Specification of John Chisholm : treating sewage and other matters, &c.

  • Chisholm, John.
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Specification of John Chisholm : treating sewage and other matters, &c. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    6/10 (page 4)
    Chisholms Method of Treating Sewage and other Matters, a zinc plate, which I connect by conducting wires, one proceeding from each, and meeting at a point where they are soldered together; these wires are insu¬ lated by a coating of gutta percha or other insulating material, up to their point of mutual junction, where the insulating coating ceases, so as to set free the electric current, which will be generated by the action of the fecal fluids on 5 the positive and negative plates, and allow it to act on the fecal matters, in order to deodorize and disinfect them. Here the fecal fluid matter acts on the plates as the exciting fluid, and the greater the amount of noxious matter they contain, the greater will be their electrical activity on the plates. I also submerge other such electrically opposite plates in the fecal matters, and 10 connect them by a wire from each, which I carry up through the atmosphere of the sewer to near the top of the arch or crown, and there unite the wires by soldering, suspending them at their junction by a hook or proper instrument from the top; and 1 insulate them to near or at their junction, there the insulation ceases, so as to allow the electric current to pass into and act on 15 the vitiated atmosphere of the sewer, and produce the decomposing and disinfecting effects referred to. To obtain intensity, a number of similar plates may be employed with a wire proceeding from each, the wires of each pole being united into clusters or bundles, so that each cluster may, as it were, form a single wire, the wires of the positive and negative plates being 20 respectively connected by soldering, and insulated up to near the point of junction. Or an earth battery may be substituted for a sewage battery, that is to say, I bury positive and negative plates in the earth outside the sewer, at a depth of not less than four feet, and carry their wires into the sewer, where they are brought into the fecal matters, or through the atmosphere of the 25 sewer. Another arrangement by which the impure liquid from sewage, &c. collected in a reservoir may be deodorized and disinfected, and also raised in a purified condition from a lower to a higher level, consists in fitting in the reservoir a number of cones or cylinders of clay or other porous material, having wires 30 leading from their upper part to the fluid matters at their base, and these being charged with electricity, the liquids will percolate the cones or cylinders, and ascend through them and through a spout or conduit at top to the higher level. Or I suspend a series of horizontal rods in the sewer at certain distances apart, so as to form an interrupted line, through which I pass 35 electric or galvanic currents, and circuit being broken between each rod, a spark or flame will be produced, which, by using certain instruments, such as Ruhmkorff’s induction coil, may be obtained of considerable length, forming