IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR COLLECTING AND DISCHARGING FOECAL MATTERS FROM DWELLINGS, AND FOR RENDERING INNOCUOUS THE GASES ARISING THEREFROM."
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Eugen Schleh at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 2nd December 1878.
EUGEN SCHLEH, of Ehrenfeld, near Cologne, in the German Empire, Civil
Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR COLLECTING AND DISCHARGING
FOECAL MATTERS FROM DWELLINGS, AND FOR RENDERING INNOCUOUS THE GASES
ARISING THEREFROM."
According to my present Invention I fix in the basement of a dwelling a closed
metal tank or receptacle contained in a brickwork casing with an intervening
layer of asphalt or pitch all round, so as to hermetically seal the tank, with the
exception of the manhole cover, which is fixed on air tight, and covered with a layer
of sand. The soil pipe from the waterclosets descends air tight into the tank, and
has its inner open end sealed by dipping a certain length into a trough, into which
the soil flows from a pipe. A second fixed pipe passes from the bottom of the tank
to the outside of the house, where its end, closed by a screw cap, is contained inside
a recess closed by a door accessible from the street, so that when the tank requires
to be emptied this is effected from the street without any inconvenience to the
persons in the house by removing the screw cap and connecting the pipe to a pump,
by which the contents of the tank are pumped out. To enable this to be effected
an air inlet valve is provided on the top of the tank, to which is connected a chain
or rod passing to the beforementioned recess outside the house, so that the valve
can be there opened by the operators.
In order to render innocuous the deleterious gases generated within the tank by
fermentation of the foecal matters they are conducted through a pipe leading from
the top of the tank to one or more receptacles charged with deodorising and dis-
infecting substances, such as salts of iron or manganese and concentrated sulphuric
acid, so that the gases in passing through these substances are partially absorbed
and so changed, as regards their chemical composition, that they are rendered
perfectly innocuous, and can consequently be allowed to escape into the atmosphere.
The gases may either be made to pass through a liquid mass of such chemical
substances, or vessel or vessels may be filled with coke or other porous mass

page_text: saturated with the said liquids, and the gases, be made to pass up through a per-
forated bottom, so as to be brought into intimate contact with the saturated
material.
The purified gases on issuing from the receptacles may be conveniently conducted
up the soil pipe or up a chimney, so as to escape at the roof of the house.
In order to maintain a constant level of the liquid in the purifying vessels these
are provided with overflow pipes, the outlet orifices of which are sealed by dipping
into liquid.
By the above described Invention I entirely obviate the poisoning of the ground
surrounding the sewage tank by leakage through the tank of the liquid sewage, and
the poisoning of the atmosphere by the escaping deleterious gases, such as takes place
in apparatus heretofore employed.