322 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIV. No. 1131 



developing from most of the soils is probably 

 the mycelium of fleshy fungi. Other organ- 

 isms, such as the Penicillia, Fusaria and Spo- 

 rotricha, which are usually found in the soil 

 abundantly when plated out by the dilution 

 method, have been isolated by this method only 

 in very few cases. The Aspergillij Alternaria, 

 C'ladosporia, the great majority of the Peni- 

 cillia, and other organisms commonly found in 

 the soil, have not appeared on the plates in 

 twenty-four hours, when the soil has been 

 inoculated directly upon sterile medium. 



Selman A. Waksman 

 Agricultural Experiment Station, 

 New Brunswick, N. J. 



THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 

 IV 



division or water, sewage and sanitation 



Edward Bartow, Chairman 



H. P. Corson, Secretary 



Sanitary Surveys as a Feature of Public Health 



Work: H. E. Barnard. 

 Sanitary Survey Methods: J. C. Diggs. 

 A Sanitary Survey of Logansport, Ind.: J. C. 



Diggs. 

 Swimming Pool Sanitation : W. Lee Lewis. 

 The Bate of Ammonia Distillation in Water: F. W. 



Bruckmiller. 

 A Modification of the Whipple Method for Direct 



Nesslerization: F. W. Bruckmiller. 

 The Determination of Carbonic Acid, Combined 



and Free, in Water: John Johnston. 

 The Numerical Treatment of B. coli Values in 



Water Analysis: Earle B. Phelps and William 



F. Wells. 



Development at Lawrence of the Process of Puri- 

 fying Sewage by Aeration and Growths — Acti- 

 vated Sludge: H. W. Clark. 

 This paper describes the discovery and develop- 

 ment at the Lawrence Experiment Station of the 

 Massachusetts State Department of Health of the 

 method of purifying sewage by aeration and 

 growths — a method known quite generally as the 

 activated sludge method. The paper shows that 

 the method was developed there in 1911 and 1912, 

 was shown to Dr. Gilbert Fowler, of Manchester, 

 Eng., in the fall of 1912 and that the English work 

 was largely a repetition of the Lawrence work. It 

 quotes from Fowler and from Ardern and Lockett, 

 his colleagues, to prove that their activated sludge 

 work was based upon the Lawrence work. The 



paper further gives the statement of Dr. McLean 

 Wilson, of England, made in his presidential ad- 

 dress to the Association of Sewage Works Man- 

 agers. This statement is as follows: 



Many investigators, including Drown, Dupre and 

 Dibdin, Mason and Hine, Black and Phelps, Fowler 

 and others, had sought to purify sewage by direct 

 chemical oxidation by means of air currents and 

 had failed. At Lawrence, however, the efficiency 

 of growths in the purification of sewage by aera- 

 tion was discovered. 



The paper further describes the Lawrence work 

 during the past four years and the results of much 

 of this work. These results show that sewage can 

 be fairly completely purified by this method. The 

 paper is concluded as follows: 



Finally, the governing factors in the success of 

 this process of sewage treatment are, as I have 

 stated in previous articles: (1) The cost of power 

 for supplying the large volume of air necessary; 

 (2) a sewage that readily yields itself to this 

 method of treatment. It is not impossible to be- 

 lieve that certain sewages can not be purified in 

 this manner. 



Composition of the Effluent Air from an Activated 

 Sludge Tank: F. N. Crawford and Edward 

 Bartow. 

 Experiments with Activated Sludge at Milwaukee, 



Wis.: W. D. Copeland. 

 The Aeration of Sewage in the Presence of Activ- 

 ated Sludge from the Standpoint of an Engi- 

 neer: ,E. J. Fort. 

 Activated Sludge Experiments at the Baltimore 



Sewage Disposal Plant: Calvin W. Hendrick. 

 Chemical Observations of the Activated Sludge 

 Process as applied to Stock Yards Sewage: 

 Arthur Lederer. 

 The Activated Sludge Process: W. D. Eichardson. 

 The Sewage Experiment Station of the Illinois 

 State Water Survey: J. F. Schnellbach and 

 Edward Bartow. 

 The Experiments with Activated Sludge at Brock- 

 ton, Mass.: Bobert Spurr Weston. 

 Brockton, Mass., population 62,000, discharges 

 an average of 2,100,000 gallons fine-screened sew- 

 age daily, two thirds on 30 acres of sand beds, 

 one third on 0.5 acre trickling filter, followed by 

 7 acres of sand beds. Bates are low; efficiency 

 also. Difficulty due to stale, strong sewage con- 

 taining shoe factory waste and dyes. (Suspended 

 solids 204, free ammonia 55.8, chlorine 138.6 p. p. 

 m.) Plain aeration with and without contact fol- 

 lowed by Imhoff tank and trickling filter treat- 

 ment was tried in 1915 with unsatisfactory results. 

 More aeration was required. Fill and draw acti- 

 vated sludge tank followed by sand bed at 500,000 



