IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF SEWAGE, AND IN THE MANU- FACTURE OF MANURE THEREFROM
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Hanson, of Savile Town, near Dewsbury,
in the County of York, Manufacturing Chemist, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF SEWAGE, AND IN THE MANU-
FACTURE OF MANURE THEREFROM
"
Sealed the 6th October 1875, and dated the 28th July 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Hanson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
28th July 1875.
I, JOHN HANSON, of Savile Town, near Dewsbury, in the County of
York, Manufacturing Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF SEWAGE, AND IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF MANURE THEREFROM," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to improvements in the treatment of sewage
and in the manufacture of manure therefrom.
In carrying my Invention into practice for the precipitation of the
sludge from each 100,000 gallons of sewage water I take of slacked
lime (say) about 20 or 23 lbs. and of black ash about 30 lbs., and of soot

page_text: about lb. (the two latter being the residuum from alkalı works), and
these precipitating ingredients I thoroughly grind, mix, and incorporate
together and run them into the supply pipe from the sewage pumping
well to the settling tanks or otherwise so as effectually to mix them with
the sewage mass as or before it passes into the settling tanks for pro-
cipitation. I then for the manufacture of manure from the precipitated
sludge or sewage residuum mix or blend therewith fine dry ashes, sand,
sawdust, waste from flax mills, husks from seeds, or any other suitable
effective absorbent, the principle of this part of the Invention being
the absorption, in contradistinction to the usual drying or evaporating,
of the liquid or moisture from the sludge or sewage residuum without
reference to the employment of any specific absorbent material or sub-
stance, though I may mention that at present I find fine dry ashes the
most suitable.
The process described of effecting the precipitation of the sludge is
most efficient, the foulest of waters being purified by the precipitation
of all foreign or deleterious sludge particles-at-the-least cost, and the
method or process described of treating the sludge by absorption docs
not require the use of costly machinery, and allows of all the valuable
fertilizing properties the sludge contains being retained, whereas by the
methods at present employed of treating the sludge, that is, by drying
or evaporation, a large por-centage of these valuable properties are lost;
and, moreover, the manure is rendered by my process inodorous and dry,
and can be packed in bags and warehoused and conveyed as ordinary
merchandize, and can thus be more generally retailed and sold, and it is
also rendered of greater value (for certain crops being the best kind of
manure), and is especially adapted for use on heavy land, as it renders
the soil more friable and capable of being more easily worked, and in
my treatment I am further enabled to utilize two (otherwise) waste
products, viz, the black ash from alkali works and the fine ashes, both
which products at present are from their non-utility and accumulation a
source of great expence to provincial towns and other places
For the sludge there has hitherto been but little or no market, the
cost of drying or evaporating the moisture therefrom being very
expensive, and in many large towns at present it is otherwise disposed of
(after the necessary process of precipitation) by being buried in deeply
dug trenches,.wherein it never dries.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Hanson in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 24th December 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
HANSON, of Savile Town, near Dewsbury, in the County of York,
Manufacturing Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of July, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the thirty-
ninth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said John Hanson, Her special licence that
I, the said John Hanson, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said John Hanson, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, should at any time agroc 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 THE TREAT-
MENT OF SEWAGE, AND IN THE Manufacture of MANURE THEREFROM," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Hanson, 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 Scal Patent Office within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
"
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Hanson, 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, that is to say.
This Invention relates to improvements in the treatment of sewage
for the precipitation of foreign particles, commonly called sludge, sus-
pended therein, and in the subsequent manufacture of a poitable
inodorous and dry manure from the precipitate obtained from such
sewage.
Once our streams and rivers were pure, but now most of them are
the receptacles of sewage filth flowing from our villages, towns, and

page_text: cities, causing pestilence and a high death rate, at the same time robbing
the land of the best fertilizing properties Many plans have been tried to
clarify these waters and recover the manure in the form of residuum,
however, most of these plans have failed, and those that have partially
succeeded are too complicated, ponderous, and expensive.
t
Irrigation would seem the most natural, but such a town as Leeds or
Bradford would require a Yorkshire for irrigation land. Precipitation
then seems to me to be the only plan to be adopted, as it can be accom-
plished in a comparatively small space.
The precipitations hitherto tried have been the results of expensive
chemicals, which have to be manufactured, and as the value of an
article is what it will fetch, the question arises to local boards and
corporations what will be the price of these chemicals supposing all
local boards and corporations were obliged to use them. Already the
cost of precipitation with such chemicals at their present prices is some-
thing fabulous, and has caused large towns to look forward with dread
to the time when an injunction will compel the clarifying of their
sewage and foul rivers and streams.
Chemistry so wonderful, and which is getting daily more developed,
has dawned with a new light upon agriculture, and is destined to create
a revolution in the supply of food for plants and roots, &c. It seems
strange that our country, so densely populated, should hitherto have
been dependent on foreign countries for fertilizers and manures, such as
bones, horns, hoofs, guano, and the like, when we have at home as waste
and encumbrances the very ingredients the bones and other manure
materials possess, therefore instead of polluting our noble rivers and
streams, destroying the fish and breeding pestilence in our towns, the
contents of our sewers and drains must be transferred to the land,
exalting the fertility of that which is now under culture and redeeming
that which has hitherto been considered as hopelessly sterile.
When we reflect and search for the cause of rinderpest, foot and
mouth disease, and other pestilential maladies, is it not natural to
suppose that such pestilences have been conveyed here by or in the
foreign products spoken of. We know not the state of health the
animals were in before death, nor whether all the animals that supply
the bones, &c, have been slaughtered or have died a natural death Our
knowledge of the immense guano beds show us clearly that millions of

page_text: birds have died a natural death, it may be by long age, starvation, or
disease. The same can be supposed of the bone supplying animals,
therefore I am convinced that diseases are from these sources imported
into our country. The manures are spread upon our fields, our plants
feed upon those manures, and our cattle feed upon those plants, thus
acquiring diseases that were previously foreign to them.
From a sanitary and commercial point we find that the importation
of manures is an evil, and must be discontinued, especially when wo
are continually making millions of tons of manure hitherto wasted, the
residuum of sewage and foul water.
In carrying my Invention into practice for the precipitation of the
sludge from each one hundred thousand gallons of sewage water (and this
part of my Invention is also applicable to the precipitation of all foreign
deleterious or poisonous particles or matter suspended in foul waters, such
as those issuing from dye works and other factories or works in order to
offect their purification), I take of slacked lime (say) about 20 to 23 lbs.,
and of soot or of flue dust about ½ lb., and of black ash about 30 lbs. (the
last-named ingredient being the residuum from alkalı works), and these
precipating ingredients (the proportions of which may vary) I
thoroughly grind, mix, and incorporate together, and I make them
into a cream-like paste and run them as thus combined into the supply
pipe forming the communication between the sewage pumping well and
the settling tanks, or otherwise in the most practicable form, so as
effectually to mix with the sewago mass as or before it passes into the
settling tanks for precipitation
I employ these precipitating ingredients preferentially because they
combine the advantages of being comparatively inexpensive, and as
being among the best precipitants and deodorizers known, the lime
giving a clear transparent effluent, the brackishness of which, owing to
the suspended hydrate of lime, which would render it unfit for manu-
facturing or domestic purposes) is effectually neutralized by the car-
bonizing effect upon the lime of the black ash, which latter is a most
powerful absorbent of oxygen, and the carbonic acid gas collected by
the lime is also thus set free, and the water is consequently neutralized
and restored to its natural state of purity Morcover the black ash
(from such works as above mentioned) contains about 90 soluble salts
and about 10 of charcoal and carths These salts contain muriate of
soda and potash, sulphate of potash and muriate of limo, and also

page_text: magnesia, therefore the effluent water is not only carbonized, but there
is added to the precipitate (subsequently to the manure) the above most
valuable and essential fertilizing salts. From the use of the soot in
addition to the advantages derived as a precipitant is also obtained the
very fertilizing sulphate and carbonate of ammonia.
I would here remark that in some cases it may answer to make use of
only one or two of the above-named ingredients.
Subsequently for the manufacture of manure from the sludge of the
sewage by these moans and thus precipitated I mix or blend therewith
fine ground or sifted, or powdered, or pulverized, and preferably dry coal
ashes or soot or flué dust, as effective absorbents, either combined or
separately, or sometimes-only the-ashes-may be required, the principle
of this part of the Invention being the absorption, in contradistinction
to the usual drying or evaporation, of the liquid or moisture in and from
the sludge or sewage residuum. I may here mention that for this
specific purpose I prefer to employ the fine dry coal ashes, as being the
most effective and suitable, and as being-cheap, and waste products, and
as they contain sulphate of lime, charcoal, and other matters which possess
most valuable powers of deodorization, and of the absorption of carbonic
acid and nitrogen gases, and they also aid in fixing the ammoniacal and
other volatile and fertilizing salts, and are continual collectors from the
surrounding air of nitrogen, which constitutes the most nutritious food
and component of plants, and thus from the treatment and combination
of the two previously waste materials, though costly encumbrancers, the
coal ashes and the sludge (both herein-after more particularly referred
to), I render them at once useful and profitable, and obtain from them a
very valuable manure.
Thus the process firstly described of effecting the precipitation of the
sludge (or deleterious matters in suspension) is most efficient, the foulest
of waters, including those from dye or colour works, or mills, or other
manufactories being purified at the least cost without the use of
expensive manufactured chemicals; and the method or process secondly
described of treating the sludge by absorption does not necessitate the
use of costly machinery, and allows of all the valuable fertilizing pro-
perties that the sludge contains being retained; and, moreover, the
manure is rendered inodorous and dry, and can be packed in bags, and
can also be warehoused and conveyed as ordinary merchandise, and thus
be more generally retailed and sold, and rendered of a greater value (for

page_text: certain crops being the best kind of manure), and especially adapted for
use on heavy land, as it will render the soil more friable and capable of
being more easily worked. I am further enabled to utilize the otherwise
waste black ash from alkali works, and fine coal ashes, both which
products at present are from their non-utility and daily accumulation
upon land purposely bought, and therefore lost to more useful purposes,
a source of great expence to provincial towns and other places, and to
profitably dispose of the sludge, for which there has hitherto been but
little or no market, the cost of drying or evaporating the moisture there-
from causing the loss of a large per-centage of valuable fertilizing
properties, and being so very expensive that in many large towns it is
disposed of (after the previous necessary process of precipitation) at a
complete loss and at great expence by being stored in deeply dug
trenches, wherein it never dries.
According to this Invention, which can be equally as well applied on
a large as on a small scale, the entire cost of dealing with twelve
millions of gallons of sewage per day and the manufacture of manuro
therefrom will be but about nine thousand pounds per annum, and
supposing the manure to sell at the exceedingly low sum of six shillings
per ton, eighteen thousand pounds would be realized, and thus thero
would be a yearly profit of nine thousand pounds.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature and
object of my said Invention, together with the manner in which the
same is to be or may be performed or carried into practical effect, I
would remark in conclusion that I claim as my Invention the novel and
peculiar method or means of treating sewage or foul water by precipi-
tating the sludge suspended therein, and the manufacture of a readily
portable inodorous and dry manure therefrom, substantially in the
manner and according to the improved processes as herein fully specified
and described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Hanson, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of November, in the year