MAKING SEWAGE REFUSE INTO ARTIFICIAL MANURE
Year: 1884

page_text: FREDERICK GROOM REDMAN of Star Lane Peterborough, and, JOSEPH BUTT of
Newark n Peterborough, both in the County of Northampton Manure Manu-
facturers, as the Midland Counties Improved Night Soil Manure Company Star
Lane Peterborough do hereby declare the nature of our invention for MAKING
SEWAGE REFUSE INTO ARTIFICIAL MANURE to be as follows:-
This application sets forth that 1st At the present time a great deal of Night
Soil and other Sewage Matter is allowed to run into rivers polluting them and in
other ways allowed to waste which by chemical process can be made into valuable
Artificial Manure.
2nd That by means of Sewage Farms and in other ways various Towns have
tried to use Sewage Matter for the Cultivation of crops but have only partly
succeeded, because of the difficulty experienced in drying the Solid Matter, it has
never been successfully used.
Farming operations have been carried on by irregation Carriers have used to
flood the fields with the liquids which has in course of time drained through the
earth and carried away by drains into the rivers-It will be seen by this that
before flooding the fields the liquids and the solid must be seperated.
3rd That this Solid matter is the most valuable of the two when it is properly
prepared, In its raw state it is useless, hence, although Farmers and others can
have it for the carting away they will not do so-Peterborough has now hundreds
of tons laying at the Sewage beds-Wisbeach a field full Bedford-Leicester and
other Towns are drying to dry it with Sand, but unless it is chemically dried it
breeds insects which are so injurious to crops.
The only way it can be successfully used is as other Artificial Manures are
used-viz-There are Manure drills made for the purpose of drilling Artificial
Manure and seeds at the same time And after much time & expense the
Applicants have succeeded in producing a valuable Manure from Night Soil which
can be used in this way.
4th The Applicants humbly submit that this invention will be of great service
to the public and that by the converting of Night Soil into Artificial Manure it
will conduce to good health of the general public and further that by the granting
of Liciences to the corporations of various Towns, that, which has hitherto been

page_text: allowed to waste and accumulate spreading. deseases, can be used in such a way
as to place thousands of pounds annually in the hands of Town councils and the
ratepayers.

page_text: We FREDERICK GROOM REDMAN of Star Lane Peterborough and JOSEPH BUTT
of Newark near Peterborough both in the County of Northampton Manure
Manufacturers (trading as the Midland Counties Improved Night Soil Manure
Company, Star Lane Peterborough) do hereby declare the nature of our invention
for MAKING SEWAGE REFUSE INTO ARTIFICIAL MANURE and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement :-
The object of this invention is to convert sewage refuse into artificial manure by
chemical, means without the aid of machinery. At the present time a great deal of
valuable sewage matter such as night soil is allowed to run into rivers or otherwise
to waste. Attempts have been made at various places to utilize this sewage and to
prevent the pollution of rivers thereby, by allowing the solid matters in the sewage
to deposit in settling tanks and employing the liquid portions for irrigation. The
solid matters in the raw state are however of little value as manure and are besides
liable to breed insects which are injurious to crops. Now this invention consists
in treating the solid or non-liquid portion of the sewage as hereinafter described so
as to convert the same into a valuable manure which can be distributed upon the
land by means of ordinary agricultural drills such as are commonly used for seed
and for manure in a dry powdered state.
For the purpose of this invention the sewage is first mixed with lime and
sulphuric acid; the acid sets the gases which are in the sewage and converts them
into fertilizing agents; the acid also acts upon the lime and converts it into
sulphate of lime and as the lime and acid when in contact are as it were on fire
they absorb all the moisture in the manure and the result is a fine friable material
or powder. In mixing the sewage, lime and sulphuric acid together, the best
results are obtained by spreading a layer of the lime upon a layer of the sewage,
then sprinkling the acid over them, then adding another layer of sewage and a
layer of lime and sprinkling more acid and so on for any desired number of layers,
finishing off with a layer of sewage which should be well pressed. down so as to
keep the heat well in. In from 12 to 24 hours the whole may be turned over and
sulphate of ammonia, kainite and potash are then added, the result being a valuable
manure in the form of a dry guano-like powder which when screened is suitable
for use in drills.
The proportions of the materials which we employ are to a ton of sewage matter
about 5 to 10 cwt of lime and a carboy (about 60 lbs) of sulphuric acid. A larger
proportion of lime even up to a ton or nearly so might be used without detriment
but continued experiments have shown that 5 to 10 cwt of lime is generally as much
as can be employed with advantage. The proportions of sulphate of ammonia,
kainite and potash should be somewhat varied according to the particular crops for
which the manure is required; for instance grain crops will require more ammonia
and less potash than root crops; about one stone of sulphate of ammonia, from
1 to 2 stone of potash and 1 to 2 stone of kainite to the ton of sewage are the
proportions employed. Nitrate of soda, a material frequently employed to improve
the quality of soil, may be added in the proportion of about 1 stone for crops or
soils for which it is thought desirable, but this addition is entirely optional.

page_text: Having now particularly described, and ascertained the nature of our said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what
we claim is :—
Treating sewage in the manner bereinbefore described so as to convert it into
manure.