IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS OF AND APPARATUS FOR UTILISING EXCREMENTITIOUS MATTERS AND TOWN AND OTHER REFUSE
Year: 1879

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by James Wadsworth at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 12th September 1879.
JAMES WADSWORTH, of the City of Manchester, Machinist. "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE PROCESS OF AND APPARATUS FOR UTILISING EXCREMENTITIOUS MATTERS AND
TOWN AND OTHER REFUSE."
My Invention relates first to improvements in the process of, and in the construc-
tion and arrangement of machinery or apparatus for evaporating and drying urinous
and, excrementitious matter and for more effectually economising power therein.
I use two or, more machines, by preference steam jacketed, each fixed horizontally
and provided with a central shaft upon which I fix a proportionately large number
of arms to agitate the liquid excrement. I make one machine, much larger than
the other and I fix the smaller machine underneath or on a lower level than the
larger machine.
By means of the heat imparted by the steam in the jacket or heat applied in
any other convenient manner, I reduce the liquid excrementitious matter introduced
into the larger machine. to a semi-liquid state, and then run it in that state into
the smaller machine, which is similarly heated, and wherein I reduce it to a dry
powdered state. I admit air into both machines and exhaust such air and the
vapour arising from the material through a condenser by means of a draught from
a chimmey or by a fan, as described in the Specification of Letters Patent, No. 498,
granted to me on February 6th, A.D. 1878. In the smaller machine I prefer to use
a reversing motion and to have the agitators or arms so arranged at an angle that
they will move the material to and fro as the motion is reversed. I am thus
enabled to economise power in treating such materials. When it is desired to pro-
duce more free ammonia in the urine I mix horse dung with it and keep the
mixture warm or hot for a short time, when it may be neutralised and evaporated
dried as above. I clean the scale or incrustation from these evaporating machines
with a solution of caustic or quick lime.
In further carrying out my Improvements which relate to the construction of
and arrangement of apparatus for drying and otherwise utilising excrement, street
sweepings, sewage, animal or vegetable matters, old shoes, old hats, and other town
refuse. I construct drying or carbonizing cylinders when intended for being heated

page_text: internally by preference with an outer shell of boiler plating, and I attach lon-
gitudinal flanged and grooved bars (by preference cast iron) by means of rivets to
the said shell at suitable distances from each other on the inside. In the grooves
of these bars I insert curved cast iron plates so as to form an internal cylinder, and
I fill in the cavity between the shell and such curved plates with non-conducting
composition. When these cylinders are required to be heated externally I attach
longitudinal T iron bars (either cast or wrought) to flanged rings suitable for
running on friction bowls, and on each side of these bars I rivet a bar of angle iron
so as to form a groove between the web of the T iron and the angle iron, and in
such groove I insert curved cast iron plates and thus form a cylinder.
I also make stationary retorts in the form of a cylinder, with a chamber running
along on the upper side, and open to such cylinder for the escape of the gases, and
through which cylinder I force the material by means of a revolving screw-blade.
I sometimes use two revolving drying or carbonising cylinders, one fixed above
the other, and at one end of the upper cylinder I apply a stationary bonnet (by
means of flanges and caps) which is internally divided by a partition, one division
being used for feeding the material and the other for the escape of the gases and
the dry or carbonised powder, and at the other end of the same cylinder I make
arrangements for conducting the material from the upper to the lower cylinder,
and also for receiving and conducting into the lower cylinder the material from
the stationary retorts which I sometimes fix to work in conjunction with the
revolving cylinders. These revolving carbonising cylinders have flanges pro-
jecting internally and so arranged that they will lift the material and keep
letting it fall, and so cause it to move forward through the cylinder. The
cylinders so arranged being heated to a proper temperature the material
becomes charred or partly so, and by means of a chimney or fan I cause a current
of air or the products of combustion from a furnace to pass through the revolving
cylinders, so as to carry the smoke and gases and the light dry and carbonised
powder along with it into a flue or settling or condensing chamber of sufficiently
large area to reduce the velocity of the current, and so compel the dust or powder
to fall therein. This flue or settling chamber is arranged between the cylinders
and the chimney or fan, and is provided with transverse plates at the bottom
between which are suitable doors for the easy removal of the powder, whilst at
one end of the lower cylinder I make arrangements for discharging the sand and
heavier portions of the material left therein.
I am thus enabled to collect a large quantity of fine powder which is very
effective in deodorising closets on the pail system or otherwise, and to facilitate the
operation of evaporating aud drying urinous and excrementitious matters, and in
reducing the same to a fine and dry powder, and for the same purpose a single
carbonising cylinder might be used with a settling or condensing chamber and
either with or without stationary retorts.
These carbonising cylinders can be advantageousely employed for seperating the
cinders from the fine ash, the fine ash being carried away in the form of dust,
so leaving the cinders much cleaner and rendering the dust more valuable as a
manure.
This arrangement of settling or condensing chamber is also useful where large
quantities of refuse are burned, for instance in boiler and other furnaces or other-
wise.