AN IMPROVED METHOD OF TREATING SEWAGE, FOR SEPARATING THE LIQUID FROM THE SOLID PORTIONS THEREOF, AND DEODO- RIZING AND PURIFYING THE SAME.
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Robert Lake at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 16th March 1877. A communication
from abroad by Placide Charles Lebéc, of Paris, France.
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co., Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, London. "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF TREATING SEWAGE,
FOR SEPARATING THE LIQUID FROM THE SOLID PORTIONS THEREOF, AND DEODO-
RIZING AND PURIFYING THE SAME.' A communication from abroad by Placide
Charles Lebée, of Paris, France.
This Invention relates to the purification of sewage by means of barges, boats, or
other vessels, serving as floating purifying basins, through which the sowage is
caused to circulate, a re-agent of some kind having been introduced to complete the
purification.
The said barges, boats, or vessels may be of any form and dimensions.
In carrying my Invention into practice the said purifying boats are coupled
together in pairs in such a manner that the sewage liquor entering the first one will
not find its way into the river until after it has circulated through the second boat,
and remained an equal time in both.
I will now proceed to describe the operations with two purifying boats coupled
together, and it will be understood that the said operations may be carried into
practice with any desired number of boats at the same time, according to the volume
of liquor to be purified.
According to my Invention the liquor as it comes from the sewer outlet is caused
to enter into a distributing trench or channel shewn at R, R, Figure 1, in the
accompanying Drawings, whence it will fall into the first of the two coupled bouts
(which are placed against the said trench or channel) by means of a small sluice, the
quantity delivered being regulated as desired.
The whole number of boats to be used are coupled together in twos, and are
caused to rest upon thick planks or joists P, P, arranged parallel to the distributing
trench or channel, so that the said boats may not get upon the sand, and that their
level being a little above that of the river the sewage liquor which has circulated
and been purified therein may be discharged easily into the river.
The fall of the sewage into the purifying boats is effected at A in such a manner
as to produce scarcely any agitation. Boat number 1 will thus become gradually

page_text: filled, and in an equally gradual and quiet manner the liquor will flow out at the
opposite end B at the top of the boat, after having in its passage deposited the
greater part of its solid matters. It will then return through a small moveable
pipe S, S, and fall at G into boat number 2, which should be a little lower than
boat number 1. In passing through the said pipe S, S, the sewage liquor will
receive from the distributor M the re-agent, with which it will mix completely on
arriving at gratings arranged for this purpose, and the action of the said re-agent
will be so much the more energetic, as it will only have to act upon a quantity
already containing but a small amount of matters to be eliminated; then, as in the
case of boat number 1, the sewage liquor will gradually fill the boat number 2, and
afterwards gradually flow out at D, being during this second course (aided by the
re-agent) finally deprived of the whole of its impurities, and in a condition to be
harmlessly discharged into the river.
The course being thus established in boats numbers 1 and 2 the sewage liquor
will continue to pass through them, leaving in its passage all its impurities, until
boat number 1 shall have become sufficiently full of the said impurities; then the
sluice is closed, and after several hours of complete rest the liquor remaining in this
boat will have become cleared at the surface of the solid matters, and by means of
hatchways provided at the level of the river will be discharged therein, and that
part, which owing to the level of the boat and of the river being the same, has not
been able to escape in this manner will by means of a pipe provided for the purpose
flow out at N into boat number 3 placed to receive it.
The above described operation having been effected boat number 1 now con-
taining almost exclusively the solid matters will float, and on being unfastened will
carry the said solid matter away, wherever it may be required for agricultural
purposes. Boat number 3 will then take its place, and the sluice being opened, as
before, the sewage will again commence to circulate and be purified, and so on for
all the other boats successively. Boat number 2 will be used in the same way when
in its turn it has become sufficiently full of impurities, but it will be readily under-
stood that this boat fills much less rapidly because the solid matters deposited
therein cach day will be much smaller than in boat number 1.
I have said that the number of purifying boats to be used would depend naturally
upon the quantity of sewage to be purified, and conclusive experiments have demon-
strated that from three to five hours is a sufficient time for the passage within a
boat of a volume of liquor equal to the capacity of the said boat. The two boats,
numbers 1 and 2, will therefore together keep the sewage liquor which circulates
within them from six to ten hours, according to circumstances, which is more than
sufficient time for the desired purification to be completely effected; therefore, with
boats forty metres long by eight metres broad and three metres deep, thạt is to say,
of nine hundred and sixty cubic metres capacity, the said boats taking four hours to
receive and get rid of this volume of sewage liquor, 5,760 cubic metres will pass in
twenty-four hours, that is to say, for fifty pairs of boats 288,000 cubic metres, a
quantity equal to the contents of the sewers of Paris.
The sewage is purified without any labour, and discharged into the rivers
perfectly harmless, and its impurities are carried far away by the boats which
received them.
A glazed gallery, which may be of elegant construction if desired, may be erected
along the whole length of the distributing trench or channel, and the boats may be
covered; therefore all the operations of the circulation of the sewage will take place
without giving offence, either as regards appearance or smell. The aforesaid gallery
may have at its ends dwelling pavilions designed for the attendants, and store rooins
for the re-agents and other articles.
The above-described operations may be carried on in a large basin equally well
as in a river in which the boats inay be stationed, which basin is in communication
with any navigable water, and to the banks of which the sewage will be brought.
There will be in the organisation of the work but one modification for the dis-

page_text: charging of the loaded boats. In both cases a tug boat should be specially provided
for the different operations and traction of the purifying boats.
In extreme cases it may be desirable to unite three boats instead of two, and
certain variations in the operations may be found necessary in practise without
departing from the principles of this Invention.
In the accompanying Drawing I have shewn as specimens only the operations of
my method of purifying.
Figure 1 shews the operations on navigable water; and Figure 2, the operations.
in an extensive basin communicating with a navigable stream, the said basin con-
taining a considerable number of boats.
Like letters indicate the same parts.
A is the mouth or outlet of the sewer; E is a navigable stream; R, R, are dis-
tributing trenches or channels; L, L, are sluices; T, T, are side walks along the said
trenches or channels for the attendants; P, P, are thick planks or joists placed at
the bottom of the river, and upon which the boats rest; V, V, are foot bridges.
Numbers 1 and 2 are coupled boats. S is a small pipe leading to the boat number 2
for the sewage discharged by the boat number 1; M is a distributor of the re-agent.
Numbers 3, 3, are empty boats to receive the remainder of clarified sewage
liquor from the boats number 1. F is the dam or flood gate connecting the basin G
with the stream E.