AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR FILTRA-TION
Year: 1819

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
TRITTON, late of Clapham, but now of Battersea, in the County of Surrey,
Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS His late Majesty King George the Third, in and by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date at His Palace at Westminster, the Eleventh day of
August last, for Himself, His heirs and successors, did give and grant unto
me, the said Henry Tritton, my exors, admiors, and assigns, His especial licence,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Henry Tritton, my
exors, adiñors, and assigns, and every of them, by myself and themselves, or
by my and their deputy or deputies, servants or agents, or such others as I,
the said Henry Tritton, my exors, adñiors, or assigns, should at any time agrec
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during
the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend my Invention of "AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR FILTRA-
TION," within that part of His Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland called England, His Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, and also in all His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad; in
which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, that if I, the said
Henry Tritton, should not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of
my said. Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be
inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, that
then the same Letters Patent, and all. liberties and advantages whatsoever

page_text: thereby granted, should utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in and by
the said Letters Patent, reference being thereunto had, will more fully appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Henry Tritton, in compliance with
the said proviso, do hereby declare that the following statement under my
hand and seal, and the annexed Drawing, do particularly, describe, and ascertain
the nature of my said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to
be performed, viz:-
"
.
The principle of my Invention is by means of an air pump, common pump,
o other mode of producing exhaustion, acting on the part or parts of the
apparatus into which the filtered liquid flows, to produce an exhaustion or
vacuum more or less perfect in such part or parts, and thereby to create a
difference between the atmospheric pressure acting on the liquid before and
after filtration, and by means of that difference of atmospheric pressure more
actively to force the unfiltered liquid 'through the pores, apertures, or interstices
of the filtre; and my improved apparatus consists of a filterer in which the
operation of filtration is performed, and a receiver for the reception of the liquid
after filtration.
In my improved apparatus for filtration, the filterer is a vessel open or
capable of being opened at pleasure.
Such part of the filterer as is intended to receive the unfiltered liquid com-
municates with the external air in such manner, that when such part of the
filterer as is intended to receive the filtered liquid and the receiver are exhausted
by an air pump or otherwise, the power of atmospheric pressure on the surface
of the unfiltered liquid, together with the pressure used in ordinary filtration,
may force it through the filtre or filtres by which it is to be strained.
The filtre or filtres are sustained in the filterer by a suitable support or sup-
ports capable of bearing the above-mentioned pressure, and are formed or
composed of substances naturally adapted to the purposes of ordinary filtration,
or rendered fit for such purposes by art.
The filtre or filtres and the support or supports are so placed in the filterer,
that when such part of the filterer as is destined to receive the unfiltered liquid
is filled therewith, and the part of the filterer into which the filtered liquid flows,
together with the receiver, are exhausted, the external air is excluded, and
the unfiltered liquid cannot pass into such part of the filterer as is destined to
receive the filtered liquid without undergoing the process of filtration, by passing
through the filtre or filtres. Such part of the filterer as is destined to receive
the filtered liquid is made so as to bear exhaustion by the air pump or other-
wise (when the filtre or filtres are covered with liquid), and is connected by a
pipe or pipes with a close receiver, also made so as to bear exhaustion, by an

page_text: air pump or other apparatus for producing exhaustion, in such manner that the
filtered liquid may flow by such pipe or pipes into the receiver. ..
An air pump or other known machine for producing a rarefaction or
exhaustion of air is connected with the receiver, or with such part of the
filterer as receives the liquid after filtration. An air cock for the admission of
air is attached to the receiver, to admit air when desirable; the receiver has
also a proper cock or cocks for the discharge of its contents, and a proper cap
screw or man-hole for cleansing the same.
In the pipe or pipes by which the filtered liquid flows (as above mentioned)
into the receiver, is a stop-cock or cocks, by which the communication between.
the filterer and receiver may be closed at pleasure.
וי
I do not claim as of my Invention any particular form of vessel, pipe, or
stop-cock, nor any particular description of air pump or other machine for
producing a rarefaction or exhaustion of air, nor any particular description
of filtre or support for such filtre, nor any particular method of attaching
such filtre to its proper support, or of attaching such support to the filterer;
but I do claim as my Invention the combination in one apparatus of an air
pump or other known machine for producing a rarefaction or exhaustion of
air connected with such part or parts of the apparatus as is destined to receive
the filtered liquid, a filtre or filtres proper for the filtration of liquids, and a
filterer in which the surface of the unfiltered liquid is directly or indirectly
exposed to the pressure of the external air.
I claim, moreover, as of my Invention, when a vessel for the reception of the
filtered liquid is used in connection with the filterer, the combination of vessels
and machinery for the above purpose, in such a manner as that the filtered
liquid may be drawn out of the receiver at pleasure without obstructing the
process of filtration in the filterer; and, as is herein-after more particularly
described, my said apparatus may be much varied according to the processes
to which it is applied, or the local convenience of the premises where erected
or used. But the following description referring to the Drawing will explain
one particular form of the apparatus which may be used in many cases with
advantage:-
"
A, B, D, C, is the section of a square filterer; E, F, a horizontal perforated
plate attached to the sides of the filterer; attached to this. plate are short
vertical pipes o, p. a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, are sections of square perforated boxes,
having pipes i, l, attached in the centre of their cases, fitting over the pipes
o, p, and having flanches at their ends, so as to come flat on the plate E, F ;
t, s, is a bar, moving on a centre at t, and when moved to s clipping an
'still..
upright bar ats, just as the bar of the cast man-hole of a
, r, are
:

page_text: screws, working through holes in the bar t, s, so cut that the screws may press
the perforated boxes on the centres of their upper sides, which pressure make
the flanches of the pipes i, 1, press tight to the plate E, F, and proper collars
M, N, O, P,
of suitable material being interposed, a tight joint is made.
is the close receiver; S, the air pump; V, the air cock; T, the man-hole;
R, the discharge cock; G, H, is a pipe to convey the filtered liquid into the
receiver; L, a stop-cock to close the pipe G, H, at pleasure. A small
space (an inch or two) of the plate E, F, adjoining the sides of the filterer
is left unperforated and made quite smooth, on which unperforated space
a square frame is made to drop, so as when screwed down to hold fast
the filtre laid on the plate E, F. In many cases such plate with a proper
filtre will suffice without the boxes a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, in which case the pipes
o, p, are omitted; but such boxes are very useful where the liquid to be
filtred is very thick and the quantity great, as by multiplying the boxes the
surface of the filtres may be increased to a great extent.
To use my improved apparatus for filtration, I first cover the horizontal
plate E, F, and the boxes a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, with a proper filtre or
filtres; I then place the boxes in their proper situation and screw them
down, so that no unfiltered liquid may pass into the parts of the apparatus
intended to receive the filtered liquid. I fill the part of the filterer E, F,
D, C, intended to receive the unfiltered liquid; I close all the openings
between the receiver M, N, O, P, and the external air; I then put in
action the air pump or other exhauster, taking care to keep up such
supply of unfiltered liquid in the filterer as to prevent the entrance of air
through the filtre or filtres till the close of the operation. When the whole
quantity is so nearly filtered that the unfiltered liquid falls below the level
of the filtres on a, b, c, f, I draw off the residue in any convenient manner,
and removing the boxes a, b, d, c, e, f, g, h, I close by proper covers the
pipes o, p; I then pour the residue of unfiltered liquid on the filtre which
covers the plate E, F, and again working the pump or other exhauster, com-
plete the filtration. When I wish to empty the receiver, I close the cock L
and open the air cock V, I then draw off the contents by the cock R; I then
re-close the cocks R and V and again put in action the air pump or other
exhauster to exhaust the receiver, and then turn on again the cock L, and
then the filtered liquid again flows into the receiver.
The filterer and receiver may be surrounded by water for preserving the
exhaustion by proper outer cases attached thereto, but if the air pump is kept
in action generally during the operation it is not essential.
In the filtration of liquids while hot, the vapour of the filtered liquid should

page_text: be condensed, to do which the top of the receiver may be connected by a
pipe or pipes with the top of a close vessel capable of bearing exhaustion and
of holding the condensed liquid; such close vessel being surrounded in any
convenient manner by a proper quantity of cold water, and such close vessel
may have a proper discharge cock or cocks or any other useful appur-
tenances.
By substituting for the receiver my patent improved apparatus for distilling,
connecting the pipe H with the breast of the still, the operation of filtration
and evaporation may be combined, and will in many cases be very advan-
tageous. If the top of the filterer be covered, and a pipe or pipes from
such top be made to communicate with an open vessel containing the unfiltered
liquid, the part of the filterer intended to receive it may by such pipe or pipes
be kept replenished without trouble, although such vessel might stand below
the level of the filterer. Where it is convenient to pump out the filtered
liquid instead of drawing it off, a common pump may be used for that
purpose in addition to the air pump or even instead of it; in those cases
where a greater degree of exhaustion is not required than a common pump
is capable of producing, and in cases where a common pump is made imme-
diately to operate on the liquid as it passes through the filtre, the filtered
liquid being pumped out, and the air in the recipient of the filtered liquid
being rarefied by the action of the pump, the close receiver is unnecessary.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, the Ninth
day of February, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
year of our Lord 1820, the aforesaid Henry Tritton came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statutes made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Ninth day of February, in the year of our Lord One thou-
sand eight hundred and twenty.