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ENRY  MALCOLM  RAMSAY, 


TREATING  SEWAGE. 


LONDON: 

FEINTED  BY  GEORGE  E.  EYRE  AND  WILLIAM  SPOTT1SWOODK, 

FKDfTEBS  TO  THE  QUEEN’S  MOST  EXCELLENT  MAJESTY  t 

I  PUBLISHED  AT  THE  GREAT  SEAL  PATENT  OFFICE, 

35,  SOUTHAMPTON  BUILDINGS,  HOLBOEN. 

1874 


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Treating  Sewage. 


( This  Invention  received  Provisional  Protection  only.) 

PROVISIONAL  SPECIFICATION  left  by  Henry  Malcolm  Ramsay  at  the 
Office  of  the  Commissioners  of  Patents,  with  his  Petition,  on  the 
12th  December  1873. 

I,  Henry  Malcolm  Ramsay,  of  11,  Amyand  Park  Road,  Twicken- 
5  ham,  in  the  County  of  Middlesex,  Civil  Engineer,  do  hereby  declare  the 
nature  of  the  said  Invention  for  “  Improvements  in  the  Treatment  and 
Disposal  of  Sewage,”  to  be  as  follows : — 

This  Invention  consists  in  an  improved  method  for  the  treatment  and 
disposal  of  sewage,  by  subsoil  or  underground  filtration  through  land  of 
10  any  description,  removal  or  discharge  if  necessary  for  the  effluent  or 
surplus,  after  such  filtration  and  absorption,  by  under  or  subsoil  draining, 
with  power  to  divest  and  dispose  of  any  desired  quantity  over  the  surfaces 
of  land  of  any  description  for  cultivation  purposes. 

In  applying  my  Invention  I  provide,  lay  down,  and  construct  in  the 
15  soil  a  system  or  series  of  half  pipe  filter  drains  at  such  depths  below  or 
under  surface  as  the  nature  of  the  subsoil  or  underground  strata  may  in 
each  case  or  locality  require  or  determine  generally.  I  should  prefer  two 
feet  from  surface  levels  of  the  land  to  crown  of  half  pipe  filter  drains. 


2 


A.D.  1873.— N°  4092. 


Provisional 

Specification. 


Ramsay’s  Improvements  in  Treating  Sewage . 

These  drains  to  be  laid  in  in  parallel  lines  at  equal  distances  apart  or 
thereabouts  as  the  contour  levels  of  land  in  any  locality  may  render  most 
expedient  for  the  intended  purposes  generally.  I  should  prefer  a 
distance  of  twelve  feet  from  centre  to  centre,  all  at  such  levels  or 
gradients  as  will  effect  by  head  pressure  a  rapid  flow  through  drains  5 
and  percolation  into  the  filter  materials  in  which  the  drains  are  enclosed. 

The  land  used  for  purposes  of  distribution,  filtration,  and  disposal  of 
the  sewage  under  or  by  the  within  specified  half  pipe  filter  system  in  any 
locality,  is  to  be  laid  out  in  equal  areas  or  thereabouts  generally.  I 
should  prefer  in  one  acre  plots  of  5  chains  by  2  chains,  the  whole  to  be  10 
prepared  for  the  reception  of  the  parallel  and  longitudinal  lines  of  the 
half  pipe  filter  drains,  by  trenches  being  excavated  therein  of  such 
widths  and  depths,  as  the  nature  of  the  subsoil  may  render  most  ex¬ 
pedient  and  successful  for  rapid  filtration  or  absorption  results  generally. 

I  should  prefer  trenches  three  feet  wide  by  fifteen  inches  in  depth,  in  15 
addition  to  the  depth  under  the  surface  previously  described ;  these 
trenches  to  be  filled  in  with  ballast,  rubble,  gravel  stones,  burnt  clay, 
hard  core,  or  other  like  coarse  filtering  material,  as  found  in  each  locality 
up  to  the  necessary  levels  for  the  reception  of  and  bedding  the  half  pipes 
thereon.  Upon  the  lines  of  half  pipes  being  so  laid,  the  trenches  are  to  be  20 
further  filled  in  with  similar  material  round  and  over  the  half  pipe  filter 
drains  up  to  a  level  covering  in  crowns  of  same,  and  the  whole  filled  in 
and  finished  to  surface  levels  with  the  excavated  material,  openings 
being  left  in  trenches  here  and  there  for  inspection,  and  continual 
aeration  of  the  filtering  medium  secured  by  the  within  specified  system,  25 
a  system  combining  intermittent  downward  filtration. 

The  whole  of  each  set  or  one  acre  plot  of  drains  to  be  charged  or  filled 
with  clear  sewage  from  time  to  time  from  a  delivery  conduit  or  conduits 
as  the  case  may  be,  the  same  being  supplied  with  clear  sewage  from 
outfall  reservoirs,  storage  tanks,  or  other  depots,  the  raw  sewage  being  30 
passed  through  charcoal  screen  filters  before  being  passed  into  said 
delivering  conduit  or  conduits,  so  that  all  sedimental  or  organic  matter 
may  be  removed  therefrom,  the  delivering  conduit  or  conduits  being 
laid  down  or  constructed  at  such  levels  as  will  secure  the  necessary  head 
pressure  for  supply  of  half  pipe  filter  drains  in  each  plot.  35 

The  pipes  to  be  applied  and  used  for  these  purposes  I  design  and  con¬ 
struct  in  stone  or  redware  or  iron,  as  a  half  pipe  with  flange  each  side  or 


Provisional 

Specification. 


A.D.  1873.— N°  4092. 


3 


Ramsay's  Improvements  in  Treating  Sewage . 

circular  perforated  pipes,  all  of  the  necessary  thicknesses,  regulated  by 
the  sizes  used  in  each  case  or  locality  generally.  I  should  prefer  that 
the  form  of  the  pipes  should  be  of  a  semi  or  oviform  character,  and 
perforated  if  necessary. 

5  Each  of  the  plots  of  one  acre  or  thereabouts  would  be  charged 
throughout  its  system  of  filter  drains  from  delivery  conduit,  supplying 
each  from  time  to  time,  as  will  allow  or  give  an  ascertained  time  or 
number  of  hours  to  each  for  the  filtration  or  absorption  of  the  sewage 
into  the  surrounding  subsoil,  and  ultimate  passage  into  and  discharge 
10  from  the  lower  system  of  water  drains  into  outfall  for  effluent  water,  or 
otherwise  as  the  case  may  be,  in  close  soils  vertical  pipe  shafts  can  be 
sunk  from  half  pipe  filter  drains  to  a  lower  depth. 

The  advantages  of  this  Invention  consists  in  the  following : — Sewage 
can  be  disposed  of  underground  with  as  much  facility  as  by  surface 
15  irrigation,  and  further  can  be  disposed  of  in  time  of  frost,  when  surface 
disposal  is  impracticable,  that  by  this  system  all  surface  nuisances  and 
residental  or  local  objections  to  sewage  disposal  works  are  entirely 
obviated,  that  any  portion  of  the  sewage  flow  can  be  used  at  will  for 
surface  cultivation  purposes  on  the  land  by  occasional  dressings,  and  that 
20  subject  to  the  land  being  above  subsoil  water  level  and  suitable ;  this 
system  of  underground  disposal  of  sewage  can  be  carried  on  within  the 
area  of  any  locality. 


LONDON: 

Printed  by  George  Edward  Eyre  and  William  Spottiswoode, 
Printers  to  the  Queen's  most  Excellent  Majesty.  1874. 


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