Improvements in or relating to Machinery or Apparatus for Treating, Deodorizing, Drying, and Utilizing Excreta, Nightsoil, Town's Refuse, and the like.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 1st Dec., 1893-Accepted, 3rd Feb., 1894
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or relating to Machinery or Apparatus for Treating,
Deodorizing, Drying, and Utilizing Excreta, Nightsoil, Town's
Refuse, and the like.
I, SAM SMITHSON, of Bright's Cottage, Heckmond wike, in the County of York,
Drysalter and Dyer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement :-
This invention relates to a new or improved plant or apparatus for treating,
deodorizing, drying, and utilizing excreta, nightsoil, town's refuse, and the like, all
of which are hereafter termed "town's refuse."
The object of this invention is to provide a plant of efficient mechanism for the
treatment of "town's refuse" by speedily and effectually absorbing the moisture,
deodorizing or removing all smell or noxious vapours, and at the same time
separating and destroying all useless matter whilst preserving that possessing
manurial and other carbonaceous, properties, all of which objects may be attained
without handling the "town's refuse after it has once been delivered to the
apparatus.
In the drawings I have shown a plant in which :-
Fig. 1. is a front elevation, Fig. 2. an end elevation, Fig. 3. a part section and
end elevation, and Fig. 4. a plan of machinery suitable for carrying this invention
into practice.
A is a Cornish or Lancashire boiler, shown in outline, of the usual construction
and set in brickwork in the ordinary manner so that its flue or flues may coin-
municate either directly with the chimney B, when the plant is not in use, or the
heated gases and other products of combustion may be diverted by means of one or
more dampers so as to pass through the drying cylinder or machine. The requisite
heat and steam for drying and driving the plant is obtained from this boiler.
C is the revolving drying cylinder or chamber mounted on wheels or pulley c
carried on suitable brickwork or other foundations above or below the floor level,
preferably above, and caused to rotate by means of spur gearing c¹ c". The
cylinder C is armed internally with angular blades and provided with a
hopper H and ram c*. The cylinder and its various parts are constructed in
a similar manner to the drying apparatus set forth in the Specification of Letters
Patent granted to me the 23rd October 1891, No. 18216; only prefer, though
not necessarily so, in this plant to dispense with the internal perforated disc shown
and described in the said Specification. The material operated upon is passed into
the revolving drying chamber Cat the end opposite to that at which the heated
gases and other products of combustion from the boiler A enter.
The gases are
passed from boiler A to drying cylinder C through tube or flue D.
E and F are two revolving screens mounted in bearings upon standards,
framework, or brickwork at, preferably, a suitable distance above the floor level.
The screen E is mounted on an incline, and in a similar manner upon pulleys e as
the revolving drying cylinder C..
The top of the hopper E', which is attached to the screen E, is arranged below
the level of a platform G that may be at any convenient height from the floor, say,
eight or ten feet more or less, and it is approached by an incline G' in order that a
cart or other vehicle may be drawn upon the platform G and its contents say
tipped or emptied into the hopper without further handling. The periphery of the
screen E is made parallel and of any suitable mesh in order that the finer and

page_text: smaller materials may pass through it and fall into the hopper H, gravitate down
elevator chute H¹ and pass from thence into hopper H2 for conveyance by ram c* into
the drying cylinder C. The larger and useless material passes out of the end E" of
the screen, which may if required be contracted into a chute I for conveyance to a
destructor of ordinary construction.
The flues of the destructor are arranged to communicate with the chimney B.
The screen F is made to taper as shown and its meshes are much finer than those
of the screen E. It is arranged over hopper L. whereby the finer material possessing
manurial properties may pass down the chute M into a sack or other receptacle
arranged at the bottom of the chute, whilst the larger material possessing
carbonaceous properties may pass out at the enlarged end of the screen and be
used as fuel for the boiler A.
N is an elevator chute which is employed for raising the dried material from the
drying cylinder C to the screen F.
The elevator chutes H and N consist of U troughs with open tops in which
endless chains n armed with scrapers h¹ n' are arranged to pass over the
pulleys for preventing the material lodging in the chutes.
Motion is imparted to the plant from an engine or other convenient source of
power as follows :-
:-
Ois, say, a pulley on the crank shaft of a steam engine suitably connected to
the boiler A from which motion is communicated by belting O¹ to pulley P. on
shaft P. On the shaft P are also mounted the pulleys P², P¹, P³ P³, spur
wheel P', and worm wheel Pe, for communicating motion respectively as follows:-
From pulley P through belting P to pulley Q on endless chain pulley shaft at
the foot of elevator chute N.
From pulley P through belting Po to pulley R on shaft R, thence through
pulley R2, on same shaft, by belting R³ to pulley S ou shaft S₁ and mitre
gearing S2 for driving the screen F.
From spur wheel P7 to spur wheel T, on shaft T¹, thence from pulley T, on
same shaft, by belting T3 to fast and loose pulleys U U' on shaft U, to bevel
pinion U3 which is arranged to gear with a crown wheel E on the screen E.
From pulley P through belt P³ to fast (and loose) pulley C* on shaft C** on
which also the spur pinions ce are mounted so as to gear with the spur wheels c¹ c¹
on the periphery of the revolving drying cylinder C.
From pulley P through belting V to pulley V₁ on endless chain pulley shaft at
foot of the chute H'.
!
From worm wheel P to worm W, on shaft W₁, and chain wheel W, on the
same shaft, through chain W3 to chain wheel X, on shaft X', and spur gearing X
to disc Y, on shaft Y', for imparting a reciprocating motion to ram c¹ through
connecting rod Z.
The mode of operating upon the material is as follows:-
The various portions of the plant being set in motion as already described, the
"towns refuse" is led in a cart or other vehicle up the incline on to the platform G,
or raised, when preferred, by means of an elevator, such as H¹ or N, when it is
tipped or emptied into the hopper E' from the cart direct, or onto the platform G
and then shovelled into the hopper E¹, from whence it passes into the inclined
screen E, or the "town's refuse" may be conveyed by an elevator chute from the
hopper to the screen E. The larger and worthless material pass out of the screen
at end E and down chute I to destructor J; whilst the finer and more valuable
portion fall through the meshes of the screen into hopper H, then into elevator
chute H¹ from whence it passes through hopper H into the revolving drying
cylinder C. The material to be dried passes into cylinder C and is caused by the
angle blades c² to travel in an opposite direction to that in which the heated gases
and other products of combustion "enter the drying cylinder through pipe or flue D
from the boiler A. By this means the material is gradually submitted to the
intenser heat and thoroughly dried e're it reaches the end of the drying cylinder
under which the foot of the elevator chute N is placed to catch the material as it

page_text: passes through exit openings in the said drying cylinder. The material as it falls
from cylinder C is conveyed by the elevator chute N and delivered into the
interior of the screen Fat its smallest end from whence the finer portions
possessing manurial properties pass through the meshes of the screen to the
hopper L and chute or spout M to bags for conveyance away; whilst the larger
portions or those possessing say carbonaceous properties pass out of the larger end
of the screen to be used as fuel say for the boiler.
Although I have shown in the drawings revolving screens E and F, and the
material to be operated upon to be tipped into the hopper of screen E, yet I would
have it understood that the material may be raised to said hopper by any suitable
elevator, and also that screens having reciprocating motions may be employed in
place of those revolving.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-.
1st. The method, substantially as herein described, of treating, drying, and
deodorizing "towns refuse" by machinery so as to render it useful for manurial and
other purposes, which method consists essentially in depositing the "towns refuse"
to be operated upon in the hopper of a screen and passing it through a screen
whereby the finer and useful portions are separated from the useless, destroying
the useless portion in a destructor, conveying the useful portion to and drying it in
a revolving cylinder, and causing it to travel in the said cylinder in an opposite
direction to that in which the heat travels, then elevating the dried material to a
second and finer screen whereby the finer and larger portions which are respectively
useful for say manurial and carbonaceous purposes are separated, as set forth.
2nd., In machinery, substantially as herein described and illustrated, for treating,
drying, and deodorizing "towns refuse" the combination of a boiler A, chimney B,
revolving drying cylinder C, tube or flue D, screens E and F, elevator chutes Hí
and N, hoppers communicating with the several parts, delivery tubes or chutes and
means for communicating motion to the various moving parts, all as set forth.
Dated the Thirtieth day of November 1893.
SAM SMITHSON,
By W. Fairburn-Hart,
Agent.