AN IMPROVED METHOD OF UTILIZING SEWAGE AND URINE, AND FOR FACILITATING THEIR PASSAGE THROUGH PIPES, THEREBY PREVENTING THE POLLUTION OF RIVERS AND STREAMS
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Bardwell, Civil Engineer, of No. 4, Great
Queen Street, Westminster, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED METHOD
OF UTILIZING SEWAGE AND URINE, AND FOR FACILITATING THEIR PASSAGE
THROUGH PIPES, THEREBY PREVENTING THE POLLUTION OF RIVERS AND STREAMS."
Sealed the 19th April 1865, and dated the 16th December 1864.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Bardwell at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
16th December 1864.
I, WILLIAM BARDWELL, Civil Engineer, of No. 4, Great Queen Street,
Westminster, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN
IMPROVED METHOD OF UTILIZING SEWAGE AND URINE, AND FOR FACILITATING THEIR
PASSAGE THROUGH PIPES, THEREBY PREVENTING THE POLLUTION OF RIVERS AND
STREAMS," to be as follows:-
These improvements relate, firstly, to the mode of treating sewage and urine
to adapt the same for agricultural and manufacturing purposes; and, secondly,
to the mode of passing sewage and urine through pipes to prevent the clogging
or choking of the same. The sewage having been brought from cities, towns,
or villages to its outfall is recieved into tanks instead of into rivers and
streams, and deodorized, and afterwards pumped into tanks or pipes for
distribution over the soil. The solid matter may be precipitated with the
sulphate of lime from France or Belgium, used in quantities sufficient for the
purpose, and made into a manure. The sulphate of lime from France or
Belguim speedily separates the solid from the fluid matter, and being rich
in phosphates greatly enhances the value of the composition as a fertilizing

page_text: agent. The urine is taken from public or private urinals, the ammonia fixed
by muriatic or sulphuric acid used in quantities sufficient for the purpose,
a great part of the watery particles evaporated, and the residuum added to
the sewage deposit made into a manure by being mixed with the sulphate of
lime from France or Belgium, or it may be sold for manufacturing purposes.
To prevent the solid portion of the sewage from firmly adhering to the sides
of the distributing pipes, thereby clogging or choking the bore, I pass alter-
nately through the pipe the sewage in its normal condition and the super-
natant liquid from the sewage or urine treated as before mentioned, which
alternation has been found effectually to prevent the permanent adherence
of solid particles to the pipes.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Bardwell in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
12th June 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
BARDWELL, Civil Engineer, of No. 4, Great Queen Street, Westminster, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-eighth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said William Bardwell, Her special licence that I, the said William
Bardwell, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said William Bardwell, my 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 "AN IMPROVED
METHOD OF UTILIZING SEWAGE AND URINE, AND FOR FACILITATING THEIR PASSAGE
THROUGH PIPES, THEREBY PREVENTING THE POLLUTION OF RIVERS AND STREAMS,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Bardwell, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their,
or one of their hands and seals, 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.

page_text: I reventing the Ionution or rivers and Streams.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 shows a plan of the usual works which will be required for carry-
ing out the Invention, the dimensions of which said works must be diminished
or increased in proportion to the quantity of sewage in any city, town, or
place; Figure 2, a section of the same works.
For these purposes the sewage is taken from its outfall or some other place
to sewage works by a pipe or culvert (by pumping or by gravitation, alternately
with the sewage used for irrigation in its normal state, when or where it
is preferred to use sewage in its normal state. Sulphate of lime (burnt
gypsum), commonly called plaster of Paris or platre-en-pierre, by preference
that made from the gypsum of France, Belgium, Norway, or Sweden, is made
into a hydrosulphate of lime, and allowed to run with the sewage into the sup-
ply basin er bowl in the proportion of half a ton or more to one million gallons
of sewage; or the sulphate of lime may be sifted in a dry form in like propor-
tions over the sewage in the basin, bowl, or tank. From the supply basin
or pipe the sewage rushes into the mixing bowl in such a manner as to produce
a centrifugal motion, by which the sewage and the deodorants become
thoroughly intermixed in their passage to the depositing tank (see Drawings).
Midway, vertically in the depositing tank, and covering two-thirds at least of
its horizantal area, is placed on a grating of galvanized iron a rapid filtering
bed of gravel and sand about eighteen inches thick, through which filtering
bed, propelled by the head of sewage, the purified liquid percolates upward
and runs into the clear water reservoir, leaving behind the solid matters.
This reservoir must be of proportionate capacity to the flow of sewage, and
its contents may be pumped up or allowed to flow out by gravitation, and be
used for irrigation, as being sufficiently fertilizing for most crops, having
retained some of the soluble salts, and absorbed some of the sulphate of lime.
When necessary sulphuric or other acid in or about the proportion of three
pounds to each ton of sewage, or the sulphate of iron, or the sulphate of alu-
mina, or the perchloride of iron, in like proportion, is made to run in with
the sewage in the manner above described. When the depositing tank is

page_text: fully charged with solid matters, the sewage is turned into another mixing
bowl and tank, where the process is repeated. In the meantime a sluice
in the first tank is opened, and the sediment let out into a sump, or long pit,
common to all the tanks. It may be raised from thence by an endless chain
of buckets connected with an endless chain of rakes, or by other means,
worked by steam or by other motive power, into a chamber having a sloping
and porous or other floor, in which chamber each hundred pounds of sediment
is mixed with ten or more pounds of the above-described sulphate of lime and
two or more pounds of chloride of sodium or other chemicals, as may be
found expedient. The mixture without the application of heat is then ready
for removal and sale. Over each basin, or bowl, or tank is a cone, in which
are hung baskets, containing oxide of manganese, coke moistened with diluted
muriatic acid, or sawdust moistened with diluted sulphuric acid, to absorb
and crystallize the evolved ammonia for utilization. The urine is received
into a tank either beneath or on one side of the public urinals, and taken from
thence to a laboratory, where it is treated according to its dilution with a suf-
ficient quantity of sulphuric acid or other mineral acids to fix the ammonia, it
may then be evaporated to any required strength, and the acids neutralized, and
be used for dyeing or other purposes, or converted into a dry and friable
compound, by the admixture of sulphate of lime, and added to the sewage
deposit or sold separately.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of per-
forming the same, I would have it understood that what I claim is the new
principle involved in the alternate use of sewage in its normal state and sew-
age in its purified state for the irrigation of land; the new principle embodied
in the use of sulphate of lime, by preference that from France, Belgium,
Norway, or Sweden, for disinfecting sewage and urine and making sewage
manure and other compounds therewith; and the new principle involved
in the peculiar or similar building arrangements, tanks, and processes herein
described for effecting these objects.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Bardwell, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twelfth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
(L.S.) WILLIAM BARDWELL.