Specification of James Alexander Manning : treating sewage, &c.

  • James Alexander Manning
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Specification of James Alexander Manning : treating sewage, &c. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Specification. Maniiing's Improvements in the Treatment of Sewage, retained, a corresponding economy ensues to agriculturists in its application to the soil, as well as in its carriage or transit. In this Patent it is proposed to adhere to the use of the alum sludge or its chemical equivalents as ascertained by analysis, that is to say, amongst other matters, its preponderating constituents of sulphate of alumina, sulphuric acid, 5 and peroxide of iron, as the chief agents for the deodorisation of the sewerage and the deodorisation also as well as the precipitation of all matters held in suspension therein, and of the waste animal charcoal, which is now employed as a decolorizer of the supernatant water, as well as a fertilizing agent in the subsequent preparation of the manure, as set forth in the Patents herein-before 10 recited. But, instead of applying the before-named substances in the first tanks or receivers of the sewerafre from the common sewers, all matters capable of subsidence or deposit by their own specific gravity are allowed to settle down for a certain time, say, one or two hours.’ The supernatent water is then to be drawn off or discharged into a tank or tanks at a lower level, to 15 which one-half of the quantity of alum sludge employed by me in my former process will be sufficient to cause the precipitation of the finer particles of matter still held in suspension in the water. By these means a saving of fifty* per cent, will be effected in the employment of the alum sludge, as experience has proved that the less the sewerage is charged with animal and vegetable 20 organic matters, the smaller is the quantity of alum sludge necessary for their precipitation. With respect to the animal charcoal employed in this process, a considerable change is effected in the mode of using it. The charcoal is made from the hoofs and horns of animals, and is a waste or refuse substance arising from the manufacture of prussiate of potash. It contains some salts amongst 25 its other impurities, which are of no use in the decolorization or the precipita¬ tion of any colouring matters in the sewerage waters. The charcoal is there¬ fore lixiviated and afterwards dried in a furnace or oven before applying it in conjunction with the alum sludge as deodorizers and precipitants of the matters held in suspension in the sewerage, and an additional clarifyer of the super- 30 natant water. If found useful or profitable the water of the lixiviation may be evaporated for the purpose of obtaining whatever salts may be found therein for admixture or otherwise with the manufactured manure. This mode of treating the sewerage residuum is applicable to the wastes of towns of almost every description, that is to say, to the contents of cesspools and privies mixed 35 or unmixed with coals, cinders, ashes, and household wastes, stable dung, the wastes of flesh, fish, and vegetable markets, as well as those of slaughter¬ house, breweries, distilleries, tanneries, glue factories, cotton wastes, dust bins, and all wastes of vegetable and animal origin. It is proposed to treat these
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