Specification of James Robey : charcoal for purifying sewage, &c.

  • Robey, James.
Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Specification of James Robey : charcoal for purifying sewage, &c. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    r A.D. 1873.—N° 230. Specification. Holey's Improved Charcoal for Purifying Sewage^ 8fc. can be used for purifying sewage or other foul liquids, or for improving tlie effluent waters from sewage precipitating processes, and whicli charcoal has a considerable power of absorbing free or albuminoid ammonia from substances filtered through it, and is also useful for disinfecting and deodorising purposes. If I find the charcoal produced 5 from sewage precipitant as herein-before described to be too friable, I prefer to intimately mix a sufficient quantity of clay with such precipitant previous to charring, and thus increase the compactness of the charcoal made therefrom to any desired extent and also add to its specific gravity. ™ I also produce a similar charcoal and having similar properties from the carbonaceous refuse produced in prussiate of potash manufactories. This carbonaceous refuse is a well-known powerful disinfectant deodoriser and decolorer of foul liquids, as well as a good absorbent of ammonia and soluble salts. So far back as the year 1854 its application for 15 deodorising sewage was described by Mr. Thomas Wicksteed in the Specification of Patent No. 193, but its use as a filtering medium has hitherto been discouraged owing to its extremely fine state of division. The difficulty of filtering through this material has been attempted to be overcome by the admixture with it of various substances, such as gravel, 20 coarse sand, cinders, or other material to render it more open, and thus facilitate the passage through it of the filtrate. Although filtration through the said prussiate of potash refuse has thus been accomplished, yet the admixture of so much inert matter is very objectionable, especially when it is desirable to restore its power 25 after exhaustion, which could otherwise be most rapidly and economically accomplished by heating to redness in closed vessels, as is practised so extensively in the revivification of the animal charcoal used by sugar refiners. It is obvious that the presence of the necessarily large amount of 30 gravel, coarse sand, cinders, or other material alluded to, would add much to the expense of such a process of revivification, inasmuch as a large quantity of inert matter would thus require to be dried and made red hot or otherwise manipulated. The gravel, sand, or other material, it is true, might be sifted out, but as after use for filtering purposes the 35 mixture would be a wet mass, this itself would be an expensive operation on the large scale, and even if economically and satisfactorily