PROCEEDINGS
of the Tomsk Technological Institute
of Emperor Nicholas II.

Vol. 14. 1909. No. 2.

VII.

N. Ya. Gorshenov.

REVIEW AND RESULTS OF RUSSIAN LITERATURE

ON THE QUESTION OF ARTIFICIAL-BIOLOGICAL TREATMENT OF WASTEWATER

UP TO MID-1908.

1–12.

REVIEW and RESULTS

of the Russian literature on the question of artificial-biological purification of wastewater

up to mid-1908

In undertaking my diploma work on the topic “On the question of applying the artificial-biological method of wastewater purification in Russia,” and having familiarized myself with the works of foreign authors—Dunbar, Calmette, Riedel, Dibdin, Fowler, and others—I set myself the aim of collecting everything written on this subject in the Russian language.

It turned out that articles and reports by various authors, who by profession are either physicians or engineers, are scattered through almost all medical and technical journals. They are also found in the Proceedings of water-supply congresses, Pirogov congresses, organs of zemstvos and cities, diaries of congresses of naturalists, congresses of zemstvo physicians, etc. There is no bibliographic index on this question.

Thanks to the fact that in the summer of 1908 I had the opportunity to work in the Imperial Public Library in St. Petersburg, I succeeded in collecting almost everything written in Russian on the biological purification of wastewater up to mid-1908.

The present work contains the titles of all books, brochures, separate articles, and reports.

In summing up everything that has been written, I cannot fail to note that only very few works may be considered truly valuable for elucidating this subject, namely: the Report of the biological experimental station at the Moscow irrigation fields, the works of S. K. Dzerzhgovsky, V. V. Favre, and one may perhaps also mention the work of S. L. Rashkovich. In doing so, of course, I do not list translated articles and books, such as, for example, Dunbar’s article recently published in Russian as a separate edition (from Zeitschrift des Oesterr. Ingenieur und Architecten-Vereines, 1906), Calmette’s articles, and others; such translations can only be welcomed.

The remaining brochures and articles are either a concealed translation, or a retelling of what has been read, and, in the best case, a well-composed lecture.

The book by F. A. Danilov, Biological Purification of Wastewater, which appeared at the end of July 1908, is for the time being the only one that treats this subject in greater detail and systematically.

In technical journals, articles on the biological treatment of wastewater were apparently published mainly to acquaint readers with it—for example, in Zodchii, Petrov’s article; in the proceedings of the Imperial Russian Technical Society, a translated article by Ramsay and others; and in the journal Technical Collection and Industrial Herald, No. 12, 1905, the article “The Biological Method of Destroying Impurities,” by an unknown author, gives the impression of an advertisement for septic tanks.

Especially noteworthy is the absence of special journals on sanitary engineering in the Russian language. Owing to this circumstance, such facts arise as can only be called the discovery of discoveries of America. I shall point to the article by N. D. Averkiev. Having conducted a brief experiment with an artificial culture of aerobic bacteria, he printed an account of it in the Journal of the Society for the Protection of Public Health (in the May issue of last year). In his article concerning this work, the author states that he reserves for himself the initial right, as the first investigator in this field.

But similar experiments had already been carried out in Tsarskoe Selo by S. K. Dzerzhkovskii with a purely practical aim, when, during the onset of cold weather, wishing to intensify the action of the filters, he applied an artificial culture of aerobic bacteria as the logical consequence of the concept of the mechanism of biological wastewater treatment.

Another example—in St. Petersburg, at the architectural and construction exhibition in April of last year, in A. A. Gutkov’s exhibit, the maturation of filters was likewise very significantly accelerated by applying an artificial culture of aerobic bacteria.

I am inclined to assert that this misunderstanding on the author’s part arose because not a single journal on sanitary engineering is published in Russian, where it would be possible to find everything relating to the biological method of wastewater treatment.

There is likewise no special, periodically issued index of books, articles, reports, and so forth.

Even with a complete library at hand, one must expend a great deal of labor and time, often only in order—after looking through a dozen or two technical and medical journals—to be convinced that there is nothing new in the literature on this question.

As for articles published in medical journals, indications can still sometimes be found in the bibliographic section of the Journal of the Society for the Protection of Public Health, and more often in the “Bibliographic List of Periodical Literature on Social-Medical Questions” in the Journal of the Society of Russian Physicians in Memory of Pirogov. But these lists are not complete.

Meanwhile, at the present time there is a sharply expressed...

interest in the question of the biological treatment of wastewater—an interest dictated by life itself.

One cannot complain of a lack of living material on this question. Thus, very interesting reports and current news from abroad in this field are communicated at the Society for the Protection of Public Health in St. Petersburg. Unfortunately, these communications are rarely printed in the Society’s journal. For example, as early as November 1907, E. B. Kontkovsky, having returned from the XIV International Congress on Hygiene and Demography (Berlin), made a very interesting communication to the Society for the Protection of Public Health, in which he set forth the news of biological wastewater treatment, as well as the positions of the speakers and sections of the aforementioned congress. Although the Society resolved to print this communication in its journal, it has not appeared there to this day.

The resolutions of the VII and VIII Water-Supply Congresses on the question of applying the biological method of wastewater treatment to the climate of Russia are of enormous importance, since they represent the result of reports and, chiefly, of an exchange of opinions among the participants of the congress: engineers, physicians, chemists, hygienists, and others.

The Ninth Congress of Russian Physicians in memory of N. I. Pirogov rendered an important service to the cause of wastewater treatment by speaking its authoritative word on the conditions under which such waters may be admitted into public water bodies.

In concluding the review, I shall allow myself once more to emphasize that in Russian literature one can find information only about past experiments; as for current ones—in the literature, owing to the absence of a special organ, there is no information.

According to rumors, experiments are being carried out and the biological method of wastewater treatment is being put into practice in the city of Perm by the Provincial Zemstvo, in the city of Kostroma by the City Administration, and in certain other cities. To what extent, what kind of wastewater is involved, what treatment system is used, and how the results of the first steps of installations are reflected under our climatic conditions?

And how has the treatment station of the town of Tsarskoye Selo been operating already for two years, about which there has still been nothing in the literature?* What questions are now being resolved at the Moscow experimental installations? How do Fiddian’s filters operate in Ekaterinoslav?

In short, many questions still remain unanswered. Of course, in time they will be answered, perhaps, by voluminous reports. Qui vivra verra!

Stud. N. Gorshenov.

*) In I. R. T. Ob-v on March 9, 1908, K. D. Griboyedov delivered a report entitled “Biological Treatment of Wastewater in Tsarskoye Selo,” which has not appeared in print.

Russian Literature

on the artificial-biological method of wastewater treatment

up to the middle of 1908

Averkiev N. D. On modern methods of biological wastewater treatment, according to data presented at the World Exhibition in Milan in 1906.
Yekaterinoslav, 1906, separate brochure.

Modern methods of chemical and biological wastewater treatment.
Proceedings of the Yekaterinoslav Branch of the Imperial Russian Technical Society, Nos. 6 and 8, 1906; also a separate brochure.

Treatment of wastewater and spring waters by the biological method and on the application of this method in the city of Yekaterinoslav.
Proceedings of the Yekaterinoslav Branch of the Imperial Russian Technical Society, 1906, Nos. 11 and 12.

The modern biological method of wastewater treatment and experiments with artificial cultures of aerobic bacteria.
Journal of the Society for the Protection of Public Health, 1908, No. 5, p. 5.

Agapov A. A brief outline of wastewater treatment by the biological method in the Lyakhovo colony of the Nizhny Novgorod Provincial Zemstvo.
Information of the Medical-Sanitary Bureau of the Nizhny Novgorod Provincial Zemstvo, 1906, No. 11.

Aleksandrov G. A. The newest methods of biological wastewater treatment.
Kharkov, 1907, separate brochure. (From the Proceedings of the Western Imperial Russian Technical Society.)

Argamanov A. P. On the application of electricity to the purification of drinking, wastewater, and drainage waters in irrigation fields.
Proceedings of the 7th Water-Supply Congress.

Atlasov I. Ya. The biological method of wastewater treatment in the environs of Berlin.
Kharkov Medical Journal, Nos. 8 and 9, 1900, August.

Biman M. I., engineer. Biological methods of rendering wastewater harmless.
Proceedings of the Moscow City Duma for 1904, p. 112.

Bimann M. I., engineer. Preliminary filtration of wastewater in France.
Izv. Mosk. Gor. Dumy, 1907, No. 15.

Purification of municipal wastewater by irrigation fields in comparison with biological methods.
Report to the 8th Water-Supply Congress.

Application of the biological method of wastewater treatment abroad.
Report of the commission on conducting experiments in biological treatment of wastewater on the Moscow irrigation fields. Moscow, 1907, p. 37.

Borzov I. P. On substances subject to removal from the city and from separate buildings.
Zhurn. Ob-va Okhr. Nar. Zdr., 1906, Nos. 10 and 11.

Williams V. R. and Bimann M. I. Report on a trip abroad to become acquainted with the organization of wastewater treatment by the biological method.
Report on biological treatment of wastewater on the Moscow irrigation fields; 5th article.

Gorbachev N. F. On pollution of rivers by wastewater and the method of treating the latter.
Proceedings of the 4th Water-Supply Congress; p. 583.

Golubkov A. A. Biological treatment of wastewater by Dittler’s method.
Proceedings of the 7th Water-Supply Congress.

Danilov F. A. Biological treatment of wastewater from sugar factories.
Zapiski Kievsk. Otd. I. R. Tekhn. Ob-va, 1907, No. 5.

On biological treatment of wastewater.
10th Tambov Congress of Zemstvo Physicians.

Some data from the practice of wastewater treatment by the biological method.
Report to the 8th Water-Supply Congress.

Biological treatment of municipal, household, and factory wastewater.
Zap. Moskovsk. Otd. I. R. T. Ob-va, 1908, issue No. 3; separate book. Moscow, 1908.

Dzerzhovsky S. K. On the question of the significance of the septic tank for biological treatment of wastewater.
Arkhiv biolog. nauk, vol. XIII, issue 1. Abstract of this work in Zhurn. O. Okhr. N. Zdr., 1908, No. 8; Vrach. Khron. Khark. gub., 1907, No. 4; Prakt. Vrach, 1907, No. 19; Russkii Vrach, 1907, No. 23.

Dzerzhovsky S. K. On the theory of the action of artificial-biological filters.
Archive of Biological Sciences, vol. XIII, issue 2. Bibliographic notes, Vrach.—chronicle. Kharkov province. 1907, No. 6.

On the question of the disinfection of wastewater.
Archive of Biological Sciences, vol. XII, issue 3.

On the results of experimental biological purification of wastewater in Tsarskoe Selo.
Proceedings of the 7th Water-Supply Congress.

On the significance of septic devices for the purification of wastewater.
Report to the 8th Water-Supply Congress.

On certain methods used in Russia for the purification of wastewater.
Bulletin of Public Hygiene, Forensic and Practical Medicine. 1907, No. 5, p. 724.

Diaprontov P. N. Neutralization of municipal refuse in Odessa.
Proceedings of the Odessa Society of Physicians. 1899, issue 1.

Drozdov V. A. Investigations into the treatment of sewage effluent by the biological method, carried out in the city of Columbus in North America.
Report to the 8th Water-Supply Congress.

On the question of establishing limiting standards for the assessment of purified sewage effluent intended for discharge into rivers.
Report to the 8th Water-Supply Congress.

The Dibdin plate oxidizer for the biological treatment of sewage effluent.
Moscow. 1907, 25 pages; separate brochure. Report to the 8th Water-Supply Congress.

Dunbar, Prof. On the newest methods of purifying sewage and on the biological method.
Translated by B. Zaslavsky. Published by A. A. Gutkov in St. Petersburg. 1908.

Dushsky M. E. On the activity of the expert commission on the purification of wastewater from sugar factories.
Report to the 8th Water-Supply Congress.

Zholchinsky I. P. The influence of absorbing wells on the sanitary condition of soil and groundwater.
Journal of the Society for the Protection of Public Health. 1900, No. 8.

Conclusion of the commission on the question of irrigation fields at the Meshcherskaya psychiatric hospital.
Reports of the Moscow Infectious Diseases Hospital. 1904, Nos. 2 and 3.

Conclusion of the commission on the question of discharging wastewater into the Om River.
Supplement to the Omsk Medical Review. 1905, issue III.

Ionov K. I. On the question of the place of the system of biological filters among a number of homogeneous systems of assee­nization.
Medical-Sanitary Chronicle of Voronezh Province. 1904, No. 2.

Ivanov V. F. On the discharge of urban wastewater into rivers.
Report to the 8th Water-Supply Congress.

Ivanov A. D. Purification of wastewater by biological, mechanical, and chemical methods.
Separate brochure.

Malmett A. On the mechanism of biological purification of wastewater by means of contact and so-called “trickling” filters.
Translated from the French; Medical-Sanitary Chronicle of Voronezh Province. 1907, No. 8. Abstract of this work—Medical Review. 1907, No. 20.

Kapustin M. Ya., Prof. On the purification of wastewater by means of biological processes.
Report to the Society for the Protection of Public Health. “The Physician.” 1900, No. 6.

Kashkadamov V. P. The basis and future of biological purification of wastewater.
St. Petersburg. 1904, 9 pp.; separate brochure.

On new experiments with chemical purification of water in Lille.
Journal of the Society for the Protection of Public Health. 1906, No. 12.

On the application of biological purification of wastewater in Russia.
Journal of the Society for the Protection of Public Health. 1908, February (No. 2), p. 7.

Kirkor F. F. On the preservation of water intended for chemical investigation.
Bulletin of the Sugar Industry. 1906.

On biological purification of wastewater at the Kiev Polytechnic Institute.
Proceedings on the beet-sugar industry. Published by the Kiev Section of the Imperial Russian Technical Society. 1907, No. 11.

Zhontkovsky E. B. On the question of the best method for disinfecting impurities from hospitals.
Journal of the Society for the Protection of Public Health. 1898, No. 1.

Literature on the Question of Biological Purification of Wastewater

Kontkovsky E. B. On the question of the best disinfection of dirty waters from hospitals.
Journal of the Society for the Protection of Public Health, 1903, No. 10, p. 428.

Conditions for the admissibility of discharging wastewater into natural bodies of water.
Proceedings of the IX Pirogov Congress, 1905, vol. No. IV, p. 127.
Bulletin of the Society of Pirogov, 1905, No. 6, p. 908.

On the significance of microbiological investigations for assessing the degree of purification of wastewater and work carried out in this direction at the biological purification stations in Moscow and Pskov.
Report to the 8th Water-Supply Congress.

Lashchenkov P. N. Wastewaters of wool-washing establishments and methods of their purification.
Journal of the Society for the Protection of Public Health, 1903, No. 1, p. 10.

Wastewaters of a rope factory, breweries, municipal slaughterhouses, confectionery and chocolate factories, and methods of their purification.
Information on medical-sanitary institutions and epidemic diseases of the city of Kharkov, 1904, Nos. 1–5.

Levashev V. A. On the purification of wastewater by the Dibdin–Schwerder method.
Journal of the Society for the Protection of Public Health, 1899, Nos. 2 and 3.

Libinzon M. M.
Technical Office
Biological method of purifying and destroying impurities.
Moscow, 1907, separate brochure.

Matveev. On the sanitary safety of discharging clarified sewer waters into the Volga River in the city of Saratov.
Diary of the VII Pirogov Congress.

Nikitinsky Ya. Ya. Purification of sewer wastewater by the biological method, occasioned by the organization of experiments on the applicability of this method for purifying wastewater in the city of Moscow.
Technical Collection and Bulletin of Industry, 1905, p. 1.

Fundamental concepts of the purification of municipal wastewater by the biological method.
Report of the Commission on the Production of Experiments in the Biological Purification of Wastewater on the Moscow Irrigation Fields. 1907, p. 12.

Omelyansky V. On the release of methane in nature during biological processes.
Archive of Biological Sciences, vol. XII, p. 109.

Orlov V. D. Biological purification of wastewater.
Calendar for Physicians, 1906, part II; p. 37, in the review of successes in hygiene for 1904.

Report of the commission for conducting experiments on the biological purification of wastewater on the irrigation fields of the city of Moscow from the beginning of the experiments to April 1, 1906.
Moscow, 1907; Library of the Advocate of Medicine—Physician’s Chronicle. Kharkov, 1907, No. 5.

On the construction of biological filters at Saburova Dacha.
Physician’s Chronicle of Kharkov Province, 1908, Nos. 1 and 2.

Platts I. O. On the application of the biological method to the complete purification of sewage waters.
Proceedings of the 5th Water-Supply Congress, 1901.

Petrov S. The biological method of purifying sewage liquid.
Zodchii, 1907, No. 38, p. 401.

Rashkovich S. L. Biological purification of wastewater from sugar factories.
Bulletin of the Sugar Industry for 1902; first half-year, p. 149.

Biological purification of wastewater.
Diary of the XI Congress of Natural Scientists.

Biological filters of continuous operation.
Proceedings of the IX Pirogov Congress, vol. IV.

Ramsey V. Purification of wastewater.
Translated from the French; Proceedings of the Imperial Russian Technical Society, 1906, November.

Rabinovich A. Z. Biological filters in Russia.
Physician’s Chronicle of Kharkov Province, 1907, No. 5.

Biological purification of wastewater.
Physician’s Chronicle of Kharkov Province, 1907, No. 6.

Reformatsky S. N. On the question of wastewater purification as applied to sugar factories.
Bulletin of the Sugar Industry for 1902; Collection of Works of the Laboratory of Organic Chemistry of the University of St. Vladimir. Kiev, 1907.

Literature on the Question of Biological Wastewater Treatment

Richter D. O. On the question of the removal of impurities from hospital buildings.
Bulletin of the Taurida Zemstvo. 1904, Nos. 1–9 and 12.

Romanov V. V. On the question of applying the method of biological wastewater treatment for individual institutions (hospitals, barracks, etc.).
Kharkov. Medical Journal. 1908, No. 3.

Rostovtsev G. I. On biological wastewater treatment.
Medical Conversation. 1903, No. 24.

Romanovsky. The practice of biological wastewater treatment in France.
Proceedings of the Moscow City Duma for 1908, February, p. 133.

Rumin V. V. What is biological wastewater treatment?
Kharkov. 1908; separate pamphlet.

Semenov A. D. On the purification of sewer waters.
Proceedings of the 7th Water-Supply Congress.

Sosnin M. F. On the biological method of wastewater treatment.
Information on Infectious Diseases, etc. in Moscow Province. 1901, No. 6.

Tamm E. F. The artificial biological method of wastewater treatment.
Kherson Chronicle. 1903, Nos. 19–20.

Trompeter V. F. On new methods of wastewater treatment and on the necessity of utilizing these waters.
Proceedings of the 4th Water-Supply Congress, p. 206.

Tyshkevich. Progress in wastewater treatment by application of the rational biological method.
Bulletin of the Sugar Industry. 1901.

Favre V. V. On the decomposition of various substances in digesters (septic tanks) during biological treatment.
Kharkov Medical Journal. 1908, No. 1; abstracts of this work: Journal of Public Health Protection. 1908, No. 8; Bulletin of the Society of Hygiene, 1908, No. 4.

On private installations for biological treatment in the city.
Questions of Sanitation of the City of Kharkov and Review of the Activities of the Medical-Sanitary Organization. 1906, Nos. 6–8.

On the biological treatment of wastewater of the Kharkov prison department.
Separate pamphlet. 1906. Kharkov.

Frolov A. A new principle in the biological treatment of sewage liquid.
Bulletin of the Saratov Division of the Imperial Russian Technical Society. 1907, No. 30.

Khlopin G. V. Pollution of running waters by household and factory wastes, and measures for its elimination.
Yuriev, 1902.

On the methodology for determining dissolved oxygen in water.
Moscow, 1896.

On the relation of aquatic bacteria to dissolved oxygen.
Vrach. 1895, p. 300.

Shneiderov A. M. A new method for the final oxidation of sewage waters (aeration).
Report to the 8th Water-Supply Congress.

Yakovenko E. I. A method of biological purification of sewage liquids and the sewage disposal of the psychiatric hospital of the Kherson Province Zemstvo.
Kherson Chronicle. 1903, Nos. 7–8.