IM- PROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR DRYING OR CONCENTRATING EXCREMENTITIOUS AND SEWAGE MATTERS
Year: 1879

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Wilkinson and Joseph Thomas
Andrews at the Office of the Commissiouers of Patents on the 28th April
1879.
JOHN WILKINSON, of Handsworth, in the County of Stafford, Surveyor, and
JOSEPH THOMAS ANDREWS, of Handsworth aforesaid, Manager of Works.
"IM-
PROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR DRYING OR CONCENTRATING EXCREMENTITIOUS AND
SEWAGE MATTERS."
Our Invention consists of the combination or arrangement of parts of apparatus
hereinafter described to be used for drying or concentrating excrementitious and
sewage matters for the purpose of producing a dry, solid, and inoffensive compost or
manure.
By our Invention the drying or concentrating operation is effected with great
simplicity, economy, and ease, and without creating a nuisance.
The said apparatus consists essentially of (by preference) three wrought iron
cylindrical heating chambers arranged one above the other, and connected together
by branch pipes. In each of the heating chambers is a set of (by preference) three
tubes for receiving and heating the matter to be dried or concentrated. These
receiving tubes are arranged at different levels, so that the matter under treatment
can pass by gravity from one tube to that below it. The connection between the
receiving tubes is effected by passages arranged in covers at the end of the heating
chamber, that is to say, the connection between the top receiving tube and the next
below it is effected by a passage at one end of the heating chamber, and the con-
nection between the middle tube and that below it is effected by a passage at the
opposite end of the same heating chamber. The sets of receiving tubes are heated
by means of steam circulating through the heating chambers, the steam entering at
the top chamber and escaping at the bottom chamber. The lower receiving tube in
the top chamber is connected with the top receiving tube in the middle chamber
by means of a pipe at the back end of the apparatus, and the bottom receiving tube
in the middle chamber is connected with the top receiving tube in the third or
bottom chamber by means of a pipe at the front end of the apparatus, the three
receiving tubes in each chamber being connected together by means of passages
arranged in covers at the ends of the chambers, as before described.

page_text: In each of the heated receiving tubes in the heating chambers a rotating screw is
situated, and works for slowly conveying the matter introduced into the tube from
one end to the opposite end. These screws are worked by spur gearing or other
convenient gearing from a driving shaft, each set of screws being capable of being
thrown out of gear with the other set or sets when required.
The screws in the top and bottom tubes of each set rotate in the same direction,
but the screw in the middle tube rotates in the opposite direction. The screws in
the receiving tubes are so constructed that in addition to carrying forward the
matter placed in the tubes, the said screws turn over the said matter so as to
thoroughly expose it during its travel through the heated tubes.
At the back of each heating chamber is a wrought iron cover constituting a flat
chamber, at the top of which is a branch pipe connected with an exhauster for
removing the steam and the gases evolved during the drying process from the
apparatus, the connection between the receiving tubes and the flat steam and gas
chambers described being effected by holes or perforations in one of the connecting
passages between the three tubes in each heating chamber.
The apparatus is used in the following manner :-
The matter or material to be dried or concentrated is supplied through a pipe at
the front end of the apparatus opening into the top receiving tube of the upper
chamber. By the rotation of the screw in the said top tube the matter is turned
over and conveyed along the tube from the front to the back end thereof, from
whence it falls by the passage already described in the rear end of the second tube
of the set. By the action of the screw in the said second tube the matter is con-
veyed to the front end of the tube, and is delivered by a passage at the said front
end into the third tube below it. After traversing this tube it passes by a pipe to
the top tube of the set in the second chamber, and after traversing the second and
third tubes it passes to the tubes in the third chamber, in which it is operated upon
in a like manner, and from a pipe in the last tube of the said third chamber, the
matter or material is delivered in a dry state.
Any number of the heating chambers with their drying or receiving tubes and
apparatus may be arranged side by side, and the screws may be worked from the
same driving shaft, and instead of heating the receiving tubes by means of steam
supplied to the chambers containing them the said receiving tubes may be heated in
other ways, for example, by hot air.