IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING THE HUMAN EXCRETA AND CONVERTING THE SAME INTO A DRY AND HIGHLY CONCENTRATED MANURE
Year: 1876

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William White Fereday, of No. 58, Pepler Road, in the
County of Surrey, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
TREATING THE HUMAN EXCRETA AND CONVERTING THE SAME INTO A DRY AND
HIGHLY CONCENTRATED MANURE.”
Sealed the 7th July 1876, and dated the 11th January 1876.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William White Fereday at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 11th January 1876.
WILLIAM WHITE FEREDAY, of No. 58, Peplar Road, in the County of Surrey,
Civil Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING THE HUMAN EXCRETA AND CON-
VERTING THE SAME INTO A DRY AND HIGHLY CONCENTRATED MANURE."
This Invention has for its object improvements in treating the human excreta
and converting the same into a dry and highly concentrated manure, in controlling
and collecting the gases generated during the process of manufacture, and in
separating and destroying the wet and dry vapours or gases.
The solid and fluid excreta of a town I treat chemically by deodorants and
ammonia fixers immediately upon their deposit in tubs or other receptacles which
I provide for the purpose of collection, and which receptacles when full are removed
from the town to the works in hermitically closed vans constructed for the purpose,
insuring a cleanly and unobjectionable mode of removal. The tubs containing the
prepared excreta are then lifted by a hoist and emptied into a cistern which is
constructed sufficiently high to enable the contents to flow by gravitation into a
vessel or chamber, which I term the heating chamber, and from this chamber to the
drying chamber.
The heating chamber is a wrought-iron cistern fixed in an iron casing of
sufficient capacity to hold such a volume of steam as is necessary to effect the
heating of the contents up to such a temperature as may be necessary before letting
them into the drying chamber, with which it communicates by means of a supply
pipe.
"The drying chamber is a cylindrical horizontal wrought-iron chamber receiving
the contents of the heating chamber at intervals, and in which is fixed a revolving
agitator driven by steam power from the outside, and permanently fixed inside the
iron casing which is of sufficient capacity to hold water and steam enough to effect

page_text: by its temperature the process of evaporating as much water from the contents as
may be desirable.
The casing enclosing the drying chamber and the casing enclosing the heating
chamber communicate with each other, and the steam from the former is conveyed
to the latter by means of a feed pipe at intervals when required.
The steam is all generated and superheated by means of a fire placed underneath
the casing or boiler containing the drying chamber, the flues from the fire-place
communicating directly with the chimney shaft, while the steam flue from
the drying chamber communicates directly with the wrought iron spray chamber or
cupola.
The two chambers containing all the machinery and in which the whole of the
processes of manufacture are carried on communicate with each other, and are so
constructed as to be tight, or that air can be admitted when required through small
air traps fixed in the exterior walls of the building when required to alter or vary
the action of the currents on their way to the exhausting apparatus which will be
hereafter explained.
In some part of the building are erected small ovens or kilns for perfecting the
drying to a powder the already half dried manure from the drying chamber, all fire-
places being on the outside.
The vapours arising during the process of manufacture being all confined within
the before described hermetically closed buildings, the means I adopt for collecting
them for destruction is by perforated iron pipes carried through and about the
interior of such buildings, all of which converge to and form a junction with an air
tight iron vessel or tub. At the junction of each pipe with the tube is fixed a
valve to control its action.
In connection with the air-tight tub I fix an exhaust and discharge fan which is
driven by the same engine which drives all the other machinery and exhausts the
whole of the building of its vapour.
Immediately contiguous to and in connection with the fan I construct my
apparatus for separating the wet from the dry vapours and for destroying them,
otherwise rendering them harmless and perfectly innoxious.
The apparatus consists of a cylindrical tube of large dimensions placed in a
vertical position and set substantially in brickwork at its base; round the tube a,
short distance from the bottom are various perforations; on the outside of the tube
is an iron casing running around and enclosing the whole of the perforations,
except at its junction with the discharge pipe from the fan, and below this casing
are other outlets in the bottom of the tube, giving communication by water ways
with the large covered cistern in which the vertical wrought-iron tube is erected;
the water level in the cistern and the tube being the same.
Close to the large cistern is a well sunk to a greater depth than the cistern, and
there is a communication by a water way between the cistern and the well. A
pump is fixed in the well which is supplied with a powerful liquid deodorant, and
the liquid is pumped up into an iron cistern fixed at the top of the wrought-iron
tube, which cistern has a perforated iron plate for its bottom, the liquid thus falls
to the bottom of the vertical tube filling it and the adjoining cistern to the proper
level, whence it flows to the well to be pumped again through the same machine
until it has become charged with gases; it is then run off for further uses and fresh
liquid turned on from a continuous supply cistern outside of the works.
About ten feet above the level of the liquid in the vertical tube the pipe
conveying the steam from the heating and drying chambers communicates with the
said tube, and the steam is discharged into it.
About 4 feet from the top of the vertical wrought-iron tube a down pipe of the
same dimensions as the discharge pipe from the fan is fixed, communicating with
furnaces constructed for the purposes of destroying any dry gasses which may be
liberated after the process of condensation and deodorization have been performed
as follows:-The fan when in motion exhausts the manufacturing chambers of all
vapours, and drives them into the casing running round the bottom of the vertical

page_text: tube, and to the depth of several inches through the deodorizing liquid down to the
aperture left for its escape, then several inches upwards again through the
deodorizing liquid when condensation of all aqueous vapours has taken place, and
the little dry gas which is of a volatile and tainted character ascends the vertical
tube, and finds its exit by being conveyed through the down pipe to the furnaces
provided for its destruction.
The steam which is generated in the heating and drying chambers, and which
enters the vertical tube near the bottom is condensed by its contact with the
deodorizing liquid as it descends down the tube, and any dry gasses escaping from
that joins the dry gasses ascending from the bottom, and both are conveyed together
to their distination for destruction in the furnaces as before described.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by the
said William White Fereday in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 11th
July 1876.
WILLIAM WHITE FEREDAY, of No. 58, Pepler Road, in the County of Surrey,
Civil Engineer. " IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING THE HUMAN EXCRETA AND CON-
VERTING THE SAME INTO A DRY AND HIGHLY CONCENTRATED MANURE."
This Invention has for its object improvements in treating the human excreta,
and converting the same into a dry and highly concentrated manure. The excreta
are collected in tubs or vaults, where they are treated by a chemical agent to
prevent decomposition and to fix the ammonia. They are then removed to the
works in vehicles constructed for the purpose.
The annexed Drawing shows the various apparatus and appliances constituting
my Patent.
The stowage chamber A is constructed and fixed at such an altitude as to admit
of the chemically prepared solid and fluid excreta flowing by gravitation through
the pipe B into the wrought-iron tank C called the semi-heating chamber, which
has a steam box underneath marked G in section No. 1. The semi-heating
chamber communicates by means of the supply pipe D with the drying apparatus,
which consists of a cylindrical wrought-iron chamber E, called the evaporating
chamber, fixed within another cylindrical wrought-iron chamber F, called the steam
chamber.
The evaporating chamber has an agitator or stirrer fixed in its centre from end
to end, which is made to revolve by steam power communicated by the engine
which drives other machinery. It has also at its apex an open neck or steam outlet
which communicates with the exhaust pipe I, which is of the same length as the
chamber. It has also a lifting valvular door at the end K for emptying it of its
contents.
The steam chamber F is fitted with man-hole and lid, water supply pipe, water
buoy, steam safety valve, steam indicator for pressure and temperature, and waste
water, and steam pipes and taps, and it has a steam pipe H communicating with
and supplying the steam box G.
The apparatus for collecting the vapours as they are generated during the
process of manufacture, condensing the steam, purifying the distillate, and con-
suming the deleterious gases not taken up by the liquid deodorant, consists of an
arrangement of perforated exhaust pipes or tubing M throughout the building in
which the manufacture is carried on, the perforations being on the upper side for
about one-half of their section through and fitted in various parts with valves to
shut the exhaust on and off.
The junction box to which all the exhaust pipes or tubes converge is marked O;
the exhaust and discharge fan P; Q is a circular boxing with apertures below the
varying surface of the liquid deodarant in the cistern; R is an up-cast columnar
hollow shaft and deodorizing shower chamber; two down-cast columnar hollow

page_text: shafts or deodorizing spray chambers are marked S; there is also an up-cast
columnar hollow shaft or deodorizing shower chamber T, and a down pipe U which
conveys the dry gases (if any) to the furnaces for destruction.
The four shafts or chambers, as before described, are constructed either of iron
or brick in a brick cistern about 7 feet deep, and rise from the bottom to a height
of 30 feet (more if required). On the top is fixed an iron cistern V, section No. 2,
into which the liquid deodorant is pumped from the pump well, shown on ground
plan, and the bottom of which, over the whole area of the shower shafts, is pierced
with holes about the tenth of an inch in diameter, and in number about sixteen to
the square inch; and in the bottom over the two spray shafts there are two outlets
to each, with which communicate the perforated perpendicular spray pipe W and
the perforated coil spray pipe X running round and from top to bottom of each
spray shaft or chamber.
In and through the bottom of the brick cistern is fixed a vertical overflow
telescope pipe Y, which regulates the depth of the liquid deodorant in the cistern,
and conveys the overflow to the pumping well, shown on ground plan, to be
repumped into the cistern V for redistribution.
The whole of the apparatus and appliances before described (except the stowage
chamber) are enclosed within one building, the casing or outer walls of which, and
the roof, and rendered in their construction perfectly air-tight, currents of air being
admitted inwardly only through the self-acting air valves fixed in the outer walls,
producing currents to supply the exhaust by the action of the fan. The whole
atmosphere of the building has no exit except through the deodorizing and gas
destroying medium.
The apparatus before described for collecting the vapours as they are generated
during the manufacture, condensing the steam, purifying the distillate, and con-
suming the deleterious gases not taken up by the liquid deodorant is effective for
the purpose, and is applicable to other manufactures when obnoxious and deleterious
gases are generated, and where such manufacture can be carried on in buildings
constructed as before described.
PROCESS OF MANUFACTURE.
The process of manufacture in converting the solid and fluid excreta into a dry
fertilizer, a perfect substitute for guano, is as follows:-I prefer to go to towns
having populations from five to fifty thousand, in which the old fashioned privy
and midden are found to be generally in use.
The privies are easily adapted to my system of collection by a moderate outlay.
When altered, and I take them under my charge, I supply a chemical agent, a
deodorant, which is an ammonia fixer, and assimilable in its nature to the require-
ments of vegetable life to the tub or vault receiving the solid and fluid excreta,
which mixing with it immediately on its deposit prevents decomposition.
Suitable deodorants for this purpose are well known to chemists. I remove the
tubs or the centents of the vaults every 6 or 7 days in air-tight vans to the works.
When there it (the excrement) is raised in tubs by means of a hoist, and emptied
into the stowage chamber, and is then thoroughly incorporated with a further
quantity of deodorant or ammonia fixer, and well stirred. It is then let at intervals,
when required, in small quantities into the semi-heating chamber, where it attains
a temperature of about 150° Fah.
When the evaporating chamber requires a supply it is let off from the last-named
chamber into it, where evaporation to the extent of fifty per cent. of the moisture
is effected. The contents of this chamber when about of the same consistency as
thick mud are removed to the drying kilns to be dried into hard cakes. It is here
further treated, and not again allowed to be in contact with iron during the
completion of its manufacture. From the cake it is reduced to a powder by
grinding mills.
Returning to the evaporating chamber, it is necessary to state that the evapora-
tion of the first fifty per cent. of the water from the excreta is an operation of

page_text: care.
singular importance in the manufacture, and requires to be done with the greatest
I have therefore adopted steam heated instead of fire heated surfaces, which
are always under control. Having first ascertained the temperature at which it is
safe to work without dissipating or disturbing the ammonia by adjusting and setting
my temperature indicator I can work and evaporate at that temperature for days
and nights together without risk.
The vapours as they rise through the steam outlet are drawn through a pipe by
the fan, and forced several inches deep into a cold deodorizing liquid, when partial
deodorization and condensation takes place. To perfect this, and to partially if not
wholly destroy the dry gases, the current is made to traverse a channel of con-
siderable length through showers and sprays of strong and powerful deodorizing
liquid, which have the effect of totally neutralizing or destroying the said gases
before the current enters the chimney; but to guard against impressions often
erroneously formed, and to meet emergencies, I have provided a pipe which conveys
the current through a furnace having a temperature sufficiently high to destroy even
the most obstinate and deleterious of gases.
I claim the arrangement of apparatus for treating the human excreta and con-
verting the same into a dry and highly concentrated manure, substantially as
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William White Fereday, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eleventh day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-six.
WILL. WHITE FEREDAY. (L.S.)