Waste products and undeveloped substances : a synopsis of progress made in their economic utilisation during the last quarter of a century at home and abroad / by P.L. Simmonds.

Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Waste products and undeveloped substances : a synopsis of progress made in their economic utilisation during the last quarter of a century at home and abroad / by P.L. Simmonds. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    and fecal matter were carefully kept separate ; but now- adays all this, which I must call a natural arrangement, is entirely changed. The boasted civilisation of the pre- sent age has caused the difiSculty by introducing the water- closet system, which, by mixing two substances valuable when separate, makes that worthless puddle now rapidly contaminating our water supplies and changing our pel- lucid rivers into offensive dirty streams. The earth-closet system of the Rev. Mr. Moule, and the sea-weed carbon process, introduced by Mr. Stanford, of the British Sea- Weed Company, are steps in the right direction, but up to the present time, all the proposals to deal chemically with the enormous dilution called town sewage have been failures; nor, from the very composition of the material, is it possible in its present form to do so. In order to do it economically, we must revert to old forms. It is true there are many companies formed, and plans in action, proposing various remedial measures, but none of them, I feel sure, doing it in the sense I regard the question. It may be they deodorise, and partially precipitate the car- bonaceous matter and phosphates, but it is certain the ammonia and other nitrogenous forms of animal secretions, which, of themselves, constitute almost the only money value, go away in what is ter*ned the efSuent water, and are a dead loss to the community, whilst the manures they manufacture are comparatively worthless, from the great weight of lime and clayey matter used as precipitants; so that it is much cheaper for the farmer to buy his phos- phates and ainmoniacal salts as manufactured artificially. Much prominence has lately been given to the process of General Scott. This consists in precipitating the sewage, hy adding a large quantity of lime, and forming Portland cement, by burning the mixture at a high temperature. This process is about to be adopted at Birmingham and East Ham. In fact, it is forced upon them by the impos- sibility of getting rid of the effluent water of the other processes. I consider this plan a wasteful as well as costly one. The total waste of ammonia in the manufacture, and the probable difficulty of sale of the cement, when a large quantity is daily made in every large town, must, I think, be against it. The medical question of the effect upon the health of those who reside near the kilns, and upon
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