IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOr Purifying SEWAGE WATERS,
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James M'Intyre, of Port Glasgow, in the County
of Refrew, North Britain, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOr Purifying SEWAGE WATERS,'
"
APPARATUS For Purifying SEWAGE WAters,
Scaled the 16th March 1875, and dated the 21st September 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James McIntyre at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
21st September 1874.
I, JAMES MCINTYRE, of Port Glasgow, in the County of Renfrew,
North Britain, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PURIFYING SEWAGE WATERS," to be as
follows, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object the purifying of sewage waters by
separating from them suspended matters or other impurities, the
improved apparatus being very simple, easily worked, and not liable to
require frequent repairs.
In carrying out the Invention according to one modification two
depositing tanks are constructed side by side in the line of a sewer, and

page_text: the sewer is connected to each by separate inlet and outlet branch
passages fitted with sluices. Each tank is made to extend down a
considerable depth below the sewer level, but the outlet from it is made
higher than the inlet, and the sewage waters flow in and fill up the tank
until they reach this higher discharge level, the water flowing off as it
rises above that level. This arrangement of the discharge level relatively
to the inlet breaks or interrupts the current through, and the water in
the tank being comparatively quiescent matters suspended in it descend
and are deposited. When a sufficient deposit has lodged in one tank the
sluices are changed so as to direct the sewage waters through the other
tank, and the deposit in the first tank is removed by endless chain
elevators or dredging apparatus, and is utilised for making manure.
If
cach tank takes more time for removing the deposit than for filling
three or more tanks will require to be used in combination.
There may be two or more successive sets of the depositing tanks, so
that if the water still retains suspended matters after passing one tank
it may have an opportunity of depositing it in a second or third tank.
After suspended matters are separated by means of the apparatus
herein-before described impurities held in solution may be removed or
rendered innocuous by any known filtering or chemical processes that
may be found suitable.
The essential features of the present Invention are the arrangements
herein-before described for obtaining the deposition of suspended matters
whilst the sewage waters flow continuously through the apparatus, and
without requiring expensive pumping machinery or any greater outfall
or declivity than that of any existing sewers.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James McIntyre in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 19th March 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
MCINTYRE, of Port Glasgow, in the County of Renfrew, North Britain,
send greeting.

page_text: year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in
the thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said James McIntyre, Her
special licence that I, the said James McIntyre, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I; the said James
McIntyre, 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 APPARATUS FOR PURIFYING SEWAGE WATERS,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said James McIntyre,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my,
or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James McIntyre, 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, reference being had to the accom-
panying Drawings, that is to say:-
My said Invention has for its object the purifying of sewage waters
by separating from them suspended matters or other impurities, the
improved apparatus to be employed for carrying out my Invention being
very simple, easily worked, and not liable to require frequent repairs.
The essential features of my Invention are certain arrangements,
herein-after described, for obtaining the deposition of suspended matters
whilst the sewage waters flow continuously through the apparatus, and
without requiring the expence of pumping machinery or any greater
outfall or declivity than that of any existing sewers.
And in order that my said Invention and the manner of performing
the same may be properly understood, I hereunto append a Sheet of
explanatory Diagrams, to be herein-after referred to, and representing
one modification of my improved arrangements. In these Diagrams

page_text: the same reference numerals are used to mark the same or like parts
wherever they are repeated.
Figures 1 and 2 of the Diagrams represent respectively a sectional
plan and a longitudinal vertical section of the apparatus as arranged for
dealing with the waters of a single large sewer 1. Instead of leading a
sewer from a town directly into a river, harbor, or sea, close to which
the town may be situated, I have it constructed of an extended length
of a general or average declivity, which does not require to be very
great, the sewer finally discharging into a river, harbor, or sea, but
with the waters so discharged in a very much purified condition.
My arrangements can be carried out satisfactorily by constructing the
line of sewer with its average or effective declivity the same or nearly
the same as that of a river bank along which it may be situated, but the
nearer it is made to a level (provided the requisite flow will take place)
the more complete will be the separation and deposition of suspended
matters.
The precise length of sewer and other particulars will necessarily vary
in almost every case, and will depend on the conditions of each case, on
the nature of the adjacent country, and other circumstances. If for
example the town is situated close or near to a river it will in many
cases be convenient to construct the sewer alongside of the river and at
a greater or less distance from it, the lower end discharging into the
river at a point several miles below the town.
At certain intervals in the line of sewer I construct pairs of depositing
tanks, and in the case of sewer for a large town I should recommend
that there should be at least three such pairs of tanks, as shown in the
accompanying Diagrams at 2, 3, at 4, 5, and at 6, 7. Each tank is made
to extend down a considerable depth below the sewer level, the bottom
of the sewer being inclined down to the bottom of the tank at the upper
or entering end of the tank, but the bottom of the outlet from the tank
is made higher than the inlet, the lower end of the tank being con-
structed with a vertical breast S. The sewage waters flow into the tank
and fill it up until they reach the higher discharge level at the top of
the breast 8, and they flow off as the rise above that level. This con-
struction of the tank and arrangement of the discharge level relatively
to the inlet breaks or interrupts the current or motion which the water
acquires in descending towards the tank, and the water in the tank

page_text: being comparatively quiescent matters suspended in it descend and are
deposited in the bottom of the tank. Sluices 9 are fitted at the inlets
and outlets of each tank, and these sluices are set so that the water
flows into and through only one tank of each pair at a time. When a
sufficient deposit has lodged in one tank of a pair the sluices are changed
so as to direct the water through the other tank, and the deposit in the
first tank is removed by endless chain elevators or dredging apparatus of
any convenient kind, and is utilised for making manure.
If each tank takes more time for removing deposit than for filling it
then three or more tanks will require to be used in combination instead
of the pair. If all or almost all the suspended matters in the sewage
waters are deposited in the first pair of tanks 2, 3, then of course no
further tanks will be required, but unless the sewer and tanks are made
very large relatively to the quantity of water passing through them the
water will on leaving the first tanks 2, 3, still contain suspended matter.
A large portion of the suspended matter passing the first pair of tanks
2, 3, will however be deposited in the second pair 4, 5, whilst the
remainder will be deposited in the third pair 6, 7, or if not in any case
then further tanks must be provided.
On leaving the last of the depositing tanks the water may be at once
discharged into the river, harbor, or sea. If preferred however it may
before doing so be passed through filtering materials to remove matters
not separable by deposition, or it may be treated in any known chemical
way to render inocuous any impurities held in solution. With these
objects a basin or large tank 10 may be constructed at the lower end of
the sewer, and may be provided with a number of passages or outlets
with sluices. Cages containing the filtering materials may be arranged
in such outlet passages, there being a pair of such cages in each passage,
and only one of each pair being lifted at a time for renewal of its
materials.
The depositing tanks, as well as the terminal or discharge tanks, may
be constructed with open tops railed round, or they may be roofed in,
and ventilating shafts or chimneys may be built at the tanks or other
suitable places for causing the egress and dissipation of effluvia.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention and the manner
of performing the same, I have to state that I do not restrict myself to
the precise details herein described and delineated, but that what I

page_text: believe to be novel and original, and claim as the Invention secured to
me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the purifying
of sewage waters without interrupting their continuous flow by passing
them through an extended length of sewer formed with depositing tanks,
each of which is entered with a descending incline, whilst the water
flows onwards from it over a vertical or abrupt breast, substantially as
herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said James McIntyre, have hercunto
set my hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of March, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five.
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,
Glasgow:
JAMES MCINTYRE. (L.S.)