IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR COLLECTING THE SOLID PORTIONS OF SEWAGE
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Bell Elcock Fletcher, of Birmingham, in
the County of Warwick, Doctor of Medicine, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR COLLECTING THE SOLID PORTIONS OF
SEWAGE."
Scaled the 2nd October 1868, and dated the 15th April 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Bell Elcock
Fletcher at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 15th April 1863.
I, THOMAS BELL ELCOCK FLETCHER, of Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, Doctor of Medicine, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR COLLECTING THE SOLID PORTIONS OF
SEWAGE," to be as follows (that is to say):-
I employ a receptacle or pan placed in any position where it will intercept
the passage of the sewage from its source to the outlet. This receptacle is
furnished at or near the top with two bends, one for the ingress of the sewage,
and the other for the egress of the fluid portion only, the latter being provided
with a grating to prevent solids from being washed through. The advantages
of this arrangement are, that the solid sewage is collected, the fluid passing
away; the water, by the arrangement of the bends, acts as a double stench trap,
and the grating operates as a filterer. I propose to make this apparatus of
convenient size to remove and empty as often as occasion may require.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Bell Elcock Fletcher in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 14th October 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
BELL ELCOCK FLETCHER, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Doctor
of Medicine, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-sixth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Thomas Bell Elcock Fletcher, Her special licence, that I, the
said Thomas Bell Elcock Fletcher, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas Bell Elcock Fletcher, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and
no others, from time to time and at all 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
Isles, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR
COLLECTING THE SOLID PORTIONS OF SEWAGE," ' upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Thomas Bell Elcock Fletcher, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, 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 tho said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thomas Bell Elcock Fletcher, do
hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto
annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say):-
I employ a receptacle or pan placed in any position where it will intercept
the passage of the sewage from its source to the outlet, this receptacle is
furnished at or near the top with two bends, one for the ingress of the sewage,
and the other for the egress of the fluid portion only, the latter being provided
with a grating to prevent solids from being washed through. The advantages of
this arrangement are, that the solid sowage is collected, the fluid passing
away; by the arrangements of the bends the water acts as a double stench

page_text: trap, and the grating operates as a filterer. I propose to make this apparatus
of convenient size to remove and empty as often as occasion may require.
Figure 1 represents the apparatus made by preference of the description of
earthenware termed stoneware.
(A) is tho main receptacle; (B), the ingress bend, by which solid and fluid
sewage is carried into the receptacle (A); (C) is the egress bend, by which
the fluid sewage filtered through the grating or strainer (D) is conducted to
the sewer, the solid sewage remaining as a deposit at the bottom of the
receptacle (A), the large body of water above this deposit acts as a double
stench trap, and effectually prevents the escape of any effluvium.
The entire apparatus. may be removed or emptied when necessary, or for
the greater convenience of removal of the deposit, the apparatus may bo
furnished with linings or buckets, as seen in Figures 2 and 3, which buckets
may be perforated at the top, and thus act as strainers, filtering the sewage as
the grating does in Figure 1; these buckets or linings can be frequently
withdrawn and emptied without displacing the apparatus generally.
Another modification of the apparatus may be formed by employing two
large tubes or cylinders one within the other, the ingress bend passing into the
internal cylinder, the egress bend leading out of the external one; the part of
the internal cylinder below the bend of ingress and above the bucket may be
perforated to act as a strainer.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention and in what manner
the same is to be performed, I claim, without limiting myself to these precise
details, the improvements in apparatus for collecting the solid portions of
sewage, as herein more fully set forth and specified.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Bell Elcock Fletcher, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of October, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.
THOMAS BELL ELCOCK (L.B.) FLETCHER.