IMPROVEMENTS IN DEODORIZING AND MANUFACTURING MANURES FROM SEWAGE AND OTHER FOUL WATERS, AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN." PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Smith, M.D., of Portland House,
Cheltenham, and John Van Norden Bazalgette, of the Langham
Hotel, Portland Place, in the County of Middlesex, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN DEODORIZING AND MANUFACTURING
MANURES FROM SEWAGE AND OTHER FOUL WATERS, AND IN APPARATUS
EMPLOYED THEREIN."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Smith and
John Van Norden Bazalgette at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 23rd November 1868.
We, THOMAS SMITH, M.D., of Portland House, Cheltenham, and JOHN
VAN NORDEN BAZALGETTE, of the Langham Hotel, Portland Place, in
the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN DEODORIZING AND MANUFACTURING MANURES

page_text: to be as follows:-
According to this Invention the sewage or other fluid is introduced
into the settling tank through openings in the wall of the tank at
different heights, so as to obviate the disturbance caused in the process
of precipitating the solid matter by the falling of the sewage stream from
the upper surface of the tank wall, also communicating a slow hori-
zontal rotary movement to the fluid at the level of its entry into the
tank. The several openings for the admission of the fluid are closed and
opened by sliding traps actuated by floats. A horizontal rotatory
motion may also be given by an open circular duct or ducts constructed
on the interior walls of the tanks, delivering the sewage or other fluid
at the level in the tank, and communicating a slow horizontal motion to
the fluid at or near its surface. The form of the bottom of the tanks
may be varied to suit the shape of the tank whether square, round,
oval, or otherwise. The bottom of the tank being low on one side or on
both sides with a ridge in the centre, or rising from all the sides to the
centre in a conical or pyramidical form, or sinking from the sides to the
centre in a conical or pyramidical form for the purpose of collecting the
deposit or residuum from the sewage on one or both sides, or at the four
corners, or at the centre of the tanks. The deposit at the bottom of the
tanks is drawn off by conduit pipes, or pipes fitted with valves or traps,
or similar apparatus for opening and closing the pipes. They draw off
the sewage deposit from the bottom of the tanks into the drying bed or
other receptacle provided for receiving it. Chain buckets or elevators
are used where necessary to raise the fluid sewage deposit into the
drying beds in cases where the hydraulic pressure in the tanks does not
raise the fluid deposit to a sufficient elevation. Filters are employed
having slate beds, on to which the liquid is admitted, and over it are
beds of gravel, sand, and charcoal, up through which the liquid forces
its way, and so is filtered. In order to precipitate the sewage or foul
water there is added to it a compound formed of sulphuric, sulphurous,
and hydrochloric acid by mixing them with the several varieties of marl
and mould such as are contained under the general head, term, or
description of soil, loam, or earth. Or in the preparation of the above
deodorizing and precipitating compounds all argillaceous schists and
other refuse products of mines called by miners "tipe" may be used.
The precipitated and dried products are manufactured into a manurial

page_text: compost, the basis or matrix of which is the precipitated and deodorized
sewage, to which various chemical salts, such as salts of ammonia, soda,
potash, and lime are added.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thomas Smith and John Van Norden Bazalgette
in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 22nd May 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wе, THOMAS
SMITH, M.D., of Portland House, Cheltenham, and JOHN VAN NORDEN
BAZALGETTE, of the Langham Hotel, Portland Place, in the County of
Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the
thirty-second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and succes-
sors, give and grant unto us, the said Thomas Smith and John Van
Norden Bazalgette, Her special licence that we, the said Thomas Smith
and John Van Norden Bazalgette, our executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as we, the said Thomas Smith and John Van
Norden Bazalgette, our executors, administrators, 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 DEODORIZING AND MANUFACTURING MANURES FROM SEWAGE
AND OTHER FOUL WATERS AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN,'
upon the
condition (amongst others) that we, the said Thomas Smith and John
Van Norden Bazalgette, our executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under our or their hands and seals, or under the
hand and seal of one of us or them, 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 Jolin Van Norden Bazalgette, on
behalf of myself and the said Thomas Smith, do hereby declare the

page_text: 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:-
According to this Invention the sewage or other fluid is introduced
into the settling tank through openings in the wall of the tank at
different heights, so as to obviate the disturbance caused in the process.
of precipitating the solid matter by the falling of the sewage stream
from the upper surface of the tank wall, also communicating a slow
horizontal rotary movement to the fluid at the level of its entry into the
tank.
A horizontal rotary motion may also be given by an open circular
duct or ducts constructed in the interior walls of the tanks delivering
the sewage or other fluid at the level in the tank, and communicating a
slow horizontal motion to the fluid at or near its surface. The form of
the bottom of the tanks may be varied to suit the shape of the tank,
whether square, round, oval, or otherwise, The bottom of the tank being
lew on one side or on both sides, with a ridge in the centre, or rising
from all the sides to the centre in a conical or pyramidical form, or
sinking from the sides to the centre in a conical or pyramidical form for
the purpose of collecting the deposit or residuum from the sewage on
one or both sides, or at the four corners, or at the centre of the tanks,
The deposit at the bottom of the tanks is drawn off by conduit pipe or
pipes fitted with valves or traps, or similar apparatus for opening and
closing the pipes. They draw off the sewage deposit from the bottom
of the tanks into the drying bed or other receptaclo provided for
receiving it. Chain buckets or elevators are used when necessary to
raise the fluid sewage deposit into the drying beds in cases where the
hydraulic pressure in the tanks does not raise the fluid deposit to a
sufficient elevation. Filters are employed having beds on to which the
liquid is admitted, and over them are layers of gravel, sand, and charcoal,
up through which the liquid forces its way, and so is filtered, or peat
may be used as the filtering material,
These arrangements of apparatus are illustrated by the annexed
Drawings.
Figure 1 is a longitudinal section of the settling tanks and apparatus
connected therewith arranged in the manner which we prefer; Figure 2
is a plan, and Figure 3 is a transverse section taken at the line 1, 1,
Figure 1. a is the main sewer in which a water wheel is mounted at a
to turn the barrel of a delivering apparatus which discharges into the

page_text: sewer measured quantities of a deodarizing mixture herein-after de-
scribed, The sewage so mixed falls into the tumbling bay 6 from which
it escapes by the inclined openings c into the settling tank d. There are
series of openings c at short distances one above the other in the tank
wall so that there may be no fall out of the tumbling bay b into the
tank to disturb the deposit of the solid matters, and the openings are
inclined so that a slow rotary motion in a horizontal plane may be
communicated to the contents of the tank by the inward flow, this
motion tends to collect the solid matters in the centre of the tank which
in this arrangement (as is on the whole preferred) is made lower than
the other parts of the bottom, although if desired the bottom may be
made lower at the sides or corners in place of in the centre so long as a
lower part is provided for the collection of the solid matters; when the
semi-fluid deposit has accumulated it is drawn off by the culvert e from
the lowest part of the bottom by opening a sluice with which the culvert
is provided, it is either run at once on to drying beds or is raised by
chain buckets or elevators on to such beds as may be most convenient.
The liquid after settling more or less escapes at finto the second
tumbling bay g, from which it passes into another settling tank h, where
a further deposit takes place which is from time to time drawn off as
before. The escape from this tank is not by overflow but by upward
filtration through the filter i, which may be of any convenient con-
struction, it may be a number of brickwork arches at the bottom built
open so that the liquid can permeate up through them, and on the arches
the filtering material, it may be peat, to make an artificial mauure, or it
may be gravel, sand, and charcoal, or such like material, is laid. The
liquid flows over at the top of the filter and is collected in a tank k, out
of which it is again filtered at 1, after which it is sweet and pure, and
may be allowed to pass to any convenient outfall.
Figure 4 shows in plan, and Figure 5 in transverse section, another
form which may be given to the settling reservoirs, that is to say, they
may be made triangular with the bottoms inclining alternately either
way, and with sluices fitted at the lowest part and opening into a culvert
into which the semi-fluid deposit is discharged and conveyed to drying
beds on to which it is either run directly or lifted as may be convenient.
In order to precipitate the sewage or foul water there is added to it an
acid compound called hereafter a defeccating, deodorizing, or precipitating
marl, clay, mould, or earth, and it is invented for the object of defeccating,

page_text: deodozing, and precipitating sewage matters and destroying animalcules,
fungi, and like parasitic productions. In the preparation of this com
pound we use th part of the acid to 9 parts of the base, which may
be either marl, clay, mould, such as are contained under the general
head, term, or description of soil, loam, or earth, argillaceous and
aluminous schists, and other refuse products called by miners "tipe "
as well as ashes of wood or coal and coke. The acids we use are
sulphuric, sulphurous, and hydrochloric acids. The marl, clay, mould,
or earth is to be thoroughly dried and pulverized previous to its
mixture with the acid, which is to be thoroughly incorporated with the
whole mass, as sewage matters differ in their composition owing to the
admixture of the refuse from chemical or manufacturing works, so it
is sometimes found in practice that a combination formed of sulphuric
and hydrochloric acids effects a more rapid defeccation than when either
of these acid mixtures are used alone. When the sewage matter abounds
in animalcules or fungi it requires to be treated in the first instance by
a mixture formed of sulphurous acid, marl, clay, or mould in similar
proportions as the aforesaid. About 200 pounds of this defeccating,
deodorizing, or precipitating, marl, clay, or mould is sufficient to treat
sewage matters of a population of 10,000 persons per diem. The
action of the powder should be continuous and without intermission
night and day, that is delivered into the sewage stream by means of two
hoppers, so constructed that each will allow 4 pounds per hour to pass
into the sewage stream. In treating very offensive sewage matters, or
such as contain any kind of organic growth which it is desirable to
destroy, the marl, clay, or mould prepared with sulphurous acid should
be placed into the first hopper, and the second may contain either
acidulated mould or marl, or a mixture formed by the combination of
hydrochloric and sulphuric acids with the marl, mould, or any of the
before-mentioned articles. Three filter beds should be used, the two
first made upward, and charged with peat, which when dried is to be
mixed with the sewage residuum, and treated with sulphuric acid to
form the sewage manure. The last filter may be made of animal or
marine charcoal and sand, as different crops require a different kind of
manure, so that the matrix or basis of the sewage matter as prepared
above may be supplemented by the addition of ammoniacal salts, chloride
of sodium, nitrate of soda, sulphate of magnesia, and these salts vary
in their proportions as the nature of the soil or the character of the crop
indicate and require.

page_text: What we claim is, the improvements in deodorizing and manufac-
turing manures from sewage and other foul waters, and in apparatus
employed therein, substantially as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Van Norden Bazalgette, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of May,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-
nine.
J. VAN NORDEN BAZALGETTE. (L.S.)