A New Way to Treat Sewage.

A New Way to Treat Sewage.

One of the most recent plans for treating sewage in a manner to conserve the public health is that described by Dr. Burghart before one of the English engineering societies. This is an electrical process, the active agent, iron, being derived from iron plates placed in cells, through which the sewage constantly flows; one set of cells is positive and the other negative. Only the positive plate is acted upon and dissolved upon its surface, hydrated ferrous oxide being produced by the action of the nascent oxygen—liberated by the decomposition of water at this pole—acting upon the metallic iron. This hydrated ferrous oxide, which is a solution, then acts upon the organic matter, becoming, first, hydrated ferric acid by absorption of oxygen from the air, giving up this oxygen again to the organic matter and becoming the lower oxide— the operation being repeated for a considerable time until the carbonaceous matters which are oxidizable have been oxidized, when no further reduction of the ferric hydrate can take place, and it remains insoluble and suspended in the effluent as a yellowish precipitate. In order to cause the plates to wear off or dissolve equally the poles are reversed on alternate days, a plate being positive on one day and negative on another day.

One of the most recent plans for treating sewage in a manner to conserve the public health is that described by Dr. Burghart before one of the English engineering societies. This is an electrical process, the active agent, iron, being derived from iron plates placed in cells, through which the sewage constantly flows; one set of cells is positive and the other negative. Only the positive plate is acted upon and dissolved upon its surface, hydrated ferrous oxide being produced by the action of the nascent oxygen—liberated by the decomposition of water at this pole—acting upon the metallic iron. This hydrated ferrous oxide, which is a solution, then acts upon the organic matter, becoming, first, hydrated ferric acid by absorption of oxygen from the air, giving up this oxygen again to the organic matter and becoming the lower oxide— the operation being repeated for a considerable time until the carbonaceous matters which are oxidizable have been oxidized, when no further reduction of the ferric hydrate can take place, and it remains insoluble and suspended in the effluent as a yellowish precipitate. In order to cause the plates to wear off or dissolve equally the poles are reversed on alternate days, a plate being positive on one day and negative on another day.