IMPROVEMENTS IN DISINFECTING SEWAGE. OR OTHER FETID MATTERS, AND IN ABSORBING NOXIOUS GASEOUS: EXHALATIONS
Year: 1853

page_text: f.:.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Isaac
Dimsdale at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents; with
his 'Petition, on the 20th May 1853.
I, THOMAS ISAAC DIMSDALE, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN DISINFECTING SEWAGE. OR OTHER FETID
MATTERS, AND IN ABSORBING NOXIOUS GASEOUS: EXHALATIONS," to be.
follows:-
si
My improvements consist in the employment of a peculiar, kind of
peat or peat earth containing a salt or salts of iron or oxide of iron:
This material is used either alone or mixed with hydrate; of lime or
other alkaline or earthy matter. This mixture, or the peat alone, is
reduced to a granular powder before it is used.. When impure gases

page_text: inhaled from sewers, grave yards, burial grounds, or putrifying animal
or vegetable substances pass through the prepared peat, all the ammonia
and sulphuretted hydrogen will be absorbed and removed. Or for
deodorizing sewage, or other fetid, solid, or liquid. matters, I mix the
powdered peat alone or in combination with the other matters, as
above mentioned, with the fetid matters, and the noxious or unpleasant
odours will be absorbed thereby; or, in places where gaseous exhalations
arising from sewage or putrifying animal or vegetable substances, these
noxious gases may be absorbed by merely spreading out a layer of the
disinfecting material.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thomas Isaac Dimsdale in the Great Seal
Patent Office, on the 19th November 1853..
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I;
THOMAS ISAAC DIMSDALE, of Kingstown, near Dublin, in the Kingdom
of Ireland, Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing. date the Twentieth day of May, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the
sixteenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Thomas Isaac Dimsdale, Her special
license that I, the said Thomas Isaac Dimsdale, my executors, admi-
nistrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas Isaac
Dimsdale, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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 Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN DISINFECTING SEWAGE OR OTHER FETID
MATTERS, AND IN ABSORBING NOXIOUS GASEOUS EXHALATIONS," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Thomas Isaac Dimsdale,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should par-
ticularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and

page_text: 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 Thomas Isaac Dimsdale, do
hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement (that is to say):
My Invention of Improvements in Disinfecting Sewage or other
Fetid Matters, and in Absorbing Noxious Exhalations," consists in the
employment of a peculiar kind of peat or peat earth containing a salt or
salts of iron or oxide of iron. This material is used either alone or
mixed with hydrate of line or other alkaline or earthy matter. This mix-
ture or the peat alone is reduced to a granular powder before it is used.
When impure gases exhaled from sewers, grave yards, burial grounds,
or putrefying animal or vegetable substances pass through the prepared
peat, all the ammonia and sulphuretted hydrogen will be absorbed by
the peat and decomposed. For deodorizing sewage, or other fetid, solid,
or liquid matters, I mix the powdered peat alone or in combination with
the other matters, as above mentioned, with the fetid matters, and the
noxious or unpleasant odours will be absorbed thereby. Or in places
where gaseous exhalations, arising from sewage or putrefying animal or
vegetable substances, exist, these noxious gases inay be absorbed by
merely spreading out a layer of the disinfecting material.
It may be necessary here to state, that peat or bog earth, both in its
natural state or simply dried in the open air, as it is prepared for fuel,
or when reduced to charcoal by burning, is well known to possess the
power of absorbing certain effluvia which are generated during the de-
composition of animal or vegetable matters. This knowledge that peat or
bog earth possessed these properties has led to this substance being very
generally and extensively employed, particularly in Ireland, where it is a
common practice to use peat in its raw state, or air-dried peat combined
with ashes and peat charcoal, to mix with manures, for the purpose of
fixing the ammonia and other volatile gases which are evolved from them.
The result of some elaborate experiments made and published in the
year One thousand eight hundred and fifty, by Professor Davy and his

page_text: •
son, in Dublin, goes to prove that the disinfecting power of peat and
peat charcoal is partly attributable to the presence of creosote in both
these substances. Commion peat has also been employed at Limerick,
in the works of the Hibernian Gas Company, for the purification of
coal gas manufactured for illuminating purposes, and it was found to
answer the purpose.
It is likewise well known that the power of
absorbing certain gases exists to a greater or less degree in some carthy
matters, especially in those of alkaline character when calcined or
torrefied, also in ashes and in every kind of charcoal, whether animal,
vegetable, or mineral. But charcoal made from peat or from any other
substance, as well as simple peat or other earthy matter, raw or cal-
cined or torrefied, parts again freely with the ammonia taken up upon
being slightly heated.
...The first part of this Invention consists in the employment of peat
containing a salt or oxide of iron, eitlier naturally combined or mixed
artificially therewith, by saturating it with a solution of a salt of iron or
any other metallic salt, or mixing it with any metallic oxide, either
alone or in combination with alkaline, phosphated, or other earths, or
coal-ashes or charcoal of any description. The effect of these materials
will be the absorption of the ammoniacal and hydrosulphuric acid gas
found in or evolved from the matter contained in sewage, in cesspools,
and in all excrementitious and putrescent substances, and the deodorizing
and disinfecting the same."
The same materials may also be employed for filtering and purifying
water contaminated with fetid substances and gases, and for taking up
the noxious gases exhaled from burial grounds and vaults, as before
.mentioned.
The salt of iron found naturally in peat is the sulphate, and by the
agency of this substance ammonia is converted into sulphate of ammonia,
a non-volatile salt. The oxide of iron, separated by the ammonia from
the sulphuric acid of the sulphate of iron, combines with and arrests
the sulphur in the hydrosulphuric acid gas (sulphuretted hydrogen).
When the material containing the salt or oxide of iron employed as the
purifying material is charged with sulphur, the material may be renovated
by simply exposing it to the action of the air, and thereby rendered

page_text: capable of being again employed as at first The sulphuret of iron is
decomposed by this exposure to fair, and the iron passes into the state
of peroxide of iron; which is capable of acting upon à further quantity
of sulpliuretted hydrogen gas.
r
The sulphur separated from the 'sulphuretted hydrogen by means of
the salt or oxide of iron, as described above, is inodorous and insoluble,
and is entirely removed from the solid fluid or gaseous compound
submitted to the purifying process. Sewage and other matters to be
operated upon vary. in their character and components, and in the
degree of strength in the latter; and if the quantity of ammonia present
be not enough to properly decompose the salt of iron, the addition of an
alkaline cartli (lime or chalk is preferred) will effect the decomposition
necessary, in order to enable the oxide of iron to act upon the hydro-
sulphuric acid gas, and decompose it into its elements; as before stated.
In artificially preparing peat, or the other substances mentioned, for the
purposes of my Invention, I prefer to use the sulphate or muriate of
iron as the best,' the most easily obtained, and clicapest material for the
purpose; or common salt may be used in combination with a solution of
the sulphate of iron, but the hydrated oxide of iron alone will take up
sulphuretted hydrogen.
The salts and oxides of other metals will likewise accomplish the
object I have in view, but not being capable of being re-oxidized with
equal facility are not so eligible for use.
In order to impregnate the, peat or bog earth, and other earthy
matters combined therewith as aforesaid; with iron or a salt of iron, I
sometimes take any convenient quantity of peat earth, coprolite, or
charcoal, or ashes of any description, either alone or mixed with lime or
chalk, marl, or fullers earth; and boil these matters in the water found
in coal and other mines, provided such water is found to contain oxide
of iron or any salt of iron, as is generally the case. The water of these
mines so found charged with iron or other metallic inatter I sometimes
use, simply saturating the materials above described with such water
when evaporated by boiling to an adequate strength, when they will
become impregnated sufficiently with a metallic salt or oxide, and will
accomplish the decompositions specified above.

page_text: By this process of boiling or macerating the peat or other materials
in such water of mines they become more uniformly and strongly im-
pregnated with the metallic matter than the ferruginous peats found
in nature, and the maceration of the peat by dissevering its ibre
facilitates its being brought into that state of division best suited for the
purposes of the Invention. If naturally ferruginous peat be employed
it must be broken or ground into coarse powder, or reduced to a state
of mould, to render it fit for application. For the deodorization of solid
sewage or other fetid matters the purifying material above described is
to be strewn or spread over them or mixed therewith, and the sewage
water or other fetid liquid must be filtered through the purifying
materials, and in some cases covered therewith; powdered charcoal
will float upon water, but when the media employed as the vehicle of
the metallic salt or oxide are of a heavier nature than charcoal, they
may be suspended over the liquid substance by mechanical means
adapted to the place where and circumstances under which the operation
of purifying and disinfecting is to be performed. In taking up the fetid
gases emanating from burial places it is merely necessary to strew the
purifying material on the ground or surfaces whence the noxious gases
exhale.
Having now described my Invention, and the best means with which
I am acquainted for carrying the same into effect, I claim, in conclusion,
the deodorization and disinfecting of solid or fluid sewage matter, and
of other fetid substances, and the foul gases emanating from the same
or from burial places, by the use of peat or peat carth containing
naturally a salt or oxide of iron, and brought into a state of pulverization
in the manner herein-before mentioned, whether such peat or peat earth
be used alone or mixed with chalk, marl, lime, or fullers earth, or with
coprolite or common carths, raw or baked, common salt, breeze, or coal
ashes, or peat charcoal, or charcoal made from bituminous shale of any
description. I also claim the preparation of common peat or peat
charcoal, or charcoal made from bituminous shale, or from any substance
whatsoever, breeze or coal ashes, and coprolite, by mixing, boiling, or
saturating the same with a solution of a salt of iron or other metal,
either artificially prepared or as found naturally in mines, or by mixing

page_text: such earthy matters with the oxides of iron or other metals, for the.
purposes herein-before set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Isaac Dimsdale, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of Novem-
ber, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
fifty-three.
Witness,
FRED, WALKDEN,
66, Chancery Lane.
THOS I. DIMSDALE. (L.S.)