IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF NIGHT SOIL AND OTHER WASTE PRODUCTS, AND FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF MANURE THEREFROM
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Henry Johnson, of 47, Lincoln's Inn
Fields, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF NIGHT SOIL AND OTHER WASTE
PRODUCTS, AND FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF MANURE THEREFROM."-A com
munication from abroad by James Alexander Manning, of St.
Pierre lez Calais, in the French Empire.
Sealed the 25th January 1870, and dated the 26th July 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Henry Johnson
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 26th July 1869.
I, JOHN HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the
County of Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF NIGHT SOIL AND OTHER
WASTE PRODUCTS, AND FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF MANURE THEREFROM," a
communication from abroad by James Alexander Manning, of St. Pierre
lez Calais, in the French Empire, to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to certain additions. to and improvements upon
the process or processes set forth in the Specification of Letters Patent,

page_text: granted to me on the 10th of November 1864, No. 2788, by which
additions and improvements a larger per-centage of ammonia, alkaline
salts, and phosphates are secured from the night soil and other waste
substances of animal, vegetable, and mineral origin, a more rapid
conversion of the same is effected, and great economy is effected.
In carrying out this Invention I apply carbonaceous matters, such as
coal, soot, the charcoal of marine plants, and animal and vegetable
charcoal in general saturated with a sufficient quantity of sulphuric acid,
to which is also added a salt of magnesia in a pulverulent state, to the
cesspits, privies, middens, or latrines of cities, towns, and considerable
villages and hamlets, for the purpose of deoderizing and disinfecting the
night soil, and retaining its ammonia by counteracting the effect which
the fermenting quality of urine in its decomposition produces upon that
salt, and collect the night soil so treated and night soil in general when
otherwise collected and evaporate the liquid portion thereof so as to bring
the whole of the elements of fertility contained in the solid and fluid
excrete of the population of towns and places where no sewers exist or
merely sewers for surface. drainage to a state of dryness in brick
evaporating boilers or culverts ranging in their dimensions from thirty
to sixty feet, or more or less in length, according to the requirements of
the locality, by six feet in width and six feet in depth or other suitable
dimensions, the evaporation being accomplished by means of surface
heat, accelerated by the introduction of cast-iron cylinders passing under
the bottom or inverted arch of the brick culvert or boiler, the furnaces
being so arranged as to render chimney shafts unnecessary, all the vapors
and gaseous matters from excreta as well as from the coals consumed
being drawn over from the said boiler by means of a powerful exhaust and
discharge fan and deposited in proper receptacles for further treatment,
by which all the ammonia from the coals as well as the carburetted
hydrogen gas are preserved, the former to increase the per-centage of
ammonia in the manure to which it is added, and the latter to be
employed for lighting the works, and generally for illuminating
purposes. The agitation of contents of boiler and the working of the
fans being performed by steam power. By these modifications of the process
or processes specified in the before-named Patent all wastes (other than
night soil or such animal matters as contain a considerable per-centage
of ammonia and certain chemical waste salts), that is to say, the wastes
of vegetable markets and household refuse and vegetable wastes in

page_text: general, are reduced to ashes either by simple incineration or by means
of kilns or other suitable furnaces, and the ash products thus obtained
together with a suitable quantity of waste animal charcoal, bones, or
ground coprolites converted into superphosphate are mixed with the
desecated night soil, in order to increase the per-centage of the mineral
constituents so essential to the organism and development of plants, and
a manure is manufactured which cannot fail to equal guano, and even
surpass it in its stimulating effects and prove more durable in its effects
upon the soil, while the continuous deodorization of the night soil at the
houses of the inhabitants, as well as its disinfection and the destruction
of all putrifying matters which accumulate in cities and towns to the
great detriment of the public health will tend greatly to the improvement
of their sanitary condition, to the permanent progress and advantage of
agriculture, and the general interests of humanity.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Henry Johnson in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 26th January 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of
Middlesex, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of July, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-
third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said John Henry Johnson, Her special
license that I, the said John Henry Johnson, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Henry Johnson,"
my executors, administrators, or 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 night 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 THE TREATMENT OF NIGHT SOIL AND OTHER WASTE PRODUCTS,
AND FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF MANURE THEREFROM," a communication

page_text: from abroad by James Alexander Manning, of St. Pierre by Calais,
in the French Empire, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said John Henry Johnson, my executors or administrators, 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 Scal Patent Office within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Henry Johnson, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement, that is to say :-
The said Invention has for its object the collection and conversion
into manure of the night soil or solid and fluid human excreta, and the
general wastes of cities, towns, and other densely populated localities of
animal, vegetable, and some of mineral origin, containing elements of
fertility, by the admixture of which together with a suitable per-centage
of bones or suluble phosphate of lime in the required proportion for the
plant, and more especially for root crops, a highly concentrated manure
of the most efficatious character is produced equal to guano in its average
per-centage of ammonia, and superior to that valuable matter in its
durable effects upon the soil, as it contains all the constituents of fertility
which are indispensable to the organism and development of plants.
In addition to the chemical and mechanical modes by which I convert
the foregoing substances into manure I also preserve the whole of the
ammonia contained in the coal consumed in the various operations to
which they are subjected, which may either be added to the manure to
increase the per-centage of that valuable salt, or may be sold separately
as an article of commerce in the form of sulphate of ammonia, while
the carburetted hydrogen gas produced by the combustion and nearly
destructive distillation of the coal passes to the purifier and from thence
to the gas holder, where it is stored for lighting the works or other
generally illuminating purposes. In the collection of the night soil much
must depend upon the facilities afforded in different localitics.
I prefer
collecting these wastes by means of the barometric system, which consists
of a portable pump and hose worked by two lever handles, which
discharges the contents of the cesspits into a hermetically closed barrel
cart, on the top of which is a second valve, to which a short pipe is

page_text: attached for conducting the gases (pumped up from the cesspit in
combination with the fecal matters into the barrel cart) into a small
chamber or cavity beneath the bars of a portable furnace, through the
flames of which the gases must pass, whereby all offensive smell is
destroyed and the whole operation is performed without dirt, bad odour,
or any nuisance whatever in one-fourth of the time consumed by the
ordinary mode of emptying the cesspits with buckets.
In cursorily
describing the barometric system I do not lay any claim to it as my
Invention; but as in its practical operation on the Continent it has proved
inefficient for the discharge from the cesspits of the solid portion of the
foccal matter by which the householders are after a time compelled to
have resourse to the old method of emptying the same by the spade and
bucket, I purpose wherever it is practicable to employ the barometrio
system to pass the hose to the bottom of the cesspit, through a skeleton
tube, on the outside of which at given distances will be attached on
moveable iron circles a series of knives and beaters for the purpose of
agitating the solid and fluid excrete and amalgamating or bringing them
to such a state of liquid consistence or liquefaction as will allow the
whole to pass through the pump into the barrel cart. The iron circles
from which the arms or agitators issue are connected by upright iron bars
to a horizontal wheel capping the skeleton tube, which is made to rotate
by a cog whcel put in motion by means of a winch handle above the
seat of the privy or cesspit so that the pumping operation shall not be
interferred with, while a close cover fitting the seat (through which the
skeleton tube and hose will be admitted will effectually prevent the
cscape of all dangerous or disagreeable gases or odours. In all cases
where the cesspits are not already cemented they must be rendered
water-tight to prevent the draining away of the urine. In some localities
I may adopt the system of "fosses mobiles" or moveable tanks or barrels,
this system being successfully employed in the most populous quarters
of Paris, at Lorient, in Brittany, and other towns in France, the tanks
or barrels being removed at stated or desirable periods and replaced by
clean ones; but in either or any mode of collection the focal matters are
treated chemically in the cesspits or barrels, so that the whole of their
nitrogen or ammonia shall be entirely fixed and preserved, and the
fermentation arising from the decomposing urine is entirely prevented,
as such fermentation converts all the different forms of ammonia
found in the solid and fluid excrete into carbonate of ammonia, the
most volatile of all the forms of that salt, and which being constantly

page_text: evolved into the atmosphere causes a loss of two-thirds of that valuable
ingredient during the period that the focal matter is generally allowed to
remain in the cesspit. For the purpose of preventing this loss to
agriculture, I employ sulphuric acid in the proportion of about five
pounds of acid to every hundred pounds of fresh solid and fluid fœcal
matters, containing three pounds of nitrogen, or a smaller quantity in
proportion with the smaller per-centage of ammonia generally discovered
in old and stale excrete which have not been previously treated
chemically in the cesspits. Other substances, such as soot, vegetable
ashes, vegetable charcoal, and particularly seaweed charcoal, when the
weed can easily be obtained for manufacture, together with bone dust, or
in the form of phosphate of lime or magnesia, will be added as disinfectants
and deodorisers. The evaporating cistern or culvert for reducing the
mixed solid and fluid human excrete to within ten or twelve per cent. of
dryness, and into which the foecal matters may be discharged on their
arrival at the works, are long cisterns or culverts, varying in their
dimensions from thirty to sixty feet in length by six feet in width and
six feet in depth, or other suitable dimensions according to the require-
ments of the locality. The bottom of the cistern together with from
two feet six inches to three feet on each side of the bottom or inverted
arch is constructed with fire-brick or with hard sound bricks cemented
with mortar mixed with aluminous shale or fire-clay or aluminous clay
the rest of the cistern together with the flat arch covering the same to
be built entirely with fire-brick laid in the ordinary manner to resist
the action of the flames which will pass from an upper and a lower
furnace, the one being situate at or near the top and the other
beneath the said cistern, so as to heat its contents simultaneously
from the top and bottom thereof, A single furnace alone might be
employed in conjunction with flues and dampers so arranged as to admit
of the products of combustion passing both inside and under the cistern,
or inside the cistern or under it at pleasure. Thus the process of
evaporation is accelerated by the passage of the flames from the upper
furnace over and along the whole interior surface of the cistern imme-
diately above the liquid with which it is charged and under the flat arch
or covering of the same, the said second or upper furnace being set
almost on a level with the liquid when the cistern is charged to its
fullest extent, that is to say, to within eighteen inches or two feet of the
top of the flat arch. By this means a very elevated temperature is
produced in the interior of the cistern, which added to the external heat

page_text: of the lower furnace causes a rapid ebullition and the speedy evapora-
tion of the whole of the liquid contents of the cistern. The bars of this
furnace are long and placed at a low level to prevent any appreciable
quantity of ashes being carried by the draught into the cistern. The
vapours arising from the evaporation of the liquid portion of excreta
and the gases as well as the smoke from both furnaces are drawn into the
brick base of a large iron cylinder issuing from the opposite end of the
cistern by means of an exhaust and discharge fan attached to said
cylinder, which dispenses with the necessity of a chimney shaft, the most
powerful draught being obtained according to the velocity with which
the fan is made to rotate by means of steam or other power, all the
gases, vapor, and smoke being discharged by the fan under considerable
pressure into a cast or wrought iron, or brick, or other suitable receiver
surrounded by an outer vessel having a constant flow of water through
it in order to condense the vapours; while the carbunetted hydrogen gas
passes off by an ascention pipe on the top of the receiver into the wet
and dry lime purifiers, and from thence to a gas holder, where it is
stored for lighting the works or for other illuminating purposes. The
water of condensation retained in the receiver forming a weak
ammoniacal liquor is drawn off from time to time into a large cast-iron
still, and treated in the ordinary manner for the manufacture of
sulphate of ammonia, which may be added to the manure to increase
its per-centage of ammonia, or may be sold separately as an
article of commerce. During the distillation over of the ammoniacal
gases or vapors into the sulphuric acid tuns or crystallizers, instead of
subjecting the weakened ammoniacal liquor or solution to a second
operation or redistillation towards the end of the operation, I inject
a suitable quantity of cream of lime into the boiling liquor by means of
a force pump, which has the immediate effect of liberating the whole of
the remaining ammonia and passing it into the crystallizers. The
interior of the brick evaporating cistern is furnished with an agitator
consisting of a strong rocking shaft passing from end to end thereof,
and supported by cross bars or bearings, and carrying a series of knives
or cutters and beaters alternately placed, which do not rotate, but are
moved to and fro constantly over the bottom of the cistern during the
dessication of the excreta by motive power, by which the sediment is
eventually reduced to the finest pulverulent state, whilst it prevents the
hardening of the maguesia and other salts contained in the focal matter,
which without the system of agitation would form a crust over the

page_text: brick evaporating
the crown of the
surface of the liquid and intercept the action of the heat so as to retard
the dessication of the excreta. In order to render the charring of the
sediment or manure impossible when about seventy-five per cent. of the
urine or water are evaporated, the fire is withdrawn from the lower or
underneath furnace or allowed to die out, leaving the dessication of the
sludge entirely to the action of the internal temperature, that is to say, to
the heat from the flames passing from the upper furnace in a straight line
under the flat arch of the cistern to the brick base of the iran cylinder,
by means of the powerful draught produced by the action of the exhaust
and discharge fan before referred to. To prevent too injurious an
action of the flames upon the iron cylinder to which the fan is attached
a jet of steam is introduced into the brick base thereof at the commence-
ment of the operation, that is to say, as soon as the fires are lighted, and
is continued until the evaporation of the liquor in the cistern renders it
no longer necessary, but the steam is turned on again towards the
termination of the operation, when the focal matter is brought
almost to dryness. The mode of charging the
cistern is by a suitable opening or openings on
flat arch, having appropriate covers for closing the same when charged.
At the end of the evaporating cistern there is a large man-hole, the
iron door or cover of which is lined on the inside with lead to
prevent the oxidation of the iron, which would otherwise be produced by
the action of the sulphuric acid with which the excreta are treated.
The discharge of the dry manure from the evaporating cistern is effected
by means of long handelled scrapers introduced therein through the
man-hole, the arms of the agitator being turned upwards or out of the
way to facilitate the passing and re-passing of the scrapers. The dry
manure being drawn from the cistern on to the floor of the store room
or other chamber is speedily cooled by spreading it over the floor by
means of rakes, and the cooling is further accelerated by the admixture
therewith of the phosphate of lime and any other fertilizing substances
which it may be deemed advisable to add thereto. I may sometimes
reduce the boiled bones to a fine state of division by grinding or crushing
the same, and after applying a suitable quantity of sulphuric acid in
order to convert the carbonate of lime contained in the crushed bones to
sulphate of lime, and if necessary to convert a portion of the phosphate
of lime into superphosphate, I mix the desired quantity per ton with the
solid and fluid focal matter, to which sufficient sulphuric acid has been
previously added to fix the whole of its ammonia, and I subject the

page_text: whole to the process of boiling in my brick evaporating cistern and bring
the bone dust as well as the solid fecal matter to a state of dryness. Or
such an additional quantity of sulphuric acid may be added to the focal
matter as shall not only fix the ammonia but shall also convert the bone
dust into superphosphate. With respect to other waste substances of towns
and other localities of animal, vegetable, and mineral origin containing
the clements of fertility which can be obtained at trifling cost, I subject
the vegetable wastes to the simple process of incineration, by which
while depriving them of their fibrous and comparatively worthless
organic matter I obtain in the most highly concentrated form all those
inorganic constituents which are indispensable to the structure and
development of plants, and which if not restored to the soil must
necessarily impoverish it. Other substances, such, for instance, as sca
weed, may be used, which I convert into charcoal either by carbonization
or reduction by sulphuric acid, fish curers, waste salt, the dog fish, stale
fish of all kinds, and fish offal may be used, which latter substances
I boil, dry, and reduce to powder. I also take blood from the slaughter
houses, which I treat with sulphuric acid in order to retain its ammonia,
then evaporate to dryness, and bring it to a pulverulent state; I also
employ coal soot, which independently of other valuable salts contains
one-eighth of its bulk of sulphate of ammonia, and is as well as the sea-
weed charcoal a very powerful disinfectant and deodorizer, both of which
are employed by me in combination with sulphuric acid for this purpose
in treating the focal matter in the cesspits; all these substances, as
well as phosphate of lime prepared from bones or bonc dust, capolites,
or waste animal charcoal, should be collected and treated in a suitable
manner (where they can be obtained at a trifling or reasonable cost) in
order to mix with the dry focal matter in suitable proportions so as to
obtain from the wastes of towns and other easily procurable matters a
first class manure containing in its per-centage of soluble phosphates,
alkaline salts, and salts of ammonia, as also of a cheap potash particularly
adapted for beetroots and potash plants in general, all that is essential
for the development of plants and the permanent progress of agriculture,
as well as the improved sanitary condition of towns and other densely
populated localities by the disinfection and removal therefrom of all
animal and vegetable wastes from which mephitic gases are generated.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of the
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used
or carried into effect, I would observe in conclusion that what I consider

page_text: to be novel and original and therefore claim as the Invention secured
to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,-
First. The heating of the. evaporating cistern simultaneously from the
upper and under surface thereof, substantially as and for the purpose
herein-before described.
Second. The combination with a cistern heated as above set forth of
mechanical stirrers arranged and working substantially in the manner
and for the purpose herein-before described.
Third. The drawing off of the vapors from the cistern as well as the
smoke or products of combustion from the furnaces employed in
conjunction with such cistern or used for other purposes by means of
an exhaust and discharge fan, and discharging such vapors or smoke or
products of combustion into condensing tanks, whereby the use of a
chimney is dispensed with, and the ammoniacal liquor may be utilized,
substantially as herein-before described.
Fourth. The mode of collecting and utilizing the otherwise waste car-
buretted hydrogen gas evolved from the coal consumed in the process of
manufacturing the manure, or from coal consumed in other parts of the
process or other manufactories, for the purpose of lighting the works in
lieu of allowing the same to escape into the atmosphere, as herein-before
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Henry Johnson, have to
this my Specification set my hand and seal, this Twenty-sixtlı
day of January One thousand eight hundred and seventy.