AN IMPROVED COMPOSITION FOR DISINFECTING SEWAGE AND OTHER REFUSE MATTERS
Year: 1881

page_text: A
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Melville Clark at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 28th November 1881.
communication from abroad by Philibert Schlosser, of Paris, France.
ALEXANDER MELVILLE CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the County of
Middlesex, Patent Agent. "AN IMPROVED COMPOSITION FOR DISINFECTING
SEWAGE AND OTHER REFUSE MATTERS." [A communication from abroad by
Philibert Schlosser, of Paris, France.]
This Invention relates to a composition for disinfecting sewage or foecal and
other refuse matters, including manufacturers' residues and the like, and it consists
in a disinfecting composition which destroys all noxious matters, whilst it absorbs
matters of organic origin, such as nitrogen, phosphates, potash, &c. contained
in the foecal or other refuse matters, and which are useful for agricultural
purposes.
The base of the composition is a metallic salt of any kind, but chlorides or
fluorides are preferred. I will instance chloride of zinc for example, which has
already been employed, but alone, and has consequently been very quickly carried
off without producing the desired result.
According to this Invention the disinfectant base is combined with absorbent
matters, whereby efficiency, economy, and a lasting power proportionate to the effect
to be produced are obtained. For treating sewage or foecal matters for instance,
the proportions of the ingredients are such that the action of the composition shall
be proportionate to the mass to be disinfected. The composition may either be
mixed broadcast amongst the matters to be treated or placed in a suitably arranged
receiver. As the composition possesses the property of fixing all the organic
matters (particularly ammoniacal substances), and of decomposing or altering all
disagreeable or noxious matters (sulphuretted hydrogen for instance), the liquid
portions of the sewage are deprived of their fermentable elements, and may be run
into sewers without causing any nuisance. The residue after treatment of the
sewage with this composition forms a concentrated manure, the subsequent treat-
ment of which is in no way inimical to public health, whilst it is of great value for
agricultural purposes.

page_text: The disinfection effected by this composition therefore favors the utilisation of
sewage matters rather than injures them for the purposes of agriculture.
The following is a suitable composition for treating sewage or foecal matters :-
20 parts by weight of chloride of zinc, obtained by the reduction
of 4 parts by weight of chloride at 52° or 55°.
10 naut
night of natach
To add to the efficiency of the composition I prefer to add some chloride of
manganese, either liquid or solid, as well as a soluble silicate, particularly silicate of
potash. The chloride of manganese acts with great efficacy upon the sulphuretted
hydrogen which is the most deleterious of the gases, and the silicate of potash,
whilst adding potash to the composition, an element of great value in a manure,
hastens the precipitation. In this case the following proportions may be
I would remark that the ingredients of the composition may be employed in any 3
convenient forms. Thus the phosphate of lime may be in the form of bone black,
superphosphates, or precipitated phosphates.
It should be understood that I do not limit myself to the examples above
given, as the various ingredients and their proportions may be varied according to
circumstances.