Specification of Charles Felton Kirkman : treating sewage.

  • Kirkman, Charles Felton.
Date:
1871
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Specification of Charles Felton Kirkman : treating sewage. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Kirkman’s Improvements in Treating Sewage. manure for some crops or lands, or they may he mixed if desired with the floculent matters which subside in the vessels or chambers g, and which may he drawn off at the bottom into the trough g1. In order to facilitate the removal of the earthy matters from the filters they are contained in cages which may he lifted out bodily, for which purpose they are 5 provided with rings to which tackle may be attached. On its way to the filtering chambers (shewn at Pig. I), the liquid sewage passes through a chamber i, in which are suspended voltaic batteries composed of pairs of zinc and copper plates or gratings. One of these batteries is shewn detached in side elevation at Pig. 6 and end elevation at Pig. 7. 10 Between the pairs of zinc and copper plates are layers of flannel, woollen cloth, or felt, and by the voltaic action set up by this battery a stream or continuous current of electricity is made to pass through the sewage water, and will thereby materially aid in freeing it from its manurial properties. This horizontal pile is considered a perpetual electric machine, and it is 15 very efficient and convenient. The metal plates are square and are set lozenge fashion, the lower points resting between two strips of glass l, l3 fixed on a long board k3 k, and are supported by side rails of baked wood, varnished, as indicated in the end elevation Pig. 7. The side rails are secured to blocks m3 m3 at the extremities of the base k. Two screws, 20 one at each end, pass through these terminating blocks by which the series may be a little compressed, they serve also as the conducting terminations of the pile, and from these points shocks and all other electrical effects of the pile may be obtained. Volta’s pile as is well known is constructed of thin circular or square 25 plates of zinc and copper about two inches square, and a corresponding number of pieces of common cloth, felt, or flannel of somewhat less dimensions than the plates. The cloth of a voltaic pile is usually kept moistened with salt water or any saline solution. Por my purpose the sewage water itself is sufficiently saline to keep up the electric action. 30 Por constructing the pile the zinc plates should be carefully cleaned and then a plate of copper should be placed on a convenient insulating base, and upon this a plate of zinc, then upon this a disc of moist cloth, then commence again with another plate of copper upon the cloth, then a plate of zinc, then another piece of moist cloth, and so on in series 35 until we arrive at a terminating plate of zinc, the result is a self-acting electrical machine, powerful in proportion to the extent and number of the series. The water when deprived of its ammonia and other soluble