IMPROVEMENTS IN THE. CONSTRUCTION OF DRY CLOSETS, AND IN APPARATUS FOR PREPARING MANURE
Year: 1866

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by James Conyers Morrell at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 14th
November 1866..
I, JAMES CONYERS MORRELL, of Leyland, in the County of Lancaster, do,
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE.
CONSTRUCTION OF DRY CLOSETS, AND IN APPARATUS FOR PREPARING MANURE," to be
as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the construction of dry
closets, and in apparatus for preparing manure; for these purposes the seat of
a closet is hinged or moveable in such manner that on a person sitting thereon
the seat will be depressed, and by means of a connecting rod attached thereto
and to one end of a lever motion will be communicated to such lever, and it
by its other end will by another connecting rod attached thereto and to one
end of a cranked lever give motion to a ram or forcer within a chamber at the
bottom of a hopper, and by such means move back the ram or forcer so as to
permit the chamber or space previously occupied by the ram or forcer to
become filled with earth or other suitable dry deodorizing matter; the ram or
forcer is also acted on by a spring or weight, by which when the seat is again
allowed to rise the forcer or ram will be moved quickly, and drive before it
the deodorizing earth or matters over the fresh deposit which has been received
into a suitable moveable pail or vessel below the opening in the seat. The
pail or receiving vessel is arranged to be readily removed and an empty one
placed below the seat. The human excrements thus received and deodorized
in closets such as above described, or in other construction of dry closets,

page_text: are carried to a building in suitable closed carts or otherwise. The building
is arranged with several drying floors in steps or at different elevations on
either side of a central trough, in which a screw or other mechanism is worked
to move the dried matters to one end of the drying chamber, where there is a
receiver having a mechanical mixer worked thereon where the dried matters
are mixed with other manuring substances according to-the-purposes to which
the manures are to be applied. Below the drying floors are steam or hot
water pipes or other suitable means of heating the floors. The moist matters
from the closets are first spread on the uppermost floors, and then raked or
moved down on to the next floor, and so on from floor to floor till they arrive
into the central trough. The drying chamber is ceiled over at the top, and
provision is made for ventilation from one end to the other of the drying
chamber, where a chimney is situated. Over the ceiling is a storing chamber,
and at the end of the building where the chimney is situated; and where the
vapours are received there are endless reticulate or perforated aprons on which.
absorbent matters are spread, and up through which the vapours pass in their
way to the chimney, by which means any gases or vapours which it may be
desired to collect are absorbed, and the endless'aprons have a motion towards
the end, so
as to deliver the matters placed thereon into the mixing
apparatus.