AN IMPROVED METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR SIMULTANEOUSLY DISINFECTING, DEODORIZING, Dis- INTEGRATING, AND DESICCATING ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE MATTER FOR FERTILIZING PURPOSES
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Cox, of Great Grimsby, in the County of
Lincoln, Chemist, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF
AND APPARATUS FOR SIMULTANEOUSLY DISINFECTING, DEODORIZING, Dis-
INTEGRATING, AND DESICCATING ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE MATTER FOR
FERTILIZING PURPOSES."
Sealed the 27th April 1875, and dated the 26th February 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Cox at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
26th February 1875.
I, Jonx Cox, of Great Grimsby, in the County of Lincoln, Chemist,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED
METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR SIMULTANEOUSLY DISINFECTING, DEODORIZING,
DISINTEGRATING, AND DESICCATING ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE MATTER FOR
FERTILIZING PURPOSES," to be as follows:-
My said Invention relates to the treatment of animal and vegetable
matter for fertilizing purposes by a method or process whereby the
disinfection, deodorization, disintegration, and desiccation of such

page_text: matters are effected simultaneously and continuously. It also relates to
apparatus whereby the said Invention is carried into practice.
According to my Invention the matters or substances to be treated
are placed in a closed cylinder with man-holes, and a valve in a vapour
exit tube or still head. Through the said cylinder a shaft extends
carrying knives or stirrers so formed that when revolving in one direction
cach presents two opposite beveled sides acting similarly to a knife edge,
and while revolving in the other direction a singly beveled face is
presented, the effect of the latter motion being to cject the matters
through a man-hole at the end of the cylinder. The said shaft is gently
set in motion, and at the same time an antiseptic or deodorizing or
disinfecting agent, or a mixture of both, cither in a gascous, volatile,
liquid, or solid state, is injected or forced into the said cylinder. For
this purpose preference is given to the products of the combustion of
sulphur with wood. The sulphurous anhydride so generated converts a
portion of the tricalcic phosphates present in fish and other animal
matter into soluble sulphited phosphates, which possess valuable
agricultural and deodorizing properties. Common or superheated steam
or hot air, or a mixture of them, is next admitted into the said cylinder,
and the mass therein is kept in agitation under pressure for some little
time, that is to say, until the substances being treated are thoroughly
broken up, when the valve in the exit vapour tube is opened. The
matters or substances being well broken up or disintegrated the steam
is cut off and hot air blown or drawn through them to effect their
complete desiccation. When this object is attained the man-hole at the
end of the cylinder is opened, and the motion of the shaft reversed to
discharge the matters or substances therefrom.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Cox in the Great Scal Patent Office ou
the 24th August 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
Cox, of Great Grimsby, in the County of Lincoln, Chemist, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Maiesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters

page_text: Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the thirty-
çighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said John Cox, Her special licence
that I, the said John Cox, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said John Cox, 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 "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF AND APPARATUS
FOR SIMULTANEOUSLY DISINFECTING, DEODORIZING, DISINTEGRATING, And Desiccating
ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE MATTER FOR FERTILIZING PURPOSES," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said John Cox, 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 Cox, 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, reference being had to the accompanying Drawing
forming a part of this Specification :-
My said Invention relates to the treatment of animal and vegetable
matter for fertilizing purposes by a method or process whereby the
disinfection, deodorization, disintegration, and desiccation of such
matters are effected simultaneously and continuously. It also relates to
apparatus whereby the said Invention is carried into practice.
· The apparatus I prefer to employ is constructed as shewn in the
accompanying Drawing.
Figure 1 is a side elevation, partly in section, of the said apparatus;
Figure 2 is a section of one of the knives forming part of the same.
The said apparatus comprises a wrought-iron cylinder a fitted with
cast or wrought-iron ends, which have glands and stuffing boxes fitted
in their centres. Through these stuffing boxes and the whole length of

page_text: the interior of the cylinder a wrought-iron shaft & passes, the said shaft
projecting sufficiently at one end for the reception of a driving wheel c.
To this shaft are secured knives or bars d of wrought iron, steel, or other
suitable metal, and so arranged that the first knife is at a right angle
to the first edge of the shaft b, the second, third, and fourth knives to
the second, third, and fourth edges of the shaft, and so on with all the
knives, the entire series forming a worm or spiral when revolving.
Preference is given to a shaft having four equal sides. The knives or
bars & are so formed and set upon the shaft that when the said shaft
revolves in one direction cach knife presents two oppositely beveled
sides or faces 1, 2 (acting similarly to a knife edge), and when the
said shaft revolves in the other direction cach knife presents but onc
beveled side or face 3 (see Figure 2). The effect of this construction
and reversing motion not only assists in ejecting the matters from
the cylinder, but also in freeing the knives of any matter which may
adhere to them. The ends of the knives or bars in a line with cach
other may be connected by a flat rod bolted on them; these serve
to scrape the cylinder. If the knives or bars d are sufficient in
number to scrape the whole of the cylinder this connecting bar is not
necessary. Man-holes e, f, are formed in the lower part of one of the
ends and on the top of the cylinder a for filling and emptying it, and
are closed by hinged doors fitted with screws and cross bars, or by other
suitable means. Tho said cylinder has a pipe fitted with a cock I for
the admission of air, and another pipe fitted with a cock / for the
admission of steam. I also provide the said cylinder with a screw down
valve i adapted to a hopper j; also with an eduction tube / fitted with
a cock or valve for the emission of vapour. This eduction tube is
connected with a condensing worm not shown. The cylinder is set in
brickwork over a furnace and fluc, that part immediately over the fire-
bars being protected from overheating by a brick dome or arch built
over the furnace.
The matter or substance to be treated according to my method or

page_text: motion, and a moderate fire made in the furnace. After continuing this
operation for a sufficient time (about 20 minutes for fish, and 40 minutes
for flesh) the steam is shut off, and the valve in the eduction tube / is
opened. The speed of the engine is now gradually increased until the
shaft b in the cylinder a makes about 15 revolutions per minute. The
firing is so regulated that the temperature inside the cylinder does not
exceed 350° Fahrenheit. The hopper j fitted to the screw down valve i
is filled with the deodorizer, and is occasionally opened that some of it
may fall into the cylinder whenever during the process noxious vapours
or gases are evolved, and a jet of deodorizing solution is kept con-
tinuously flowing into the receiver connected to the condensing worm.
When the desired dryness and disintegration of the matter thus
treated has been attained the fire is drawn, and cold air blown or drawn
through the cylinder to remove vapours and to promote the cooling of
the hot product. To empty the cylinder the man-hole e at the end is
opened, and the motion of the shaft reversed.
Having thus fully described my said Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I wish it understood that I claim,-
First. The method or process of simultaneously disinfecting, deo-
dorizing, disintegrating, and desiccating animal and vegetable matter as
herein set forth.
Second. The peculiar construction or formation of the knives as hercin
set forth.
Third. Tho peculiarly formed knives arranged and operating in com-
bination with the other parts of the aforesaid apparatus, as herein set
forth and for the purpose specified.
In witness whereof, I, the said Jolin Cox, have hereunto set
my hand and scal, this Twenty-fourth day of August, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
five