Abstract
World's first patent on waste incinerationGB1876 3125 is discussed, referring to the patent text itself and related documents. The inventor, Alfred Fryer is a sugar industry engineer. Hence his inspiration did not originate from the intention to burn waste. The starting point was his technology on the "Concretor", which concentrates liquids with a high organic content. That was applied for the sanitary treatment of waste and night soil, and their utilisation as fertiliser. Such technology was desired, as urban migration triggered a change in methods to treat night soil. Fryer's combination of a destructor, carboniser, and concretor as an integrated system for the treatment of waste and night soil, did not materialise widely. Only the destructor lasted, and by the end of 19C, it became the most popular apparatus and method to treat waste.
