IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING SEWAGE WATERS AND MATTERS "
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Bardwell, of 4, Great Queen Street,
Westminster, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING SEWAGE WATERS AND MATTERS
"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Bardwell at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 5th January 1858.
1, WILLIAM BARDWELL, of 4, Great Queen Street, Westminster, in
the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING SEWAGE WATERS AND MATTERS "
to be as follows:-
This Invention consists of constructing a building, having at its
basement or ground floor a filter bed within a close chamber, into which
the sewage waters and matters flow from the sewers on to the floor or
filter bed; within this chamber are suspended trays or shelves, covered
with sawdust or other matters moistened with dilute sulphuric acid.
The floor or filter bed is supported by beams or bearers of iron coated
with zinc, and in order to obtain pressure of the atmosphere on the
matter on the filter bed I arrange the under part of the filter so that, by

page_text: air pumps or otherwise, a withdrawal of the air may take place. The
floor on the top of the filter bed is to be of perforated zinced iron or
wicker work, or wire cloth, or other strong open structure, which will
admit of the matters being shovelled therefrom from time to time,
below which are placed, in strata, filtering media. The sewage matters
thus separated from the sewage waters are from time to time to be
removed from the floor, for which purpose the incoming of the sewage
is to be stopped, and a door or doors in the ceiling opened, through which
the matters are to be thrown or raised on to a floor above, to be mixed
with other matters suitable for making up manures; and it will be
convenient to have a third floor above for keeping a supply of such
matters or materials for mixing with the sewage matters. The waters
flow away from under the filter bed into a river or other outfall, there
being suitable channels and passages for this purpose.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Bardwell in the Great Seal Patent Office,
on the 5th July 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
WILLIAM BARDWELL, of 4, Great Queen Street, Westminster, in the
County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fifth day of January, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the Sixteenth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said William Bardwell, Ifer special licence that
I, the said William Bardwell, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said William Bardwell, my executors, adminis-
trators, 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
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
TREATING SEWAGE WATERS AND
AND
MATTERS,"
MATTERS," upon the condition

page_text: (amongst others) that I, the said William Bardwell, by an instru-
ment 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 the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Bardwell, 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 thereof (that is to say):
This Invention consists of constructing a building, having at its
basement or ground floor a filter bed within a close chamber, into which
the sewage waters and matters flow from the sewers on to the floor or
filter bed; within this chamber are suspended trays or shelves, covered
with sawdust or other matters moistened with dilute sulphuric acid.
The floor or filter bed is supported by beams or bearers of iron coated
with zinc. And in order to obtain pressure of the atmosphere on the
matter on the filter bed T arrange the under part of the filter so that,
by air pumps or otherwise, a withdrawal of the air may take place.
The floor on the top of the filter bed is to be of perforated zinc, iron,
or wicker work, or wire cloth, or other strong open structure, which
will admit of the matters being shovelled therefrom from time to time,
below which are placed, in strata, filtering media. The sewage matters
thus separated from the sewage waters are from time to time to be
removed from the floor, for which purpose the incoming of the sewage
is to be stopped, and a door or doors in the ceiling open, through which
the matters are to be thrown or raised on to a floor above, to be mixed
with other matters suitable for making up manures; and it will be
convenient in have a third for above for keeping a supply of such
matters or material for mixing with the sewage matters. The waters
flow away from under the filter bed in a river or other outfall, there
being suitable channels and passages for this purpose. And in order
that my
· said Invention may be more fully understood, and readily carried
into effect, I will proceed to describe the means pursued by me.
The plant of each station is double, and consist principally of a pair

page_text: of filters a, a', a pair of vats, one of which is seen at b, a pair of air
pumps, a pair of steam engine pumps, and other parts. The process
of filtration is carried on in building of one, two, or more stories or
floors. All odours are absorbed or carried off by the engine chimney
shaft, so that no nuisance can arise in the most populous neighbourhood.
The filter is placed at the bottom of a tank having a sloping bottom.
The filter is formed of iron coated with one or more other materials, by
preference zinc, of pebbles, or of broken granite or other stone, of iron,
scoria, of road drift, or very coarse sand, of animal or vegetable charcoal,
of burt clay, or fine sand in layers, each of two or more inches in
thickness, the whole being covered with hair cloth, kept down by an
iron grating. Each division of the bottom of the filter must have its
air pipe, with a spring lid covered with leather, which when shut an
atmospheric pressure equal to a height of twenty-eight fect of water may
be obtained. The water or sewage is admitted five or more feet above the
hair cloth, and is received upon a flat form of wicker work. The action
of this filter is so perfect that only are the grosser matters held in
suspension obtained, but even alkalies and acids held in solution are
arrested above the sewage. . In the tanks are suspended trays containing
sawdust, coke, or charcoal, or bits of wood or other matters, moistened
with diluted sulphuric or hydrochloric acid to absorb the ammonia and
free the air from bad smell; when saturated with ammonia, the coke
being crushed, or the sawdust, charcoal, &c., are added to the manure.
After the sewage has been running for about an hour, the engine
having pumped away the clear water from beneath the filter as fast as
the sewage ran in above, there will be sufficient deposited to be con-
veniently removed and deodonized. This deposit is raised to the floor
above, and placed in the vat b. The vat has an air-tight space beneath
a perforated bottom connected with an air pump; the bottom is covered
with a layer of animal or vegetable charcoal, and the vat filled with
sewage residuun. The air pump is then set to work to draw out the
air beneath, when the atmospheric pressure forces out the moisture from
the manure; the front of the vat opening on hinges is let down; the
manure is shovelled out and deodimized by being mixed with one eighth
or more of animal or vegetable charcoal or gypsum.

page_text: The operation is carried on in a close chamber during the process of
filtration, but after all the water is drawn off, and the sewage turned
into another filter, the communication with the furnace is opened, and
a fanner set to work on the opposite side, or a steam jet set in so as to
force in a thorough supply of pure air, and draw out the vitiated air
before the workmen descend to raise up the deposit or residuum.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Bardwell, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Fifth day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.
Witness,
S. CARPMAEL..
WILLIAM BARDWELL. (L.S.)