IMPROVEMENTS IN DISINFECTING SEWERS OR OTHER DRAINS, AND IN CON- VERTING THE CONTENTS THEREOF TO USEFUL PURPOSES
Year: 1853

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Allan Macpherson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
20th June 1853.
I, ALLAN MACPHERSON, of Brussels, in the Kingdom of Belgium,
Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN DISINFECTING SEWERS OR OTHER DRAINS, AND IN CON-
VERTING THE CONTENTS THEREOF TO USEFUL PURPOSES," to be as follows:-
I propose to use peat or peat charcoal mixed with chloride of sodium
(common salt) or alone, where it may be found desirable; but in all
cases where manure is of value, and can be disposed with facility, I mix
the peat or peat charcoal with the chloride of sodium, powdered or fine,
to add to the fertilizing properties of sewage to be received in reser-
voirs.
I propose, wherever possible, to receive the contents of drains
or sewers into a reservoir or reservoirs which I shall have previously
prepared by partly filling it or them with a mixture of peat or peat

page_text: charcoal and common salt, or into which I shall provide by any known
means for such mixture being poured in, to meet the sewage matter as
it may be discharged from the drains or sewers.
I need not say any-
thing of the deodorizing and disinfecting properties of peat, charred or
otherwise, as they are well known, but by mixing the same with salt
and sewage of towns a deodorized manure of a very powerful kind for
agricultural purposes will be obtained.
I also purpose to collect or arrest noxious vapours of drains or
sewers in their course by (where practicable) excavating chambers of
proper form and of convenient height in the main sewers, into which
I propose to introduce trays of iron or basket work filled with the
above mixture; this will seize the exhalations as they rise to the
level of the chamber, and by depriving them of the amonia therein
contained will render them harmless as they escape by the usual
gratings. Or, where convenient, I propose to construct chambers above
the tunnel sewers, making openings therein at the top and gratings
above the chambers; as the noxious exhalations pass along they will
be drawn (in consequence of the draft occasioned by the gratings afore-
said) through the chamber so constructed, which being filled with my
prepared composition laid on wire or basket-worked flats or trays
as aforesaid, will be deprived of their noxious qualities, and escape
after the passage through the tray is freed therefrom.
I also propose, where practicable or desirable, to place barges,
lighters, or other craft before the mouth of sewers, to conduct the con-
tents thereof into the said craft, such vessels being previously provided
with my composition on gratings as aforesaid; otherwise these barges
will be closed or close-decked, and furnished with means to permit the
aqueous part of the sewage to discharge itself into the river, such
aqueous part being deprived of considerable portions of its noxious pro-
perties by coming into contact even for a short time with my composi-
tion. When the lighter is is full of material sewage it may be taken
from its position and another lighter substituted in its place, or, where
practicable, a permanent dumby or close vessel may be used. It is
scarcely necessary to observe that where low lands or large reservoirs

page_text: are appropriated or made for the purpose of receiving the entire sewage
of towns my Invention will be found most applicable, as additional
purifying and at the same time additional fertilizing may go on (as it
were) hand in hand. The substances used by me for my operations are
very cheap and quite inexhaustable.