IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHODS OF AND APPARATUS FOR DEALING WITH the RefusE OF TOWNS AND PREVENTING NUISANCE FROM THE SAME, PART OF THE METHOD AND APPARATUS BEING APPLICABLE ALSO FOR GENERAL DISINFECTING PURPOSES
Year: 1877

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Fryer, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster,
and James Bingham Alliott, of Radford, in the County of Nottingham, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHODS OF AND APPARATUS FOR
DEALING WITH the RefusE OF TOWNS AND PREVENTING NUISANCE FROM THE
SAME, PART OF THE METHOD AND APPARATUS BEING APPLICABLE ALSO FOR
GENERAL DISINFECTING PURPOSES."
ealed the 19th June 1877, and dated the 21st April 1877.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Fryer and James
Bingham Alliott at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 21st
April 1877.
ALFRED FRYER, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, and JAMES BINGHAM
ALLIOTT, of Radford, in the County of Nottingham. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
METHODS OF AND APPARATUS FOR DEALING WITH THE REFUSE OF TOWNS AND PRE-
VENTING NUISANCE FROM THE SAME, PART OF THE METHOD AND APPARATUS BEING
APPLICABLE ALSO FOR GENERAL DISINFECTING PURPOSES."
One part of our Invention consists of an improved vehicle or cart used for the
conveyance of the pails or vessels (which are employed to contain human excreta
and fluids from house closets) for the purpose of emptying them.
The object of our Invention is the transport of offensive privy refuse by such
means that no unpleasant material or odour can escape during transport. This cart
or vehicle is mounted upon a single pair of wheels, the axle connecting which we
prefer to crank downwards, so as to lower the bottom of the cart and to allow two
ranges of pails (the one above the other) to be placed within the cart without having
to lift even those in the upper range to an inconvenient height.
The body of the vehicle we construct by preference of light wrought iron. It
forms a box closed by means of one or more tightly-fitting or air-tight doors, the
joints of which we prefer to pack with india-rubber; these doors we usually place
at the hinder end of the cart.
The cart being mounted on a single pair of wheels, the inclination of its bottom
will vary with the height at which its shafts are supported. We so arrange this
that when the cart is being drawn along, or when the pails are being placed in it,

page_text: its bottom inclines slightly forward towards the closed end of the box. The pushing
of the pails towards the part of the cart body further from the door is thus faci-
litated, and at the same time, if any material splashes over into the bottom of the
cart, it runs to the close end of it, and does not drip on to the ground during tran-
sport, even when the doors are open.
The support for the upper range of pails we make of open bar work, so that any
splashings drop through on to the bottom of the cart.
When the pails are to be removed from the cart we raise the shafts, which may
be done by means of a prop or stilt, and so give the bottom of the cart a slight
inclination backwards, thus facilitating the drawing out of the pails from the
vehicle; and the same position may be adopted when the vehicle is being washed.
At the front part of the cart we usually provide a pocket or compartment for the
reception of ashes and dry refuse.
When the pails have been emptied and washed or cleaned in any well known
way, we subject them to further treatment for the purpose of removing any possi-
bility of their conveying infection. We stack them as closely as possible within a
vessol, preferably made of iron, and usually cylindrical in shape; this vessel we close
by an air-tight door or doors, and we connect it by means of suitable pipes or cocks
to a powerful exhausting air pump.
The pails having been stacked within the vessel, and the doors and all other
means of ingress to the vessel having been closed, we start the air pump, and thus
produce a partial vacuum within the vessel. A sufficiently good vacuum having been
obtained we stop the pump, and then admit to the vessel, through a suitable cock or
valve and piping, steam or heated or medicated air.
If air be used it may be heated in any well known manner (say, by passing
through a coil of pipes in a steam boiler) to such a temperature as will insure the
destruction of the vitality of any germs with which it comes into contact, say, to
300° Fahrenheit, or even higher, and as it rushes into a vessel already exhausted of
almost all its air, it will at once be brought into contact with every part of the
surface of the articles placed within the vessel, and thus germs adhering to any part
of their surface will be destroyed.
If the vessel and the articles contained in it are cold when the hot air is first
admitted, so that the air is too much cooled by contact with them, the vessel may
be again exhausted by the air pump, and a second supply of hot air admitted. This
process is repeated until a thermometer, the bulb of which is in the heart of the
vessel, shows that the air after admission remains at a temperature sufficiently high
to ensure the destruction of germs.
Together with the heated air, sulphurous acid gas, chlorine vapor, or spray of
carbolic acid or other disinfectants in a gaseous state may be introduced into the
vessel with the certainty that the chemicals thus introduced will be brought into
contact with every part of the surfaces of the materials operated upon.
In some cases we surround the vessel with a steam jacket in order the more easily
to maintain the required temperature.
It is obvious that articles other than pails may be disinfected by placing them
within the vessel, and submitting them to treatment such as has been described. In
such cases care should be taken so to regulate the temperatures and the gases used
for disinfection as not to injure the material to be disinfected.
For disinfecting wearing apparel, bedding, or similar articles, this process is much
superior to any in use, as the heated air or the disinfecting gas penetrates at once
into every part of the mass of material to be treated.
When the solid excreta and urine are collected separately from other refuse we
drain the urine away from the excreta, and we concentrate the former in any well
known manner.
We further dry the excreta by exposing them in a revolving cylinder to hot air
or gases, with which we prefer to have a little sulphurous acid gas mixed. This
revolving cylinder is partially closed at each end by means of annular internal
flanges, and has its axis horizontal or nearly so. This cylinder we prefer to rest

page_text: upon antifriction rollers, and it may be made to revolve by means of gearing, or in
any other suitable way. We admit the heated gases through a suitable fixed con-
nection or flue in contact, or nearly so, with one end of the cylinder, and they pass
away through a similar connection at its other end, being drawn through either by
a chimney draught or in any other well known way. To the inner circumference of
this revolving cylinder we attach longitudinal projections or shelves, which as the
cylinder revolves carry a considerable portion of its contents up the rising side,
finally allowing them to slip off and fall again to the part of the cylinder for the
time being at or near the bottom. The contents of the cylinder are thus kept dis-
tributed in various parts of it, and made frequently to fall through it, so as to
expose large and constantly changed surfaces to the action of the hot air or gases,
which may be generated in any well known manner, and with which we prefer to
mix a small quantity of sulphurous acid gas.
The material is introduced into the cylinder by a suitable hopper furnished with
balance doors, and is removed from it by means of a moveable shoot, which can be
brought within the cylinder or withdrawn from it, so that the material can be kept
in the cylinder for whatever length of time is needed to sufficiently dry it; this
shoot also is furnished (at its lower extremity) with a balanced door; this shoot
when introduced within the cylinder catches a portion of the contents as they fall
from the shelves, already described, and guides them out of the cylinder.
In order to prevent the foeces, &c., from caking or settling hard upon the cylinder
and shelves, we arrange a heavy mallet or hammer so that it is lifted by a cam and
allowed to fall at intervals upon the shell of the cylinder; this being thus dealt a
heavy blow is put into active vibration, and adhering matter is detached from it.
In some instances we introduce a portion of the concentrated urine or liquid
manure into this drying cylinder along with the more solid excreta, so as eventually
to deliver the whole of the drainings and excreta mixed together in the form of a
solid and fairly dry manure.
Sometimes in order to convert the concentrated drainings which are still liquid
or semi-liquid into a solid manure, we introduce a regulated quantity of the thick
liquid into a hopper containing a quantity of some solid matter, by preference char-
coal, which may be prepared for this purpose by carbonizing street sweepings or
other refuse matter. In this hopper the solid particles become covered with thick
liquid, and we discharge these wetted particles from the hopper at a uniform and
regulated speed by one of the many well known devices for regulating the discharge
of materials from hoppers. The wetted particles thus discharged from the hopper
fall into a close drying chember, and on to a grating or perforated plate fixed at its
upper part. This drying chamber we construct of such a height as may be con-
venient, and prefer to make rectangular in horizontal section. We perforate two
opposite vertical sides of this chamber with corresponding holes, and through these
we pass rods which stretch from side to side of the chamber, and we so arrange theso
rods that anything dropping clear of the rods in one horizontal plane of the
chamber must of necessity strike against the rods in the horizontal plane next
below it.
The wetted particles falling upon the grating or perforated plate at the top of the
chamber pass through and fall upon the bars in the uppermost horizontal plane;
slipping from the edges of these, they again fall until they strike the bars in the
horizontal plane immediately below it, from which they again slip to be detained in
like manner by yet lower bars, and so on until they reach the bottom of the
chamber, where they are collected by a suitable inclined plane, whence they fall
through a balanced door into a receptacle, from which they may be raised again to
the hopper to be again wetted and treated in the drying chamber, or at will taken
away for sale or use.
The wetted particles in the drying chamber, as they are slowly falling in the
manner described, meet a current of heated gases (preferably impregnated with sul-
phurous acid gas), by which they are dried. These gases may be regulated in

page_text: temperature so as to avoid overheating by arranging slides for admitting cold air to
mix with them in such proportion as may be required.
The rods passing from side to side of the chamber are easily withdrawn through
the perforated side for the purpose of cleaning.
We admit the hot air at or near the bottom of this chamber, and draw it off near
the top.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Alfred Fryer and James Bingham Alliott in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 20th October 1877.
ALFRED FRYER, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, and JAMES BINGHAM
ALLIOTT, of Radford, in the County of Nottingham. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
METHODS OF AND APPARATUS FOR DEALING WITH THE REFUSE OF TOWNS AND PRE-
VENTING NUISANCE FROM THE SAME, PART OF THE METHODS AND APPARATUS BEING
APPLICABLE ALSO FOR GENERAL DISINFECTING PURPOSES."
One part of our Invention consists of an improved vehicle or cart, represented in
sectional elevation at Fig. 1, and in sectional plan at Fig. 2 of the accompanying
Drawings, used for the conveyance of the pails or vessels (which are employed to
contain human excreta and fluids from house closets) for the purpose of emptying
them.
The object of our Invention is the transport of offensive privy refuse by such
means that no unpleasant material or odour can escape during transport. This cart
or vehicle a, a, is mounted upon a single pair of wheels b, b, the axle connecting
which we prefer to crank downwards, so as to lower the bottom of the cart and
to allow two ranges of pails c, c, (the one above the other) to be placed within
the cart without having to lift even those in the upper range to an inconvenient
height.
The body of the vehicle we construct by preference of light wrought iron. It
forms a box closed by means of one or more tightly-fitting or air-tight doors, d, d,
the joints of which we prefer to pack with india-rubber; these doors, which we
usually place at the hinder end of the cart, may be kept closely shut by means of
screwed attachments e, e, or by other suitable means.
The cart being mounted on a single pair of wheels, the inclination of its bottom
will vary with the height at which its shafts are supported. We so arrange this
that when the cart is being drawn along, or when the pails are being placed in it,
its bottom inclines slightly forward towards the closed end of the box. The pushing
of the pails c, c, towards the part of the cart body further from the door is thus
facilitated, and at the same time, if any liquid splashes over into the bottom of
the cart, it runs to the close ends of it, and does not drip on to the ground during
transport, even when the doors are open.
The support for the upper range of pails we make of open bar work f, f, (see
Fig. 2), so that any splashings drop through on to the bottom of the cart.
When the pails c, c, are to be removed from the cart we raise the shafts, which
may be done by means of a prop or stilt, and so give the bottom of the cart a
slight inclination backwards, thus facilitating the drawing out of the pails from
the vehicle; and the same position may be adopted when the vehicle is being
washed.
At the front part of the cart we usually provide a pocket or compartment g,g, for
the reception of ashes and dry refuse.
When the pails have been emptied and washed or cleaned in any well known
way, we subject them to a further treatment for the purpose of removing any pos-
sibility of their conveying infection. The apparatus required for this further
treatment, as herein-after described, is so simple that no Drawings are necessary to
make the explanation thereof intelligible. We stack the pails as closely as possible

page_text: within a vessel, preferably made of iron, and usually cylindrical in shape; this vessel
we close by an air-tight door or doors, and we connect it by means of suitable pipes
or cocks to a powerful exhausting air pump.
The pails having been stacked within the vessel, and the doors and all other
means of ingress to the vessel having been closed, we start the air pump, and thus
produce a partial vacuum within the vessel. A sufficiently good vacuum having
been obtained we stop the pump, and then admit to the vessel, through a suitable.
cock or valve and piping, steam or heated or medicated air.
If air be used it may be heated in any well known manner (say, by passing
through a coil of pipes in a steam boiler) to such a temperature as will ensure the
destruction of the vitality of any germs with which it comes into contact, say, to
300° Fahrenheit, or even higher, and as it rushes into a vessel already exhausted of
almost all its air, it will at once be brought into contact with every part of the
surface of the articles placed within the vessel, and thus germs adhering to any part
of their surface will be destroyed.
If the vessel and the articles contained in it are cold when the hot air is first
admitted, so that the air is too much cooled by contact with them, the vessel may
be again exhausted by the air pump, and a second supply of hot air admitted. This
process is repeated until a thermoineter, the bulb of which is in the heart of the
vessel, shews that the air after admission remains at a temperature sufficiently high
to ensure the destruction of germs.
Together with the heated air, sulphurous acid gas, chlorine vapour, or spray of
carbolic acid or other disinfectants in a gaseous state may be introduced into the
vessel with the certainty that the chemicals thus introduced will be brought into
contact with every part of the surfaces of the materials operated upon.
In some cases we surround the vessel with a steam jacket in order the more easily
to maintain the required temperature.
It is obvious that articles other than pails may be disinfected by placing them
within the vessel, and submitting them to treatment such as has been described. In
such cases care should be taken to regulate the temperature and the gases used for
disinfection as not to injure the material to be disinfected.
For disinfecting wearing apparel, bedding, or similar articles, this process is much
superior to any in use, as the heated air or the disinfecting gas penetrates at once
into every part of the mass of material to be treated.
When the solid excreta and urine are collected separately from other refuse we
drain the urine away from the excreta, and we concentrate the former in any well
known manner.
We further dry the excreta by exposing them in a revolving cylinder to hot air
or gases, with which we prefer to have a little sulphurous acid gas mixed. This
part of our Invention is represented in longitudinal section at Fig. 3 of the Drawings,
and in transverse section at Fig. 4. The revolving cylinder a, a, is partially
closed at each end by means of annular internal flanges b, b, and has its axis hori-
zontal or nearly so. This cylinder we prefer to rest upon antifriction rollers c, c, and
it may be made to revolve by means of gearing d, d, or in any other suitable way.
We admit the heated gases through a suitable fixed connection or flue e, e, in contact,
or nearly so, with one end of the cylinder a, a, and they pass away through a similar
connection ff, at its other end, being drawn through either by a chimney draught
or in any other well known way. To the inner circumference of this revolving
cylinder a, a, we attach longitudinal projections or shelves g, g, which as the cylinder
revolves carry a considerable portion of its contents up the rising side, finally allowing
then to slip off and fall again to the part of the cylinder for the time being at or
near the bottom. The contents of the cylinder are thus kept distributed in various
parts of it, and made frequently to fall through it, so as to expose large and con-
stantly changed surfaces to the action of the hot air or gas, which may be generated
in any well known manner, and with which we prefer to mix a small quantity of
sulphurous acid gas
The material is introduced into the cylinder by a suitable hopper h, h, furnished

page_text: with balanced doors at i, i, and is removed from it by means of a movable shoot
k, k, which can be brought within the cylinder or withdrawn from it, so that the
material can be kept in the cylinder for whatever length of time is needed to
sufficiently dry it; this shoot is also furnished (at its lower extremity) with a
balanced door; this shoot when introduced within the cylinder catches a portion
of the contents as they fall from the shelves, already described, and guides them out
of the cylinder.
In order to prevent the fæces, &c., from caking or settling hard upon the cylinder
and shelves, we arrange one or more mallets or hammers m, m, so that they are
lifted by cams n, n, and allowed to fall at intervals upon the shell of the cylinder
a, a; the latter being thus dealt a heavy blow or blows from time to time, is put
into active vibration, and adhering matter is detached from it.
In some instances we introduce a portion of the concentrated urine or liquid
manure into this drying cylinder along with the more solid excreta, so as eventually
to deliver the whole of the drainings and excreta mixed together in the form of a
solid and fairly dry manure.
Sometimes in order to convert the concentrated drainings which are still liquid
or semi-liquid into a solid manure, we introduce a regulated quantity of the thick
liquid into a hopper containing a quantity of some solid matter, by preference char-
coal, which may be prepared for this purpose by carbonizing street sweepings or
other refuse matter. Fig. 5 in the Drawings represent a front elevation, and Fig. 6
a side elevation of this arrangement, a, a, being an elevator for raising the thick
fluid, and b, b, the hopper for containing the charcoal. In this hopper b, b, the solid
particles become covered with thick liquid, and we discharge these wetted particles
from the hopper at a uniform and regulated speed by means of a distributing fan at
c, c, or by one of the many well known devices for regulating the discharge of
materials from hoppers. The wetted particles thus discharged from the hoppers b, b,
fall into a close drying chamber d, d, and into a grating or perforating plate fixed
at its upper part. This drying chamber d, d, we construct of such a height as may
be convenient, and prefer to make rectangular in horizontal section. We perforate
two opposite vertical sides of this chamber with corresponding holes, and through
these we pass rods e, e, which stretch from side to side of the chamber, and we so
arrange these rods, as represented full size at Fig. 7, that anything dropping clear of
the rods in one horizontal plane of the chamber must of necessity strike against the
rods in the horizontal plane next below it.
The wetted particles falling upon the grating or perforated plate at the top of the
chamber pass through and fall upon the bars e, e, in the uppermost horizontal plane;
slipping from the edges of these, they again fall until they strike the bars e, e, in the
horizontal plane immediately below it, from which they again slip to be detained in
like manner by yet lower bars, and so on until they reach the bottom of the
chamber, when they are collected by a suitable inclined plane f, f, whence they fall
through a balanced door g, g, into a receptacle, from which they may be raised again
to the hopper to be again wetted and treated in the drying chamber, or at will taken
away for sale or use.
The wetted particles in the drying chamber, as they are slowly falling in the
manner described, meet a current of heated gases (preferably impregnated with
sulphurous acid gas), by which they are dried. These gases may be regulated in
temperature so as to avoid overheating by arranging slides for admitting cold air to
mix with them in such proportion as may be required.
The rods passing from side to side of the chamber are easily withdrawn through
the perforated side for the purpose of cleaning.
We admit the hot air at or near the bottom of this chamber at h, h, and draw it
off near the top at i, i.
Having now described the nature and object of our said Invention, together with
the manner in which the same is to be or may be performed or carried into practical
effect, we wish it to be understood that we claim as our Invention,―
First, The construction and use of an air and gas tight box or cart for the purpose

page_text: of receiving and removing pails or cans containing human excreta and liquid refuse
from house closets without nuisance from the escape of any offensive smell or fluid.
Secondly. The general arrangement of disinfecting apparatus, substantially as
described.
Thirdly. The use within a disinfecting chamber of a vacuum or a partial vacuum,
substantially as described, for the purpose of ensuring that the hot or medicated air,
or the disinfecting vapour afterwards admitted to the chamber, shall be brought into
intimate contact with all parts of the articles to be disinfected.
Fourthly. The arrangement of revolving drying cylinder, substantially as
described, for the purpose of drying excreta and other town refuse.
Fifthly. Mixing concentrated drainings or semi-liquid manure with solid matter,
and treating the combination in a drying chamber fitted with tiers of moveable rods,
substantially as described, for the purpose of producing a solid manure.
Sixthly. The arrangement of drying chamber fitted with tiers of moveable rods
for treating the refuse of towns, substantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Fryer (on behalf of myself and the
said James Bingham Alliott), have hereunto set my hand and seal, this
Eighteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and seventy-seven.
ALFRED FRYER. (L.S.)