylic acid vapour. These gases or vapours may either be
used separately, or a mixture of any two or more of them which are
not antagonistic may be used. Thus we use together sulphurous acid
gas, the vapour
of carbolic or cresylic acid or chlorine gas, or we use
.together chlorine gas and nitric, nitrous, or hyponitric vapours, fumes, or
gases. But we do not mix nitric, nitrous, or hyponitric vapours, fumes,
or gases with sulphurous, acid gas or with the fumes of carbolic or
cresylic acid.
In treating sewage we run it into an open tank or vessel and pass or
force the gas or gases or fumes or vapours to be used into or through
the said sewage, or we cause the sewage to flow down through a scrubber,
coke tower, or other well known [contrivance of this nature, into or up
which we pass or force the gas or gases or fumes or vapours. After
thus disinfecting the sewage we precipitate its organic impurities by
any suitable precipitant, using by preference either the mixture described
in the Specification of Letters Patent granted to William Cameron
Sillar (one of the present Patentees), Robert George Sillar, and George
William Wigner, and dated 15 June 1868 (No. 1954), which mixture is
known as the "A, B, C," mixture,) or the following mixture, which is
a modification of the said "A, B, C," mixture :—

page_text: In treating sewage deposit or night soil we force through it the gas or
gases or fumes or vapours to be used, and keep the said sewage deposit
or night soil by any suitable means in a state of agitation during the
passage through it of such gas or gases or fumes or vapours, after which
we dry and crush the sewage deposit or night soil thus treated, and thus
complete the manufacture of the manure.
In treating fish and other animal matters and vegetable matters
(which may either be treated whole or after being torn up by any
suitable machinery and in a dry or a moist state) with the aforesaid
gases or fumes or vapours, we put the matter to be treated into a tank,
cylinder, cistern, or other yessel, closed by preference, and provided with
openings or man-holes for the introduction and withdrawal of such
matter, and with inlet and outlet pipes for the gases, fumes, or vapours,
and we force through such matter the gas or gases, or vapour or vapours
to be used, which gas or gases may be used either hot or cold. The gas
or gases may be forced through the matters to be treated from the gaso-
meter or gasometers in which the said gas or gases is or are stored, the
required pressure being given by the gasometer, or the gases or vapours
may be allowed to pass by their own elasticity directly from the retorts
in which they are generated into the aforesaid vessel. Or where
vapours alone are used they may be forced into or through the said
matters by means of a forcing pump. These directions as to the passing
or forcing of the gases apply to the herein-before described treatment
of the sewage as well as to the treatment of other matters. Or instead
of forcing the gas or gases, or fumes or vapours into the vessel, we first
exhaust the atmospheric air therefrom, the said vessel being in this case
necessarily a closed vessel, and then allow the gas or gases, or fumes or
vapours to flow into the said vessel. When the matter in the vessel is
thoroughly impregnated with the gas or gases, or fumes or vapours we
remove it from the said vessel and dry and crush it, and thus complete
the manufacture of the manure.
We discharge into a shaft or chimney the gas or gases or fumes or
vapours which may remain in the vessel unabsorbed, or pass them
through any absorbing medium and then put into the said vessel a
further quantity of the matter to be treated and repeat the process
above described.
In the case of blood, before drying it we force or pass the sulphurous
acid gas or other gases or fumes or vapours into or through it with

page_text: Firstly. Treating sewage by passing into or through it sulphurous
acid gas, chlorine, nitric, nitrous, or hyponitric vapours, fumes, or gases,
carbolic acid vapour, and cresylic acid vapour, or any of them, or any of
the mixtures of the said gases, fumes, or vapours herein-before described,
and then precipitating from the sewage thus treated its organic im-
purities, by mixing with the said sewage the mixture known as the
"A, B, C, mixture" or any other suitable precipitant or precipitants,
and drying and crushing the precipitate, and thus making a manure.
Secondly, Treating sewage deposit or night soil by passing into or
through such sewage deposit or night soil the aforesaid gases, fumes, or
vapours or any of them, or any of the aforesaid mixtures of the said
gases, fumes, or vapours, and then drying and crushing the said sewage
deposit or night soil, and thus making a manure.
"
Thirdly. Treating fish, animal refuse, blood, and other animal matters
and vegetable matters by putting them into a tank or vessel, and forcing
or drawing through them or passing into them the gases, fumes, or
vapours aforesaid, or any of them, or any of the aforesaid mixtures of
gases, fumes, or vapours, and then drying and crushing the matters so
treated, and thus making a manure,
Fourthly. Treating blood (in a liquid or in a dry state) by passing into
or through it the gases, fumes, or vapours aforesaid, or any of them, or
any of the aforesaid mixtures of gases, fumes, or vapours until the said
blood is deodorized, and then either mixing such blood with other
manure, and (if necessary) drying the compound, or drying (if necessary)
and crushing such blood for use as a separate manure.
In witness whereof, I, the said Christopher Rawson have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Fifth day of February, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four.
30 Witness,
H. H. MURDOCH,
7, Staple Inn,
London.
C. RAWSON. (L.S.)