844 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



PATENTS TAKEN OUT FOR THE APPLICATION OF TOWN SEWAGE. 



In a recent number of our Journal appeared a 

 resume of the patents which have been taken 

 out, from the earliest period up to the present 

 tiint;, under tiie head of" Drain Tiles and Pipes." We 

 nowprojiose to give a similar ■/•c*M7rte of patents relating 

 to manures. For the present, we shall select !'or notice 

 those only which have special reference to toivn sewage 

 and the faecal matter of our toion j^opidation, their 

 deodorization, and %itilization as manures available 

 for agricultural pui-poses. And this narrowing of the 

 subject — leaving the consideration of other ananures to 

 a future article — we are the more inclined to follow, as 

 our remarks will bo usefully introductory to, or elucida- 

 tive of a review of two official reports which have been 

 recently presented to Parliament bearing closely on the 

 question of the disposal of our town sewage. This re- 

 view may be comprised in one or two articles which we 

 hope shortly to present to our I'eaders. 



To proceed with the iramediatesubject of our present 

 paper, we find that the first patent having direct re- 

 ference to town sewage was granted to Lewis James 

 Armand Estienne, Jan. 9th, 1802, for converting 

 " human excrement into a powder divested of all smell, 

 preserving at the same time all its fertilizing pro- 

 perties." This was effected by gathering it into tanks, 

 and allowing the liquid matter to be drawn oiF. The 

 solid matter tluis obtained was next dried in the sun, 

 cither mixed or unmixed with lime. It was next stowed 

 away in heaps under a shed till it attained a tempera- 

 ture of 212 deg. Fahrenheit; it was finally crushed 

 into a powder, which went into small compass. [No. 

 2,570, price 7d.]* 



The next patent, in chronological order, was granted 

 to Joseph Hehr Jerome Poitevin, July 17th, 1835, "for 

 preparing a powder which is applicable to the pur- 

 poses of disinfecting night-soil and certain other 

 matters, and facilitating the producing of manure." 

 This powder he obtained by calcining, when properly 

 dry, mud of rivers or ponds, which contained animal 

 or vegetable matter, capable of producing carbon by 

 calcination. Where earths did not of themselves con- 

 tain these matters, they were added previously to cal- 

 cination. 



On Aug. 10th, 1842, apatentwas granted to Dominic 

 Frick Albert, for a "manuring powder." This was 

 obtained by mixing in certain proportions a number of 

 substauces together, as the ammoniacal liquor from gas 

 works, the spent urical liquor in the scouring of woollen 

 cloths, all sorts of animal refuse, cotton waste im- 

 pregnated with oil, and, in fact, the refuse of nearlv all 

 our manufacturing or chemical processes. [9,442, 4d.] 



June 23rd, 1845, is the date of a patent granted to 

 Michel Antoine Bertin Burin der Buisson, for new and 

 improved methods for the distillati(m of bituminous 

 schistus and other bituminous substances : the mixing 

 of some of the products of distillation with the residual 

 ash in the retort, yielding a manure, the azote in which, 

 the patentee stated, was considerably increased by 

 allowing it to absorb fresh or coagulated blood, or any 

 other soft animal matter, such as night-soil or brain 

 or liquid, such as urine. [10,720, li<I.] 



William Higgs, Apiil 28th, 1846, obtained a patent 

 lor constructmg tanks or reservoirs for collecting town 

 sewage, and for solidifying and drying the solid matters 



paten^^dSc'c"' '"" "^''^ '"*='^^'' ^'^^ ^"^^ N°- "^ '^^ 



therein contained. The patent also included buildings 

 to be erected over these tanks, in which the gases 

 evolved from the sewage were collected, and treated with 

 chemical agents — the talts resulting from which crys- 

 tallized or rested on spars or bars peculiarly arranged. 

 Machinery and apparatus were also secured to the 

 patentee for distributing and depositing chemical agents 

 over the mass of sewage in the tanks. A fourth claim 

 was for chemical a^'ents for precipitating the solid mat- 

 ter in the sewage, and for absorbing and combining 

 with the ga-es evolved from it, and with the solid 

 matters precipitated. The substance used by the 

 patentee to precipitate the solid matters was " hydrate 

 of lime, commonly called slacked lime;" chlorine gas 

 being used by preference, to condense or combine the 

 gases evolved from the sewage, although hydrochloric 

 acid gas is mentioned by the patentee as also useful for 

 this purpose. [11181, lOd.] 



The date of the patent granted to F.dvvard Brown for 

 "disinfecting fcecal substauces," so as to preserve them 

 in order to be manufactured into manures, was Feb. 

 20th, 1847. The substances stated to be employed for 

 this purpose are, the " sulphate of iron, or the chlo- 

 rides of sodium (sea salt), or of iron and manga- 

 nese, or the nitrates, sulphates, and chlorides of lead, 

 copper, zinc and tin, or pyroligneous acid, or the 

 pyrolignites or the mother-waters arising from the manu- 

 facture of any of the before-enumerated substances, or 

 coal tar, or schistous and bituminous extracts." The 

 patentee also claimed the making of fcecal matters into 

 manures by mixing them with an " absorbent powder." 

 This was made by incinerating in closed vessels " coal 

 or wood ashes, and earth, or street or road sweepings, 

 and vegetable, animal, and mineral rubbish, such as 

 sawdust, bone dust, and the waste matters of commerce, 

 cotton mills," &c. [11,587, 4d.] 



William Bridges Adams and Robert Richardson 

 obtained, on M.fy24th, 1847, a patent for constructing 

 at railway stations, close cisterns of slate, &c., into 

 which the urine was designed W drain, and for using 

 chemical ingredients to absorb the volatile alkali and 

 other gases. [11,715, 2s. Id.] 



June 1st, 1848, is the date of the patent granted to 

 Jasper Wheeler Rogers, for improved methods with 

 machinery for the preparation of peat as a fuel, and 

 in combination with certain substances as a compost or 

 manure. For the latter purpose the peat-charcoal was 

 to be added to animal excrement, in such quantities as 

 to absorb the aqueous and volatile products, and to 

 destroy the effluvium. [12,160, 2s. 5d.] 



A patent was granted September 27th, 1849, to John 

 Marriott Blashfield, for manufacturing manure from 

 mud, by subjecting it to artificial heat, treating it with 

 an acid, and cmbuing it with other fertilizing matters, 

 these latter consisting of quick-lime, gypsum, suljihate 

 of soda, nitrate of soda, or potash, &c., &c., theso 

 being ground to powder before being mixed with the 

 mud. Sulphuric and nitric acids were employed. 

 [12,790, 3d.] 



The date of the patent granted to Louis Napoleon 

 Legras was November 30th, 1849. The claims were 

 very numerous. One had reference to the construction 

 of water-closets, in which the solid matter was sepa- 

 rated from the liquid. Another claim was for a vast 

 number of substances to be used for disinfecting foecal 

 matters, and another for making a manure " resembling 

 guano in its fertilizing qualities." This consisting of 



