AN IMPROVED PROCESS FOR SEPARATING Southampton Building
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Robert Lake at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 14th June 1880. A communication
from abroad by Alfred Faidherbe-Danhier, of Elonges, Belgium.
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co., Patent Agents,
"AN IMPROVED PROCESS FOR SEPARATING
Southampton Buildings, London.'
ANIMAL FROM VEGETABLE MATTER, AND FOR TREATING SUCH ANIMAL MATTER
FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF MANURE". [A communication from abroad by Alfred
Faidherbe-Danbier, of Elonges, Belgium.]
This Invention relates to a process for mechanically disintegrating and dissolving
within a closed vessel any kind of animal substance which is combined with
vegetable matter, such for instance as hair, wool, horn, tanned or green skins, flesh,
blood, or pigs' bristles, in combination with hemp, flax, cotton, aloes, jute, or the
like, whether in the form of waste raw scraps or pieces or in the form of woven;
fabrics as rags.
The said process has the effect of bringing the substances or
materials into a dry, homogeneous, and pulverulent. mass suitable for manure, the
same being entirely and immediately soluble, and containing from eight to twelve
per cent. of organic and ammoniacal azote; at the same time the said vegetable
substances are preserved intact and acquiro by the separation or disintegration &
new value.
This improved process differs essentially from all the processes heretofore known,
and based entirely upon chemical or scientific action, either by reaction or by
maceration in the open air, in the fact that it effects a series of operations hereto-
fore performed separately, and by hand by a combination of mechanical apparatus
whose operation is certain and continuous..
I will now proceed to describe the apparatus which I employ for carrying the said
process into practice, that is to say :-
I provide a steam generator of any ordinary construction, also a boiler of cast
iron-to-contain-a caustic solution of bath.; steam enters this boiler from the aforesaid
generator through a pipe which enters at the top, and whose end extends to a point
near the bottom of the boiler. A-branch-pipe-leads to.a.cylindrical digester-made-
of sheet iron and containing the materials to be dissolved; this digester is closed
hermetically by a cast iron cover having a pressure or adjusting screw and an
internal plate to act upon the solid mass. Near the top a man-hole is provided,

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through which the materials to be dissolved are introduced. At the lower part of
the digester or vessel, and on a level with an internal false bottom perforated with
a number of holes, there is another manhole, through which the solid product or
magma is withdrawn. A branch tube provided with a cock leads from the pipe
between the steam generator and boiler, and enters the digester between the bottom
thereof and the perforated false bottom herein before mentioned. Another tube, also
provided with a cock, leads from the bottom of the boiler containing the caustic
solution to the digester, and at the upper part of the latter there is a discharge-
pipe curved and extending downward, and designed to discharge the steam received
from the generator. At the lower part of the digester there is a cock for discharging
the liquor after the separation and transformation of the materials in the digester
have been effected. A vessel is provided to receive the liquor coming through this
cock, and there is a pan, vessel, or apparatus in which the liquor is evaporated. I
also employ a disintegrator of any known construction for treating the material as
it comes from the evaporating vessel, and a sifting or bolting apparatus for finally
treating the product.
The organic substance to be dissolved is placed within the cylindrical vessel or
digester through the upper manhole, and the cock in the pipe from the boiler is
opened, thus pormitting the solution previously prepared to pass from the boiler
to the organic substance. This solution consists of ten kilogrammes of caustic soda
or similar matorial 10° Baumé, dissolved in one hectolitre of water, and upon which
is thrown ten kilogrammes of quick-lime. This caustic bath is heated by steam from
the generator, which steam arrives through the pipo hereinbefore mentioned leading
from the said generator into the boiler. I employ the said caustic solution in the
proportion of one hectolitre for each one hundred kilogrammes in a dry state of raw
material to be dissolved. The upper manhole is closed at the same time as the cock
in the pipe from the boiler, and the cock in the steam pipe lending to the bottom of
the digester is opened, whereupon steam enters into the body of the latter through
the perforations in the false bottom. After boiling for four hours, all the animal
matters will be completely dissolved, and the vegetable matters will form a solid
residuum at the bottom of the vessel or digester. When the liquor is withdrawn
by means of the lower cock, the interior pressure plate is forced down upon the
mass in order to express all the liquid matter, and the liquor collected in the vessel
under the cock is carried to the evaporating pan, where the evaporation takes place
at a temperature of 100° centigrade, leaving a dry product. This dry product is
then pulverized, sifted, and packed in barrels to be delivered in for use as manure,
the said barrels being hermetically closed.
The product obtained as above described possesses the advantages that it is
capable of being immediately and completely dissolved even in cold water, and
contains from eight to twelve per cent. of organic and ammoniacal azote.