IMPROVEMENTS IN APPLYING, TREATING, AND UTILISING MATERIALS FOR DEODORISING SOLID, LIQUID, AND GASEOUS MATTERS
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edward Charles Cortis Stanford, of Glasgow, in
the County of Lanark, North Britain, Manufacturing Chemist, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPLYING, TREATING, AND UTILISING
MATERIALS FOR DEODORISING SOLID, LIQUID, AND GASEOUS MATTERS."
Sealed the 2nd October 1869, and dated the 10th April 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edward Charles Cortis
Stanford at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 10th April 1869.
I, EDWARD CHARLES CORTIS STANFORD, of Glasgow, in the County
of Lanark, North Britain, Manufacturing Chemist, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPLYING, TREATING,
AND UTILISING MATERIALS FOR DEODORISING SOLID, LIQUID, AND GASEOUS MATTERS,"
to be as follows, that is to say:-
This Invention has for one of its objects to improve what is known
as the "dry closet system," and which has been put in practice in one

page_text: For this
form under "Moule's Patents" in such a way as to diminish the
quantity of dry deodorising material required, and to obtain valuable
chemical products in a convenient and economical manner.
purpose charcoal and, by preference, seaweed charcoal obtained as
described in the Specification of Letters Patent granted to the present
applicant and dated 4th June 1861 (No. 1411), is used in the first
instance, and when charged with solid or liquid excreta or condensed
exhalations is re-burned in retorts arranged to distil the ammonia and
other volatile matters which are condensed and utilised, whilst the
reburned charcoal or "char" can be used again as a deodorant.
The improved system is also applicable for dealing with distillery
refuse and blood from slaughter-houses, and the like.
Another object of the present Invention is the deodorising of exhala-
tions, such as those met with in privies, closets, or urinals, and is effected
by exposing seaweed charcoal in the chamber or space to be deodorised.
The great objections to the dry closet system when earth is used are
the large amount of earth required, three and a half times the weight
of the excreta, and the difficulties of obtaining the quantity, and of
drying it. When using seaweed char, which is to be preferred to other
kinds on account of its great absorptive power and its cheapness, from
one-fourth to one-third in weight of what would be required were earth
used is sufficient, whilst an equal weight is ample for urine, thus
involving a large saving in carriage. The product or mixture of char
with excreta may be kept for any length of time perfectly inodorous in
a pit connected with the closet, and when convenient it may be con-
veyed to an establishment to be re-burned like the char used in refining
sugar, excepting that the volatile matters disengaged or distilled are
collected and condensed, the distillate being a liquor largely charged
with ammonia, which may be redistilled and converted into sulphate
for sale. The whole of the ammonia may be obtained in this way,
whilst the phosphoric acid and potash accumulate in the charcoal,
together with the carbon from the organic constituents of the excreta.
In this way the weight of the charcoal will be increased to the extent
of about five per cent. with each using and re-burning, and with this
constant addition the char will not require replacing with fresh material,
so that its cost will be primary only, whilst a company working the
process would ultimately become sellers of an exceedingly valuable

page_text: animal charcoal. The ultimate result being the same whatever be the
material first employed, earth or ashes may be commenced with, but
it is preferable to use a good charcoal, as its value is only increased
whilst the saving in carriage compensates for the outlay.
The cost of the fuel for reburning will be little more than that which
is necessarily used in drying any material that is employed in dry closets,
whilst the dust may be sifted from the reburned material and be sold as
manure.
The dry closet system can with the present improvements be carried
out with perfect freedom from odours or unpleasant exhalations from
the closet to the finished products.
The improved system is obviously susceptible of various modifications
as regards its details. For example, the char when charged or partly
charged with excreta or the like may be simply dried for reuse, being
reburned at intervals only, or the charged char may be sold for manure
without reburning.
In applying the seaweed charcoal for deodorising exhalations in
closets or other places it is convenient to place it in a box with two
or more of its sides made of open wirework, thus the charcoal in a
box of half a cubic foot in capacity will present a surface of nearly an
acre and a half, and its deodorising power being practically inexhaustible
it will not require frequent renewal. The charcoal may also be exposed
in any other convenient way.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Edward Charles Cortis Stanford in the Great Scal
Patent Office on the 8th October 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWARD
CHARLES CORTIS STANFORD, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North
Britain, Manufacturing Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of April, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-
second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Edward Charles Cortis Stanford, Her

page_text: special licence that I, the said Edward Charles Cortis Stanford, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Edward Charles Cortis Stanford, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPLYING, TREATING,
AND UTILISING MATERIALS FOR
GASEOUS
DEODORISING SOLID, LIQUID, AND
MATTERS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Edward
Charles Cortis Stanford, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said In-
vention, 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 Edward Charles Cortis Stanford, 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 in writing, that is to say :-
The principal object of my said Invention is to improve what is
generally known as the "dry closet" system of dealing with excreta,
which has been put in practice in one form under "Moule's Patents,"
so that it can be successfully applied to large towns and cities, and so
that the entire value of the excreta can be economically recovered in
marketable chemical products.
Another object of my said Invention is the application of seaweed
charcoal for deodorising the air of the ordinary watercloset or urinal,
and removing the sickly, offensive, and dangerous odours caused by the
emanation of gas from the public sewers rising into the closets. The
seaweed charcoal used in this application is to be obtained in the manner
described in the Specification of certain Letters Patent granted to me
and dated 4th June 1861 (No. 1411).
The use of earth as ordinarily adopted in the dry closet system has the
following great objections, namely:-1. The large quantity of earth
required, which is nearly four times the weight of the mixed excreta.

page_text: 2. The difficulties of obtaining so large a supply from a limited area,
and of drying it. 3. The cost of carriage involved in the removal of
five times the weight of the excreta, and in the returning of four times.
the weight back to the closets. These objections render the application
of the dry closet system impossible, notwithstanding its great advantages,
in the large centres of population where it is most required, and have
long stood in the way of a much needed sanitary reform; they are
however completely overcome by the processes and arrangements forming
the subject of my Invention..
In practically carrying out my Invention I employ instead of earth
some kind of charcoal, and to begin with, I prefer seaweed charcoal
on account of its high absorptive power, the case with which large
quantities of it can be obtained, and its cheapness, but any other charcoal
may be used at first. Of this material only one-fourth the quantity as
compared with earth is required, thus reducing the carriage to that for
only twice the weight of the mixed excreta outwards and its own weight
inwards. I find 12 cwt. of charcoal per annum to be sufficient for cach
closet when used by six persons, so that the total quantity to be removed
does not exceed the house ashes. The mixed product from the closets
is perfectly black and inodorous, so that it can be allowed to fall at once.
from the closet through a 12-inch drain pipe directly into a small cesspit
built of brick and cement, water-tight in the basement of the house;
from whence it need be removed only once a year. One cartload or 24
cwt. per annum is the produce of each closet. The charcoal to be used
in the closets is in a granular form, and is used in the same way as the
earth in the ordinary dry closet, and with the aid of the same or similar
appliances or apparatus; or it may be used in ordinary privies and
urinals without any self-acting appliances. When the mixed product is.
removed it is carted to a factory conveniently situated, where if stored
in bulk it soon becomes dry, or at any rate in a condition requiring very
little heat to dry it, and then the dust is sifted out and the charcoal
returned to the closets, the dust being used as manure. It may be thus
treated and returned to the closets five times, and when used in urinals
ten times. After that it is reburned like the charcoal used in sugar
refineries, but with arrangements provided for condensing and securing
the products of the destructive distillation. The charcoal is in this way
perpetually renewed; and it is improved by each reburning. The whole

page_text: of the nitrogen of the excreta is secured as ammonia in the liquid
distillate, whilst the potash and phosphoric acid accumulate in the
charcoal, together with the additional carbon from the organic matter
of the excreta. The charcoal is thus increased about 7 per cent. with
each using, or if used five times 35 per cent. with each reburning.
Whatever charcoal be used at first the ultimate result is that the excreta
are absorbed and deodorised by a charcoal derived from themselves, and
so far from there being any difficulty in securing a supply of the deo-
dorant employed, a city adopting my process would in addition to
securing the ammonia and other products of destructive distillation,
become sellers of a charcoal second in value only to that from bones;
the product in fact of disintegrated bone and muscle. A city of 500,000
inhabitants, for example, would, it is estimated, produce over and above
what is returned to the closets, about 20 tons a day, of this charcoal, or
7,300 tons per annum.
For reburning the charcoal I prefer to employ long horizontal retorts.
of cast iron of an oval or rectangular section heated externally to a dull
red heat, and provided with a hopper for introducing the charge, and
with a door for withdrawing it. The retorts and condensing apparatus
are similar to those employed in distilling oils and tars from coal,
peat, or wood, and any form used for those purposes will answer also
for this. Brick kilns or vertical iron retorts heated internally by.
superheated steam may also be employed, or the materials may be
reburned and distilled by the heat of their own partial combustion
in vertical open bottomed kilns or retorts, fans or steam jets being
employed to draw the vapors into the condensers. The charcoal is
withdrawn from the retorts into covered iron boxes in which it is
allowed to cool. The cost of the fuel for reburning is not more than
that necessarily used for drying any material employed in dry closets.
The dust is sifted out from the reburned charcoal for sale as manure,
and what is returned to the closets is in the form of coarse grains,
thus avoiding the projection of dust which is sometimes complained
of in dry closets when the earth is too dry. The charcoal covers the
excreta much better than earth, the product looking like charcoal
itself, and being perfectly deodorised. The charcoal dust from this
source contains 25 per cent. lime phosphate, reduced and equal to soluble
phosphates in agricultural value, and about 7 per cent. potash salts.

page_text: In country houses where seaweed charcoal is used, dried, and rensed
sufficiently, it may be employed at once as manure, the original charcoal
acquiring a greatly improved value for agriculture; or instead of drying
it a little vitriol may be added, which will dry it up at once, and absorb,
the ammonia; this, however, is unnecessary as the nitrogen is most
perfectly retained by the charcoal.
In using the charcoal in public urinals it is kept separate from that
used in the closets, as the lime phosphate in the charcoal from urinals.
rapidly rises to 25 per cent., at which strength, being free from lime.
carbonate it becomes a most valuable charcoal for the sugar refiner and
may supersede that obtained from bones. The ammonia is perfectly
retained and all secured by reburning. When the charcoal is used for
refining sugar the potash and soda salts are washed out and separately
recovered.
The products of the destructive distillation involved in the reburning
of the mixed excreta and charcoal are gas, gas liquor, and tar. The
solid excreta contain a considerable quantity of fatty matter, and for
a population of 500,000, for example, this is estimated to amount to
seven tons per day, hence the distillation yields a large quantity of
tar and oil, together with olefiant gases, which render the gas obtained
rich in luminosity and advantageously available for lighting purposes.
The dry excreta yield nearly 10 per cent. of tar, which may also be
utilised like other tars. The gas liquor contains ammonia, carbonate
and acetate, and it is first distilled in an iron still with sufficient lime
to retain the acetic acid and set free the ammonia, the liquid lime
acetate being subsequently evaporated to dryness or converted into
soda acetate. The distillate is neutralised with acid and redistilled to
separate the light oil, whilst the ammonia salt is crystallised out from
the residual liquid. The minimum yield from the dry excreta is 31
per cent. of ammonia sulphate and 4 per cent. of lime acetate. The
charcoal can be reburned any number of times without deterioration,
and the product from the closet can be stored for any length of time
in a perfectly inodorous and innocuous state, and be sold to the farmer
at the time of year when manure is most wanted, and its full value
can be realised. It has been ascertained by chemical analysis that
the charcoal when the ammonia sulphate is added, or before being
reburned, contains everything necessary for the food of plants, and it

page_text: may be that the balance required in agriculture can be continually
sifted out for sale as manure, and only the proportion actually required
for the closets be obtained by reburning. The charcoal from urinals
would be all reburned to secure the high price obtainable for a sugar
refining charcoal which will compare favorably with that from bones,
as it improves by reburning which is not the case with bone charcoal.
This charcoal after being used a hundred times in a urinal and reburned.
ten times has been found to increase 183 per cent. and yield ammonia,
equal to 316 per cent. of sulphate, showing it to be a most prolific
source.
Seaweed charcoal is particularly valuable for latrines or urinals, on
account of its containing about 20 per cent. of lime carbonate and 5 per
cent. of phosphate, the former becoming gradually converted into
phosphate by the phosphoric acid of the urine.
My improved system for applying and reburning the charcoal is also
suitable for dealing with blood from slaughter houses, animal refuse,
fish offal, distillery refuse, and other nitrogenous matters, the details
and procedure being, of course, modified and adapted to suit each
application, whilst in all cases it secures complete freedom from
odour.
In applying the seaweed charcoal for deodorising the air of ordinary
waterclosets and urinals, for which purposes its superior porosity renders
it more suitable than any other kind, it is exposed in a box with two
or more of its sides made of open wirework. A convenient size of
box is one with about half a cubic foot capacity, the seaweed charcoal
filling which presents a surface of nearly an acre and a half to the
noxious gases, and its deodorising power being practically inexhaustible
it will not require frequent renewal. The charcoal may be placed in a
frame of wire gauze in the lid of the closet seat, or it may be exposed in
any other convenient way.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, I have to state that
what I believe to be novel and original, and claim as the Invention
secured to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,-
1. The deodorising of solid, liquid, and gaseous matters by means of
seaweed charcoal.

page_text: 2. The deodorising of excreta by means of charcoal and the recovering
of valuable products therefrom by reburning and distilling the mixed
charcoal and excreta.
And, 3. The maintaining of the supply of charcoal required for closets
and urinals by reburning the mixed charcoal and excreta, all substantially
as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Charles Cortis Stanford,
have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Sixth day of October,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-
nine.
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,
Glasgow.
EDW. C. C. STANFORD. (L.S.)